Paper analyses the energy efficiency of residential buildings electrical lighting installations in European Union countries. The residential sector represents an important potential for reducing the energy consumption, focused on lighting and domestic appliances. In the last years there is an increasing debate about incandescent lamps shift-out and a new CFL charter, related with the residential buildings sector which is the most difficult to regulate or where energy efficient lighting measures face problems in dissemination. The Lighting Engineering Center of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania is involved in two programs for promoting the lighting energy efficiency and saving measures in residential buildings: EnERLIn - European efficient residential lighting initiative, an EIE - SAVE program to promote the compact fluorescent lamps in the residential area, and CREFEN - Integrated software system for energy efficiency and saving in residential sector, a Romanian CEEX program. The EnERLIn EIE SAVE program proposes to develop and validate robust scenarios for CFL promotional campaigns in European, national and regional levels. The aim of the CREFEN project is to achieve, at the current level of the European research in the field, an integrated software system for reducing the energy consumption and promoting an advanced energy management in residential buildings.