Saving Money: LED Lighting In-Home

[02BlackOnBlackSS 1]

After receiving last month's energy bill ($200 for a 2 BR/2 Bath/Kitchen/Living Room Condo), I have been considering different ways to save money on my energy bill. I have turned the air conditioner on a higher temperature, and I have also tried to keep my lights off.

I was messing with my new LED flashlight that I got off of ebay the other day, and I realized that it doesn't hardly use any power compared to other bulb flashlights I have owned. In fact, running 12 LED's off of 1 AA battery for 12 hours straight only slightly dimmed the light output, and after it was turned off for 30 minutes or so, the same brightness returned. Comparably to a regular flashlight running off of 2-3 D batteries, once you use it for about 3-4 hours straight, you have to spend more money on new batteries.

Relate this into the home lighting situation and most 20-30 led bulbs use only 2-3 watts. A standard incandescent bulb uses 60 watts. 2 watts/hour x 8 hours/day x 365 days/ year equates to 5.84 kilowatt hour's per year. Now say your electricity company charges $.83/kilowatt hour. That would mean you would spend ~$4.85/year on energy for that one fixture. Now let's compare that to the regular incandescent fixture: 60 watts/hour x 8 hours/ day x 365 days/year equates to 175.2 kilowatt/ hours per year. At the same rate this would cost ~$145.42/ year to run this fixture. This is a savings of over $140/year per fixture! Comparably to one of those flourescent light bulbs that uses 15 watts, to run for one year would still cost $35.92/year. This is still a savings of $30/year per fixture.

Now all of these figures are assuming that you are running a light fixture for 8 hours a day every day. Many of you do not do this, but the money saving potential is there.

Another advantage is heat output. I noticed that even after 12 hours of sitting upside down on my desk, the heat output was hardly noticible. I found a statistic on another website that says an LED lightbulb (I believe one with 20-30 led's) puts out 3.4 BTU's/hour, compared to an incandescent bulb at 84 BTU's/hour. This will also save your energy bill because your a/c won't have to run to compensate for the extra heat put off by those incandescent bulbs.

Now one of the best kickers: Lifespan. LED's are known for their 100,000 hour lifespan. Compared to incandescent light bulbs at 1,000 hours, they will last over 10 years easily. Mini flourescent bulbs are rated at 10,000 hours.

Everyone also knows that nowadays, you can get tons of LED's for cheap from Asia.

Now, these led bulbs have to have some disadvantages:

1. Most led bulbs right now range from $10-40/piece. I haven't found the best supplier of LED bulbs yet, so I am not sure exactly how much it would cost to replace all of your bulbs with LED's.

2. Different colored lighting. The white light from led bulbs may be too much of a change for some people, but the colors range from a cool white to a warm white.

3. No dimming. You won't be able to use your dimmer switch with led bulbs unless somebody invents a smart bulb that turns off some of the led's when the dimmer switch is used. As far as I know, nobody has made anything like this yet.

Now, seeing as how most of us are hobbyists on this board, the cost aspect of led's could be reduced drastically. Right now, you can buy 1000 bright white led's for around $100 on ebay which would make 33 bulbs at 30 leds/piece. You might be able to modify old lightbulbs to accomidate for the new led's. All you would need is some small circuit board and resistors.

Now, some of my figures may be slightly off and I did make a few assumptions, but the money saving possibility is there. The only thing to overcome is the initial investment. Let me know your thoughts on the issue and give me some feedback, because I am planning on doing this for my condo.

[Acidburn 10]

sounds like a very interesting idea to me

completely feasible? im not sure

i cant imagine it'd be too difficult to make some sort of LED bulb

30 4V LEDs = 120V, no resistors needed

[02BlackOnBlackSS 1]

I edited it because I forgot about an important aspect, lifespan.

[Supa_c 1]

They offer LED's for fish tanks and those need plenty light

[bigger_george 2]

Have you considered Flourescent bulbs as well? We use em and they save a bundle although might be a bit more than LED's.

[Supa_c 1]

They also have that annoying flicker

[02BlackOnBlackSS 1]

I looked into those and they are kind of expensive, plus they don't last as long and they still don't save nearly as much as led's would.

[Jmac 24]

They also have that annoying flicker

No they don't ... I've been running flourescent bulbs for over a year and they don't flicker at all (except the conventional flourescent tube lights in the kitchen).

You can get a 6 pack of 13 watt bulbs (a little brighter than a 60W incandescent) for $11 CAD here, so less than $2 a bulb, they last 5-10x longer, they don't get very hot (you can grab them even after they've been on for a few hours), and my energy bill has gone down about $3/two months using 9 of them. It doesn't sound like a whole lot, but I only live in a 1 bedroom apartment and electricity is the 3rd lowest in North America where I live (a little over 5 cents per kilowatt-hour) ...

Lumens/Watt

Incandescent = 12-15 lumens/watt (60 watt bulb = 720-900 lumens)

Fluorescent = 60-75 lumens/watt (My 13 watters are 950 lumens or 73 lumens/watt)

LED = 45-50 lumens/watt (Need at least 14.5 watts worth of LEDs to compare to a dim 60 watt Incandescent)

Also, LEDs have much narrower beam than Fluorescent and Incandescenet bulbs, so they do a poorer job at lighting up an entire room (they're great for flashlights and brake lights, but not so great for ambient lighting).

Also, I don't know who has all their lights on for 8 hours a day, but if you do, you can save a lot of money by turning them off I have my living room light on for about 3-5 hours a day in the summer and about 8-10 hours a day in the winter and that's my most used light. The bathroom lights are on maybe 2-4 hours a day (depending on shower length and bowel movements). Kitchen lights maybe 1-2 hours a day. The rest are used periodically; less than an hour a day average.

If you really want to save on electricity, you should look at insulation, IMO. Heaters and air conditioners suck up a whole lot of juice and anything you can do to reduce the amount they have to work will save you a bundle. Also, water heaters suck up a lot of juice (insulating them can save quite a few $$$). Another biggie would be washer/dryer; use cold water to wash if possible and only do full loads. I will usually hang up a shirt/pants if it's not dirty after the day and use it again in a few days. This cuts down on the frequency which you have to do laundry. Dishwashers also use a considerable amount of energy (again, wait for a full load).

[Jmac 24]

Using Incandescent bulbs, this was my approximate cost breakdown ...

After I switched to Fluorescents, I saw about a $3 per 2 months drop (about $18/year; more than makes up for the $16.50 I invested into buying the light bulbs just within the first year and they last 5-10x longer. Plus, with energy costs expected to rise to 6 cents/kWh next year, they should save me even more next year.) ...

This doesn't include heating (it doesn't get hot enough here to justify cooling), but I normally see about an extra $20-$30 on top of that during the winter when I have the heat on. So heat makes up about half the bill in winter. Also, you can see that my main sources of energy consumption are the computer and entertainment center, where I could really use an LCD monitor (cut consumption from 230 watts down to 45 watts per hour) and a Class D receiver (~290 watts down to ~135 watts) ... My 26" CRT TV is actually about as efficient as a comparable LCD Television, oddly enough (based on rated power consumption).

[Jmac 24]

BTW, if you give me the power consumption rating and average daily use of each of your appliances, I can enter it into my excel program to give you estimates and savings.

[UndercoverPunk 0]

I agrre with Jmac, if you really want to save money, insulation is the way to go. The less that furnace has to work the better off you'll be.

Word to the wise. If anyone that reads this is thinking about getting a new AC or Heat Pump anytime soon, do it before then end of this year, the seer ratings are going up, so price on AC and heat pump equiptment and installation is going to double or tripple. (My boss says triple, I'm thinking double)

[02BlackOnBlackSS 1]

Update: I broke down and bought a lot of fluorescent bulbs off of ebay. They last 10,000 hours and only use 13 watts.

I also got my energy bill for last month. Turns out I used 1495 kWh and it set me back $190. This equates to ~$.13/kWh. This fuel adjustment is absolutely killing me. If I was paying what you pay Jmac, I would be saving over $115. This is just plain ridiculous.

[Jmac 24]

I <3 publicly-owned Hydro electricity