Bob CollinsMore investigation of what it costs to preserve my freedom to choose incandescent light bulbs.
A spreadsheet prepared by Productdose.com compares the costs of burning three different kinds of bulbs: the CFL, the incandescent, and the LED. You can download it here and plug in your own electric bills, kilowatt rate, and type of bulbs in your home.
Let’s give it a try.
The average home is said to use 1,500 kwh per month. We’ll cut it to 1,000 per month at about 11 cents per kilowatt hour, for a total of about $110 a month.
Here are the numbers, based on 20 light bulbs in the home and an estimated daily usage of an hour.
| Incandescent | CFL | LED | |
| Life span (hours) | 1,500 | 10,000 | 60,000 |
| Watts | 60 | 14 | 6 |
| KWh over 60k hours | 3,600 | 840 | 360 |
| Electricity cost | $396 | $92.40 | $39.60 |
| Bulbs needed for 60,000 hours | 40 | 6 | 1 |
| Equivalent 60k bulb expense | $53.80 | $17.88 | $54.95 |
| Total 60,000 lighting spending | $449.80 | $110.28 | $94.55 |
| ENERGY SAVINGS | |||
| Household cost | $8,996 | $2,205.60 | $1,891 |
| Savings over incandescent | 0 | $6,790.40 | $7,105 |
| MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD ENERGY SAVINGS | |||
| KWh used per month | 36 | 8 | 4 |
| Electricity cost (11 cents kwh) | $3.96 | $.92 | $.40 |
| Savings by switching | 0 | $3.04 | $3.56 |
| YEARLY HOUSEHOLD ENERGY SAVINGS | |||
| KWh per year | 438 | 102 | 44 |
| Electricity cost (11 cents kwh) | $48.18 | $11.24 | $4.82 |
| Savings by switching | $0 | $36.94 | $43.36 |
At $36.94 yearly savings, I could pay off the new gas tax on 738 gallons of gasoline. I fill up about every 8 days with 12 gallons of gas (Chevy Cavalier). So I use about 550 gallons of gasoline in a year. I could pay the tax on the gas and still have $9.40 left over to put toward the increased excise tax.
