5 REASONS TO SWITCH TO LED BULBS NOW!

LED bulbs are the latest and greatest, but are they really worth it?  The answer is a resounding YES!  They are more than worth it for a variety of reasons, five to be exact!  

A little background information:
We have a total of 47 regular bulbs in and around our house (this includes the front and back porch lights). This does not include the three high hat bulbs in the kitchen (they are special dimmable bulbs).

In the dining room and the basement my husband replaced the dimmer switches with regular switches so we could use regular bulbs.  This saved us money  because  purchasing dimmable bulbs is generally more expensive and we really didn't need the dimmers in those locations anyway.

We use 40-Watt (equivalent) bulbs (warm in color)  in all locations in and around the house (There never seemed to be any reason to use more than that and it was cost efficient to use less Watts.).  

What this means in terms of kWh's:
A 40-Watt incandescent bulb uses 40 Watts for every hour it is turned on. According to the EPA lights are turned on for an average of 3 hours per day (When shopping for bulbs you should notice that most of them are rated for a daily use of 2 or 3 hours).

                               40 Watts x 3 hours/day x 47 bulbs = 5,640 Watts used on average every day!  

Convert that to kWh (that is what is on your bill) by dividing by 1,000 and that works out to approximately 5.64 kWh per day or about 2,059 kWh per year!   

Obviously this is only an average because nobody leaves all of their lights on for 3 hours a day.  Some are actually on for more (such as in the kitchen or living room) and some are only used as needed (such as in the bathroom).  However, when all the lights in a home are taken into account, it is actually a fair estimate because don't forget that depending upon where you live the lights are used a lot more in the winter than in the summer!  

Light Bulb Comparison Chart

At this point it should be obvious that if you are still using incandescent bulbs you should change them NOW because you are literally throwing money away. 

Even if you are currently using CFL's it's still 33% more cost effective to convert to LED's!  
It is also HEALTHIER for you and your family to use LED's instead of CFL's.  

• If you accidentally  break a CFL it IS TOXIC and the EPA has specific cleanup and disposal procedures you should follow!  
• Don't get too close to a CFL either as it emits ultraviolet radiation (UV) at potentialy harmful levels when on.   The FDA recommends a distance of 1 foot minimum.

Convinced yet?  OK, heres more: 

Change just a few bulbs for now.  Even if you just switch out the bulbs in the most commonly used room(s) in the house (for us it's the living room and kitchen), you can save money!  

Example:  We have 6 bulbs between the living room and the kitchen and they definitely stay on for at least 5 hours every day.

• Incandescent: 5 hours x 6 bulbs x 40 Watts = 1200 Watts/day = 1.2 kWh/d x 365 days = 438 kWh/y
• CFL:  5 hours x 6 bulbs x 9 Watts = 270 Watts/day = .27 kWh/d x 365 days = 98.55 kWh/y    
• LED:  5 hours x 6 bulbs x 6 Watts = 180 Watts/day = .18 kWh/d x 365 days = 65.7 kWh/y

At this point, if you are not 100% convinced that switching to LED's will save you money and be healthier for you and your family, then I have one last reason:  THE ENVIRONMENT!

• According to the EPA, just switching one incandescent bulb to a CFL will save .0382 metric tons of carbon dioxide! Yes, that is a small number, but that is only one bulb.  Imagine the savings if every household changed just one bulb?  Or if they changed every bulb?  Even better, imagine changing to LED's instead?  

OK, enough said.  I think you get the picture.  

SUMMARY OF FIVE REASONS TO SWITCH TO LED'S NOW:

1. Uses less Watts (and in turn less kWh's) than both CFL's and Incandescent
   
2. Less kWh's means less money spent - so you save $$$
   
3. They have a life span of up to 22 years!
4. Less kWh's means less carbon dioxide emissions - so better for the environment!
   
5. They are NOT toxic or harmful for you, your family, or the environment and therefor require no special disposal methods.  

LED's are a WIN WIN:-)

SOME POINTERS WHEN PURCHASING:

• Know if you want soft/warm light or bright white light. There is a HUGE difference.  We prefer the soft/warm light but note that the bright white is generally less expensive.
  
• When purchasing LED's be aware of the Watts they use. The same A19 (40-Watt) equivalent bulb can vary in wattage from 4 to 10 Watts!  So pay attention and know what you are getting!  
• LED's are directional meaning that you have to purchase special bulbs if you want the light to be in more than one direction.  Because of this it is helpful to know ahead of time where the light bulb will be used.  Example:  If you are using it in a table lamp you will want a multidirectional bulb.  If you're using it in a ceiling fan, one direction is fine.
• Note that you will see some bulbs say that they are ENERGY STAR QUALIFIED instead of ENERGY STAR CERTIFIED. From what I could find out, this just means that they meet the independent energy star testing criteria, but they didn't get the official certification from energy star yet.  

Read more about choosing and purchasing the right lighting and light bulbs at ENERGY STAR.

Sources:
http://www.energy.gov/energysaver/articles/how-energy-efficient-light-bulbs-compare-traditional-incandescents