Photo by Karl Baron, acquired via Flickr.com

LED Lights: Worth Your Money

Posted January 26th, 2014 under renovations and repairs, money matters.

This year the manufacture of 60W and 100W incandescent bulbs was banned.

Compact fluorescent bulbs, once hailed as the replacement for the incandescent, have fallen out of favour because they contain toxic mercury. (They also take several minutes to reach full brightness.)

In marches the LED light—with a very hefty price tag.

However, if you crunch the numbers, you'll find that LED lights are the cheapest lights yet! Here's an example.

A 100W incandescent bulb costs about $0.50, and lasts about 800 hours.

An LED producing the equivalent amount of light costs about $25.00. But it lasts a minimum of 20,000 hours!

Over the lifespan of the LED, you'd replace the incandescent bulb 25 times, costing you $12.50 and using 2-3 hours of your time.

But on top of that, the LED can use as little as 15W to generate the equivalent light of a 100W incandescent.

Assuming electricity costs 7.2¢/kWh, after 20,000 hours, the incandescent bulb has used $144 of electricity. By comparison, the LED will have used only $21.60!

So, over the 20,000-hour period, the incandescent costs $156.50, compared to $46.60 for the LED. That's a savings of $109.90 and 2-3 hours of your time, and that's for only one bulb—how many are in your home?

Want to know more about lighting options in your home? Just ask me, I'll be happy to help.