By John
The cost of lighting is estimated to account for 25% of the bill for energy consumption in the average American home. You can make a big saving on this item – will do eventually, actually, as it is just a matter of time before you make the necessary move.
The old incandescent bulb has been around forever, is cheap, familiar and available everywhere – but is rapidly becoming a dinosaur. It was first upstaged by the compact fluorescent light (CFL), which brought many benefits yet has still to be embraced by many consumers. Rapid research and development has already produced a viable successor to the CFL – the light emitting diode (LED). There is little doubt that the LED will become the standard bulb of the future, however people are still uncertain at this stage, if they are planning to change at all, whether to upgrade to the middle-ranking CFL or to take the plunge and go straight for the LED option. It is the classic ‘spending-to-save’ dilemma.
Out With The Old
The old incandescent bulb is still in use in the majority of homes. It is cheap to buy (and replace, which is something that needs to happen quite frequently), does its job well enough, as long as you don’t buy it from a low-quality foreign manufacturer, and is far more expensive to operate than its successors.
In With The New
The CFL costs more than twice as much as the incandescent bulb, but lasts ten times longer, and uses around a third of the energy for the equivalent amount of light. It releases around two-thirds less carbon dioxide. It comes in all shapes and sizes.
The CFL has drawbacks. It can be temperamental in extremes of temperature, takes time to warm up from a cold start, and rapid switching on-and-off shortens its life-span. Because it contains mercury it is hazardous if broken and troublesome to dispose of in an eco-friendly way.
In With The Newest
The LED costs ten times more than the CFL but lasts up to ten times as long, and uses less than a third of the energy. It releases half the amount of carbon dioxide. It comes in all shapes, sizes, colors and throw-patterns. It emits little heat, is impervious to temperature extremes, is unaffected by rapid on-off switching, and contains no mercury. Disposal is not a problem – in fact, components of the LED can be recycled.
So When Will You Make The Move?
It’s just a question of doing the sums. Take the life-span of the longest-lasting bulb, the LED. Take the number of incandescent and CFL bulbs you need to purchase over the life-span of the LED (the initial purchase plus the number that will need to be replaced). Multiply that by the unit cost per bulb. Multiply that by the unit cost of electricity in your area against the energy consumption of each bulb. And the answer will probably show that if you replace, say, 25 incandescent bulbs with CFL ones, you should save several thousand dollars, and more if changing to LED. The average life of a typical LED is quoted as 50,000 hours or more so even if you have your lights on for 12 hours per day (we hope not!), that means that these savings can be achieved within about 3 years.
The initial expense of replacing incandescent bulbs with CFL or LED will obviously deter many people from making the change. However, making the change now will start the process of saving you money in the long run, and as the cost of LED bulbs comes down, will save you even more money on your lighting bill in the future.
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