Introduction

This article looks at whether it is cheaper to light a room with lamps. As opposed to other electric lighting fixtures.

Firstly I have to admit that there are a lot of lamps in my house. In fact I am writing this article in a room lit by two lamps. One floor and one desk. So I was particularly interested to see if the lighting choice I have made actually reflect good value for money.

After all there are lot of other options that I could have chosen. For instance my hallway and kitchen have recessed flood lighting. And my brother’s house is full of track lighting from the 90s. While my parents older style home has pendant lighting throughout. So which of us has made the most cost-effective choice.

Types of Room Lighting

In order to make sure I had covered all the possible lighting combinations I checked out an online article on lighting your living room. In this case the excellent Living Room Lighting Guide from Ylighting.

This confirmed my idea that my family and I had covered all the lighting bases. With the four main lighting options being:

• Pendents and chandeliers. Where the light bulbs is at the end of a cable that goes into the ceiling.
• Recessed lighting, with the light bulbs being hidden inside a false ceiling.
• Track lighting, with fixtures attached to a track.
• Lamps, floor and desk.

Measuring the Cost

In order to work out if it is cheaper to light a room with lamps there are a number of factors that we need to take into account. The ones I am going to focus on are:

• Installation costs.
• Purchase costs of the fixtures and light shades.
• Purchase costs of the light bulbs.
• Running costs for bulbs.
• Expected lifetime of the fixtures, and possible replacement costs.

In order to make this an fair comparison we have to make some assumptions about our room. Firstly that there is a lighting circuit in the ceiling and walls. So if we want pendent lighting or switches then we don’t have to do major rewiring. Secondly, we have a dropped of false ceiling so we can fit recessed lighting. If this were not the case then these two options would be instantly priced out of consideration.

Installation Costs

This is a tricky one as it sort of depends on where you live. And whether you know an electrician. In my case I live in New York. But I also rent. So changing the lighting set-up in not really an option. Thus I don’t know how much electrical work costs.

However, I do have a friend with a bunch of properties out in Utah who has a lot to do with contractors and electricians so I am going to go on her ballpark estimates. These come in at $150 and hour. If you think this is too expensive then please contact me here. My friend would love to have a cheaper electrician.

Fixtures Costs

How much does a lamp cost? Or a 3-light track lighting strip. Well it kind of depends on what you like, where you buy it, and how much your budget is.

In order to make a fair comparison I am going to do my fixtures shopping at Lowes. Not the most expensive of places. But not as cheap as some others. Then I am going to choose a mid-range fixture. Selecting something with a good warranty and reviews.

Pendant Light and Chandelier

There are many different types of pendent lights available. Lowes lists 19,239 produces in Pendent Lighting.

The most popular type (i.e. the one with the most products) is Geometric with the mean price being between $100 and $200. Of these 38 have excellent ratings. With the most highly rated being from “allan + roth”. At the end of the article I show the fixtures that were chosen as representative.

Moreover there are 11,883 chandeliers to choose from. Twelve of which come in at over $10,000. With the most expensive one being $17,723.98. In the future I am going to write a blog on what a $17k chandelier looks like. But for now back to our price range…

Again using my system of going for the most popular I went for a bronze one. These come in at $200 to $400. There are a lot of well rated chandeliers. Finally I came down to two, both from Kichler. One with six lights and the other with nine. I settled on the nine bulb options on the grounds that this one fixture could light up a larger room on its own. With the six light option you might need two if you have an open plan living room.

Recessed Lighting

With recessed lighting our choices are much simpler.

For recessed lighting you now choose between traditional can lighting and can-less fixtures. In general can-less fixtures have in-built LED lights.

Can lighting needs a light housing, a can trim and a bulb. However they should last almost forever. As you can replace the trim when it starts to look old. And the bulb when it stops working. In general I am in favor of things with replaceable parts. Rather than integrated units that you have to throw away when one part breaks down.

If you are going for the can-less integrated option then make sure to choose one that is Energy Star certified. This means that the light source has been checked by an independent lab. And ensures that it is should meet the manufacturers claims.

I still have my doubts about claims around 50,000 hour integrated life sources. Such as the one made for this can-less light. After all an expensive bulb from a company like Philips only lasts 25,000 hours and is going to cost you $10. So do I think the integrated bulb on a canless kit is going to last twice as long? Well lets just say I have doubts.

If you are interested in LED light bulbs that are certified to last 50,000 hours see our article here.

Track Lighting

Again, track lighting comes with lots of options. Including fixed, linear and flexible (for full details see our article here). In this case I am going to choose a simple fixed track lighting option. One that comes with the light housing fixed to the track. And you just need to buy the light bulbs.

In general, for fixed track the most popular option available is for 3 lights. They costs $50 to $100. A lot of the options available come with integrated lighting. As such, I have avoided these, as I prefer ones with replaceable bulbs, and gone for a 3-light bulb option that uses GU10 bulbs.

Lamps

So, for lamps I am going to choose two floor lamp and one 3-way table lamp. I know this is going to make for a boring home but otherwise I will have too many options in the mix,

For floor lamps there are just under 2,000 options. The most popular is black and costs $100 to $200. I chose one that fits standard E26 base bulbs.

Desk lamp have 5,129 options. Of which the most popular are bronze, white or black, and cost from $50 to $200. I chose one with a drum shade. So as not to have to buy additional shades. Again almost all take E26 bulbs. The highest rated one come with a 3-way switch which is good for flexible lighting.

Results: Is it cheaper to light a room with lamps?

In order to work out if it cheaper to light a room with lamps I took the various lighting options we discussed and costed them out.

Fixture Costs And Installation

So all lighting options except lamps are going to need installations. For all options I ball-parked installation at two hours of work. Some items seem simple. For example pendant and chandeliers. But then you need to fit a switch, and chandeliers can be heavy. Track lighting needs much the same installation work as pendant lighting.

As for recessed lighting you are fitting a larger number of fixtures, and they also need switches. But they are pretty standard to fit.

If you ask a contractor how long a job is going to take they will want to know exactly what you already have installed. For instance is there a lighting ring in the ceiling and a switch ring in the wall. As our room is hypothetical I though it was fair to say that all installation work would take about the same time.

Cost of Light Bulbs and Running Costs

The cost of running the light bulbs themselves is easier to work out. Each manufacturer supplies wattage information and lifetime. In this case I had the light bulbs be on for three hours each day. And then worked out total costs over five years. If the light bulb is rated to last longer than five years (they all are) I used a portion of the purchase cost.

Total Costs

Finally I added the purchase cost for fixture to the installation cost (second column). Then I added the cost of light bulbs (third column) and the electricity cost (fourth column). To point out that I used a standard electricity cost for the United States of 13.38 cents per kilowatt-hour from the Save on Energy The price is of the May 2nd 2022.

Conclusion

So, is Is it cheaper to light a room with lamps? Well according to my calculations the answer is yes. Lamps come out as the cheapest option. One thing of particular interest is that the cost of light bulbs and electricity usage has very little impact.

As seen in the Total Costs table, the cost of the light bulbs is very minimal taken across a five year period. This is due to the fact that most LED bulbs should last 13 years if you only use them for three hours a day. Also these are all low power usage so expected electricity costs are also pretty low across five years.

In fact it could be argued that I should have also reduced the fixtures cost to match my five year window. After all a good lamp can last for 20 years plus. However it is hard to tell quite how long things will last, as fixtures are not lifetime rated in the same way that light bulbs are.

So, finally I hope this article has given you some ideas as to whether it is cheaper to light a room with lamps. Or at least given you some example fixtures to think about.

If you found it helpful why not check out our other articles here.

Fixtures: Is it cheaper to light a room with lamps

Tips On Choosing Lamps