As a recent project I decided to replace all the lightbulbs in our house with LEDs. I was inspired by Mr. Money Moustache’s article about cutting your electrical bill by 80% even though most of the things he listed were things we simply can’t do in our house or are already trying to do. Something we didn’t have and could definitely change was LED bulbs.

For this project, I first researched a little about LED bulbs. They are all sold with good clear labels as to which wattage they are meant to replace, and most have a good guide for the type of light they produce. Not only are they labeled as “natural daylight” or “soft light,” they also have a chart on the back that gives you where they place in a range of Kelvins, from warm to cool and a value of “lumens” for brightness levels.

Furthermore, they all have a calculation of how much each bulb costs per year. Most of these calculations are based on the household, cost of electricity, etc. so I will leave it up to you to see how much you spend. But let’s just take a look at the basic fact that each LED uses between 8.5 and 9.5 W instead of their 60W counterparts. Even though each lightbulb may cost between $6.25 and $14.00 (for the more specialized sizes) the amount of money and energy they save on the long run is worth it.

After researching, I counted how many I needed. We have 18 regular 60W E26 base bulbs, five 60W bulbs with small bases, two 40W small base bulbs, and 4 specialized bathroom ones. That’s 29 bulbs! And our house is relatively small. Makes you think about how much electricity we use… I went to trusty Lowes and bought 30 bulbs, one extra in case I needed it. At my Lowes, they sold each bulb individually so there was no mass purchase savings. I spent $273.50 on our 30 bulbs. Seems shocking until you consider that each bulb will last 22+ years, and spend 50 times less electricity.

When I got home, I dumped out my gazillion bulbs and got to work. I found that LED bulbs are heavier, interestingly. I also noticed that there is a half a second of delay between turning on the light and having the bulb actually light. I guess this may be an LED thing, it’s not annoying but just something I noticed. Finally, as in all lights, there is a big difference between “natural daylight” and “soft light.” The natural daylight is a 5,000 on the Kelvin scale whereas the soft light is 2,700 K. They are both 800 lumens. Just another thing to consider when replacing the usual bulbs with LEDs.

Hope this helps if you are considering making a change to LEDs. Since we’ve just done it, I have no numbers yet for the difference in my electrical bill but I’m certain it will have been a good investment.