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Life-Cycle Energy Consumption Report - Incandescence vs. Fluorescent vs. LED Lamps
5 Myths on LED Lighting
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March 2012
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Life-Cycle Energy Consumption Report - Incandescence vs. Fluorescent vs. LED Lamps

Department of Energy Reports

 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has published a report comparing the energy consumed over the entire life cycle for LED lamps, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), and incandescent lamps. Entitled "Review of the Life-Cycle Energy Consumption of Incandescent, Compact Fluorescent, and LED Lamps", it is based on existing life-cycle assessment literature of lighting products.

 

Compared to CFLs and Incandescent lamps, today's LED lamps clearly use most energy in the manufacturing process, but the life-cycle energy consumption is on par with CFLs and 1/4 of incandescent lamps.

  

The report is the first installment of a larger DOE project to assess the life-cycle environmental and resource costs in the manufacturing, transport, use, and disposal of LED lighting products in relation to comparable traditional lighting technologies.
 

Light-emitting diode (LED) lighting has the potential to save energy and improve lighting quality and performance beyond that of many conventional lighting technologies. However, to truly gauge the full energy and environmental impacts of a lighting technology, its materials and energy resources must be traced over the entire life cycle. The report Review of the Life-Cycle Energy Consumption of Incandescent, Compact Fluorescent, and LED Lamps is the first installment of a larger U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project to assess the lifecycle environmental and resource costs in the manufacturing, transport, use, and disposal of LED lighting products in relation to comparable traditional lighting technologies.

The assessment comprises three phases:

  • Comparison of the total life-cycle energy consumed by LED and other lamp types based on existing life-cycle assessment (LCA) literature
  • An LCA study of an LED lamp considering both the direct and indirect material and process inputs to fabricate, ship, operate, and dispose of the lamp
  • The purchase, disassembly, and chemical testing of LED and conventional lighting products to study whether potentially hazardous materials are present in concentrations that exceed hazardous waste regulatory thresholds


Among this report's key findings:

 

  • Available estimates indicate that the average life-cycle energy consumption of LED lamps and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) is similar, at approximately 3,900 megajoules (MJ) per functional unit (20 million lumen-hours). This is about one quarter of the incandescent lamp energy consumption-15,100 MJ per functional unit (20 million lumen-hours). In addition, by 2015, if LED lamps meet their performance targets, their life cycle energy use is expected to decrease by approximately one half.
  • The "use" phase of incandescent, compact fluorescent, and LED lamps represents the most energy-intensive life-cycle phase, accounting for 90 percent of total life-cycle energy on average. This is followed by the manufacturing and transport phases, respectively. Transport represents less than one percent of life-cycle energy use for all lamp types.
  • Most of the uncertainty in life-cycle energy consumption of an LED lamp centers on the manufacturing of the LED package. The low estimate indicates the LED package contributes to 0.1 percent of life-cycle energy, while the high estimate shows it could be as much as 27 percent. The average indicates that LED package manufacturing is about 6.6 percent of total life-cycle energy.

 

If you would like more information about energy saving options, and any rebate programs available for reducing energy consumption, please contact Premier Lighting for a no cost no obligation energy audit.

5 Myths on LED Lighting

In reality, LEDs are computers

 

Light emitting diodes - semiconductors that emit light - have put light bulbs back on the front page, arguably for the first time since Thomas Edison unveiled his bulb in 1879 to replace for kerosene lamps.

 

And, just like in Edison's time, the lighting industry is being forced to wrestle with a number of misconceptions, myths and outright false claims about a product that will change the way we live.

 

You've probably heard them. LEDs cost vast amounts of money. They don't work. They don't save power. LEDs are part of a government plot to control your life. If we don't stop them now, they'll come after the mini fridge in the garage next!

 

We'd like to give these myths a rest.

 

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  • Myth Number One: LEDs Don't Save Power.

LED bulbs typically consume less than half of the energy of a compact fluorescent and 1/8th to 1/10th of the power of an incandescent bulb. Those figures for LEDs will also improve over time too. LEDs, after all, are chips: history and physics dictate that they will go down in price and improve in performance steadily over time.

 

Conventional bulbs are vacuum tubes. They don't get better. Incandescent bulb, still the most popular bulb with consumers in the U.S., typically only use 10 percent of the power fed into them to create light. The rest gets turned into heat.

 

You probably don't own a vacuum tube-powered computer or a CRT TV anymore. Your MP3 player doesn't weigh 35 pounds because of integrated arrays of switches and relays. So why do you have lots of vacuum tubes stuck in lamps throughout your house?

 

The inefficiency of traditional bulbs adds up. Consumers and businesses around the world spend over $100 billion on light bulbs and fixtures annually, and over $600 billion to power them. Yet only a small percentage of lights are connected to networks that can dim them to save energy.

 

Lighting companies have got away with serving up the status quo for over a century in part by convincing people not to think about light. It's a light bulb, they argue. Just replace them when they burn out.

 

They don't bother to mention that it's an expensive habit. About 23 percent of the electricity in the U.S gets gobbled up by lighting: 18 percent goes to power bulbs and the remaining 4 to 5 percent gets used to run air conditioners to eliminate the waste heat generated by inefficient bulbs. And talk to your janitor: replacing bulbs is still one of the primary tasks for facilities managers everywhere.

  • Myth Number Two: LEDs Don't Work

Actually, car manufacturers, TV makers, street light manufacturers and makers of industrial equipment have already turned to LEDs to reduce power.

 

These manufacturers, in fact, have chosen LEDs because they fit better with the rough and tumble of everyday reality. Unlike conventional bulbs, LEDs don't shatter. They also don't contain gases like mercury or electrodes that can easily snap. An LED bulb will last 35,000 to 50,000 hours, which translates into more than ten years in ordinary household or office scenarios.

  • Myth Number Three: It's Just a Light Bulb

In reality, LEDs are computers. Festival Hydro will soon demonstrate what we're talking about. The utility will give 100,000 LED bulbs equipped with wireless chips to residential and business customers in Stratford, Ontario with smart meters. Through the smart meters and wireless connections, customers will essentially let Festival Hydro dim their lights during peak periods or off-hours. (Bridgelux will provide the LED technology while Anycomm will provide the software for controlling the system for the pilot.)

 

Consumers will be able to override the system, but Festival Hydro expects that most of them will stick with the program. Most of the time, consumers likely won't even notice a difference: studies have shown that lights in office buildings can be dimmed by 40 percent for as long as a half an hour without anyone complaining.

 

In the end, consumers will experience lower bills, the utility will be able to curb peak power consumption and the maintenance staff won't have to change bulbs as often.

  • Myth Number Four: LEDs Are Too Expensive

Festival Hydro will give its customers LEDs for free. Let's repeat that. Free, as in no money down ever. The power conserved will pay for the bulbs. (Each bulb will leave the factory already matched to a smart meter, so a black market in free bulbs likely won't erupt.)

 

If trials like these succeed, utilities will start giving out millions of free LEDs. The power consumption avoided will let them postpone investing millions into new fossil fuel power plants for years.

 

Even bulbs in stores that aren't part of utility programs are already rapidly dropping in price. Several manufacturers sell $20 LED bulbs that put out as much light as a 60-watt incandescent. $20! Yes, but that bulb will shave $10 off your utility bill a year and last until 2025 or longer. You'll make over $100 in the long run.

  • Myth Number Five: It's a Government Plot

The "black helicopter" myth would have you believe that legislators around the world -Australia, Europe, Canada, the U.S., China, New Zealand, and the Philippines among others - have passed light bulb efficiency laws in the past several years as a favor to lighting manufacturers.

 

The extensive list of nations alone should be enough to explode the notion of a plot. This is also not the first time governments have issued consumer regulations. Leaded gas got phased out decades ago. Childproof medicine bottles are universal and good luck buying meat that contains a "This was NOT Inspected by the USDA - You're on your own!" sticker.

 

Instead, consumers will gravitate toward LEDs because of the untapped capabilities they provide. As LED technology proliferates, customers will experiment with integrating motion sensors into bulbs, turning LEDs into nodes for security systems. Temperature and carbon dioxide sensors can allow bulbs to deliver data to building management systems.

 

LEDs can also be used to change the atmosphere in the room with the flick of a mouse or help you sleep better. City managers will deploy LED street lights to check traffic conditions and keep a lid on municipal expenses.

 

With LEDs, the metal benders in the lighting business are starting to discover Moore's Law.

 

Skeptics abound. But skeptics nearly always seem to miss inflection points. Cynics back in the 1970s predicted only hobbyists would own home computers. The only person who really needs a cellphone, they argued back in the 80s, was Gordon Gekko. The Internet burst in 2002, they proclaimed, two short years before Facebook.

 

Maybe the only myth is that the critics are invariably right. 

(Reprinted from Forbes, Bill Watkins and Rob Praske) 

 

If you would like more information about LED options, and any rebate programs available for LED lamps, please contact Premier Lighting.

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Premier Lighting stocks a complete line of commercial-grade fluorescent, halogen, HID, incandescent and LED lamps, ballasts, controls and sensors for all your daily supply needs, along with commercial-grade fixtures and replacement lenses for those special projects. Contact Premier Lighting and request your own personalized custom order form.

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