[youtube width=”537″ height=”302″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNX0WCgSVuk[/youtube]
If you read our enlightening “how to switch to LED bulbs” tutorial, you’ve hopefully already seen how much money and energy you can save by replacing your incandescent bulbs, but we wanted to make it even clearer how easy and effective a home light bulb makeover can be. We headed over to Brooklyn to give a light bulb overhaul to the managing editor ofInhabitots, our very own Julie Seguss! Julie is going to be a new mom in just a few months, so saving money is of the utmost importance right now, but she still wanted to keep her Park Slope home illuminated with a warm, bright glow. In just a few hours, the Inhabitat lighting makeover crew (aka Inhabitat editors Jill & Yuka) were able to swap out all of Julie’s electricity-guzzling incandescents and halogens with energy-efficient Philips LEDs, and we think you’ll be impressed with the monthly savings we tallied up for Julie at the end of the day. Check out our video above to see the whole makeover, and find out how much extra cash Julie and her husband will have after the makeover to spend on diapers and baby clothes!

Julie and her husband loved the overhead lighting in their beautiful home in Park Slope, Brooklyn, but they noticed that their electricity bill was quite pricey every month. With a new baby coming in just a few months, they hoped to cut back on whatever expenses they could, and swapping out incandescent and halogen light bulbs with LED bulbs is an easy way to effortlessly and automatically save money on your energy bill every month. Contrary to the old stereotype, the latest generation of high tech LED light bulbs can be just as warm and bright as incandescent bulbs, so unlike other makeovers, the point of our lighting makeover was to show that Julie couldn’t see a noticeable difference with her new lights at all — that is, until got her next energy bill and saw how much money she would be saving!

LIVING ROOM & KITCHEN
Julie’s spacious living room and kitchen are filled with sunshine during the day but at night, it takes 11 75W halogen flood bulbs to light up the space. Luckily, it didn’t take much elbow grease at all for Inhabitat editor-in-chief Jill Fehrenbacherto swap out those energy-guzzlers with 11 12W Philips Par30 LED flood bulbs. As you can see in the video, Julie’s very pleased with the result and the amount of money she’ll save with this simple switch.

JULIE WILL SAVE:
$183.48 per year

HALLWAY
Though you might not pay much mind to them, your hallway lights can really add to your monthly electricity bill if you’re using halogens or incandescents. We didn’t want to ignore this small space in Julie’s home because there are savings to be found there (at least enough for a few new bottles or swaddles). We swapped out her 2 60W Mini Halogen Reflector Bulbs and replaced with 7W Philips Par20 LED Flood bulbs for a savings of $21.84 per year.

JULIE WILL SAVE:
$21.84 per year



BEDROOM, OFFICE & BATH
Next we moved to Julie’s bedroom, office and bathroom, where we swapped out 15 60W incandescent light bulbs with equivalent brightness Philips 12.5W AmbientLED replacement bulbs. Julie also expressed to us that she wished she had more light in her bedroom so we swapped out the two 60W incandescent bulbs in her ceiling sconce with 17W Philips AmbientLED Bulbs (75W replacement bulbs) to provide her with a lot more light. Even though these bulbs use just 17W of electricity, they provide light that’s as bright as a 75W incandescent bulb, so now she’s getting a lot more light with a lot less energy! We also gave her two bright new yellow table lamps from West Elm to create a cheery (and matchy) new space. The total energy savings between bathrooms, office and bedroom is $208.76 per year.

JULIE WILL SAVE:
$208.76 per year

HOW MUCH WILL JULIE SAVE ALTOGETHER?
So now for the moment of truth – how much will Julie save after our lighting makeover? We swapped out a total of 11 halogen and 17 incandescent bulbs in Julie’s house and her total annual savings (based on the cost per kWh noted on her past energy bills) comes to $411.36! Now, that’s a lot of diapers! Don’t forget to watch a video of the whole makeover above and click through a photo gallery for a play by play of our favorite highlights of our video shoot. And if you have a baby on the way or would just like to save some extra money on your monthly energy bill, don’t be afraid to try your own lighting makeover!
IN TOTAL JULIE WILL SAVE:
$411.36 per year
That’s a lot of diapers for Julie’s new bundle of joy!

Inspired to make the switch from incandescents to LEDs in your own home? Check out our How to Switch Your Bulbs to LEDs To Get Ready for the Incandescent Bulb Phase-Out tutorial here.