If You Think LED Bulbs are Expensive ...

Maybe you've heard this quote: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance."

We could write a corollary to that: "If you think LED bulbs are expensive, try incandescent bulbs."

This isn't to say that it's ignorant to use incandescent bulbs. They're still needed in some applications, and some people's preference for the incandescent experience is so strong that it doesn't come down to money. So we're being more literal here.

​With LED bulbs now replacing incandescent A19 bulbs for $5 to $10 each, an LED bulb used for 3 hours a day will generally pay for itself in 1-2 years. (Saving approximately $6 in energy costs per year, depending on local rates. And yes, LEDs can cost less, but we recommend caution with unknown brands or short rated lives due to quality issues, including changes in the color consistency and amount of light produced.)

Never mind that you'll have to replace the incandescent bulb about once a year while the LED could last for 20 years or more. In fact, based on those simple numbers, over 20 years you'd probably have to buy 20 incandescent bulbs ($20 or so in today's dollars?) compared to the one LED ($5 to $10) and you'd spend more than $100 extra dollars (today's dollars and rates) on electricity with the incandescent.

Maybe you already knew all of that. But did you know this? The first commercially available light bulb was sold for about $1. Adjusted for inflation, this was over $20 in today's money. By around 1920, the price had fallen to about 30 to 50 cents ... or roughly $4 to $7 in today's money.

So what we're paying for LEDs today is similar to what people were paying for incandescent bulbs in 1920! Yet what we get for our money is a bulb that could last 25 times as long and costs about 1/6 as much in terms of energy usage. That's a pretty good value for LED!

You can find all of our quality LED replacements for incandescent A19 bulbs here.

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