Save around £300/year on electricity.

legalisedrobbery

Hi everyone,

Just thought I'd share this one with you. I moved house a while ago and managed to save a wad of cash!

My new house is open plan and the lighting costs were through the roof! burning nearly 1.5 kilowatts for most of the day and night.

The bulbs were GU10 and MR16 small spotlights which burn 50watts each and last around 1 to 2 months before they need to be replaced.

Now, if you can bear the initial outlay of between £15 to £20 each (!) then get yourself some high-power (Luxeon / Cree) LED replacements - they are NOT the multi - LED lights commonly on sale (they give off relatively little light), but instead contain 1 or 3 very high power LEDs and give off a bright daylight white light similar to 25 or 50 watt spotlights but use 3 watts.

Fitting into your existing spotlight they a direct replacement and the same size as a GU10 or MR16.

We have now saved an estimated £600 on electricity at current (and ever increasing!) prices, and the best thing is they last up to 20 years and beyond.

I was so impressed that I have now changed most of the light fixtures in the house so I can run these babies - they look really cool as well!

Regards, Pete.

Poppycat

I did the same last year but TBH it would take you a long time to recoup all the money if it wasn't normal cheap energy saving bulbs, so its not really money saving more to do with actually cutting down on your usage

legalisedrobbery

I'm sure replacing some units with compact vacuum-flourescent lamps is more finacially viable IF:

1. your existing light fixtures can take them (and not look ugly) - replacing them can be pretty costly.
2. you don't mind waiting a couple of minutes for full brightness
3. you don't mind there being a blueish cast to the light.

here's a few figures that put it all into light...


1st figure=Standard Incandescent GU10 Bulb
2nd figure=High-power LED Bulb

Average Standard Bulb Cost*

£2.75

£9.50

Power Consumption

50 Watts

2 to 3 Watts Average

Efficiency
Less than 15% (Mostly given away as heat)
Greater than 90%

Average Life
Around 1000 Hours (Most bulbs pop much sooner because of sudden temperature shock at switch-on )
50,000 Hours

Average Number of Comparative Bulb Changes
50
ZERO

Typical cost of Standard Replacement Bulbs compared to LED bulbs per 50,000 hrs
£137.50
ZERO

Cost of Electricity per Year
(Average 8 hr per day at 10.5p/KWhr) per bulb
£14.60
£0.88 pence

Carbon Release per Year
(Average 8 hr per day) per bulb

60 kg

Near ZERO

Cost of Electricity per Year (Average 8 hr per day 25 bulbs) per Average Household**
£365
£22.90

Carbon Release per Year (Average 8 hr per day 25 bulbs) per Average Household ***
1.5 Tonnes
90 kg (Over 16 times less)

TOTAL TYPICAL CARBON SAVINGS PER HOUSEHOLD (Average 8 hr per day 25 bulbs)
Approx. 41 Tonnes Emmitted1.6 Tonnes Emmitted.
39.4 Tonnes Saved

TOTAL TYPICAL CARBON SAVINGS UK-WIDE (Average 8 hr per day 25 bulbs 20 million homes)
820 Million Tonnes
32 Million Tonnes Emmited.


TOTAL ESTIMATED SAVINGS PER HOUSEHOLD (Average 8 hr per day 25 bulbs) @ 10.5p/KWhr for 50,000 hrs)

£9456

Cardew

Whilst I understand the point you make about the well documented savings on low energy bulbs; your figures are just so much over the top for 'Mr and Mrs Average' to have no connection with reality.

Obviously I have no idea of your lighting requirement. However to base figures on an "Average Household"(as you put it) having 25 bulbs each on for 8 hours a day 365 days a year is just not real.

I might have one or two lights('normal' low energy 9W/14W bulbs) on for 8 hours in mid winter when it is dark longer. I doubt if my bill for lighting is £30 a year; and I have a big house!

As an additional point, the heat given off from the 50W bulbs is not wasted in that it warms the house; albeit inefficiently.

By all means point out savings but

---

geordie_joe

legalisedrobbery wrote: »

TOTAL ESTIMATED SAVINGS PER HOUSEHOLD (Average 8 hr per day 25 bulbs) @ 10.5p/KWhr for 50,000 hrs)

£9456

Well I can't be the average household as I don't have 25 lights on for 8 hours per day!

In fact, I don't even have 25 lights, I've only got 12 (including the one outside the front door).

Even so, only the living room light is on for any length of time, all the others are on as long as I'm in the room and switched off when I leave.

Poppycat

18 light on for us, 5 in living room (5 candles low energy) 4 x 50w spots (cant get low energy ones, couple of hours at most per day) in kitchen, one in landing, 2 low energy spots in bathroom (an hour at most per day, 4 low energy bulbs in one bedroom and 2 low energy bulbs in main bedroom for 3-4 hours per day

Savvy_Sue

I guess we have that kind of house. More than half our light fittings are fancy ones which take three candle bulbs, plus we don't tend to congregate in one room, and even when we do I have so far failed to train anyone else to switch off behind them.

But it's a big old house. Long life bulbs are my lifesaver because before I discovered Long Life Candles we were changing them FAR too often!

gw5434

Try these LED bulbs from litebulbs, they seem to be a similar thing plus there is an energy saving calculator on there. If you have MR16 bulbs, then there are Osram ES MR16 energy saving light bulbs which can save 40% apparently, but are only a few pounds. :beer:

trader_girl

ive just counted our ceiling lights and we have21 downstairs and17 uostairs total 38!!! thats a lot.. am now writing down all the sizes required 9 different kinds and am off to the bublb shop thakns to you all.

trader_girl

today for no reason at all i have received through the post two phillips energy saving light bulbs from EDF adressed to the previous occupier spooky!!

Ben84

A cheaper and more effective alternative to replacing the bulbs in your ceiling (if you have lots of halogens) is a floor standing uplighter. They cast their light so much more efficiently and only use one bulb, we have found even with a 9w energy saver we can brightly light an average size room. The same bulb in another style fixture would struggle to light the room.