- How much electricity does an incandescent light bulb use? -

An incandescent light bulb, also called incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe, emits light by heating up a filament wire until it glows.

Producing light by heating a filament it is not efficient so 95% of the power consumed by an incandescent lamp it is converted into heat. This means that only a 5% of the supplied electricity it is converted into light.

This type of bulb is rather inefficient and this means that the incandescent light bulb electricity usage is higher when compared to CFL or LED light bulbs.

For more information about the incandescent light bulbs, have a look to this Wikipedia entry.

Electricity usage and cost calculator

The calculator below can be used to calculate the power and cost consumption of incandescent light bulbs over time.

You just need to adjust the values in the PARAMETERS section to your requirements and the calculator will automatically display the RESULTS section.

Additional information

Not everybody it is familiar with terms like Watts, Kilowatts or Kilowatt hours so if you would learn more about them, have a look to this video that we have prepared for you.

All our videos can be found in YouTube, in both English and Spanish languages.

Also, please note that not only the electricity consumption must be taken in consideration when deciding what type of bulbs to install at home. Other factors like the bulb cost and the bulb lifespan must be taken in consideration.

The table below we are making a comparison between an incandescent 60 Watts bulbs and the equivalent CFL and LED bulbs. The purpose of the table is to give you a rough idea on the total cost over a 10 years period for the three types of bulbs.

Bulb type and characteristics	Incandescent	CFL	LED
Bulb wattage (Watts)	60	14	7
Bulb prize (approx.)	1	3	3,5
Bulb lifespan (hours -approx.)	1,000	10,000	15,000
Number of bulbs needed over 10 years (12,500 hours approx.)	12,5	1,5	0,5
Bulbs cost over 10 years	12,5	3	3,5
Total electricity cost over 10 years (at 0,17 euro per kWh)	127,5	59,5	29,75
Total cost over 10 years (material cost + electricity cost)	140	62,5	33,25

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