How Long Do LED Lights Last?

LED lights are most talked about for being the new “green” light bulb. They use less heat, give off more light, and are cheaper when you think about how many traditional light bulbs you have to replace within a year.

But how long do LED lights actually last? Are they just an expensive version of incandescent lights and it’s just a marketing ploy to make you spend more? Or is there actually some truth behind what the light technology?

The History Of LED

First, we need to go back to when LED lights were invented, nearly 100 years after the original light bulb that we know as the “filament” bulb. At the time, it was a great invention and for the first time ever, people had light that wasn’t just by candlelight.

But the filament light bulb also had its downsides, such as requiring a lot of energy to heat up, would need to be replaced fairly often, and was considered inefficient when you compare how much heat it would emit.

If you didn’t know, incandescent light bulbs waste nearly 90% of their heat and only 10% of that produces actual light. Going to the LED light, it could produce up to 75% of light, only waste 5% of heat, and it wouldn’t rely as largely on heat to begin with.

Halogen Light

We also need to bring up halogen light. Halogen light is pretty similar to that of filament light but it’s still able to emit more light, be more efficient, and last a lot longer. It still uses heat to produce light, however. Therefore, heat is still being wasted when you compare it to LED.

Halogen light also requires a very specific type of glass called quartz, which makes it more expensive. It utilizes halogen gas, making it obvious why halogen light is called “halogen” light. Because it doesn’t use heat to produce light and instead gas, it makes it last that much longer.

Why Do They Last So Long?

To answer the question, we also need to talk about why they last so long. LED lights are considered the light bulb that burns the lowest amount of heat. In fact, you’ll notice if you go to change both a filament light bulb and an LED light bulb, the LED will be cool to the touch while the traditional bulb will not be.

Filament bulbs use up to 60 watts to produce their light while LED bulbs only use about 9 watts. This makes the answer to this question rather obvious. The reason they last so long is because they don’t do as much work and aren’t considered as delicate.

How Long LED Lights Last

Now that we know their history and why they last so long, we can answer the question fully. Many LED light bulbs have a lifetime of up to 50,000 hours. Compare that to the measly lifetime of only about 1,000 to 2,000 hours on the incandescent bulb, making the LED last 50 times longer than filament bulbs and 20-25 times longer than a halogen bulb.

Following that logic, we can also say that in the time you would have to replace the traditional bulbs over 20 times, you could have gotten over 11 years of use from a single LED bulb. And that’s while using that same bulb for 12 hours every single day.

In conclusion, is the LED light bulb worth your time and money? Most definitely yes. Do they last a long time? Absolutely. So to anyone who hasn’t switched over to LED bulbs because of their price tag, just think about how many bulbs you’d have to replace when you could’ve simply just bought one LED light bulb.