Hank Green over at Eco-geek has done a quick run down of a couple different light bulb types.
He mentions at one point an $80 light bulb that is rated at a 60 watt equivalent but that uses only 10 watts. He claims that is worth it because it is supposed to last 50,000 hours.
I thought I would do the math. Lets be really simple and say that energy is 1 cent per watt just to make the math easy. (we also wont factor in the cost of buying all the extra incandescent lights cause they certainly don’t last 50,000 hours).
60 watt bulb: 50,000 hours X 60 cents = $30,000
10 watt LED: 50,000 hours X 10 cents = $5,000
Obviously electricity is cheaper than this, and we haven’t factored in the cost of buying the many many 60 watt incandescents you would need, but you can see that it is a big big savings. The problem is that people are NEVER going to pay $80 up front for a light bulb. Even if it will save them a boat load of cash over the lifetime of the bulb. This is mostly because people simply don’t think that way. Lets hope that fun little video’s like Hanks, and blog posts like mine change that.
In lighting you have to take space design and day lighting into account before light bulbs. For instance, your main living areas (where you spend most of the day) should always be on the southern exposure of your house. The areas you spend the most time in during the evening should have light colored walls to reflect the most light. Low wattage task lighting should be well thought out to reduce the need for high wattage general illumination.
You also must look at use habits and lifestyles, for busy households with lots of people, occupancy sensors and timers may be a good idea.
Once all that is thought out you can look at bulbs and lamps.