| Compare real cost and you will change your mind. Those cheap bulbs are
| more expensive than the $2,50 LED. At my rate, 1,000 hours of operation
| for the cheap bulb is $11.40. The LED will cost $1.90 to operate. Look
| at the life of the bulb for say, 10,000 hours and it is even worse as
| the same LED bulb is still burning while you've repaced a bunch of those
| quarter bulbs. .
|
| OK. you can brag about your cheap bulbs, but I'll put the money in my
| pocket.

This came up awhile back and it turned out
that some of the people focused on saving
money were also in the habit of leaving lights
on unnecessarily.

There are numerous factors involved, so that
calculating savings is a sketchy business. In
addition to the fact that we really don't know yet
what the life of a given bulb will be, there are
also aesthetic factors. (Quality and color of light.)
And if you leave the lights on all day, are you
actually saving money just because you use LED
bulbs? Why would someone counting pennies so
carefully waste electricity like that? And $2.50 for
an LED is not yet realistic. A particular cheapo LED
bulb will be going on sale for $2.50. Is that a bargain?
Again, it's not easy to calculate definitively.

But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume
that you're really saving a few dollars per year, buying
LED bulbs on sale and only turning on lights when
absolutely necessary. I'll further assume that you apply
that frugal philosophy to your life in general. You don't
have a dishasher or garbage disposal. You keep your
thermostat at 50F. You don't own a TV. You're posting
these posts from the Public Library because you don't
own a computer. And you'll be using your few dollars
savings to buy dried navy beans on sale.
After all, if you go to Starbucks or go out for dinner,
you've just blown through years' worth of savings on
electricity. And ESPN on cable? Don't get me started!
I could buy 75 incandescent bulbs for the cost of one
month of just ESPN alone. For the cost of a month of
cable TV I could probably buy several hundred bulbs.