https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/16/walmart-saves-200-million-by-changing-its-light-bulbs.html
Walmart is replacing florescent light bulbs with LED light bulbs in its stores. Eventually, that will result in $200 million savings off its electricity bill per year.
Our (large) church campus did this and saved 20k in a year on power
Our savings are not that large, but they are noticeable. 
I love it when a public owned company chooses to make money-saving changes, that also seem to help the environment.
But you know who keeps that money.
How much is it costing them to replace all those bulbs?
https://www.thesimpledollar.com/the-light-bulb-showdown-leds-vs-cfls-vs-incandescent-bulbs-whats-the-best-deal-now-and-in-the-future/ is a cost comparison between different kinds of light bulbs.
Of course, Walmart may be using different kinds of bulbs, and may have to change some fixtures, which could affect the cost equation. The article does mention a multiyear rollout.
I feel a joke coming on… How many Walmart employees does it take to change a lightbulb?
Anyone? Anyone?
who keeps that money? (post 4. in re 1,2, and 3).
I would think the chapel, saving 20k now could spend that money better for more things in keeping with their religious beliefs than sending it to their utility. Perhaps more left in their account for “a rainy day”. Being able to keep more of the money available to them gives them the opportunity to choose how to spend/save their money.
For businesses, I am guessing that this is a “long-run” kind of saving plan, that the ROI is not just a year or so. Based on that, I would guess that the stockholders that have chosen to risk their money by investing in the company are likely to realize a gain based on lower operating costs. This is in addition of course to benefits to our environment, that aren’t as easily shown on paper. Maybe the upper management decision makers benefit too. And of course, those workers hired to switch out the fixtures benefit from the work. They may even need to hire on more workers to complete the project.
Then what happens to the money of investors or management or the service company that did the actual labor? I suppose the same as any investor’s money earnings, or any wage earner’s money. Some may tuck it under their mattress, while others may make further investments, or buy products such as cars and clothes dryers, tools or travel, just to name a small few.
Many of the new walmart stores are designed with sky lights. If you shop during the day, very few lights are on.
Does anyone know if it is better for the environment to go in and replace all bulbs, including the ones that are fine and working or to replace them as they burn out? I would think as they burn out as there would be a large environmental cost in making all light bulbs but perhaps the electricity savings are great enough to overcome the manufacturing impact?
They must have carefully considered what intensity and spectrum will maximize customer spending.
I switched our house over to those curlicue CFLs then to LEDs over the years. Not for the “environment” or power saving but because I was sick and tired of constantly changing incandescent bulbs! We have a ton of can floodlights in the ceilings, lamps, etc. and I like our house bright inside.
I don’t remember the last time I changed a light bulb. Problem solved!
It depends on the cost of the bulbs (and fixtures if necessary) versus the cost of electricity, which may vary over time and (more so for electricity) by region. You need to do your own calculation based on costs that are applicable to you.
A proper cleanup after one cfl bulb breakage costs much more than a dozen of led bulbs. The key word is “proper.”
Wait, we despise and avoid Walmart…no matter what …right
I absolutely refused to ever purchase or install even a single one of those curly CFL’s. Exposure to them, and their lack of light and long time to come to max lumens, in hotels and similar places was enough to show just how bad they were. Add to that the need for a hazmat team incase of breakage and we Just Said No. In fact, we stockpiled a bunch of 60-75 watt incandescent bulbs. Frankly, those old incandescent ones seem to last forever at our house.
Now that LED’s are mainstream and affordable, we’ll use those whenever needed.
Our elementary school district replaced fluorescent bulbs with LEDs (using California Prop 39 funds).
Besides the lower energy cost, we found there is a significant savings in the cost of replacing failed ballasts. With just 9 elementary schools, we discovered that maintenance was replacing a ballast practically every day on average. That was a separate line item from the energy cost, so it was a somewhat unexpected savings.
@ucbalumnus As I understood your response to my question you are indicating how one tells if it makes financial sense to replace an incandescent with an LED. As you said, you would need to know your specific cost of electricity and estimate the life of each bulb.
Perhaps I did not word my question well but I was asking about the environmental considerations. If Walmart goes in and gets rid of all of their incandescent bulbs and throws them in the trash and replaces them with LEDs it might make financial sense but what is the environmental impact or carbon footprint of this decision. It would seem that it is better to wait until the incandescent burns out and then replace it with an LED, not throw away a bulb that might have x years left.
Florescent in Walmart’s case, not incandescent. The reduction in electricity use from incandescent bulbs is so great, and the lifespan of incandescent bulbs is usually short enough that replacing them sooner rather than later makes sense from both a cost and environmental standpoint.
As with cost, the environmental impact of replacing florescent with LED bulbs can also depend on how the electricity is generated. For example, someone concerned about the environmental impact who lives in a place where the electricity comes from coal may want to replace bulbs sooner, while someone who lives in a place where the electricity comes from renewables or nuclear may want to replace bulbs as they fail.
Don’t really think the “who keeps the money” question was aimed at my church comment, but at our church if we end up under budget for a year then the money is assigned by a formula, part of which is to double tithe (give 20%) of that amount directly to benevolences/missions above what is budgeted for that year.