I haven't done any math myself so if someone has a good chart, I'd like to see it. I'm open to hearing good arguments for/against new tech over old, but I have a pretty good propaganda detector.
I only use T8 bulbs in a few locations: garage (6 4'x2 fixtures = 12), shop (13'ish 4'x2 fixtures = 26), kitchen (4 4'x2 fixtures =
, and laundry (2 2'x4 fixtures =
. That sounds like a lot of bulbs, however I'd contend that it likely won't make much difference to my overall energy usage. The reason is, I only use lights when I'm in the room. I'd say I split my time at home between the bedroom (no lights when sleeping) and the family room (no T8 bulbs) pretty evenly. The other rooms are used for maybe an hour or two a day while doing laundry, making dinner/breakfast, and misc tasks in the garage/shop. Generally in the summer, I don't use any lighting for most of the day since we have good window lighting and I spend a lot of time outside. In the winter, we use a lot of lighting when home since it's dark when I leave for work and dark again when I get home.
That said, here is a table of projected costs/savings, environmental impacts, and other factors related to the 3 bulb choices (screw in type is all I could find).
http://www.designrecycleinc.com/led%20comp%20chart.htmlIf these bulbs are your primary lighting source, then it's likely that they would quickly break even assuming the light quality was good enough. BUT, what I've seen with CFL is that the initial quality degrades below that of incandescent rather quickly and has other down sides. LED has up to now been cost prohibitive. However, that's comparing the benefit of incandescent to CFL and LED. What this thread deals with is Fluorescent vs LED. Comparing data for CFL vs LED, I see a 50% reduction in electricity usage and a 720% higher "sale" price. I would have to use the bulbs for ages to make that work out. And, considering that my T8's have almost all lasted well over 5 years (when I bought the house and have only replaced 3-4 bulbs), it seems like replacing them as they fail would make for a significant hodge podge of T8 and various LED's (I'd only buy them as they were needed and that would mean various models most likely). I'm all over a better light bulb to save on my bill, but I've been skeptical of the "savings" people report when they ignore the initial cost of the bulb and installation.