Light bulb economics

How much does it cost to change a light bulb? More than you may have guessed if you think of retailers with large parking lots or hotels with high lobby ceilings. In fact, for these firms the cost of changing light bulbs can be so high that it actually changes the calculation on whether it is worth adopting new types of technologies. As the Wall Street Journal reports (The Math Changes on Bulbs, Nov 30), many firms such as Wal-Mart and Caesars Entertainment are switching to LED bulbs not so much because they use less energy but because they last so long.

Here the reporter explains the reasoning:

Graphically, here is how LEDs and conventional bulbs stack up.

I find this an interesting angle on retail operations. Changing light bulbs is something that (hopefully) happens infrequently and that makes it relatively disruptive and hence costly (the article gives an estimate for a San Francisco of $50 to change a bulb). Moving to longer lived bulbs then greatly changes the equation.