You’ve probably heard there will be big changes coming in the lighting in your kitchen and bath — as well as all around the house — thanks to new energy saving laws. While there isn’t actually a date when you need to trash all of your existing incandescent light bulbs, in the near future your light bulbs will be using less energy and come in some interesting new shapes and sizes.

Trying to replace your traditional light bulbs with look-alikes in the near future will be a real Easter egg hunt. The energy-efficient bulbs will soon be as commonplace as the ones you’ve had for years, and available in Halogen, CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lamp), and LED (Light Emitting Diode) styles. Many will come in a modern artsy spiral shape and all will be designed to save energy and money on your electric bills.

You can even go a step farther and look for bulbs certified by ENERGY STAR — a cooperative program between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy — for some extra big energy savings. They project that the switch from your traditional lighting to the new ENERGY STAR-qualified lighting with mean an energy savings of 75 percent or more, so if you install ENERGY STAR approved bulbs in your home’s five most often used lighting fixtures, you can save around $70 per year.

ENERGY STAR also says if every American home replaced their five most frequently used light fixtures according to their recommendations, we could save $8 billion every year on our electric bills, while at the same time preventing greenhouse gases equal to the emissions from 10 million cars.

If all of your bulbs throughout the house are ENERGY STAR certified, and the average home in the United States has some 30 light fixtures, they figure, a home owner can save more than $400 per year on the electric tab. Plus ENERGY STAR light bulbs lasts some 10 to 50 times longer than traditional light bulbs.

For more information on ENERGY STAR, log on to www.energystar.gov

For expert advice on lighting your own kitchen and bathroom, call Fahy Kitchens at (315) 735-8181 or fax to (315) 735-2829. Fahy Kitchens is located at 1908 Oriskany Street West in Utica, N.Y. Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are appreciated.