The Incandescent Ban and the Lie of LED Efficiency

The government argues LED lights are more efficient with appeals to marginally relevant technical jargon. But if a consumer chooses an incandescent bulb over an LED bulb, they are confirming they value the services of the incandescent bulb more highly even after accounting for the cost of using more energy.

Source: The Incandescent Ban and the Lie of LED Efficiency - Foundation for Economic Education

Laws regulating light bulbs are like the vast majority of laws supposedly designed to help the environment....useless wastes of the consumer's money. The theory is that LED light bulbs are more energy efficient and therefore better for the environment. The facts make that assumption dubious at best.

LED light bulbs do usually offer more efficiency per lumen. However, a lumen is not necessarily the only measure of brightness that matters. LED light bulbs, especially cheaper ones (which are still a lot more expensive than incandescent bulbs) tend to have relatively poor light quality meaning you may need a brighter bulb than if you were purchasing an incandescent.

Then there is the claim that LED bulbs last longer. I can say from personal experience that this is not true and others seem to share my experience. The problem isn't necessarily that the LED element itself burns out, it's that the electronic driver fails. Most of the LED bulbs I have bought over the years have failed while I still have incandescent bulbs that are working that are as old as my house (more than 20 years). While I no longer remember who posted them, I have seen at least a couple of articles here about repairing LED bulbs. However, the fact of the matter is that most will simply be thrown away. How does the higher failure rate measure up against the slight increased energy efficiency? Nobody knows because I don't think anybody will admit that LED bulbs fail as often as they do.

If LED bulbs save me money and provide a reasonable approximation of incandescent light quality then obviously I'm going to buy them. However, in my experience, neither is true. LED bulbs work best (again, in my experience) when you are trying to replace low wattage bulbs (40-watt equivalent or less). Otherwise, they just fail more often and cost you more money. Given how much my power bill has gone up over the years it's also difficult to guess at energy savings. Not enough to even come close to making up for rate increases though, that's for sure.