What would happen, if you install a LED Bulb in Indonesia?

Many people are familiar with compact fluorescents (CFLs). These bulbs look just like an old-fashioned incandescent bulb and give a warm light while lasting as much as 10 times longer. CFLs were so efficient, and over the past 10 years, they have come down substantially in price.

Light Emitting Diodes

A bulb that will last ten times longer than a CFL and more than one hundred times longer than an incandescent bulb was called Light Emitting Diode (LED). LEDs were usually used as an indicator in electronic devices or holiday lights.

LEDs are durable, energy-efficient and cool running. To get a brighter output the designers are bunching LEDs and using them to make highly efficient light bulbs.

Carnegie Mellon University looked at the energy needed for material and parts manufacturing, product manufacturing, and use of an LED light source and compared it with that of an incandescent bulb. Carnegie Mellon calculated the amount of energy needed to manufacture and then run a light source (bulb or bulbs) in the 25,000 hours basis.

The results: the energy needed for one of these “functional units” ranged from 1,500 kilowatt-hours for the standard incandescent bulbs to 320 kWh for the compact fluorescents and 280 kWh for the LED light source.

LED Bulbs installed for Home Lighting in Indonesia.

Indonesia still lacks electricity for a light source. About 39.12 million households have been consumed electricity. The basic electricity tariff is still expensive because 89% of power plants in Indonesia are depended on fossil energy (coal, gas, and oil). The government of Indonesia has not been able to supply the low-cost energy of power plant. So, a lot of households were not installed their home electricity.

There are some initiatives of the local community to build system electrical for home lighting that does not depend on a government program. One of the district in Indonesia, Lebong District where is located in Bengkulu Province, have applied an electrical system for home lighting. The local community assisted by Lebong Conservation Activities Team, a local NGO, concluded that LED bulbs are appropriate for their home lighting program.

They have also looked at the energy needed for their LED bulbs and concluded that the bulbs consume very low energy: 14 watts and life longer (50.000 hours) comparing with the other types.

Saving Energy for the Poor

Assuming, if each household in Indonesia can save 50 watts per day by using 5 pieces of LED bulbs (14 watts per day), this would be saving up to 1,956,000 kilowatts (kW) per day, or equivalent to saving power energy: 713.940.000 kW per year. In Indonesia, if an average electricity price is the U.S. 6 cent/ kWh, the total cost of electricity can be saved is the U.S. $ 42.84 million per year.

The number of poverty in Indonesia reach 32.53 million poor people (March 2009). The government budget for poverty alleviation is the U.S. $ 193 per year per capita (2009).

So, the cost savings (the U.S. $ 42.84 million per year) can alleviate poverty 206.000 capita per year in Indonesia. If the energy-saving is also done in the business and industry sectors, it will be alleviated Indonesia poverty greater.

So, what? As prices continue to fall with more LEDs, in the meantime, you should think about trying a LED bulb.

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