If you’re looking for a simple #stayhome project but a more long-term investment, now might be a good time to start replacing your light bulbs.Lighting accounts for
15% of a typical household’s electricity bill, so bulbs have an important role to play. These days, there are lot of different light bulbs available and we’ve come a long way from the traditional incandescent kind, which produced only 5% light, with the other 95% being lost as heat! Their carbon footprint was so high – producing more than 15,000,000 tonnes of carbon emissions a year – they were banned in the UK in 2018.Without a doubt, the most energy and cost efficient solution available is the
LED light bulb. Switching from halogen to LED can save up to
£3 per year and around
5kg of CO2 emissions PER BULB!
It would cost the average UK household about £100 to replace all of their lights with LEDs but this would save about £35 a year on bills and LED bulbs can last for
25 years. That means the bulbs would pay for themselves in just under 3 years, leaving you with 22 more years to enjoy your lighting and savings.
But don’t just take our word for it. Below is a quick guide from Which UK on light bulb options and how much a typical 700+ lumen bulb might cost you per year if you have it on for around three hours a day.
Source: https://www.viribright.com/lumen-output-comparing-led-vs-cfl-vs-incandescent-wattage/
CFL annual running cost £2.04
Pros:
- Cheap and widely available in a range of sizes and outputs
- Four times more efficient than incandescent bulbs and quickly pay for themselves in energy savings
Cons:
- Not everyone likes the light they emit (too dim or slow to ‘warm up’)
Halogen annual running cost £8.42
Pros:
- Similar to an incandescent in light colour and quality
- Uses the same amount of energy as a CFL
Cons:
- Not cost effective – with an expected life span of less than two years, a halogen bulb is unlikely to pay for itself before it fails
LED annual running cost £1.71
Pros:
- Use almost 90% less energy than a traditional incandescent, making them the most energy-efficient type of lighting
- Can last up to 25 years
- In the long term they are the cheapest option
- An LED could save you more than £180 in energy use over its lifetime, compared with an old-style incandescent bulb
Cons:
- More expensive to buy up front
- LEDs can’t always match halogen or incandescent light bulbs for colour rendering
For more tips and information on lighting see:
https://www.which.co.uk/reviews/light-bulbs/article/five-tips-for-choosing-the-right-light-bulb
To see how CREW uses LED lighting in community projects, see our DRCA case study here.