Most of us are taught as children to turn the lights off as we leave a room, but cost-conscious families may be sitting in the dark unnecessarily when there's a cheap solution to light up their homes.
Cutting down on lighting may sound like an easy option to save energy and the internet is awash with people buying torches, candles and battery operated lamps to avoid turning on the lights, but none of these solutions will be as cheap as changing your lightbulbs to more energy efficient types. And amid some of the more outlandish money-saving tips, this is one that really can save you hundreds every year.
There are two main types of energy-efficient light bulbs available: Compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs). If you switch to either of these, you can make a worthwhile saving, but switching to all LED bulbs, you could save as much as £400 on your energy bill this year. Higher energy light bulbs, such as incandescent (up to 100W) and halogen (up to 120W), are being phased out, so you will to make the switch sooner or later, and with substantial savings to be made amid the cost of living crisis, it's a no-brainer
Read more: Energy saving tips that will save you money - and others which are a waste of time
So what are LED bulbs? LEDs are the most energy efficient bulbs you can buy, and use only a fraction of the energy of a normal (incandescent) or halogen bulb. Most people think the higher the wattage of a bulb, the brighter it will be, but the wattage actually equates to the amount of electricity it uses. Brightness is measured in lumens. So a 100W incandescent light bulb uses 0.1kW an hour. By comparison, an LED bulb typically uses 4-18W, so 0.004kWH to 0.018kWH.
The moast common energy-saving bulbs in use now are CFLs, which were the first energy efficient bulbs on the market and use around 70-80% less electricity than their equivalent traditional counteerparts. Their wattages tend to range between 6-22W, so they are still not as efficient as switching to LEDs.
LEDs have largely replaced CFLs on the shelves, as they are more efficient still, turn on instantly at full brightness, and are available to fit pretty much any light fitting in the home, making it easy to get rid of energy-guzzling bulbs in an instant.
Let's do the maths:
The national average price per kWh of electricity is 34p (as of October 2022).
- Taking the example above, that a 100W light bulb uses 0.1kW an hour, this means that ten 100W light bulbs on at the same time would require 1kW, which would cost 34p every hour.
- Swap to 10 CFL bulbs at 22W and the cost would drop significantly, to around 8p per hour.
- Ten 18W LED light bulbs would cost even less: 18W is 0.018kW x 10 = 0.18kW, so the cost every hour is just over 6p.
Old-style 'high energy' incandescent bulbs stopped being sold in the UK from 2009 and in October 2021, the Government banned the sale of halogen light bulbs in an effort to 'cut emissions and save consumers on their energy bills'. The sale of fluorescent lights is planned to be halted from September 2023.
CFLs are low energy bulbs, so don't appear to be part of the planned ban., however consumer group Which? says it expects manufacturers to stop producing them over the coming years, regardless of any ban, as their focus shifts to LEDs.
Which? recommends opting for LEDs where possible, as they'll be sticking around for years to come. Although they are more expensive to buy initially, LEDs are also miles ahead of CFLs and halogens in terms of estimated lifespan, with each bulb expected to last 50,000 hours,. compared to 10,000 hours for CFL bulbs and just 2,000 hours for a halogen bulb.
‘Lighting accounts for 15% of a typical household’s electricity bill,’ reveals Steve Buckley, head of data science at energy-saving app Loop. ‘Quality LED lights cost more than other types of lighting, but it’s a price worth paying.'
New light bulbs are rated from A to G, with A being the most efficient, so you can see the energy efficiency at a glance. The label should also show energy consumption for 1,000 hours of use so you can easily work out how much it’ll cost to power each one. The lower the wattage, the less electricity a light bulb will use. Look for energy saving bulbs that provide the brightness you need (shown in lumens) with the lowest wattage possible.
"Based on the average household using 20 bulbs at 60 watts for five hours a day. You would typically see a saving of around £400 per year by switching to LED bulbs and/or LED strip lighting. LEDs use around 90% less energy compared to traditional lights," said Tom Cain, Technical Engineer at UltraLEDs.
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