The strategy in coping with the rising power cost (1): Let’s get started by changing LED lamps

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In order to reduce the greenhouse gas and cope with the problems rising from high oil prices and high energy consumption, many countries have announced new regulations in relation to using the high efficiency and cost saving light sources in replacement of incandescent lamps. Hopefully, attain the goal of saving energy and reducing the emission of CO2.

According to statistical figures, there are almost 4 billion screw-based incandescent lamps being widely used in houses and apartments in the United States. The replacement volume has reached more than 2 billion. Roughly speaking, 15 billion US dollars is spent for the low-efficient lamps. In the EU region, the percentage of efficient use of lamps is 35%, calculated by 27 tubes (lamps) per house among which the incandescent lamps are 19.9. This shows that there is still a lot of room in conducting energy-saving activities.

Since the incandescent lamps are not efficient, every government has legislated against using the incandescent lamps. In Australia, incandescent lamps will be phased out before 2010. In Canada, it will also legislate against selling the incandescent lamps starting from 2012. For the EU, they are planning to popularize the compact fluorescent lamps to every family and will also legislate against selling incandescent lamps by 2010.

Due to rising energy prices, it will expedite the speed of incandescent lamps being replaced. In the United States, many of the power plants generate power by natural gas. Given the increasing price of natural gas, the power cost has been adjusted up (please refer to Figure-1), the adjustment rate of some places are even higher than 30%. Under this situation, consumers are haggling over prices for all kinds of products. Based on the estimation from “LEDinside”, the power-consuming rate of incandescent lamps is 3-times higher than that of compact fluorescent lamps. Therefore, if 15 compact fluorescent lamps can replace the incandescent lamps for every household, 650 US dollars will be saved after 3 years. In addition, it will contribute to completing the goal of “Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction”. 

In addition to compact fluorescent lamps, use of LED light bulbs can be another alternative to saving energy. However, the price of the LED light bulb is still on high,  and its luminous efficiency still needs to be improved by LED manufacturers. Based on the statistics from “LEDinside”, after 2009, the LED light bulbs will be popularized in the market when its luminous efficiency increases to 80 lumens (LM) and its price decreases by 25%.

The picture above is a LED Lighting case form Japan, Mitsubishi.

Next:  The strategy in coping with the rising power cost (2):Analysis of cost variances between LED light bulbs and CFL