How much can you save?
Reduced electricity use and longer life – energy efficient bulbs score on both counts to give you worthwhile savings.
Lower running costs
Traditional incandescent bulbs waste 95% of their energy creating heat. Today’s energy efficient bulbs use energy much more productively so they can give you the same light for a lot less watts.
For example, you could replace a 100 watt incandescent bulb with a Compact Fluorescent (CFL) bulb using just 20 watts and not notice any difference to the light output.
What you would notice is the saving. That 20W CFL could save you over $14 in the first year – even taking into account the higher purchase price. Multiply that by all the bulbs you could switch in your home and you’d have a pretty decent saving.
To put it another way – your payback is double the money you invested in the bulb (and that’s just in year one).
| Standard 100W Incandescent | Equivalent CFL (20W) | Savings | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchase1 | $1.29 | $7.00 | |
| Annual running cost 2 | $25.15 | $5.03 | |
| FIRST YEAR | $26.44 | $12.03 | $14.41 |
| Bulb Life 3 | 1000 hours | 6000 hours | |
| Running cost over 6000 hours | $137.82 | $27.56 | |
| Purchases over 6000 hours | $7.74 | $7 | |
|
OVER THE ENERGY EFFICIENT BULB’S LIFETIME |
$145.56 | $34.56 |
$111.00 per bulb ($20.18 a year) |
1: Recommended retail price
2: Based on three hours operation per day at 22.97c / kWh. (MED Energy Data File 2008)
3: 6000 hours is the minimum rated lifespan of a quality CFL. Some are rated up to 15,000 hours (EECA)
Longer life
The story gets even better. That CFL bulb should also last at least six times longer (possibly considerably more). So by the time it eventually dies, around 5½ years later, it will have saved you five replacements on top of the original - not to mention all the hassles of getting up on a chair or ladder to fit them each time.
Over that period you could save a total of $111, taking the annual saving to over $20 per bulb.