How much can you save with LED lighting?
LED lighting offers clear advantages over conventional incandescent, metal halide, and High Pressure Sodium or HPS bulbs. They’re more efficient, last longer, and generate much less heat. How does this translate into saving you money?
According to Natural Resources Canada, LED bulbs use about 70% less energy than conventional bulbs. The exceptionally long lifespan of LED bulbs — at least 25 times as long as incandescent bulbs — makes your savings even greater. Thus, even if they may cost a little more to purchase, that cost is more than offset by their longer lifespan.
These savings multiply rapidly in a large commercial or industrial setting that uses hundreds or even thousands of bulbs. In these environments, lights are often left on for most of the day, even around the clock, so the potential for saving on electricity charges is obvious. And since they generate much less heat than the alternatives, customers also save on air conditioning costs.
The longer lifespan of LED bulbs leads to additional savings for larger customers in terms of a marked decrease in maintenance expenses. Rather than having facilities staff spending much of their time climbing up and down ladders to change burned out bulbs, they can focus on other tasks.
Even residential consumers can save by switching to LED bulbs. The average Canadian household spends about 11% of its electricity on lighting. Switching to LED bulbs can reduce the lighting portion of your electricity bill to about 3%. The difference can be $100 to $150 a year for a typical household.
How much you’ll save by switching to LED lighting will depend on your circumstances; the number and type of bulbs you have, the number of hours a day you need them, and how much you currently spend on maintenance.