A few years ago, my wife and I remodeled a 40 year old house and in the process I added 24 recessed can lights.  The house, built in the late 60’s and with an addition in the early 70’s had very light natural light and not much overhead lighting.

My bright idea was to add a lot of overhead lighting to make the space appear larger and more open.  

The result was that I added too much light in a couple of areas.  So much so that I ended up having to install dimmers so that I could control the brightness.

Since I wasn’t focused on energy savings at the time, I didn’t realize until later that I was wasting a tremendous amount of electricity.  By having numerous 65 watt light bulbs burning at once, I was using too much electricity when all I really needed was a small amount of light to read by.

The solution is to install dimmer switches.  This task is probably a 6 out of 10 on the scale of difficulty.  If you have CFL bulbs, be sure to check if your bulbs can be used with a dimmer switch.  Many CFL’s can’t.

Here is a good video showing the steps to install a dimmer switch.  Be sure to take proper safety precautions before undertaking this project.

If you decide to hire a professional electrician to perform the job, he should be able to install several dimmer switches in only an hour or so.  

Not only will you save on your electric bill, you’ll enjoy being able to control the amount of light in your room.

Photo credit:  wheany