How Much Can You Save by Switching to LED Lighting?

We'll give you an idea of how much money you can save by switching from incandescent or CFL lights to LEDs in this piece. Check out our LED lighting buyer's guide to learn how to choose LEDs or determine if they are the correct type of lighting for your home. Check out our LED colour and temperature guide if you're not sure if LEDs will be the correct colour for your application.

But for the time being, let's talk money and provide a response to the following query: How much can you save with LEDs?

How to figure out how much money and electricity LED lights save

The typical home uses about 2,000 kWh of energy a year when using incandescent bulbs.

These residents shell out $215 a year for lighting, which works out to $0.10 per kWh on average. You can save about $4,000 over 20 years by changing to LEDs. (the typical lifespan of an LED). That's a lot in terms of energy efficiency initiatives!

Consider that switching to a heat pump water heater (another excellent chance for savings) will result in savings of about $200 annually and $5,000 over the course of its 15-20 year lifespan. Additionally, using a heat pump (for both heating and cooling) can save you up to $1,000 annually and $15–20,000 over the course of its lifetime.

Your location, your home's size, and the types of lights you presently use should all be taken into account when figuring out exactly how much you'll save. Here, we'll go over some statistics and math to give you a more accurate figure for your unique use case.

The amount of energy used by light lights in the US.

The number of bulbs per house varies based on where you live, as shown in the map below. According to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, there are typically between 50 and 80 light bulbs per home nationwide.

Of course, you'll probably have more lights if your house is larger than the U.S. average—roughly 2,000 square feet. Also the opposite.

You can also count the number of lightbulbs in your home if you want a precise number. However, if you're significantly above or below the norm, it might be time to redesign your lighting to bring you in line with what the majority of people use.

How to estimate the amount you could save

Kilowatt hours (kWh) are commonly used when referring to household electricity use; for example, the typical home consumes 10,000 kWh of electricity annually. However, if you examine a light bulb's packaging, you'll see that it provides the amount of energy used in wattage. (e.g., a 60W bulb). Therefore, how do you convert wattage to kilowatt hours?

Math might not be your strongest subject if you're like me. So let's use an illustration to demonstrate how that equation functions:

The 60W on the package denotes the amount of electricity your lightbulb consumes per hour that it is on, which is 60 watts. The conversion factor is 60W/1000, which equals 0.06 kWh.

As a result, a 60W light bulb used for 2 hours per day consumes 43.8 kWh per year (0.06 kWh * 2h * 365d = 43.8 kWh/year).

Therefore, if your house has 50 light bulbs that use that much energy, your annual electricity consumption for lighting is 2,190 kWh (50 * 43.8 kWh).

The cost of lighting your house can be calculated by multiplying the total annual electricity use by the average annual electricity rate. At the current average energy rate of $0.10 per kWh, the cost of lighting in the home is $219 per year ($0.10/kWh x 2,190 kWh).

You should also consider lumens if you want an even more accurate approximation of your savings (which, to be honest, might be overkill).

Check out our introduction to LED lights for a thorough explanation of watts vs. lumens. Although watts and lumens measure different things, for our purposes, just remember that the general conversion is a 60W incandescent light equals an 800lm LED bulb. So, if we were to use the same illustration as before, this is how it would appear.

10W, or 0.01 kWh, is the amount of energy needed by LEDs to produce 800lm of light (10W / 1000 = 0.01 kWh).
The annual energy consumption of a 10W LED light is 7,300 watts, or 7.3 kWh (0.01 kWh * 2h * 365d = 7.3 kWh).
The typical annual energy consumption for a home with 50 lights is 365 kWh (50 * 7.3 kWh).

Meaning that you would spend $36.50 a year on energy for lighting if the national average electricity rate was $0.10 per kWh. This results in a savings of $178.50 from the existing lights, which equates to a savings of more than $6,000 over the course of owning a house.

But LEDs can also help you save money in other ways.

The arithmetic is different if you're replacing compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) rather than incandescents. A CFL bulb with an 800lm brightness uses 14W of electricity and lasts for 8,000 hours. Following the steps above, the average annual energy cost for lighting would be $51.10 (assumed that every light bulb in the house is a CFL). For more details, see our guide to LEDs.

How the length of a bulb affects prices and profits

Incandescent light bulbs currently in use have an average lifespan of 1,200 hours. In other words, if you use your bulb for two hours each day, you would need to change it after 1.64 years. You can expect to spend $30 a year on just the light bulbs themselves on average.

More or less 25,000 hours are the lifetime of an LED light bulb. You would essentially never need to change the LED if you only used it for 2 hours per day—only once every 34.25 years.

You would have paid more than $1,000 on incandescents over those 34,25 years.
 

Rechargeable Led Bulb 9 Watt

Feature

● Includes: 1 bulb with warranty Card

● Wattage: 9 watts ; Operating Temperature: -20° to 40° C ; Input Voltage: AC 90-300V 50Hz ; Lumens: >840 ; Battery Capacity: 2300mAh ; Use Time: 3.5 Hours

● 6 Months Manufacturer Warranty from the Date of Invoice

● Recharging time: 8-10 hours, Protection : IP20

● Working time: 3.5 hours

● Automatic – on

● Low power use

● Low heating

● No mercury

Specification