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Compare the real carbon emissions of LED bulbs versus traditional incandescent bulbs per year. See the true electricity and emissions savings, adjusted for your country's grid.
A 9W LED bulb produces the same brightness as a 60W incandescent but uses 85% less energy. For the same 200 kWh of incandescent-equivalent use, LEDs cut annual lighting emissions by about 85% — saving 27 kg CO2 in the US, 49 kg in India, and 12 kg in Canada.
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kg CO2/year
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kg CO2/year
A 60W incandescent bulb converts only about 5% of electricity into visible light — the other 95% is wasted as heat. A 9W LED bulb producing the same 800 lumens of brightness achieves around 80–90 lumens per watt, compared to the incandescent's 10–15 lumens per watt. This is why LEDs use just 9W versus 60W for equivalent brightness — an 85% energy reduction. Over a year of typical household use (1,000 hours), this saves about 51 kWh per bulb, which in the US translates to around 19 kg CO2 saved per bulb, per year.
The amount of CO2 you save depends on how clean your electricity grid is. In India (0.82 kgCO2/kWh grid factor), each LED bulb saves over 40 kg CO2/year per replaced incandescent — one of the highest returns of any household action. In Canada (0.13 kgCO2/kWh, mostly hydroelectric), the savings are smaller in absolute terms but the principle holds. Regardless of country, LEDs always save the same proportion of energy — it's the CO2 intensity of that energy that varies.
LEDs do have slightly higher manufacturing emissions than incandescents — roughly 3–4 kg CO2e per LED bulb versus 0.5 kg for an incandescent. However, an LED bulb lasts 15,000–25,000 hours versus an incandescent's 1,000 hours. Over the same operational period, you'd replace an incandescent 15–25 times, meaning 7.5–12.5 kg of manufacturing emissions from incandescents versus just 3–4 kg for one LED. The operational savings dwarf the manufacturing difference within weeks of use. Carbon payback is typically under 2 months in coal-heavy grids.
The average US household has 30–40 light bulbs. Replacing all incandescents with LEDs saves roughly 500–700 kWh per year — about $50–80 on a typical electricity bill and 190–260 kg CO2, equivalent to driving 1,200–1,600 km less. In India, the same switch saves 400–575 kg CO2 — approximately 20–25% of the per-person annual energy footprint. The Indian government's UJALA scheme distributed 360 million LED bulbs between 2015 and 2021, reportedly saving 46 billion kWh per year nationally.
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