LED Electricity Consumption Vs. Light Output

Types of Bulbs Available

• Until fairly recently, the familiar incandescent light bulb was the only option widely available for consumer use in traditional threaded and bayonet type fittings. Technological advances brought the compact fluorescent bulb (CFB) onto the market -- a tightly-wound fluorescent tube, and then the light emitting diode (LED). The LED uses a semiconductor to produce lumens.

Importance of Choosing the Right Bulb

• According to the Consumer Energy Center, if all the light used in a typical home were produced by incandescent bulbs, together considered as a single appliance, that appliance would be responsible for approximately 25 percent of the home’s annual electricity consumption. The U.S. Department Of Energy translates that average, if the incandescents were changed over to LEDs, as a national savings of approximately $265 billion over 20 years, which would do away with the need to build 40 new power plants.

Electricity Consumption

• Light emitting diodes use far less power to generate the same amount of light than do traditional incandescent bulbs or compact fluorescent bulbs. To create the same amount of light as a 60-watt incandescent, a CFB uses somewhere between 13 and 15 watts; the LED uses only 6 to 8 watts. Therefore, the incandescent bulb uses 109 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year on average: a cost of $10.95. The CFB burns 25 kilowatt-hours of electricity at an annual cost of $2.55; however, the LED burns just under 11 kilowatt-hours and costs only $1 to run per year. So, for the same light output, the LED’s electricity consumption is marginally under 11 percent of the incandescent's. This represents a nearly 90 percent saving in operational costs.

Other Considerations

• A further consideration, if value for money is the primary concern, is lifespan. According to Design Recycle Inc., an LED has an average lifespan of 50,000 hours. Compared to a compact fluorescent at 8,000 hours and an incandescent at only 1,200 hours, this can represent a considerable savings on both replacement cost and maintenance time. The financial savings is only one positive since a reduction in power plant demand results directly in the emission of less greenhouse gases.