A vignette of technology change for lighting

In August 2011, I summarized our experience in retrofitting old downlights with new LEDs. We installed fifty of these beauties at $50/fixture (including free installation because they were so easy for the contractor to install). These avoided having to spend $20 to replace each dingy old fixture, so the economics were pretty good to start with.

One of the fixtures failed quickly, and it was swapped out for a new one. Since 2011 (i.e. 8 years) I’ve had to buy four more replacements (including the one I just purchased for my home office, which is used much more than other fixtures in the house).

The cool thing about LEDs is that they are on the electronics learning curve rather than the old industrial sector learning curve, so costs come down quickly. A better version of the device that cost $50 in 2011 now costs $22.36 on Amazon. The new version weighs 206 g instead of 484 grams for the original one (a 57% reduction), and it’s significantly smaller in volume. It looks like the body has been constructed of fewer pieces, which may explain part of the cost reduction.

Progress in electronics continues to amaze and astonish, but there’s a bigger lesson: energy efficiency is a renewable resource. It gets cheaper and better over time!