Brighter, longevity, less heat, and less electricity are
usually the claims made to convince you to switch. Those are all true however
what it boils down to is cost vs. benefits, and it is not worth it at the
moment! (For most of you)
LED bulbs simply cost way too much right now to justify the
switch, let's look at some numbers:
A NOMA 13W mini spiral fluorescent bulb puts out the
equivalent amount of lumens (a unit to measure light output) as an ordinary 60W
incandescent bulb, which is about 850 lumens. A comparable CREE LED 9.5W warm
white bulb puts out 800 lumens according to the manufacturer's website.
The NOMA bulb is about $4 if you buy a six-pack from
Canadian Tire. Also at Canadian Tire, an ordinary 60W GE incandescent bulb will
set you back about $1.50 if you buy a 4-pack. The CREE bulb is priced $16 at
Home Depot (only comes in singles). All prices are rounded up slightly to
reflect taxes, and obtained on April 28th, 2013.
Note: Off
peak hydro price is $0.067 per kWh if you are using Power Stream.
Here were my assumptions, you turn on the light for 4 hours
each day during evening off-peak hours (7pm to 11pm), the bulbs each last their
stated lifetime hours, and for the sake of simplicity I only calculated it for
one bulb (except for the 60W because you need four of them to last four years).
So what do these charts tell us? The LED bulb indeed does stand up to its
claims, they last longer and they use much less electricity than the other two.
However, if you look at the costs of ownership over 4 years, the fluorescent
bulb still stands out as the better option. Some of you may now be thinking,
"well yeah it costs more upfront but I save down the road over 25,000
hours!" While I agree with that thought, why not just stick with
fluorescent for now and make the switch 4 years later? In 4 years, the price of
LED bulbs will come down substantially, making it much more feasible to change.
In addition, by then there will likely be even brighter LEDs but at a lower
price as the LED@home scene matures.
In what situations will switching now be justified? If
you're running a restaurant or an office, where you require those lights to be
on all day and night. Then it will be worth it because with that much usage,
you can actually take advantage of the 25,000 hours rated lifetime and
breakeven by not having to replace as many fluorescent bulbs. Anyhow, if you're
thinking of switching feel free to use the above figures I've gathered to help
you calculate if it's worth it for your scenario. ALSO, this is important so
remember this, be cautious when purchasing home LED bulbs online. There are
many poorly made ones that puts out blue light that are priced lower, and they
also don't last as long. Make sure to buy it from a reputable store!
(Preferably brick n' mortar instead of online)
-TT
