What Makes LED Lights 90 Per Cent More Energy Efficient And Environment Friendly?

On January 5, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched UJALA (Unnat Jyoti by Affordable LEDs for All), the world's largest domestic lighting project with a target of replacing 77 crore incandescent (ICL) lamps with LED bulbs. The main aim of the programme was to promote the use of LED (Light Emitting Diode) by making it affordable for all. Indeed, prices of LED bulbs being distributed under UJALA programme have fallen to one-tenth of their rates in 2015 from Rs. 310 to Rs. 38 in 2018. But, why did the government feel the need to replace conventional ICL bulbs with LEDs and bringing down its purchase price? Why do we even need LEDs?

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To know more about what makes LED an energy efficient lighting option, NDTV speaks to Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL), a joint venture of PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings) under the Ministry of Power, Government of India. UJALA is spearheaded and implemented by EESL, an energy service company.

S.P. Garnaik, Business Unit Head (Lighting), EESL says,

An LED light typically consumes around 50-90 per cent less energy than an equivalent incandescent or halogen bulb. For example, a 100 W (Watt) incandescent bulb can be replaced with a 9 W LED bulb with a similar performance in terms of light output. In fact, the proportion of lumens (brightness) that falls in an area from an LED light source is greater than that of a conventional light source.

While providing the same output, a LED bulb lasts long. As per the information provided by Mr Garnaik, typical LED lights have a life of more than 30,000 burning hours as compared to ICL bulb or CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) which have a life span of 5,000-8,000 burning hours. LEDs also produce white lights which are very soothing to the eye.

According to one of the households that has completely switched to LED bulbs and tube lights, Sanjay, a resident of Ghaziabad in the national capital region, says,

In all our rooms we used to have regular 9 W (Watt) CFL (compact fluorescent lamp) light bulbs which used to come with a warranty of one year. While some would last over a year, others would expire within the warranty period. Also, over the life of a CFL, the bulb used to take on a grayish appearance, reducing the light output. With LED, which we have been using for over four years now, there is no such problem. In fact, LEDs are too bright and you can't look into them directly for even five seconds.

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Electricity Consumption And Savings: LED VS ICL VS CFL

Further explaining why and how LEDs save energy, Mr Garnaik says,

When compared to older lighting technologies like ICL bulbs and fluorescent tubes, LED lights are 90 per cent more energy efficient. LED draws less electrical power from the grid to produce the same amount of light.

To understand the energy savings of LED in monetary terms, let's compare the annual energy consumption of three different kinds of bulbs namely ICL, CFL and LED. For instance, we have a 100 W ICL bulb, 18 W CFL and 9 W LED and all three are used for four hours, daily. Under such circumstances, annual energy consumption of ICL, CFL and LED will be 146 units, 27 units and 13.5 units, respectively.

A typical consumer using 5 LED bulbs of 9W each can save about 660 units of electricity or Rs. 3,000 per annum approximately as compared to the usage of an equal number of ICL, says Mr Garnaik.

Environmental Impact Of Using LED

Along with conserving energy and providing cost benefit, LEDs are environment friendly. Since LED draws less energy, they reduce the demand for electricity at power plants and therefore reduce the level of greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere.

They emit the lowest UV (ultraviolet) and IR (infrared) Radiation amongst all lighting technologies available. When compared to CFLs, LEDs do not have mercury and therefore, have no negative impact on the environment. LEDs have no gases, filaments or any moving parts to fatigue, says Mr Garnaik.

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UJALA Programme Addressing India's High Cost Of Electrification And High Emissions From Inefficient Lighting

When ICL and CFL have ruled the market for decades, making people switch to energy efficient and a comparatively expensive - LED is a task. Indeed in the retail market, LEDs were priced between Rs. 350 and Rs. 600 compared to ICL costing Rs. 10 to Rs. 40 and CFL priced between Rs. 80 and Rs. 140. But keeping in mind the benefits of LED, the government launched UJALA programme under which prices were brought down by over 80 per cent. Talking about the same, Mr Garnaik says,

EESL adopted an innovative mass procurement strategy, which lowered the manufacturing cost of the LED bulbs from Rs. 310 to Rs. 50. A drop of more than 40 per cent was observed in the case of tube lights price for which came down from Rs. 250 to Rs. 138. The benefit of the price reduction has been passed on to the consumers, who have benefited from reduced bills due to the usage of LED bulbs and tube lights.

According to EESL, through UJALA programme, the company has distributed over 36 crore LEDs across India. This has resulted in estimated energy savings of 47,640 million kWh per year with avoided peak demand of 9,538 MW and estimated greenhouse gases emission reduction of 3.85 crore tonnes of CO2 per year.

Globally, India is at a vantage point of mitigating climate change, while also building and strengthening its access to energy and lighting. While high-quality energy efficient appliances meet both these criteria, India was held back from adopting them due to lack of awareness and affordability. Taking these challenges head on, we adopted a strategy of demand aggregation, mass awareness and bulk procurement, designed to attract the support of utility companies, state governments, and the price conscious Indian public, signs off Mr Garnaik.

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