The Experiment
Last December, I bought three FEIT Electric bulbs from Orchard Supply Hardware store and kept them on for six weeks straight to see if they work fine and provide the necessary illumination. They worked fine and no one in my house noticed the difference.
The Execution
This week, I went ahead and bought the same bulbs for most fixtures in the house. The bulb below worked fine for outdoors, indoors, hallways and even on chandeliers. I replaced 15 bulbs in my house with LED bulbs.They cost about $18 each compared a regular Thomas Edison light bulb that costs about $1. However the manufacturer claims that an LED bulb consumes about 20 percent of the electricity used by a regular bulb and lasts for 25,000 hours compared to a regular bulbs life of about $1000 hours. Some interesting things to note are that if you use 20 bulbs in your house, you can avoid replacing bulbs 500 times in the next 10 or so years. I also save on the time it takes to go and buy a bulb. It might sound trivial. But it all adds up.
White Light Was Not Inviting
I found that the bulbs that emitted white light were not elegant enough to use inside the house. The light they emitted has a cheap feel about it. I felt that the bulbs that emitted yellow light made the rooms more inviting. I can't explain why I felt that way.
Return on Investment
I used a LED bulbs cost and savings calculator. I found out that it pays back within a year and over 11 years will save me close to $2000 in electricity costs. Since time is valuable for me, the time saved by not changing bulbs 500 times was also an important reason for the switch.
Here is the cost calculations from https://www.ledwaves.com/led-calc.html
LED technology is pretty disruptive, I think. Such technologies are going to contribute to the already declining per capita energy consumption in the US. I wonder what that will do to the business models of American energy companies whose business model assume increasing energy usage by Americans.
Last December, I bought three FEIT Electric bulbs from Orchard Supply Hardware store and kept them on for six weeks straight to see if they work fine and provide the necessary illumination. They worked fine and no one in my house noticed the difference.
The Execution
This week, I went ahead and bought the same bulbs for most fixtures in the house. The bulb below worked fine for outdoors, indoors, hallways and even on chandeliers. I replaced 15 bulbs in my house with LED bulbs.They cost about $18 each compared a regular Thomas Edison light bulb that costs about $1. However the manufacturer claims that an LED bulb consumes about 20 percent of the electricity used by a regular bulb and lasts for 25,000 hours compared to a regular bulbs life of about $1000 hours. Some interesting things to note are that if you use 20 bulbs in your house, you can avoid replacing bulbs 500 times in the next 10 or so years. I also save on the time it takes to go and buy a bulb. It might sound trivial. But it all adds up.
White Light Was Not Inviting
I found that the bulbs that emitted white light were not elegant enough to use inside the house. The light they emitted has a cheap feel about it. I felt that the bulbs that emitted yellow light made the rooms more inviting. I can't explain why I felt that way.
Return on Investment
I used a LED bulbs cost and savings calculator. I found out that it pays back within a year and over 11 years will save me close to $2000 in electricity costs. Since time is valuable for me, the time saved by not changing bulbs 500 times was also an important reason for the switch.
Here is the cost calculations from https://www.ledwaves.com/led-calc.html
No comments:
Post a Comment