As some of you may or may not know, I’ve moved to the Dallas area primarily to attend the local university. This means living on my own for the first time and anyone who’s been through that adventure knows the headaches that come with utility bills all too well.
During this time of electronic dependency, this is especially true. When it comes to saving a little money here and there: anything helps and this is where Toshiba’s latest LED Light Bulb comes in handy. When Cali and John P. unboxed a set of these on GeekBeat LIVE, I was very skeptical on how much of an improvement over a regular light bulb it could be. Now, I wouldn’t use anything else, especially after calculating the costs.
My Electricity Cost:
$0.089 cents per k/wh
Average Light Bulb Cost:
~$1 USD for a 40 watt Light Bulb
1 hour = .04 kw/h = ~$0.10 for 1 day of light lasting upto 1000-2500 hours.
Toshiba LED Bulb Cost:
$20 USD for 7 watt LED equivelent bulb (actually, the packaging says this replaces a 25 watt bulb, but the site says upto 60 watts?)
1 hour = .007 kw/h = <$0.01 for 1 day lasting upto 40,000 hours.
This is a Bright Idea
Though it’s a fairly hefty investment right off the shelf, I think GU10 LED bulbs are a great choice if you’re looking to save some money on your energy bills in the long haul. Especially if you often keep the light on. Just a final side-note: The bulb gives off a softer light at 300 lumens at 2700 kelvin which felt a lot better on the eyes, even at the higher equivalent output level. We’re at the point where regular light bulbs just make no economic sense and I am nothing but pleased with the Toshiba 7W LED A19.
If you’d like you give them a try yourself, you can pick up individual bulbs on Amazon via This Link.
If you have experience with these bulbs, let me know in the comments!
Your typical GE Incandescent 40W bulb is around 500 lumens. This 7.8W LED bulb is 300 lumens; I don’t quite see how this bulb is a 40W equivalent. Let’s speculate that 300 lumens from the LED is visually equal to a 40W Incandescent by the way the light is directed, when do we see the savings?
Incandescent bulbs $40 for 40,000 hours. 40,000*40W = 1600KW hours = $142.40 to operate + $40 = $182.40 or $4.56/bulb total cost of ownership.
LED Bulbs $20 for 40,000 hours. 40,000*7.8W = 312KWh = $27.77 to operate + $20 = $47.77
After the 10th light bulb/10,000 hours (~3.4 years, if lights are on for 8 hours a day) is the break even point).
Why not look into using Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs) instead? You can get those in the same 2700K color range, cost is roughly $2/bulb, they are rated to last 10,000 hours, a 10W CLF (40W Incandescent equiv.) draws marginally more power compared to the 7.8W Toshiba LED and over 40,000 hours of use, are actually less to own and operate than a LED bulb.
CFL bulbs for $8 for 40,000 hours. 40,000*10W = 400KWh = $35.60 to operate + $8 = $43.60, a savings of over $4 for 40,000 hours of light over the LED.
Cost wise, CFLs are a better choice for multiple reasons. You don’t need to shell out $20/bulb, just $2/bulb, making it easier to replace multiple bulbs at once in your home and over 40,000 there is still a total cost of ownership savings. A CLF will last ~3.4 years, the LED, ~13.6. If you move before the LED bulbs End of Life, you’ll need to replace all of the $20 LED bulbs with either CFLs or Incandescent bulbs, you might not have any cost savings at all or very minimal. If you move 2-3 years after installing a CFL lightbulb, you’ve already realized the cost savings and light bulb is near it’s End of Life, unlike the LED which still has 10+ years of service left. Now, there are different environmental impacts in using a CFL over LED, but this is just about Total Cost of Ownership for lighting.
If you have a very hard to reach light or a light where you might need to hire someone to install a replacement, LED might be the way to go for convenience, but until costs decline and power efficiency increases on the LED lights, I would recommend CFLs for your next bulb purchase.
I’ve been buying LED bulbs for years now, from the anemic clusters of LED’s through the latest hurt your eyes SMD versions. The prices are about $15 for 60W equivalents if you don’t plan to use dimmers, and 50W equivalents for under $15 from online retail giants. By the end of the year, they should be even more reasonable if the trend continues.
These should be easier on the eye than CFLs, though. Potentially more durable, too!
I’ve been looking at these for a while now, but will probably wait until they go down in price. The price just doesn’t justify an LED bulb instead of a compact florescent right now IMHO.