IKEA to convert all lighting to LED

IKEA is supporting the LED light revolution by converting its full lighting range to LED by 2016 - meaning IKEA will be selling only LED bulbs and LED lamps. The company is also changing the >1 million light sources inside the IKEA stores to LED and other more energy-efficient lighting.

“LED is a light revolution. With household electricity bills continuing to rise rapidly and global energy consumption increasing, a small LED bulb can have a very big impact. It uses much less energy than a traditional bulb and brings a lot of home furnishing potential to the home. Building on our belief that everyone should be able to afford to live more sustainably at home, we will make sure our LED prices are the lowest on the market,” said Steve Howard, Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA Group.

There is already a wide range of LED bulbs available at IKEA that enable customers to easily change old bulbs to LED without changing the lamp base. LED lighting is, until now, one of the best kept secrets in home furnishing sustainability:

• If one million people changed one bulb each into LED, this would, in terms of CO₂ emissions, correspond to taking almost 6700 cars off the road, or planting 17 million trees per year.
• The total annual cost saving (including purchase price and energy usage cost) of switching an incandescent 40 W bulb to a corresponding LED bulb is $6.70 on average.
• LED can be used in a multitude of ways, lights up immediately and gives good, warm light.
• LED is safe to use - it does not get hot and does not contain mercury.

“WWF is aiming for a 100% renewable energy future. In order to move away from our dependency on fossil fuels, we need to take advantage of all opportunities. Almost 20% of global electricity consumption comes from lighting so shifting lighting to LED technology is a cost-effective way to get change at scale. IKEA converting its lighting range to LED will have a real impact in reducing energy use in many households,” said Samantha Smith, leader of the WWF’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative.

A recently conducted survey of 6000 consumers in China, Russia, Germany, UK, US and Sweden showed that many are not aware of the benefits about LED; however, 60% express an interested in LED as an energy saver, especially as energy bills generally rise and 20-25% of the electricity cost in the home comes from lighting.