California Center for Sustainable Energy

New lighting standards boost energy efficiency

Although still expensive compared to incandescent lighting, light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, have come a long way since their widespread introduction as digital clock lights and energy-saving Christmas lighting. Today, LEDs are rapidly approaching price parity with compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) to become the lighting of choice for energy efficiency in many commercial and residential settings, according to Anne Thorson, owner of EnvironmentalLights.com, a web-based LED retailer.

Thorson presented a workshop on LEDs in residential lighting at CCSE in September. Her company is looking to help propel LEDs further into the mainstream as California and the federal government move toward phasing out incandescent lighting for more energy-efficient lighting. You’ve probably seen the change already when buying light bulbs at your local hardware store – fewer and lower wattage incandescent bulbs and more CFLs and LEDs. California started following the new standards in January 2011; the nation will in January 2012.

New Lighting Standards

The lighting standards require that a 100-watt bulb use 28 percent less energy, meaning a 100-watt bulb may not use more than 72 watts. The new 72-watt replacement bulb must provide the same amount of light (i.e. lumens), use less power and cost less to operate. By 2020, the standard requires roughly 200 percent greater efficiency for light bulbs. The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, says that the average American family’s energy costs will be reduced by 7 percent, or by $100-$200 a year, when the new light bulb standards are fully in place.

The phase-out of incandescent light bulbs is supported by the Alliance to Save Energy, a coalition of light bulb manufacturers, electric utilities and conservation groups. The group estimates that lighting accounts for 22% of total U.S. electricity usage and that eliminating incandescent bulbs completely would save $18 billion per year (equivalent to the output of 80 coal-fired power plants).

In support of energy-efficient lighting, the Department of Energy states that if every home in America were to replace just one incandescent bulb with a bulb that has earned the ENERGY STAR label, we would save enough energy to light three million homes for a year and about $600 million in annual energy costs. This would prevent nine billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to those from about 800,000 cars.

What about the Cost?

It is natural to experience a bit of sticker shock when you compare a $0.40 incandescent bulb to an equivalent LED bulb costing more than $30. However, you are not considering the lifetime of the bulb. As Thorson says, “the biggest cost of lighting is the energy consumed, not the price of the bulb.”

A standard 60-watt incandescent bulb is projected to last 1,200 hours, whereas an equivalent 6-watt LED may last up to 50,000 hours, while using 75-90% less energy and providing the same amount of lighting. While the cost of electricity varies greatly, assuming a cost of $0.20 per kilowatt/hour, an LED costing $36 and lasting 50,000 hours, would use 300 kilowatt/hours of electricity ($60) for a total cost of $96 over 50,000 hours (5.7 years). The 42 incandescent bulbs needed to last 50,000 hours would cost more than $600 (nearly 10 times the energy used by LEDs).

On the Horizon

Light bulbs will soon have new labeling similar to the nutrition facts on food packages. In addition to brightness and annual energy costs, the lighting facts label will report the bulb’s lifespan, its appearance (warm or cool), mercury content and a link to disposal instructions. One important difference is the brightness of energy-efficient lighting is defined not by watts but by lumens, which measure how much light is emitted by a bulb. A 60-watt incandescent bulb generates about 800 lumens.

In the future, as manufacturers invest more money into research and development, LED quality should increase while costs decrease. Philips Electronics is spending 90 percent of its R&D budget on LEDs and projects retail prices falling to around $10 per bulb in the next three years. Home Depot, the largest light bulb retailer in the United States with nearly a third of all such sales, expects LED bulbs to go from 1 percent of the market to 25 percent by 2014.

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