How choosing the right bulbs will help you reduce electricity usage and save money up to 10% and more?
Most people seldom do this type of comparison but they know choosing the bulbs with “Energy Saving” written on the label will be good enough. In fact, choosing the lower Watt consumption light bulb did help in reduce utility bill. But how much actually saved?
Here will be using 2 types of energy saving light bulbs, the LED bulb and CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) bulb. Details for each bulb as below:
Spec. | CFL | LED |
---|---|---|
Wattage | 18W | 6W |
Lumen | 2700K | 3000K |
Operating Voltage | 220-240V | 240V |
Doesn’t matter LED or not, the key point is the Watts of that bulb. We are comparing between an 18 Watts bulb and a 6 Watts bulb. So now, let’s set the scenario and see the difference between them.
Condition:
Operating hours: 11 hours (assuming operating whole night from 7pm – 6am)
Days: 30 days
Tariff: RM 0.218, RM 0.516, RM 0.546 (will be choose the lowest tier and the more common tier in TNB Domestic Tariff A)
TARIFF CATEGORY | UNIT | CURRENT RATE (1 JAN 2014) |
---|---|---|
Tariff A – Domestic Tariff | ||
For the first 200 kWh (1 – 200 kWh) per month | sen/kWh | 21.80 |
For the next 100 kWh (201 – 300 kWh) per month | sen/kWh | 33.40 |
For the next 300 kWh (301 – 600 kWh) per month | sen/kWh | 51.60 |
For the next 300 kWh (601 – 900 kWh) per month | sen/kWh | 54.60 |
For the next kWh (901 kWh onwards) per month | sen/kWh | 57.10 |
The minimum monthly charge is RM3.00 |
Source from: https://www.tnb.com.my/residential/pricing-tariffs/
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And now let’s tabulate the comparison data to study the different.
Differences & Savings | |||
---|---|---|---|
6W | 18W | 3.33X (333%) | |
Energy consumption in 11 hours | 0.066 kWh | 0.198 kWh | |
Multiplied in 30 days | 1.980 kWh | 5.940 kWh | |
Tariff of RM 0.218 | RM 0.43 | RM 1.29 | RM 0.86 |
Tariff of RM 0.516 | RM 1.02 | RM 3.07 | RM 2.04 |
Tariff of RM 0.546 | RM 1.08 | RM 3.24 | RM 2.16 |
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The saving will be expected to be around 3.33 times (333%) from the wattage difference. If your house is just a small apartment and only have 1-2 people staying inside, tariff RM 0.218 might be relevant, which you can see one bulb’s saving could reach RM 0.863. And let’s say you have about 5 bulbs that operate for long hours throughout the night, every month you are able to shred off RM 4.32 off your bill. For one household that its electricity tariff is not more than first tier (first 200kWh usage), this could mean lots of saving to them. Because at max of 200 kWh usage, the charges will be RM 0.218 x 200 kWh, at RM 43.60. And shredding off RM 4.32 off a bill of RM 43.60 (or less), that’s a whooping 10% savings!!
For Tariff of RM 0.218 |
6W | 18W | Savings per month |
---|---|---|---|
5 bulbs | RM 2.16 | RM 6.47 | RM 4.32 |
10 bulbs | RM 4.32 | RM 12.95 | RM 8.63 |
20 bulbs | RM 8.63 | RM 25.90 | RM 17.27 |
50 bulbs | RM 21.58 | RM 64.75 | RM 43.16 |
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And for a bigger family, Tariff of RM 0.546 will be more common to them. This is the group of consumers with their utility bill around RM 400 and less. For this group of users, potential savings is huge as well!
For Tariff of RM 0.546 |
6W | 18W | Savings per month |
---|---|---|---|
5 bulbs | RM 5.41 | RM 16.22 | RM 10.81 |
10 bulbs | RM 10.81 | RM 32.43 | RM 21.62 |
20 bulbs | RM 21.62 | RM 64.86 | RM 43.24 |
50 bulbs | RM 54.05 | RM 162.16 | RM 108.11 |
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Then what if you are a high energy consumption house that paying more than RM 400 bill per month, reaching more than 900kWh usage every month? And your light bulbs uses are average 50Watts? Here’s the comparison you may refer to. A 6W light bulb compare to a 50W light bulb will be about 8.33 times (833%) more.
For Tariff of RM 0.571 |
6W | 50W | Savings per month |
---|---|---|---|
5 bulbs | RM 5.65 | RM 47.11 | RM 41.45 |
10 bulbs | RM 11.31 | RM 94.22 | RM 82.91 |
20 bulbs | RM 22.61 | RM 188.43 | RM 165.82 |
50 bulbs | RM 56.53 | RM 471.08 | RM 414.55 |
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You can now see at 50 light bulbs scenario, after changing 50W light bulbs to 6W, a total of RM 414.55 savings is achievable.
Back to the 6W and 18W. As conclude, changing to lower wattage’s light bulb did help you enjoy significant savings. But then how about the lighting brightness? Will it become dimmer for lower wattage? Here’s the comparison of 6W 3000K light bulb with a 18W 2700K light bulb.
They pretty much the same. What you waiting forrrr?? Head off to your nearest hardware shop and change your household light bulbs to enjoy great savings!