Save Money with Low Energy LED GU10 Lightbulbs
Those nice looking halogen downlighters in your home could be costing you hundreds of euros a year in elecricity. You could reduce your electricity usage by replacing the halogen bulbs with low energy LED bulbs. The most common fitting for those spotlight type recessed downlights are GU10 fittings.
Most halogen Gu10 bulbs are 50 watt bulbs – so a house with 20 of these lights would be using 1000 watts when they are all switched on. If you had these lights on for just 5 hours every day they would add €292.80 a year to your electricity bill each year according to the ESB.*
You can buy replacement 4.4 Watt LED GU10 bulbs that would use just €25 worth of electricity a year. That is a massive saving of 90%. A house with 20 of these halogen 50w Gu10 bulbs could cut their electricity bills by €260 a year by switching to low energy LED bulbs. That is the equivalent (according to ESB) of using a vented tumble dryer 12 times every week (5kg load) all year.
The LED lightbulbs do cost a lot more than the halogen bulbs – but prices should gradually be coming down . After 1 year you will start seeing a payback. These LED bulbs last 10 to 15 times longer than ordinary halogen bulbs – so in the long term you will be even better off. After 2016 Halogen bulbs will not be allowed under EU regulations.
You can buy these LED GU10 bulbs online from Amazon with free delivery to Ireland – they fit straight into existing GU10 sockets and are exactly the same size. They are CE approved too.
* (Calculations as per the ESB online energy usage calculator based on 2009 (October 1st.) rates of 16.00c per Unit (including VAT) )
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