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LED Light Bulbs

(Image - Watts required for different types of light bulbs to get equivalent brightness - see text for detail)

Switching to LED light bulbs in your house reduces your carbon footprint and saves you money.Typically LED light bulbs use a lot less electricity than ordinary light bulbs (saving £2 - £7 per bulb per year) and last a lot longer (at least 5 times longer).Switching to LED lights in your house could reduce your carbon footprint per year by 63kg and if we all swapped, we would save 1.7 million tonnes annually.

Practically all bulbs are now available as LEDs including fancy ones with mock filaments. The table above (from The Lightbulb Company) shows you how to buy the right brightness using lumens.

For example to get an equivalent brightness to a:

  • 25W standard light bulb buy a 4W LED
  • 40W standard light bulb buy a 6W LED
  • 60W standard light bulb buy a 10W LED
  • 75W standard light bulb buy a 13W LED
  • 100W standard light bulb buy a 18W LED

What you can do

  • When you need to buy a new light bulb make sure you choose an LED
  • LED bulbs come in different shades of white so choose warm or soft white for living areas and natural white for working areas
  • Check the lights you use most frequently and consider switching those to LEDs

Sources of Information

3rd March 2021