We’ve worked to understand household consumption in our hometown (Cedar Falls, Iowa). Due to COVID, we’re spending more time at home. Work, study and school at home strategies implemented in our college community recently means our homes need to be illuminated on average 6 hours per day rather than the 3 hours per day energy.gov recommended in the pre-COVID era, and our habit of being home more often is not likely to change soon.
With that in mind, we estimate converting an average Cedar Falls household to LED will on average reduce that household’s electric consumption by approximately 5000 KWh and save the a family nearly $ 380 in energy bill expenses a year.
Expanding this estimate to a neighborhood generates significant savings. Converting 20 Cedar Falls households to LED will reduce the neighborhood’s estimated electricity consumption by 100,000 KW and reduce the residents overall spending for electricity for lighting by $7,600 – without impacting the homes level or convenience brought about by lighting.
Matter of fact, eliminating the heat produced by the light bulbs (LED bulbs do not produce heat) from the households will significantly reduce energy demands on the homes air conditioning systems. While we do not have estimates on these savings, we at LEDbc have worked with clients that had to make significant changes to their HVAC system settings the first summer after they installed LED – the system was simply pumping out (a lot) more cold air than was needed, because it did not have to mitigate the heat from the light bulbs any more! (Note: Nope, it doesn’t even out the opposite time of the year. Savings from reduced electric costs far surpass the “savings” the heat produced by incandescent bulbs, as heat is typically produced more efficiently and with gas, a energy source less expensive than electricity.)
Simultaneously, converting 100 average Cedar Falls households to LED is estimated to reduce the community’s estimated electric consumption by 500,000 KW and reduce residents’ spending for electricity for lighting by $38,000 annually!
Help 300 households in a town like ours convert their lighting to LED help the town reduce spending on electricity by over a MILLION DOLLARS in 10 years – that’s $ 1,000,000 that could have gone to the electric company but families get to keep – and converting to LED helps the environment.
That doesn’t include the savings that the municipality and surrounding businesses will enjoy, because they’ll understand the impact LED has and convert too! This triples if not doubles the savings and impacts – there are MANY HOMES, BUSINESSES and CITY SERVICE LOCATIONS that need to convert!
If work together, we can inspire entire communities to convert to LED. 😊