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I’m always interested in saving money at home. I’ve known for a while that changing my household LED bulbs would save me some money. I’ve finally finished changing all of the bulbs in the household to LED now, so thought I’d write this article to document the prices. A lot of people who aren’t converted believe LED lighting isn’t good. It’s very good and can produce crystal white light in the house. I’ve also converted my mother to use LED lighting now she has found out how much it saves me.
One of the first things that I tackled was my lighting. Traditional (Halogen) lights in the house are very power hungry, times have changed and modern lighting (LED) is now available, which normally uses around 25% of the power that a “Traditional” light-bulb uses.
A 60W Halogen light uses around 60W in power. An LED equivalent uses around 10-15w in power. It doesn’t seem much, but when you add up how often the lights are used, and apply some basic maths formulas. You realise just how bad your household bills are affected by the smallest change in cost.
You can see in the table below, that over the cost of an entire year the bulbs cost me approximately £1.45 per month to run, compared to £13.88 to run per month. For reference, if you want to Calculate just how much your bulbs cost you over the year, this is the formula below
(W x H x 365)/1000 – Multiplied by electric cost per KW/h
An example bulb (15W LED, that is used for 2 hours per day, but used 90 days of the year)
You can work this out for any number of bulbs, just break it down by each bulb per fitting
15 x 2 x 90 = 2,700W of power – divide this by 1000 to convert to KW/h = 2.7 KW/h
Multiply by your cost of electricity (for me it’s £0.14 per KW/h) – excluding the standing charge
Cost to run this 1 LED for above time period = £0.378 per “year” (2.7 x 0.14)
In total I have spent around £30 to replace all of the bulbs (the ones I buy are from ASDA). As you can see below, the costs are made back within the first year of ownership.
If you also take into account the lifespan of the bulbs (LED – 25,000 hours) vs (Halogen – 1,000 hours). It usually costs you even more because you have to buy more bulbs to replace the Halogen ones as they fail.
Hopefully the information below should help you convert to LED. It’s a great money saving tip and simply adding an extra £2 per month onto your shopping bill buying 1 or 2 bulbs at a time can have a lasting effect for you over the years.
LED Lighting Comparison
| ROOM | ORIGINAL BULB (Wattage) ( ) = Total power usage | NEW BULB (Wattage) [ ] = Equivalent power | WATTAGE SAVING | Approx usage (Hrs/year) ( ) = Hours per day | Annual KW/h Formula = (Bulb Power (W) * Hrs per Day * 365) / 1000 ( ) = Halogen KW/h | Annual Electric Cost @ 0.14 per kw/h LED listed ( ) = Halogen Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bedroom 1 | 3 x 50W (150W) | 3 x 5W (15W) [ 50W ] | 135W | 2920 (8) | 43.8 (438) | £6.13 (£61.32) |
| Bedroom 2 | 4 x 30W (120W) | 4 x 3.7W (14.8W) [ 40W ] | 105.2W | 182.5 (0.5 - 30 Min) | 2.701 (21.9) | £0.37 (£3.06) |
| Bathroom | 1 x 20W (20W) | 1 x 9.4W (9.4W) [60W ] | 10.6W | 365 (1) | 3.431 (7.3) | £0.48 (£1.02) |
| Landing | 3 x 50W (150W) | 3 x 5W (15W) [ 50W ] | 135W | 365 (1) | 5.475 (54.75) | £0.76 (£7.66) |
| Stairs | 3 x 30W (90W) | 3 x 5W (15W) [ 50W ] | 75W | 365 (1) | 5.475 (54.75) | £0.76 (£7.66) |
| Kitchen (Main) | 4 x 50W (200W) | 4 x 5W (20W) [ 50W ] | 180W | 1095 (3) | 21.9 (219) | £3.06 (£30.66) |
| Kitchen (Sink) | 3 x 40W (120W) | 3 x 2.9W (8.7W) [ 40W ] | 101.3W | 730 (2) | 6.351 (87.6) | £0.88 (£12.26) |
| Living Room | 4 x 50W (200W) | 4 x 5W (20W) [ 50W ] | 180W | 1460 (4) | 29.2 (292) | £4.08 (£40.88) |
| Rear Door | 1 x 20W (20W) | 1 x 9.4W (9.4W) [ 60W ] | 10.6W | 182.5 (0.5 - 30 Min) | 3.431 (7.3) | £0.48 (£1.02) |
| Downstairs Toilet | 1 x 20W (20W) | 1 x 9.4W (9.4W) [ 60W ] | 10.6W | 182.5 (0.5 - 30 Min) | 3.431 (7.3) | £0.48 (£1.02) |
| TOTAL | £17.48 (£166.56) | |||||
| PER MONTH | £1.45 (£13.88) |
