Monday 10 March 2014

The Cost of Lighting : I Switched to LEDs from Energy Savers!

 

lightbulbHUGE FRUGAL SAVINGS!

My entire house will soon be lit by LED light bulbs!

Originally, I completely dismissed this money-saving option owing to the initial costs involved in switching from my existing (free) energy-savers to the even more energy efficient LED light bulbs but, to be honest, I was thoroughly sick of the delay in switching on the energy savers.

There is something distinctly unsettling about switching on something electrical and not getting instant reaction! When it’s something as important as lighting, I find any delay is a potential hazard after dark! Apart from that, I was barely able to read in such appalling light.

Then I was given a sample LED light bulb and was instantly converted! Instant light! The 40w version looks, to me, closer to the brightness of an old 60 watt and, best of all, the new LED is using only 4.5w per hour. (For me, that works out about 3p for 4 hours of reading time after dark.)

To put this into bigger savings terms, when I first priced LEDs as a moneysaving option, it was working out at over £200 to convert Frugaldom, hence the delayed changeover! But the prices have gradually come within frugal reach. Now, I could converted my entire house and the garden studio for less than half of the original estimate.

Yes, it is an enormous amount of money to spend on light bulbs, but the entire 'bulbery' when every light in the house is switched on will total 156w (I still have double strip light in kitchen), whereas, it was 398w, even allowing for the energy saver light bulbs. That is a huge saving. What's more, I will reduce it by a further 106w (from 2 x 58w to 2 x 5w) once the kitchen is done. An estimated £43 per year compared to £112 for me with potential for a further £20 saving possible on kitchen lighting. That’s enough to convince me!

I've been told the bulbs should pay for themselves within 6 months and then from thereon in, I’m making real cash-in-the-bank savings! … Read more here

NYK Media, Frugaldom

This post supported by Lightbulbs-direct.com by way of my free trial light bulb.

4 comments:

  1. An interesting article- I hadn't heard of these before. I'll stayed tuned to see how they work out for you!

    Pop over to my blog to say hello! :-)
    http://makethriftlovelife.blogspot.co.uk

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    1. They have already slashed the costs of lighting and, combined with the log burner and open fire with new backboiler system, I can see me being on track to reduce the overall energy bill by about 25% and the electricity alone by almost half.

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  2. We we have just bought one LED bulb for our dining room because, like you, we couldn't see much in the evenings, due to the length of time it took to brighten up. We bought the 12 watt bulb though and it is really bright, so we might move that to the stairs and buy a lower watt variety for the dining room. It is a huge improvement though and I no longer need to wear a head torch when I go in the dining room in the evening.

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    1. I like the overall design of the bulbs. Mine are ordinary bayonets in the ceiling lights but I don't have shades yet - nobody has noticed! LOL

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