Mythbusting: 3 Facts About LED Lighting
LED lighting is more than a trend – it’s a better choice! Below are three of the most common myths regarding LED lighting and how you should respond the next time you hear an uninformed someone make these claims.
Who are you kidding? LEDs don’t save power!
We have been conditioned to believe a light bulb is a light bulb and you just replace it when it burns out, right?
Here’s a little something extra for you to chew on – Forbes reports that globally, consumers spend over $100 billion on light bulbs, but more than $600 billion to power them.
Of all the energy poured into an incandescent light bulb to give it power, it lets off 90% of its energy as heat … only 10% becomes light! You wouldn’t buy $10 worth of gas, but pump $9 of it onto the concrete – you want the whole $10 in your car! You’re dumping it on the ground when you pay your electricity bill.
Now consider how many incandescents are hanging around your home or office. It’s time for an upgrade!
No way! LEDs are too expensive.
LEDs are chips – as with anything else, maturing technology promotes increased efficiency and more affordable prices for consumers. Believe it or not, LEDs have been around for more than 50 years and prices are lower than ever.
We are seeing costs per bulb drop below $6 – if you change just one light bulb in your house to an LED, during the lifetime of the bulb, you stand to save between $30 and $80.
It doesn’t sound like much over the course of several years, but let’s take a closer look at that.
The average home has approximately 50 light bulbs – on the low end, that’s $1,500 in energy savings, and only $250 in bulb purchases. On the higher end, you could be looking at savings of $4,000!
Spend $250, save $4,000?! Check, please! We’re done.
So really, are they too expensive?
Dude, LEDs last literally forever!
While our love may burn forever, the light bulbs do burn out. You will have to replace them ….. eventually.
On average, an LED bulb is rated to last 50,000 hours. For perspective, if you leave the lights on for 24 hours/day, it’ll stay lit for 2,083 days – which is more than 5.5 years even if you never once turn it off!
That’s 50 times longer than incandescent, and 10 times longer than a typical CFL.
While they don’t last forever, they do last a very long time. In my house, it’s more likely to be broken by a rogue tennis ball than to burn out.
These are a few of our favorite objections! What have you heard as reasons for why not to upgrade?