But How Much Will I Save By Switching To Led Light Bulbs?Part 1
For the forward-thinking business owner, switching to LED light bulbs is a pretty obvious choice. LED light bulbs are not only more environmentally friendly than normal bulbs, but they last for vastly longer and use up much less electricity. It would not be uncommon to break even on an LED light bulb simply by comparing the cost of purchasing all the bulbs you will need to generate as many hours of light as a single LED light. If you have hundreds or thousands of lights, you can add in the cost of labor for changing them all out every few months and wind up with a respectable total saving...if you are willing to wait the seventeen years or so that it will take for the bulb to finally die.
Fortunately, getting ROI on your LED light bulbs does not require relying on the savings of replacement and labor costs. The real savings are in energy. But what will you save by switching to LED light bulbs? Well, that's what this article is going to teach you how to calculate.
So to start fresh, let's make the (admittedly unrealistic) assumption that all of your lights just died. Well, the first variable in our calculation is the number of lights to be replaced. For the equation, we'll call that (get ready for a high school algebra flashback), n. For our example, let's go with a nice round number of 100 bulbs.
Up next, we need the cost of both the normal and the LED light bulbs. And here's the reason why switching to LED light bulbs requires explanatory articles rather than being the immediately obvious choice. We'll use cb to represent the cost of a standard bulb, and cl to represent the cost of an LED light bulb. For the sake of example, cb will be equal to $1.00; cl will be equal to $50.00. So to calculate our initial investment (ib and il), we use n * cb = ib and n * cl = il, for a total of $100 for normal bulbs, but a whopping $5,000 for LED light bulbs. For now, the cost of labor to change all the bulbs is equal for both, and will not enter into the equation.
So at this stage our total savings (s) amount to $-4,900. Not so good. But we went into this knowing that the initial investment for the LED bulbs would be much higher than for the normal bulbs. Now let's take a look at some of the other factors we'll be considering.
First is the lifespan of the bulb (lb and ll), measured in hours. For our example, we'll go with lb = 1,000 and ll = 50,000; round numbers that also illustrate the point made above, that simply the cost of replacing the bulbs can, over time, actually wind up equalling the initial cost of the bulb. At this point, the actual savings hits 0, but we have to wait for 50,000 hours of light bulb use to get there. We can do better.
That does, however, lead to another question. Even if energy costs were the same, how long would it take to recoup the cost? This depends on the time you are running your lights. We'll call this variable t, measured in hours per week. So, how long do you have your lights running? For our example, let's use a modest 40 hours per week; the classic 9-5 five days a week. Many businesses will of course have different, and often longer durations. Make it a point to plug in a mighty 168 if you keep the lights on 24/7. Chances are that with additional shifts, weekend work, opening and closing time, many businesses will wind up closer to 80, so we'll intentionally give the LED light bulbs a disadvantage here. Overall, t doesn't really have an effect on your total savings; since energy cost is measured in energy used per hour, and the bulbs have a set lifespan, by the end of the LED light bulb's life, you'll have saved the same amount of money. A higher value for t, however, means you will be getting a faster ROI.
Next we need the wattage of the bulbs, or how much energy they use, set as variable wb and wl. Normal bulbs use much more energy than LED light bulbs, so we'll go with wb equal to 60 watts, and the LED bulb at 6 watts.
Finally, there's the cost of electricity, or e, measured in kilowatt hours. In other words, the cost to keep 1,000 watts of energy running for one hour. Where I'm located, that cost is $0.14, so we'll go with that for the example.
Well, that's a fairly sufficient setup. Those of you who have a head for math and/or a good calculator nearby can easily plug these numbers in to see the total savings, and switch around your own numbers. For those who despise math, continue on to part two of this article.
Fortunately, getting ROI on your LED light bulbs does not require relying on the savings of replacement and labor costs. The real savings are in energy. But what will you save by switching to LED light bulbs? Well, that's what this article is going to teach you how to calculate.
So to start fresh, let's make the (admittedly unrealistic) assumption that all of your lights just died. Well, the first variable in our calculation is the number of lights to be replaced. For the equation, we'll call that (get ready for a high school algebra flashback), n. For our example, let's go with a nice round number of 100 bulbs.
Up next, we need the cost of both the normal and the LED light bulbs. And here's the reason why switching to LED light bulbs requires explanatory articles rather than being the immediately obvious choice. We'll use cb to represent the cost of a standard bulb, and cl to represent the cost of an LED light bulb. For the sake of example, cb will be equal to $1.00; cl will be equal to $50.00. So to calculate our initial investment (ib and il), we use n * cb = ib and n * cl = il, for a total of $100 for normal bulbs, but a whopping $5,000 for LED light bulbs. For now, the cost of labor to change all the bulbs is equal for both, and will not enter into the equation.
So at this stage our total savings (s) amount to $-4,900. Not so good. But we went into this knowing that the initial investment for the LED bulbs would be much higher than for the normal bulbs. Now let's take a look at some of the other factors we'll be considering.
First is the lifespan of the bulb (lb and ll), measured in hours. For our example, we'll go with lb = 1,000 and ll = 50,000; round numbers that also illustrate the point made above, that simply the cost of replacing the bulbs can, over time, actually wind up equalling the initial cost of the bulb. At this point, the actual savings hits 0, but we have to wait for 50,000 hours of light bulb use to get there. We can do better.
That does, however, lead to another question. Even if energy costs were the same, how long would it take to recoup the cost? This depends on the time you are running your lights. We'll call this variable t, measured in hours per week. So, how long do you have your lights running? For our example, let's use a modest 40 hours per week; the classic 9-5 five days a week. Many businesses will of course have different, and often longer durations. Make it a point to plug in a mighty 168 if you keep the lights on 24/7. Chances are that with additional shifts, weekend work, opening and closing time, many businesses will wind up closer to 80, so we'll intentionally give the LED light bulbs a disadvantage here. Overall, t doesn't really have an effect on your total savings; since energy cost is measured in energy used per hour, and the bulbs have a set lifespan, by the end of the LED light bulb's life, you'll have saved the same amount of money. A higher value for t, however, means you will be getting a faster ROI.
Next we need the wattage of the bulbs, or how much energy they use, set as variable wb and wl. Normal bulbs use much more energy than LED light bulbs, so we'll go with wb equal to 60 watts, and the LED bulb at 6 watts.
Finally, there's the cost of electricity, or e, measured in kilowatt hours. In other words, the cost to keep 1,000 watts of energy running for one hour. Where I'm located, that cost is $0.14, so we'll go with that for the example.
Well, that's a fairly sufficient setup. Those of you who have a head for math and/or a good calculator nearby can easily plug these numbers in to see the total savings, and switch around your own numbers. For those who despise math, continue on to part two of this article.