Lighting, from electric or solar sources as well as organic natural lighting, transforms a home from just "nice" to absolutely beautiful, if done right. Large picture windows in the living room, designer lighting fixtures, and green solar installations make up the perfect combination for ideal lighting, design, and environmental friendliness.

The picture windows are part of the design phase, but despite the presence or absence of adequate natural lighting, homeowners still have options after moving day. But before heading out to the home store for generic light fixtures and installations, consider the other two elements of transformation: design, and eco-friendly lighting.

A full-on solar installation with solar panels meant to generate electricity for the whole house is a bit more of an undertaking than I wanted to take on right away – although it's definitely on the long-term agenda. PV solar panels have a 20 to 40 year lifespan, and going full solar goes a long way towards reducing my personal carbon footprint.

That seems to be a big issue lately – one of my hippie friends is always talking about reducing his carbon footprint by not eating beef, but I'm just not willing to take that step. There's no greater pleasure than a thick, juicy filet mignon, a baked potato cooked to perfection with lots of butter and salt, and a glass of 12-year-old single malt. Heart-healthy? Not in the least. Contributing to the environment? Nope. But I will make up for my meat-eating guilt with some solar installations. One kilowatt of solar power prevents 150 pounds of coal from being mined, 300 pounds of CO2 from being emitted, and 105 gallons of water from being consumed.

I began my solar project by replacing two items: The electric motion light in front of the garage, and the electric lamp post in the back yard, both of which have long since stopped working. The lamp post had a short in the wire, and the motion light – well, it still works, but I haven't gotten around to climbing up on the ladder to replace the floodlight. And for good measure, I added a second motion light in the back yard, for when I take our Boston Terrier out in the middle of the night.

I started easy, with a motion-activated EverBrite, which is advertised on television and available at Walgreens. Since I'm a sucker for late-night television ads, I ordered one for thirteen bucks. It's not particularly fancy, made of plastic, and attaches with two-sided tape (which fell off two minutes after I put it up on the side of the house). Fortunately, there is a screw hole as well, so I took the extra step of drilling a small hole and attaching it more firmly. It's not as bright as the floodlight on the front of the garage, but it's more than adequate for late-night jaunts into the back yard, and worth the price.

For something a little more durable, I went with an outdoor solar lamp post and a motion light for the garage from Outdoor Solar Store. The pole-mount lamp fit well on my existing pole, I just had to remove the existing electrical lamp and cap off the loose wires, then attach the new lamp. The garage motion light is suitably bright, and illuminates the entire driveway and sidewalk if I, or anyone else, walks by, and of course, it lights up when I pull up in my car.

The whole project was very affordable and took only a couple hours – the cost to install solar has dropped by more than 70 percent since 2010. Solar is really the tip of the spear in the entire "smart home" movement, which includes not only smart lighting which can be controlled remotely (or even by smartphone), and can turn off automatically when a room is empty, but things like smart thermostats for saving even more energy, smart transportation, and an Internet-of-Things ecosystem that ties it all together.

The solar industry is no longer just the dreams of idealists. According to the Department of Energy, since 2008, US installations of solar have grown 17-fold, and the technology – although it is still only a small percentage of total energy consumption – is fast becoming mainstream.

I felt good about the installation. I owed myself a reward for being energy-efficient, and I went right out to Longhorn Steakhouse and ordered a sirloin and a 22-ounce beer.