Halogen and Incandescent light bulbs are typically very wasteful of electricity; they produce a lot of heat as a by-product.
Whilst this isn’t necessarily a bad thing when the temperature outside are dipping below freezing; they will cause you problems in the summer.
Why not let your central heating keep your house warm, and you look at other types of lighting.
| Bulb Type | Typical Usage |
|---|---|
| Halogen | 20W – 75W |
| Incandescent | 15W – 100W |
| Energy Savers (CFL) | 6W – 23W |
| LED | 1.2W – 15W |
The light from an LED for me feels a lot nicer than the energy savers, and they’ve come down in price a lot in recent years.
Halogen – cost for using 5 for a month
- 5 x 20W = 100W
- 100W / 1000 = 0.1kW
- Hours used in a month = 120
- Kilowatts x Hours = 12 kWh
- Cost per kWh = £0.14
- Cost to run for 1 month = £1.68
LED – cost for using 5 for a month
- 5 x 1.2W = 6W
- 6W / 1000 = 0.006kW
- Hours used in a month = 120
- Kilowatts x Hours = 0.72 kWh
- Cost per kWh = £0.14
- Cost to run for 1 month = £0.10
Savings will depend on how many light bulbs you would be replacing, and how long they would be on in a given month.
The above examples assume 4 hours everyday for 28 days.
Based the above example, you could easily pay for the LED bulbs from the cost savings within a year.
Also, LED light bulbs I have, last a lot longer than incandescent bulbs.
With 7 bulbs, I’ve only had 1 blow 5 years, whereas it felt like I was changing incandescent bulbs every other month.