Thursday, February 21, 2008

How Many Environmentalists Does It Take To Change a Light Bulb?

I recently came across this chart over at Earth2Tech:

While I knew that LED had a long life span, I hadn't realized how long. And the 60,000 hours estimate may be low, as this Wikipedia article puts the life span at 100,000.

How long will these LED lights last? At 100,000 hours, a light on for 3 hours a day will last 91 years. At 8 hours a day it will last 34 years, at 12 hours a day will last 22 years, and if you run it continuously for 24 hours a day it last 11 years.

Given that the average light is only on for 3 hours a day, the next time you replace your light bulbs could by your last time.

This long life span might work against LED adoption. While I was thinking about buying some LED lights, now I am hesitant. The light quality is not that great yet, but the technology is improving and they are likely to be comparable to incandescent bulbs in the near future. If the LED bulbs were only going last a few years, I would buy some now and then upgrade to better version in a few years. But, if they are going to last for 90 years, I figure I ought to wait a few years until they the light quality is really good since I would hate to be stuck with subpar lighting for the rest of my life.

This line of reasoning isn't taking hold in Ann Arbor, as they are converting to 100% LED streetlights.

So, how many environmentalists does it take to change a light bulb?
None, LED light bulbs last longer than environmentalists.

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