LED Lighting Facts
The functional life of current white LED lamps is approximate 100,000 hours. Stated another way, this is about eleven years of continuous operation, or twenty two years of 50% operation. The exceptionally long life of LED lighting is substantial in comparison to the average 5000 hour life of an incandescent bulb.
The key strength of LED lighting is its reduced power consumption. Typically an LED circuit will approach 80% efficiency, which means that 80% of the electrical energy is converted to light energy. The remaining 20% is lost as heat energy. Again, in comparison to incandescent lighting the difference is staggering! Incandescent bulbs operate at about 20% efficiency; with 80% of the electrical lost as heat energy.
Viewing the comparison of power consumption in money terms, operating a 100 Watt incandescent bulb for 1 year, with an electrical cost of 10 cents per kilowatt hour, it would cost $88 for electricity. Moreover, $70 of this expense will have been used to heat the room. On the other hand, if LED lighting were used the electricity cost would only be $23 per year, with only $4.60 of this expense having been used to heat the room. Realistically the cost savings would be higher as most incandescent light bulbs blow out within a year and require replacements whereas LED light bulbs can easily be used for a decade or more before burning out.
Clearly, there is no comparison between the cost of LED lights vs. traditional incandescent lighting options. With incandescent bulbs, the true cost of the bulb is the cost of replacement bulbs and the labor expense and time needed to replace them. These are significant factors, especially where there are a larger number of installed bulbs. For office buildings and skyscrapers, maintenance costs to replace bulbs can be enormous. These costs can be substantially reduced with LED lighting.
The primary limitation to adopting white LED lighting as a lighting standard is the current high cost of led bulbs. Even though the cost of led lighting consistently decreases, LED light bulbs are still expensive. A single AC bulb (17 LED), replacing a 25 watt incandescent, will cost about $40. Although LED's are expensive, the cost variance is easily recouped over time through energy consumption savings. Factor in that it is significantly cheaper to maintain led lights, the best value comes from commercial use, where maintenance and replacement costs are more expensive.
