In a nutshell: Off-the-shelf LED light bulbs are about 30% more efficient than the prior generation of compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs. Given that rather modest difference, I’m going to replace my remaining CFLs as they burn out, rather than change them proactively to more-efficient LEDs.
Background: From incandescent to LED.
I grew up in a brand-new 1960s suburb. I guess it was what we would now call an exurb of the Washington DC metro area. I recall it as an enclave of cheap housing surrounded by the remains of farmland.
The utilities were crude, by modern standards.
For the first few years that we lived there, the phone — which at that time did not need to be specified as a land-line phone — was on a party line. Something that I’m not sure even still exists.
The electrical service was of-a-piece with that. For whatever reason, we were supplied with voltage that was just about at the upper limit of what met code in the U.S. at that time. Instead of 120 volts AC, ours was, as I recall, pushing 130 volts. My dad had a friend come over and measure it, at some point.
The result is that light bulbs — which at that time did not need to be specified as incandescent light bulbs — burned out quickly, owing to the higher-than-normal voltage. The need to change light bulbs became such an irritation to my dad that he started writing the date on each bulb, in magic marker. I think he finally settled on buying nothing but “heavy duty” bulbs, which these days are marked as 130V incandescent bulbs. These bulbs lasted longer, under what amounted to the abuse imposed on them by the local electric co-op.
Fast-forward to today. I had a compact fluorescent light burn out, in a bedside lamp. An obsolete but venerable survivor from the pre-LED era. Now soon to be tossed in the dedicated recycling bin at my local Home Depot.
Unlike the burnt-out light bulbs of my youth, this was an event. I literally could not recall the last time I changed a light bulb.
I don’t buy CFLs any more. (And I can’t even imagine who does.) Every light bulb that burns out these days is replaced by an LED bulb. I’m not 100% sure, but I don’t think I have had an LED bulb burn out, ever. So far.
When CFLs came out, I replaced my existing incandescent bulbs all at once. That’s what made sense to me, environmentally. CFLs were about four times as efficient as incandescent bulbs. The reduction in coal burning, required to produce the electricity to feed the bulb, amounted to, as I recall, about 100 pounds of coal over the life of a 100-watt incandescent bulb. Swapping 20 CLFs in, for 20 incandescents, amounted to preventing the burning of a literal ton of coal. That more-than-made-up for the waste involved in prematurely tossing out a few ounces of metal and glass, in the form of still-usable incandescent bulbs.
When LED bulbs came out, I did not replace my existing CFLs. I let them die off and be replaced by LED bulbs by attrition. That’s because, back in the day, when LED bulbs first came out, they were no more efficient than CFLs. There was no ton of coal to be saved, only a different method for producing light.
And that’s why, today, I had a bulb burn out. Which, among other things, reminded me to check a few things.
Is it time to retire my remaining CFLs? A virtual shopping trip to Home Depot.
To be clear, I don’t need to buy light bulbs. Probably ever. So there’s no need actually to go to the Home Depot. Other than to recycle one recently deceased CFL.
Why? Even though I knew LED bulbs lasted a long time, I did not quite grasp how long. So, by reflex, I bought my first few packs of LED bulbs at about the same rate I had bought packs of CFLs. Because, ah, you know, light bulbs burn out, so you can always use another pack, if the price is right. And that’s how I came to own what is, in hindsight, a more-than-lifetime supply of LED light bulbs.
Instead, I’m going to look at the Home Depot website to assess what’s currently being offered in terms of LED light bulbs. And, based on that, I’ll decided whether or not I should pro-actively replace some or all of my remaining CFL bulbs with LED bulbs.
The first thing I note from virtually shopping Home Depot is that plain-vanilla CFL light bulbs have almost disappeared. Most of the surviving CFL offerings on the shelf are the oddballs. They are mostly bipin socket bulbs, or specialty bulbs designed to fit specific appliances. Your classic screw-base piggly-wiggly bulbs are still offered, but they are few and far between. In fact, there is no listing for 60-watt-equivalent screw-in CFLs, on-the-shelf, at my local Home Depot.
(Edit: But when I went there in-person, I see that they have what appears to be a residual stock of standard CFLs, bottom shelf, light-bulb aisle. I can only assume that they are selling off their remaining stock and do not plan to re-stock them.)
Source: The Home Depot. This is what sorts to the top when I search for CFLs available in my local store.
In any event, a Feit Electric 60-watt-equivalent CFL bulb shows the following specs:
- 900 lumens
- 13 watts of electricity used.
- 10,000 hour expected lifetime.
- $3.54/bulb in a six-pack.
By contrast, the Feit Electric 60-watt-equivalent LED bulb has these specs:
- 800 lumens
- 8.8 watts
- 25,000 hour lifetime
- $3.25/bulb in a pack of four.
To summarize, the LED bulbs produce about 30% more light per watt, last about 2.5 times as long, and cost less than the CFL bulbs. So it’s no wonder that plain-vanilla CFLs have all but disappeared from in-store stock. There is, as far as I can tell, no good reason to buy them instead of LED bulbs.
That said, for that modest efficiency difference, I think I’ll allow my remaining CFLs to die a natural death. They are dying off fastest in the areas with greatest use/harshest conditions, so natural selection is replacing them in the areas of highest electrical demand anyway.
And, aside from replacing the occasional CFL, I doubt that I’ll ever need to buy light bulbs again. That 25,000 hour life works out to be more than 22 years, at three hours a day, every day.
As for old-fashioned incandescent bulbs? You can still get them, but every 60-watt bulb I can find is some sort of specialty bulb. These include decorative bulbs, appliance bulbs, and “heavy duty” or “rough service” bulbs. These all tend to be long-life bulbs. They achieve that long life by burning the filament at a lower temperature, and so are less efficient than the (once-) standard incandescent bulb. Near as I can tell, if you stick with those, you get about one-tenth as much light per watt as from a modern LED bulb, and less than one-tenth the expected life span.
Epilogue
The LED lighting revolution is not an unalloyed blessing.
As part of my virtual shopping, I noted that LED bulbs have not yet become standardized. The cheaper LED bulbs all seem to claim 10,000 hour lifetime. The better bulbs claim 25,000 hour lifetime. Some LED-based light fixtures claim 50,000 hours. Given the difference in price, the more expensive bulbs have the lower lifetime cost of ownership.
As time passes, the entire concept of a replaceable light bulb seems to be receding into the past. Today, the norm for cheap utility light fixtures (“shop lights”) is “integrated LEDs.” That’s ad-speak for “no replaceable light bulb”. The LEDs are hard-wired into the fixture, and when they burn out, you toss away the entire light fixture.
That doesn’t seem to be coming ahead, from an environmental standpoint. Judging from what’s listed on the website, I’m not sure you can even buy a shop light with replaceable bulbs any longer, at Home Depot. Maybe, as with CFLs, there’s still some residual stock being sold off. But it’s clear that the standard cheap shop light of the future is a disposable item.
And, of course, this being the internet, you can find plenty of people who know, absolutely know with certainty, that the stated lifetimes of these fancy new bulbs are a fiction. And thus appear to know more than the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which I am pretty sure specifies exactly how bulbs must be tested in order to meet longevity standards in the U.S.
At some point, I just don’t have to care. I’m guessing I have about 20 light bulbs that are in daily use in my home. At (say) three hours a day, with an average between 10,000 and 25,000 hour life span, I’ll have to change them at a rate of about one light bulb a year.
Which appears to be a realistic estimate. Given that I can’t recall the last time I changed a bulb, prior to today.
Which also means that the three six-packs of LED bulbs sitting on the shelf, in my garage amount to about two decades’ supply of replacement bulbs. By contrast, if those were standard incandescents with a 750-hour rated life, I’d be replacing one a month, and that would be, at best, a year-and-a-half’s supply of bulbs.
So, given the environment I grew up in, I think I can be forgiven for over-buying LED bulbs. Turns out, what was once a bit more than a year’s supply of light bulbs is now, for me, a lifetime supply.
