Cut your electrical use for lighting by over 80%

So many people are looking for ways to save energy, both in terms of money and environmental impact.

Here is a quick and cheap way to cut the electricity you use for most of your household lights by over 80%
 

Step 1: Identify locations

Any light in your house that has base on the ceiling like the one pictured, or another edison base (screw in bulbs), can be converted.

Step 2: Install the Socket Adapter

 Screw one of these into the socket. 

Most hardware type stores will have them. We bought one from Rona Cashway for $6.76

Step 3: LED Christmas Lights

Plug the string of LED Christmas Lights into the adapter.

You can use any size of string, the one we used was a 4 watt multi-colored one. We are going to be picking up some of the 2 watt white ones though.

Arrange the string of lights around the base how you want, perhaps in a star pattern or spiral. 

Step 4: CFL Bulb

Screw the CFL  Bulb into the socket. 

Again, the size is up to you, we are using 13 watt ones ourselves. 

Step 5: Enough light to read a book!

 Now, when you turn the light switch on as normal, only the LED lights will come on.

This gives you enough light to see as you are moving around and such....

In our first conversion (our bathroom), you can read a book while sitting on the toilet with just the LED's going.

If you need more light....

Step 6: When you really need to see...

All you do is pull the switch chain on the socket adapter and the CFL comes on.

When you are finished, pull the chain to turn it back off, and then the light switch as you leave the room.

 

Step 7: All thats left is to save money!!!

 In our example of our bathroom this is how we figured it.

A person uses the bathroom an average of two hours a day. At least 75% of that time, they don't need a lot of light for what they are doing.

So, in our home of two people, figuring 2 hours per person per day, 30 days a month, 365 days a year, with electricity at $0.15/kWh, this is what the different options work out to.

100W Incandescent = 12kWh or $1.80/month, 146kWh or $21.90/year
23W CFL = 2.76kWh or $0.42/month, 38.58kWh or $5.04/year
4W LED/13W CFL (75/25)  = 0.75kWh or $0.11/month, 14.24kWh or $1.37

Comments

[mole1]

Interesting! I like not having to turn the CFL on and off all the time. Just a thought - even a little light can go surprisingly 'farther' in a white space. Our garage was a dark hole until painted white. The difference in visibility was amazing. Some white paint might be worth it.

[JeremyA]

Next someone will be complaining about the benefits of frosted glass bulbs over standard christmas lights. :) very nice idea. I often times shower in the dark because I don't really need the light for anything. ( I am also usually waking up and don't want alot of light) This is a great Idea

[Darrone]

Assuming you have a CFL, how many years of savings would it take to make the "upgrade" to LED christmas lighting worth it?  

[ChronicTom]

 Just thought I would add...

If you were going from a 100W incandescent to this set up, buying everything, it would breakdown like this.

13W CFL =  $2.00 to $5.00  (we'll use $3)
4W LED  =   $5.00 to $9.00 (we'll use $7)
Adapter  =  $5.00 to $9.00 (we'll use $7)
total = $17.00

Saved per year over the 100W incandescent = $20.53 per year, so just under 10 months...

[coretj]

 I think it would benefit you greatly to shop around more.

-The market down the street sells the 13W CFL bulbs for $0.25 a piece.

-I've never seen those adapters cost more than $2.00 ( I use them for Halloween/Christmas decorations)

-You can LED lights REALLY cheap during an after Christmas sell

[ChronicTom]

I think it would benefit you to realize that if I put the absolute lowest prices I could find for these things, I would be constantly being told by people that they couldn't find them at those prices...

You saying this, just proves that you can't satisfy everyone.

[ChronicTom]

 That would depend on what you paid for the adapter and the LED lights.

If you are just adding the adapter and LED and keeping whatever CFL you have, figure out what it would cost to run the it for the year, multiply that by .25 and add in the what it would cost to run the LED string for the other 75% of the time.

For us, we went from the 23W CFL to the 4W LED/13W CFL, which saves $3.67 per year. So figure the $6.76 for the adapter and the $8.00 (a guess) we paid for the LED lights at christmas it would be slightly over 4 years.

There is more to consider then just that though.

A CFL has around 10,000 hours of life (by rating), however, if they are cycled on and off within a few minutes , in the case of a 5 minute on/off cycle the lifespan can be reduced by as much as 85%. 

So, any place you set this up, the quick on off cycles are going to be handled by the LED's saving that wear on the CFL., as well as the fact that you will only be using the CFL for 1/4 of the time, means it should last its full rated life, which is spread out over 4 times longer

.