LED bulbs - why not mandatory or subsidised

LED bulbs - why not mandatory or subsidised

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anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
We’ve changed all bulbs to LED and power consumption has dropped hugely.

As a rough estimate, if 10 bulbs are on this saves circa 500w x 20m houses in UK = 10GW of power saving.

Looking at https://gridwatch.co.uk/Renewables
This would be a 25% saving on the ‘as-now’ UK consumption of 40GW

Even if the calculation is out, surely even a 10% saving is worth grabbing with both hands, so:

What don’t Govt offer free exchange of bulbs for LED or at least subsidise to at-cost to get all housing onto 100% LED??

It’s a quick fix and a lot less painful than other green initiatives???

Dogwatch

6,222 posts

221 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
Yes they are streets ahead of those dreadful fluorescent things, however they aren't particularly cheap at the moment and one I bought before Christmas has already handed in its notice, so "x thousand hours use" sounds a bit hollow.

Interestingly before it expired it started doing the odd flicker just like its filament predecessors used to. Some things never change!

cml24

1,410 posts

146 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
I have had led bulbs in my last three homes.

When I moved into this house I was shocked to find the utility bill was twice the last place, despite this one being smaller.

I then worked out the kitchen light still used hallogen bulbs. Eight of them at 50w each and a 100w fitting. Because there is an extension it's gloomy in the kitchen so the light is left on all day. £30 a month just to run the kitchen light.

All now led bulbs. I've used them for about six years and never had one go wrong.

I also think this is a really low hanging fruit to grab. Improve the chances of not running out of electricity, environmental bonus points etc.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
5-10GW less would be a huge saving - I just don’t get why Govt don’t push for it

It would knacker electric suppliers profits? Are they bleating they would have to hike prices??

I don’t get it.


anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
Bonkers isn’t it
My mum had 5 x bulbs @ 50w each on what seemed like 16 hours a day. Also blew regularly..
I changed them to LEDs, 5w each, cost about £12
A year later, no probs. Better light too
Must have paid for themselves a few times

foxbody-87

2,675 posts

165 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
That's not including commercial properties either. We converted our depot floodlights and office lights to LED and worked out it would pay itself off within a year.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
The savings to the user are icing on the cake, it’s the National co2 output saving that’s staggering.

Seems the easiest win-win just waiting to be taken.

eltawater

3,107 posts

178 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
I think the savings are not likely to be as significant as you might think.

The huge push for people to move to energy saving fluorescent happened quite a few years back now and a lot of people will now be using variants of these rated at 8-11 watts. Then you add on the people who have switched to smart home systems with LED bulbs as part of the package.

The marketplace has already moved hugely in the direction of LED based lamps with fluorescent being phased out so the situation is already correcting itself.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
eltawater said:
I think the savings are not likely to be as significant as you might think.

The huge push for people to move to energy saving fluorescent happened quite a few years back now and a lot of people will now be using variants of these rated at 8-11 watts. Then you add on the people who have switched to smart home systems with LED bulbs as part of the package.

The marketplace has already moved hugely in the direction of LED based lamps with fluorescent being phased out so the situation is already correcting itself.
Very true but there’s plenty of people I know with halogen spots - you can still buy them - and even if the saving per house is 250W/hr it’s 5GW for the country which is the same as the entire output from wind power and ‘renewables’ both of which have had 100’s of millions put into them.

Amused2death

2,491 posts

195 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
Dogwatch said:
Yes they are streets ahead of those dreadful fluorescent things, however they aren't particularly cheap at the moment and one I bought before Christmas has already handed in its notice, so "x thousand hours use" sounds a bit hollow.

Interestingly before it expired it started doing the odd flicker just like its filament predecessors used to. Some things never change!
We bought ten of the cheapest LED G10 bulbs via Amazon last year for less than £15. Haven't had one blow as yet. Prior to that we'd lose roughly one 50watt halogen a month.

Catatafish

1,361 posts

144 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
The 'waste' heat from all types of bulb warms up my house though, so my central heating has to burn more fuel as I change to more efficient light sources.

swings and roundabouts

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
There’s a reason why LED’s aren’t being given away/subsidised to £1 each or something like that.

Surely Govt can’t be expecting just market forces to get the whole country to change over as they’re peddling every other possibility to save the planet and this is one which actually saves consumers money too.

Is it to do with power suppliers wanting their cake and eating it? It’s weird.



anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
The only thing would be if my figures are way out. Say Govt have been told the uptake on LED’s is already 90% so there’s not much left.

I bet the reality is less than 20% so far.

Glasgowrob

3,232 posts

120 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
would make a lot of sense tbh, minor in comparison to some of the draws on the grid, but little steps all add up.

would be the same with getting the nation to turn off unwanted lights,
one 15w led bulb left running 24/7 seemingly generates 48kg/year of co2 emissions

now multiply that by 20 million houses ........

ambuletz

10,690 posts

180 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
expensive to buy. and any cost saving as not been well advertised/calculated.

I still use regular bulbs or energy saving ones. I'd be more than happy to move to LED if they were cheaper/

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
ambuletz said:
expensive to buy. and any cost saving as not been well advertised/calculated.

I still use regular bulbs or energy saving ones. I'd be more than happy to move to LED if they were cheaper/
We’ve changed all ours at a cost of about £180 (bought large packs off eBay & Aldi) they were 6 and 7W - we’ve since upped four to 8W but the saving annually has been circa £80 so far (14 months) so I think the payback will be 2-3 years.

Bearing in mind we’re running the kitchen on 56W now instead of 560w it’s the equivalent of having less than one of the old halogens so we tend to leave the lights on more!

ambuletz

10,690 posts

180 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
try telling most people 'spend £100 to replace all your bulbs'. I get that it could save you money in the longrun..but who's really going to do that unless you have a high disposable income for something that many would consider frivielous.
lights are one of those things.. people will only replace once the current one dies.

anonymous-user

Original Poster:

53 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
ambuletz said:
try telling most people 'spend £100 to replace all your bulbs'. I get that it could save you money in the longrun..but who's really going to do that unless you have a high disposable income for something that many would consider frivielous.
lights are one of those things.. people will only replace once the current one dies.
Exactly - Govt raises awareness big time and introduces subsidies to encourage.

techguyone

3,137 posts

141 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
Looking at just standard light fittings, we would have had 12 * 60 W which equalled 720

moving to LED at 8 w makes it 96 now - which is good until the Mrs gets all the led side lamps etc to bring it all up biggrin

That's another 112w

Still I guess overall we're still quids in at 208w instead of 720w plus we didn't have any of those crazy halogen lights in this place.

We are probably at the lower end of the scale though.

ATG

20,485 posts

271 months

Saturday 18th January 2020
quotequote all
Maybe someday we'll be generating loads of cheap, green electricity and then we can have a bonanza of simple electrical heating and we can use whatever type of bulb we find most aesthetically pleasing. In the meantime it's hard to argue we shouldn't be using LED lamps. It's unfortunate that they tend to produce rather harsh light and that, entirely understandably, they don't work too well as direct replacements for incandescent bulbs in systems that were designed for incandescent bulbs ... e.g. with 240VAC dimmer switches, fittings that are designed for a lamp that throws an equal amount of light in all directions. What we really need is standardised wiring, switching and fittings designed specifically to take advantage of LEDs, but those don't really seem to have matured to any degree yet.