Energy Saving Lightbulbs Vs. Regular Lightbulbs?

chocolatelover93

Not sure if someone has already asked this or not, so sorry if they have.
I want to keep my energy useage low because 1. it will save me money and 2. it will help the enviroment
So do energy saving lightbulbs help you save money and if so is it a significant amount or are they about the same as your bog standard light bulbs?
Just wondering if it would be worth paying the bit extra if it would save me money in the long run.

Andy_WSM

Yes, a worthwhile investment if you do it right.

LED is the way forward in my opinion. They last longer, they use less energy than standard or compact flourescent lamps and they start instantly, no flicker, no warming up. Downside is that they are more expensive initially.

I replaced 90% of the lamps in my house with LED a couple of years ago and haven't had any fail as yet. The lighting load in my house has dropped from about 1.5kW to under 200W which can make for some substantial savings over time.

newleaf

I agree with the poster above. LED bulbs are the way to go. Instant, bright light at the flick of a switch, minimal running costs and they last for years. I've switched most of our household lights and lamps over to them already, and the remaining ones will be switched when the bulbs fail.
It can be quite an outlay, so if you are doing them gradually, swap over the ones that are on for longest first. Eg, we have lamps on timer switches that stay on for hours every evening, and a 'dusk to dawn' light outside the house, those were the first to be swapped.
Can recommend ledhut for service, frequent special offers and long guarantees on bulbs.

Martyn1981

chocolatelover93 wrote: »

So do energy saving lightbulbs help you save money and if so is it a significant amount or are they about the same as your bog standard light bulbs?

As per previous replies, start with the bulbs that are used the most. The savings can be surprisingly large/fast.

If you replaced a 100W bulb with a 20W CFL or perhaps 10W LED, then you'd have a minimum saving of 80W per hour.

80W * 4 hours per day * 365 days a year = 116.8kWh. If you pay 14p/kWh that works out at £16.35 pa. So even an expensive LED bulb would pay for itself in 6 months and hopefully last 10+ years.

Replacing banks of 50W halogens with LED's (perhaps 4 or 5W) can really add up to large savings over a year, and probably pay for themselves within the year.

Mart.

PS I've used Ledhut too. They seem good. Watch out for 'free VAT and delivery offers'. M.

pinnks

I agree with the others - well worth doing. I too have replaced all frequent use bulbs with LEDs. You need to shop around and sometimes buy just 1 to see if the warmth of the light is pleasing before buying in bulk as there is so much choice and they do vary. In my experience "warm white" is better than other "light temperatures". Also, sometimes the light on the older ones looked a bit "floury" to my eyes but newer ones seem to have solved that.

So far I have not found any decent replacements for the little 12V 20W halogen capsule bulbs that plug into some modern glass shade lamps. Tried some a few years ago and they were dim and flickered so sent them back. No doubt someone will now point me at a good version of those...

I think my best buy was a 10W LED replacement for my 150W halogen uplighter (those 8cm long halogen bulbs). Cost about £12 from memory and actually uses about 8W. As this is our main living room lamp you can imagine the savings - 140W for say 5 hours per day on average times 365 days - about £25 per year for a £12 investment. Similarly the bedside lamps and the one at my PC are now 3W and the bedroom ceiling lights which are 3 or 4 halogen spotlight type lights (previously 3 or 4 50W spots) are now 5W for each bulb and so on.

I spent about £300 2 years ago to do all this and reckoned on 2 to 3 years to recoup that cost. Bearing in mind the average bulb was about £12 at that time but would now be perhaps just over half of that, the break even point would now be between 1 and 2 years I guess.

PasturesNew

The only warning I'd give is you can't see to do much by the light. It's fine for everyday living, but you can't read small instructions or do anything. I often say "I'll look in the daylight as I can't see anything here" when I need to look for stuff, or read paperwork.

pinnks

To be honest, I think that comes down to how our eyes work differently. I don't have that issue but I have heard others who do, so again, probably worth buying one bulb of your most common variety and testing it in various rooms/situations before you shell out a load of money...

chocolatelover93

Thank you everyone!! I didn't even think about LED bulbs!! (didn't know you could get the tbh!!)
I will have a shop around and see what I can find, I will take your advice and try them one at a time when my old bulbs blow.
Thanks you again!!

rosythfifer

I replaced our security halogens at work 6 x 500 watt with 6 x 50 watt leds. Lights were on all night.

6x500 = 3kw x 8Hrs = 24Kw every night

6x50 = 0.3Kw x 8Hrs = 2.4Kw every night

So a saving nightly of 21.6Kw. Or more than a households daily usage. Im upgrading all internal lights to led as they give a better light. Last longer so have reduced maintenance impact and have substantial energy implications.

I changed all my household over to leds. Its definately a worthwhile investment. Particularly if you have multi lamp lights.

My kitchen light consists of 4 bulbs. Old halogens were 35 Watts each. So 140 watts every hour. Now I have 5 x 4 watts so only 20 Watts an hour or a saving of 120 Watts. From one light unit alone.

silverwhistle

I must admit I've never had PasturesNew's problem: if anything with my reading lights I find them better, and as they don't give off much heat you can direct the light closely onto the page.

I haven't been able to make the savings that some others have, but then I didn't have a single halogen downlighter or spot in the house! There is a strip light in my very much working kitchen, and that was replaced: a minute job after I'd found the step ladder.:) That's halved power usage*, but more importantly it comes on immediately, the quality of the light is good and there is no hum at all - means I notice the fridge more!

*36 to 18

Martyn1981

chocolatelover93 wrote: »

Thank you everyone!! I didn't even think about LED bulbs!! (didn't know you could get the tbh!!)
I will have a shop around and see what I can find, I will take your advice and try them one at a time when my old bulbs blow.
Thanks you again!!

One tip I'd suggest, and many may disagree totally, but here goes:

Listen to any discussion on CFL's and the usual crowd will complain they take too long to warm up (they are pretty fast these days, but LED's are overtaking them anyway.) Someone (who probably doesn't have CFL's) will always chime in with - "at night, the bathroom light takes so long to warm up that I've already had a pee, and am leaving before it's come on, ha ha ha!"

But ..... I have the opposite view, as my older CFL's start to wear down, and take longer to reach full brightness, I move them to the bathroom, that way, in the middle of the night, when your pupils are wide open, you don't get blinded by the light, and stagger round in tears, trying to find the toilet, or fumbling for the cough medicine. The same works for bedside reading lamps.

Mart.