Go Green Tips: Replace Energy-saving/Conventional Bulbs with LED Bulbs/Tubes

 
There are many types of lighting bulbs/tubes in our home. Incandescent bulb, compact flourescent bulbs, LED bulbs, flourescent tubes, LED tubes etc.


Incandescent bulb produces light by the way of heating up a thin filament in the bulb until it glows, to produce the light. In some countries, these types of bulb have be banned.



Flourescent light bulb are more efficient and emit a quarter of heat compare to incandescent bulb.


LED is made of electronics, are most efficient & last much longer than incandescent or flourescent bulb. LED bulb, being the latest type of energy efficient bulb, are also the most expensive. But the price is dropping as more and more people are switching to LED bulbs.


A few years back, I changed all my Incandescent bulbs to energy efficient bulbs and my ordinary flourescent tubes to brighter energy efficient tubes. By using less wattage (power) for the same amount of brightness, I have made some savings every month.

Recently, I started changing my flourescent bulbs and flourescent tubes to LED bulbs & tubes. I changed these one at a time as LED tubes are quite expensive. RM150 for branded ones and RM70 for quality but non-branded ones. RM22-40 for different wattage Philips LED bulbs.

I started by changing the bulbs/tubes that is on for the longest hours per day, e.g. my porch light and my back lane light which I on for 12 hours from 7pm to 7am. Next are my living room light which I on around 6 hours a day and so on.


The LED bulbs are direct fit for those using Edison screw (E27) type.



If your socket is the bayonet type, you can get a bayonet-to-screw converter.



A 4 foot flourescent tube consume 36W of electricity. The same brightness LED tube consume 20W of electricity. I bought the frosted ones as the clear ones can be very glaring.

Just remove the old tube & fit in the LED tube into the existing flourescent casing. Remember to remove the starter. LED tube does not need a starter to work. An added benefit is these bulbs/tubes can be switch on instantly. No waiting for it to flicker before turning on.

LED tube also does not require a ballast. To save even more on electricity, you can bypass the ballast (if you are keen to continue using the existing fitting). Please have an electrician to do this for you. Or you can get a new LED tube casing that does not have ballast inside.

A 100W incandescent bulb consumes 100W of electricity. The same brightness LED bulb will only consume 10-15W of electricity. Imagine the savings while we do our part to be more environment friendly.

My house composition:
I live with 3 housemates, all working adults.
No air-conditioning unit as these consume quite a bit electricity.
Multiple ceiling fans.
One unit of hot shower.
One 2-door fridge.
Ironing clothes, once a week.
No washing machine.
No big screen TV or Hi-Fi.
3 laptops, tablets, smartphones etc.. these consume quite low energy.

Since I changed to LED bulbs/tubes, my electricity consumption has drop by half. From RM110 drop to RM85, then to RM65. Most recent, it was RM49. My investment in bulbs/tubes was around RM300. I think I can recover my investment in 6-12 months. Anything beyond that will be my savings.

Just doing my part to Go Green while saving money :D