Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Why Energy Efficient Light Bulbs Put Dollars In Your Pocket

By Justin Luyt

One of the most difficult deliberations when you decide to install energy efficient light bulbs in your home is cost. Since each energy saving light bulb will cost you around $5 each, it is smart to stop for a moment and ask yourself what your Return On Revenue (ROI) will be.

I came across a very smart tool to help you decide if installing energy efficient light bulbs in your home is financially viable for you. This calculator I found over at the GE Lightning site and it is called the Smart-CFL Savings Calculator. It is reasonably based on 4-hours of bulb usage @ 10c/kWh.

By simply swapping out 4 100-Watt standard light bulbs with 4 x 26-Watt energy saving light bulbs, it is calculated that indeed over 1 year you will be saving $42.22. The reason I used 4 x 100-Watt bulbs as an example is only because that is how many we have in our bedroom.

I took stock of how many 100 and 60-Watt bulbs I have in my home. 25 x 60-Watt bulbs and 40 x 100-Watt bulbs. Based on the GE Calculator (and my own), replacing all of them with energy efficient light bulbs will cost me $325, considering one bulb runs about $5 each. Most interestingly the yearly electricity cost saving will be $625 per year.

To calculate your ROI for installing energy saving light bulbs, let's look at how to calculate it: ROI= [(Payback - Investment)/Investment)]*100 [(625-325) / 625)] * 100 48%

After doing the calculations it became clear to me that upgrading to energy saving light bulbs will be a financially smart move. In our first year we will see a ROI of 48% - not bad indeed.

If you think that the the average home has between 50-100 bulbs and that changing one 100-Watt bulb to an energy saving light bulb will save you around $10/year, it quickly becomes clear how this will be one of the best investments you can make for your family.

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1 comment:

Unknown said...

We rush into electrical shops to purchase light bulbs all the time without any research on bulbs.It is the reason why we save money by buying efficient light bulbs.