Eco-Exchange Week 13

Regular bulbs to LED bulbs 

When considering this week’s topic I thought, “I’m pretty sure I already have energy saving light bulbs.” I then had a look around the house to confirm. Yes some of the bulbs are LED but actually there’s a few cheeky conventional bulbs snuck in. The spot lights in the kitchen, the trendy industrial lamp in the study and a couple of other lights were the culprits. 

So a hand full of bulbs? What difference would that make on the grand scheme of things? Well an LED bulb uses around 75% less energy than a conventional bulb and lasts around 30 times longer (i.e. 30 less bulbs need to be made) and thus saves enough CO2 over its 25 year life to be able to cover the CO2 emissions of a short plane journey. So that handful of bulbs in our house quickly starts to look significant when you think of their collective carbon footprint.

75% less energy to run effectively means an extra day of running for free every three days when compared to a conventional bulb. How much money this saves is completely dependant on how long you have your lights on for, your energy supplier and how many lights you have on. One resource suggested running a single bulb for 5 hours a day would cost about £10 per year thus switching to and LED bulb would save around £7.50 per year per bulb. 

Of course it’s important to switch lights off you don’t need, use lower lightingwhere possible   and make  the most of natural light in the summer months to limit energy use.

We’ve made the switch to LED bulbs. Have we convinced you?

K