The $24.95 price of the Endura bulb may seem high, but the life-cycle cost drops the competition to floor like Bristol Palin off a mechanical bull. An LED is so energy efficient that it will use only $33 in energy over it’s life. The incandescent wastes so much energy in the form of heat that it does not deserve to be called a light bulb, but rather a heater that comes with an incidental light source. It will cost $176 dollars on your energy bill – and that is at current energy rates.
A single LED bulb will last 25,000 hours, so over the course of 20 years you’ll only need one bulb. The ones we are installing in our net zero house will not need to be replaced until after our two year old daughter has graduated from college. A good quality incandescent will get you about 1,000 hours and you’ll be climbing a ladder at least once a year to replace them. A good quality CFL (and we know there are many bad ones) will need almost four replacements, and if they break you’ll need to deal with a small amount of mercury that should be treated carefully.
Final score LED wins by a landslide in a head-to-head match with incandescents and by $32 over a CFL.
And . . . The LED is instant on, dimmable, 2700k (Warm light), 800 lumens (60 watt equivalent for brightness), and has no mercury. This is the first apples-to-apples competition for incandescents.
– from oldhouseweb.com