Thank you @mel_mclaren for this month’s burning question! They asked: “I have CFL bulbs right now, are LED’s better and if so, by how much?”
The quick answer: yes, LED light bulbs are better than CFL light bulbs. LED bulbs are more energy efficient, have a longer life, and cost less to operate.
When comparing CFL bulbs to the LED bulbs, it is important to understand the two major pain points of CFL light bulbs. CFL light bulbs have a slow warm up time and have difficult disposal requirements. That is, CFL light bulbs must be recycled at specific drop-off centers. CFL bulbs are 30% more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs while LED bulbs are 75% more efficient than traditional incandescent light bulbs.
So how much better are LED bulbs compared to CFL bulbs when it comes does to energy consumption, price, and life? CFL bulbs take 13W on average to operate while LED bulbs take about 9W on average to operate. To operate one CFL light bulb, it will run you $1.57/ year compared to LED bulbs that cost $1.08/ year. Finally, your biggest savings may come from how often you have to replace your lightbulbs. CFL bulbs have an average life of 6-10 years while LED bulbs can last up to 20 years!
Light bulb savings are important. According to ENERGY STAR, if every American home replaced their five most frequently used light fixtures or the bulbs in them with LED bulbs, we would save energy to light 33 million homes for a year, save $5 billion each year in energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gasses equivalent to the emissions from nearly 6 million cars.
