Yesterday I promised I would mess with lights and report back to you. I'm a woman of my word. And I'm determined, now that my electricity usage data is available for the world to see, to find out as much as I can about it. Yesterday, I was struck by how much the reading on my whole house monitor changed when I did one little thing: flicked on the lights. Today I set out to discover how much it mattered which kind of bulb I turned on.
Ours is a house in lighting transition. In our kitchen alone, we have 9 recessed lights in three different flavors: Halogen, LED, and CFL. We live in our kitchen, entertain in our kitchen, cook, do homework, chat, draw, skateboard... you name it. I'd say those recessed lights each burn for at least three hours a day, every single day.
I asked our resident electrician (and video man) Tim to take the rate information from TED for each of those lights and extrapolate as to how much it would cost to light our kitchen over the course of the year if we used just one type of bulb throughout. Here's what we learned:
If the recessed lighting in our kitchen was converted to one type, here's how the electricity costs would play out:
| 9 bulbs, 3 hours/day | Halogen | Annual Total: $ 167.53 |
| 9 bulbs, 3 hours/day | CFL (Compact Fluorescent) | Annual Total: $ 46.07 |
| 9 bulbs, 3 hours/day | LED (Light Emitting Diode) | Annual Total: $ 14.24 |
Ouch. Guess those Halogens are going to have to go.
So there you have it. The second staggering surprise on the home front since posting our data on the Internet. I have a sneaking hunch more will follow. Stay tuned.
Comments
Lisa, thank you! I am a huge fan of LED light cost savings, too! I'm going to tweet your article to my LED lighting followers so they can see a simple explanation of the cost savings in a residential setting.
Posted by LEDLightingShop on Jan 7, 2010 12:41pm