LED lamps to provide global energy savings of US$100 billion over 5 years,says IMS Research Press release;Alex Wolfgram,DIGITIMES[Wednesday 20 June 2012]The widespread adoption of retrofit LED lamps will create global energy savings worth US$100 billion over the next five years,according to IMS Research.
Although the use of LED lamps for general lighting is not currently widespread,IMS Research said that a rapid uptake of retrofit LED lamps will result in a potential market of more than four billion units by 2016.While adoption is currently driven largely by legislation,it is forecast to accelerate as consumers become more aware of the long-term savings that are attainable when compared with competing lighting technologies.
Ryan Sanderson of IMS commented,"The environmental impact that global adoption of LED lighting will have is colossal.Lighting accounts for approximately 19%of the world's energy use at present.IMS Research predicts that in 2016 around 15%of all lighting will be accounted for by LED,which would reduce global energy consumption of lighting by around 20%."
Retrofit LED lamps use a fraction of the power of incandescent lamps to provide a similar luminance.IMS Research forecasts that in 2012 alone,the use of retrofit LED lamps in place of incandescent lamps will result in energy savings of more than 30 gigawatt hours.By 2016,with widespread adoption of retrofit LED lamps,these savings are forecast to reach more than 300 GWe.It is calculated that the five-year cumulative total will be more than 800 GWe,worth more than US$100 billion.
The benefits of using LED lamps to the general consumer are reductions in average household energy bills.Currently,it costs the average household US$20 to buy and power an incandescent lamp for four hours a day for a year.To buy and power an LED lamp for the same time period would cost US$16,a saving of 20%.However,compact fluorescent lamps(CFLs)compete much better on efficiency with LED lamps and are becoming a popular lower-cost alternative to incandescent lighting.Despite a CFL lamp currently costing on average just US$6 to buy and power for a year,making it the most economical choice today,LED lamps use,on average,half of the power of a CFL lamp.Therefore,the advantages of LED lamps become apparent in the longer term,helped by dislike of CFLs due to their poor light quality.
An LED lamp has an average life expectancy of 30,000 hours,which is 30 times longer than an incandescent lamp and 3.75 times longer than a CFL lamp.If the savings were calculated over the lifetime of the lamp,LED lamps become the cheapest solution.For example,a typical house with 15 lamps would save more than US$5,100 over 20 years by switching from incandescent to retrofit LED lamps.A house with CFLs installed would save nearly US$500 over 20 years by moving to retrofit LED lamps.These savings will increase as the cost of LED lamps continues to fall significantly,especially over the next five years.
