LED, CFL or incandescent? The way we think of lighting in our homes is rapidly changing, according to an online survey conducted by EcoPinion. The online survey, conducted in March 2011 with more than 1,000 participants, found that energy-efficient lighting such as CFLs and LEDs are rated highly by consumers and are becoming much more popular.
“The cost of a traditional incandescent lamp is relatively low, but consumers are increasingly aware of operating costs including the cost of electricity consumed over time and the operating performance,” says EcoPinion.
When asked what lighting solution they would prefer without consideration of costs, Americans chose energy efficient lighting options by a large margin over traditional incandescent bulbs—32 percent favoring CFLs and 28 percent preferring LEDs. as compared to only 12 percent preferring traditional bulbs. (The remainder answered “Depends” or “No Opinion”) Younger Americans especially favor LEDs, says the survey.
New lighting also scored highly on performance, though only 39 percent of Americans were highly satisfied with the overall performance of traditional incandescent lighting—a 28 percent difference with CFLs and 15 percent with LEDs.
More results from EcoPinion’s survey:
- 27 percent say they have installed some sort of LED fixture in their home for general lighting purposes over the past year.
- Sixty percent of Americans were unaware of a federal law requiring a 28 percent improvement in lighting efficiency, effectively phasing out most traditional incandescent lamps.
- Two-thirds of Americans feel that is a good idea for traditional incandescent light bulbs to be phased out over time and replaced by more energy-efficient lighting solutions.
- 41 percent do not know whether their utility offer incentives for energy efficient lighting.
- 87 percent of Americans think it is a good idea for incentives to enable consumers to switch to energy efficient lighting options.
Though we should take some of these results with a grain of energy-efficient salt. The 27 percent who say they’ve installed LEDs in the past year is greater than the market penetration of LED lighting. And the 54 percent who rated the performance of LEDs very highly is double that! “A good number [of survey participants] based their responses on perceptions. This is especially true of LEDs,” says EcoPinion’s Jamie Wimberly.
At least those who haven’t bought LED lamps yet rate them highly.
For what lighting attributes consumers consider important, go here.