LED light bulbs

[low_delta]

I just checked into LED bulbs for the house. They use less energy, last longer, but cost more. I looked at 40 watt floods.

An incandescent bulb costs $4 for a pack of four, but they only last a year and a half. LED costs $60 a piece, but last (reportedly) for 25 years. The LED equivalent to the 40 watt uses 2.5 watts.

So 6 hours a day at $.1176 kWh for a year costs $10.30 a year for a 40 watt incandescent, and $.64 for 2.5 watt LED bulb.

But what about the bulb cost? If a regular bulb costs $4 for four and lasts a year and a half, that's 66 cents a year. At $60 for 25 years, that's $2.4 a year for LED.

Add those costs together, and incandescents cost $11 a year, while LEDs cost $3.04. Even if an LED only lasted ten years, that's still only $6.64 per year.

Comments

[mummm.livejournal.com]

LED's don't give off much light though. Wait a couple of years until they improve them.

[ranunculus.livejournal.com]

LED's are improving by leaps and bounds.
Some of the lower wattage usages are already pretty low cost (for example you can get LED night lights for about $1.50 each), but I'll agree that costs on higher wattages will be tumbling in the next two or three years.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

A comparable size bulb doesn't seem to generally put out as much light, but check the lumen rating, to see if they're good enough for your needs.

[blonnie.livejournal.com]

we use those fluorescent spiral bulbs for a majority of things in our house.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

We have a few of those. We've got two rooms that each have ten 75w floods in recesses. They burn a lot of power, so I changed those. Haven't used any anywhere else yet.

[pondhopper.livejournal.com]

We've switched most of our bulbs to the energy efficient kind. They're not AS efficient as LED's but they do make a difference in the electric bill and last about 7 years.