Posted by Gary Hubbard
on 07/15/2010
LED lights are here and they are here to stay. The efficacy of the products has got to the point where they have surpassed all of the existing technologies in many applications. Outdoor lights, cold storage facilities and refrigerated cases are ideal uses for LED (LED’s unlike other light sources produce more light and last longer in a cold environment). In these areas well designed LED light fixtures provide a more even distribution of light with far less power consumption than any other lighting technology.
Then why are we not seeing wholesale changes to the current lighting? The answer is cost. Most customers are afraid of the larger upfront cost for this new more efficient product. The LED products are three sometimes up to ten times more expensive than other products on the market. But are they really more expensive?
Let’s say you are lighting the flag in front of your building. Why would you spend four hundred dollars for an LED fixture when you could spend forty on an incandescent? Both would have the same installation costs.Let’s do the math and compare
500 watt halogen fixture cost $40.00 (Annual operating cost 4380 hrs @ .12 per kWh = $262.80)
30 watt LED cost $400.00 (Annual operating cost 4380 hrs @ .12 per kWh $15.77)
Ten year costs for the forty dollar fixture are $2668.00, compared to the costs of the four hundred dollar fixture, which are $557.70
The expected useful life of the halogen is about 2000 hours and the LED is about 70000 hours. Over a ten year period you will have to change the halogen lamp 20 times and the LED not at all. That makes the total cost of the cheaper halogen product over 5 times more expensive than the LED without even taking into consideration the time involved in changing bulbs. In fact, the product that cost ten times more had paid for itself in energy savings alone in less than two years. .
The other comment that I often hear is that “the price of the LED’s will come down.” I agree, as with any new technology the initial price is always much higher - look at how expensive DVD players where when they arrived on the market! However if you buy a new LED fixture now it will be free in five years. How is that possible? Let’s compare parking lot lighting.
Currently an LED fixture is 3 times the cost of an HID fixture. However, the LED is over 4 times more efficient. Installation costs would be the same.
250 watt HID $300 fixture $155.00 annual operating cost $1075.00 5 year cost
66 watt LED $900 fixture $35.00 annual operating cost $1075.00 5 year cost
At the end of five years the LED light has paid for itself in energy savings and the HID light source will have outlived its useful life and will need to be replaced. Because of the per year energy savings of the LED its overall cost has been reduced by 20% per year. In just five years, the cost of the product is $0 and it will continue to perform and provide energy savings for at least another fifteen years. Who knows what lighting products will be available at end of the LED’s 20 years of operation; my guess is they will be totally different than they are now. Remember 20 years ago we thought VHS was the best way to record television shows? Now we have gone past DVD’s to DVR’s to internet steaming of content. The energy saving technologies in lighting will continue to improve, but the LED’s time has arrived.
