The one major disctinction between the two bulbs is price. An incandescent light will cost around $1.00 while an LED light can run you as much as $10 (we checked on amazon.com for the above pictured bulb). That's a big price comparison! In fact, switching all the lights in your house to LED's would cost a small fortune. So, how should you decide whether to switch out an incandescent light for an LED? It all comes down to...math. (And you thought you wouldn't need math after barely passing algebra.)
To compare the cost of LEDs with incandescents, let's offer up 2 scenarios and calculate the difference in cost between the two bulbs.
Scenario 1: 5 Hours/day for 2 Years
Let's say you're going to use this light bulb for 5 hours every day for two years. To determine the total cost over the 2 years you would need to add the cost of the bulb with the cost of the electricity over that time span. And since electricity costs are in kilowatt-hours (kWh) we'll need to make sure to convert to the proper units (all that math horror is coming back to you now, isn't it?!) We'll use an energy cost from my last bill of 13 cents/kWh.
Incandescent Light Bulb
Cost of electricty = 60 watts / 1000 watts/kilowatt X 5 hours/day X 365 days/year X 2 years X $0.13/kWh = $28.47
Cost of bulb(s) = 3,650 hours/1,200 hours/bulb X $1.00/bulb = $3.00
Total cost of bulbs and electricity for incandescent bulb = $31.47
LED Light Bulb
Cost of electricity = 10 watts / 1000 watts/kilowatt X 5 hours/day X 365 days/year X 2 years X $0.13/kWh = $4.75
Cost of bulb(s) = 3,650 hours/ 50,000 hours/bulb X $10/bulb = $10
Total cost of bulbs and electricity for LED bulb = $14.75
In this scenario, clearly you have a decent cost savings for LED bulbs compared to incandescent.
Let's now look at another scenario where the bulb is not used quite as often.
Scenario 2: 30 minutes per day for 2 years
Okay, same bulbs but we're going to only use them for about a half hour per day in that 2 years. What is the cost comparison?
Incandescent Light Bulb
Cost of Electricity = 60 watts / 1000 watts/kilowatt X 0.5 hours/day X 365 days/year X 2 years X $0.13/kWH = $2.85
Cost of bulb(s) = 365 hours/1,200 hours/bulb X $1.00/bulb = $1.00
Total cost of bulbs and electricity for Incandescent bulb = $3.85
LED Light Bulb
Cost of Electricity = 10 watts / 1000 kilowatts X 0.5 hours/day X 365 days year X 2 years X $0.13/kWH = $0.47
Cost of bulb(s) = 365 hours/50,000 hours/bulb X $10.00/bulb = $10.00
Total cost of bulbs and electricity for LED bulb = $10.47
Clearly, the cost is much higher for an LED bulb in the second scenario.
Final Decision....It Depends
Whether or not you trade out your incandescent bulbs for the very energy efficient LED light bulbs clearly depends on how you're going to use that light. If you will use that light every day for several hours, such as in the kitchen or in your office where you work all day, an LED light may be the way to go. But for the hallway light or a closet light, an incandescent is definitely the way to go....unless you tend to forget to turn the light out (hint: invest in an automatic timer for the light switch in those areas).
Of course, if your ultimate goal is to save the earth and money doesn't even factor into it for you (and if that is the case, who are you???) then by all means, when your incandescents finally die, then switch them out for LEDs. The earth will thank you.
Source: Michelle Schwake, Stafford Family Realtors. For our scenarios, we used www.wikihow.com and www.eartheasy.com.
