Ministry pushes LED bulbs to cut energy bill.
A new choice of light bulbs is being promoted to Jamaican consumers as a viable option to cut their lighting costs even further. Light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs provide another energy-saving alternative and produce more light with less energy.
Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining Phillip Paulwell said the Government has committed to provide thousands of the bulbs to consumers this year.
“Our energy-efficiency programme in the Government is going to see the change-out of 100,000 lighting fixtures to LED bulbs. We are procuring now for that,” the minister revealed.
The technology minister said consumers could save up to 20 per cent or more by making the change to LED bulbs.
http://jamaica-gleaner.mobi/gleaner/20140107/lead/lead3.php
We all recall the Cuban fluorescent light bulb scandal under the leadership of this very same minister and here is he again, with the new FAD , LED light.
Commonsenseja is here once again to ensure we provide relevant information to the public before you all jump out there and committ thousands of dollars to purchase new bulbs, without first understanding what is it you are getting into and therefore avoid getting burned in the process.
Now LED is the latest lighting design, which can in fact offer significant savings in energy, but there are something about LED lights, that you need to know, but will not be told to you by others.
Advantages of LED
- Significantly more efficacious (efficient) than Incandescent. This is defined in terms of lumens per watt ie how effectively the light source converts watts to lumen output or light intensity.
- Produces less heat that incandescent
- Slightly more efficient that current CFL bulbs
- Does not attract insects as does CFL
- Mercury free, which means its more environmentally friendly.
- Long life > 20,000 ( even though you hear claims of up 50,000)
- Good colour rendition index, this is the ability to determine various colour under this kind of light when compared to Incandescent of natural light.
Disadvantages of LED
- Very expensive when compared to incandescent and CFL
- Cannot be used in all applications, where incandescent and CFL can be used eg enclosed fixtures and some downlight application
- Very heavy due to its construction.
- Must have adequate ventilation to prevent premature failure
- Market is not mature and many substandard product in the market place.
Now for the maths.
| Inc | CFL | LED | |
| Lumen Output | 850 | 800-850 | 750-850 |
Power Input  |
60 | 13 -15 | 10-15 |
| Average Power input |
60 | 14 | 12 |
| Efficacy Lm/w | 14 | 53 -65 | 50-85 |
| Cost/unit US$ | 0.25 – 0.37 | $2.50 – $8.50 | $10 – $15 |
| Median cost per unit US$ | $0.30 | $6.50 | $12.50 |
| Average Useful life (Hrs) | 1,000 | 10,000 | 25,000 |
| # Hrs of operation @ 4 hrs per day x 365 days | 1460 | 1460 | 1460 |
| # Yrs of Operation | 0.68 | 7 | 17 |
| Energy Savings(kwh) | 0 | 46 | 48 |
| Energy cost US$0.42/KWH | $0.42 | $0.42 | $0.42 |
| Annual oper cost per lamp | $ 36.79 | $ 8.58 | $ 7.36 |
| Saving per lamp/annum | NA | $ 28.21 | $ 29.43 |
| Payback Period yrs going from Inc to Led or CFL | NA | 0.23 | 0.42 |
| Simple Payback period Going from CFL > LED (Yrs) | NA | NA | 5 |
| UPGRADE TO LED OR CFL ? | |||
| Additional savings going to from Inc > led vs CFL(/annum) | $ 1.23 | ||
| Additional cost involved going to from Inc > led (/annum) | $6.00 | ||
| # Yrs to recover additional expenditure | 5 | ||
There is no significant savings for the average householder who is currently using CFL to upgrade to LED lamps.
Given a choice of moving to Incandescent to LED or CFL it does make economic sense over the long haul to go to LED vs CFL as long as you can afford the initial cost of the upgrade.
(The Net Present Value of the savings over the life of the lamp confirms this.)
So if you are already using CFL stick with that for now, but if you are just now replacing your incandescent , that it a wise idea to go to LED.
Consumers need to be aware that not all LED lamps are the same and so in investing in these new lamps its best to stick to the certain brand name lamps for added security of your investments.
Names that you should consider are
- General Electric
- Philips
- Sylvania/Osram
- Cree
- Sharp
- Toshiba
- Lighting Ever
- Sony
For brands you don’t know, ask your supplier who makes the actual led and the light engines.
Going from Incandescent to LED is a saving of 80% using the figures above or 77% when using CFL.
Moving from CFL to LED would see a saving of around 15% in energy consumption and energy cost. The focus of your energy conservation efforts should be cost savings vs actual consumption is $ vs Kwh. You can save Kwh but the cost involved in doing so is cost prohibitive .
The cost of the LED is approx 100% times the price of the CFL, which significantly impacts the time it takes to recover your investment.
So you wait for LED prices to fall to closer to the cost of CFL then go out and make your purchase.
Filed under: Energy |
Warren's Blog 
Didn’t Jamaica used to manufacture bulbs? Carib Bulbs or something like that. I believe the factory was in Spanish Town maybe on the same stretch of road where Berec Batteries (I am showing my age now!) used to be.
This is the type of info that should be made available to the public but the “presstitutes” do not ask questions to elicit such information. This is the type of detailed analysis that should accompany decision-making.
The information above is being provided free of cost and can be used as one sees fit. I am pretty sure however than we will soon hear that a consultant (from overseas), will be hired to advice the Minister on the type of LED bulbs to purchase as well as its application.
But Jay deh yah a gee way free information.
One important point I failed to mention above is the lighting direction of LED vs Incandescent.
Incandescent lamps of multi-directional lighting ie you get light in all directions but this is not the same with most consumer Led lamps. the heat sink which at the base of the lamp takes up between 25 – 30% of the bulb, this coupled with the fact that the actual each led in the cluster shines mainly in the direction in which the LED is mounted to the electronics. This makes LED a unidirectional light source.
This results in light from LED being very bright in the forward direction but less light is off to the side. So for example a LED mounted in a ceiling, you would get very good illumination directly below the lamp, but this reduces significantly as you move from the center.