As I have mentioned in an earlier blog, LED lighting is really a big deal. The below chart shows my electricity usage for the past three years. I have been diligent in my purchase of LED bulbs, waiting patiently for the price to fall to $5.00 per bulb. Thanks to Xcel, they made that possible. I was able to average the cost of all of my bulbs to slightly above that price and have a payback of less than 12 months. Now, the LED bulbs are less than $5.00 per bulb and your payback will be less than mine.
Look at the change in my electricity bill. As you can see, there are roughly three drops in power consumption. In 2013, the kilowatt-hours consumed were 1,300 kWh (I only bought bulbs for the heaviest used spaces). The second round of LED purchases (outdoor lighting), dropped the power consumption to roughly 1,000 kWh. After I purchased the third set of bulbs (the basement and rest of the house), my electricity consumption dropped to an average of 700 kWh. Those are savings that everyone should be interested in. Not only is there a kilowatt-hour savings, there is a CO2 emissions reduction. Your carbon footprint should drop appreciably.
The electricity savings and the lower carbon footprint per household could significantly reduce the number of coal-fired power plants. As I calculated in an earlier blog, we could retire 87, 667 megawatt coal-fired plants, if everyone were to switch to LEDs. That would make a vary real dent in US and global emissions, without the need for more, new power plants.
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