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pixel_of_moral_decay t1_j55zlxx wrote

Reply to comment by bodhipooh in Do you think a $200 electric bill for a 2 bedroom is too much? by TechnologyPale329

Unless you’ve extensive light usage lighting is a rounding error on most home electric bills.

Even a few 60W incandescents are dwarfed by a simple 1500W space heater running at the same time. AC and electric heat dwarf even them.

I totally recommend LED’s, but let’s not oversell it. Unless your lighting Times Square, odds are you’re saving < $10 a month if you do the math. The bigger savings is actually the longevity and not replacing them as often.

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halocene_epic t1_j564p07 wrote

Lighting load is dwarfed by the washer and dryers too. 240V motor and thermal load.

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pixel_of_moral_decay t1_j569akk wrote

Yup. Though those run for pretty short periods in many households (I guess depends on occupants and habits of course).

But complaining about lights goes back to the 1940’s when lights and refrigerator was 90% of the power bill. That’s just not the case anymore.

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bodhipooh t1_j56xexg wrote

You always bring up that point, which ignores all the heat those incandescent lights give off. So, on a hot summer day, you are running MORE a/c to undo the added heat all those bulbs add to the ambient air. The math of comparing the usage of 14W bulbs to 60W bulbs yields an incomplete and erroneous take if you don't account for all the other energy being spent.

I can tell you, without any sort of doubt, that I was saving a good chunk of money after switching all bulbs to LEDs. Enough that the cost of replacing bulbs (before LEDs became as cheap as they are today) was recouped within two or three months. And, those same bulbs are still going strong today, which is another upside. Heck, some newer bulbs I bought recently may quite literally outlive me.

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pixel_of_moral_decay t1_j56ydpd wrote

Even if it were 0% efficiency 60W is 60W of heat. That’s negligible. A fresh cup of coffee on your desk is heating the room up more.

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bodhipooh t1_j575cq0 wrote

You are really missing the math on this one. It is 60 W spent to power the bulb, with about 95% of that radiated as heat. You combine that several times over for the amount of bulbs turned on at any given time, and then you have to remove that heat from the ambient temperature by using MORE energy to power the AC. In essence, it is x2 for whatever bulb wattage. In new construction luxury buildings, where recessed lighting are common, and multiples of those, you could be looking at 6 - 10 bulbs turned on at once.

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