Shine a Light on Savings for 2014

shine a light on savings for 2014Do you use incandescent or fluorescent lighting in your home? Thinking about changing over to LED lighting? Now might be the time. Prices have dropped on the cost of LED fixtures considerably.

Start off your new year by making an investment in changing your lighting in your home. The ratings on the newer LED bulbs is longer than fluorescent and considerably longer than incandescent. So paying $20 today for a outside floodlight would save you over the next several years.

Projected LED bulb life is from 35,000 to 50,000 hours. Incandescent bulbs are 750 to 2,000 hours. With this ratio, using an LED bulb under normal operation it could last over 20 years.

Interesting fact: incandescent bulbs and fluorescent bulbs use eighty to ninety percent of their energy as un-needed heat. While a cooler LED bulb converts eighty percent of its energy used to light.

Here are some other benefits to using newer LED bulbs.

  • LED lights emit a bright white, which is closer to daylight, whereas the incandescent is warm yellow and the fluorescent bulb has a green tint. Often artists refuse to work under fluorescent bulbs just because of the color variation.
  • Switching on an LED you will get instant light, not the slow illumination buildup required by fluorescent bulbs.
  • Not containing filaments or having thin-glass bulbs makes the LED lights durable and more resistant to impact and/or temperature variation.

Using the chart I have provided you below, you can see a comparison between LEDS and incandescent bulbs in cost and lumens (output). On average, an LED uses about 10 percent of the competing bulbs wattage without losing any of the brightness.

shine a light on savings for 2014

I encourage you to comparison shop your local home improvement stores for prices. Start online by comparing wattage, bases and types. I took a brief look at Lowes online and found an indoor LED bulb which uses 9.8 watts (60 W equivalent) for about $10. The life of this bulb is rated at 25,000 hours or 22.83 years at three hours per day. I can remember spending $10 for fluorescent bulbs in the past.

With the rising cost of electricity across the Nation, I encourage homeowners with Fairfax homes for sale to seek out this new LED lighting to get that added brightness to your home. Bright homes are more attractive to potential buyers and you can pass the savings on to the new owner as an added benefit.