What are Rosie’s tips for energy-efficient kitchen lighting?

If you want to save energy in the kitchen, paint it white.

An all-white kitchen (walls, cabinets, countertops and floors) requires only half of the lighting of a darker kitchen because light surfaces reflect light, while dark ones absorb it.
 
More tips for saving energy on lighting your kitchen:

• Highly polished countertops act like mirrors to reflect light. A shiny granite countertop, for example, will bounce under-cabinet lighting back up, making a little bit of light more potent.
• Replace at least half of the light fixtures in your kitchen, not just the light bulbs, with hard-wired fixtures that accept only fluorescent lights or LEDs (light-emitting diodes). These energy-efficient lights use less than a quarter of the energy of traditional, incandescent bulbs. Manufacturers are making decorative fixtures that are just as nice as the ones you use now for your inefficient incandescent bulbs.  
• Let the sun shine through kitchen windows that don’t get that too-hot direct sunlight. The more daylight you let into the room, the less need you’ll have to flip on the light switch.

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