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Even with incandescents, lighting shouldnt be half the electric bill.
Depends, if you have gas heat, gas hot water heater, gas stove and gas dryer it could be half. The only major things I have for electric is the fridge, coffee pot and computers
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I mentioned my chest refrigerator, cause that truly was amazing in how much it saved an already pretty frugal guy living alone.
You mentioned you had old fridge, even buying new fridge would of resulted in pretty good savings. If you want to be frugral you need to pay attention to the little stuff becsue if you are doing that with everything it adds up.
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LOL And nobody really convinces me of need of a machine where you first have to hand wash the dishes then put them in the machine to rewash them second time. Cause otherwise it cant get them clean....
I had dishwasher my entire life up until about 4 years ago, had I known it was going to 4 years at same house I would of purchased one. It's actually sitting in the box right now beckoning me to install it. I may have to make love to it after I install it.
Never had any trouble getting dishes clean, if they are sitting in the dishwasher for while that may be an issue. Even rinsing them off quickly most people will use less water.
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So average household, including multi human households, even if they sat in the dark every evening and used flashlights to make their way around the house, would only save 6% on average.
There is more to this than just your usage, less demand requires less infrastructure and capacity. That will be reflected in your bill as time goes on and there is other benefits like environmental ones. If you can accomplish the same thing with less why not do it.
A 60 watt lightbulb that is on 6 hours a day is going to cost you about $16 per year @12 cents per kWh. An LED might cost you $2.50. It may only be $50 to $100 for a household but it's billions in savings for the entire country.
If you live in Houston's oppressive climate, then use LEDs to your hearts content and crank up the thermostat to 80° F. You'll be saving the planet.
And that's exactly what we do. we also use ceiling fans. We have cut our electricity use 25%. This past summer when the heat was bad, our provider asked that we cut use in the daytime by not using the washer, dryer and dishwasher, we cut an additional 10%.
Like many things, the technological effectiveness of new and old varies, and I'm generally not a fan of functional obsolescence, even less so when it's a mandate (ethanol is another example), and especially when a technology still has so many bugs to be worked out.
I like the LEDs better than the compact fluorescents. Those were the absolute worst updated technology with disastrous environmental consequences, bad aesthetics, and I didn't notice any drop at all in my energy consumption with them.
LEDs are excellent for some applications. For instance, if you have to get gas at night, they're great for lighting the parking areas so there aren't really bright spots and dark spots from the glare of high pressure sodium flood lights. I despise seeing LEDs in the newer headlights though because they create a dangerous blinding glare for oncoming traffic. The earlier generation of LED lights also give off blue light so that could interfere with sleeping in denser urban areas.
And I still like the traditional bulbs for some applications, such as house lamps, for the softer light.
Those were the absolute worst updated technology with disastrous environmental consequences,
The amount mercury not emitted because of energy savings more than offset the amount in the bulbs and that would assume all of them were broken. The majority of them go to landfill or are recycled. The bigger hazard is inside you home if you break one, mercury evaporates and will form a vapor which would be inhaled if you don't clean it up properly and quickly. .
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I despise seeing LEDs in the newer headlights
I don't like them either, I had guy falling me yesterday over hilly section of road and it was almost like he was blinking the high beams as they hit the rearview mirror at right angle.
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And I still like the traditional bulbs for some applications, such as house lamps, for the softer light.
You need to look at the color they produce, they make ones that give same light as incandescent.
It's more than just that. It's common way to safely put a little heat somewhere. e.g. outside fuel storage for home heating in extreme cold. For coal appliances you can put one inside the unit to help with moisture control during summer storage. People used them for incubating chicks....
This
I have one for cold night and my chickies in the coop.
I replaced every light in my house, inside and out, incandescent, fluorescent, floods, everything...with LED.. About 60 different bulbs and fixtures. My power bill went down $80 a month on average.
Hey, if some folks enjoy paying 6x for lighting, why not let them? It’s good for my utility stocks.
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