An explicit comparison of electricity consumption between incandescent and LEDs is difficult to make, because upgrading to LEDs may involve replacing incandescent bulbs, CFLs, and florescent tubes with LED light strips and other LED fixtures that have different specifications from the lighting currently installed.

Take as an example a home that has 50 light bulbs ranging from 50 to 85 watts, for a total output of around 50,000 lumens. Using LEDs that achieve the same lumen output and aesthetic effect, with an average of 65 lumens per watt, lighting this home would require about 770 watts, instead of 2,950. If all the lights are turned on for a total of three hours a day in this house, its electricity consumption would decrease by 6.5 kilowatts a day after switching to LEDs.

In a city or town where electricity costs 12 cents per kilowatt-hour, that would mean a savings of 78 cents a day, or 23 dollars a month. Over the course of one year, the LED upgrade would cut electricity costs by 276 dollars. Of course, this example required a number of assumptions; if a home has more lights, uses them longer, or is in an area where electricity costs are higher, the savings would go up.