Quick Answer — How Much Do LED Bulbs Actually Save?
Annual savings per bulb = (Old watts − New watts) × Hours per day × 365 ÷ 1,000 × Electricity rate, plus the money you avoid spending on incandescent replacements since an LED lasts far longer. A typical 60-watt incandescent replaced by an 8-9 watt LED equivalent, run 4 hours a day at the 2026 US average residential rate of $0.1883/kWh, saves roughly $14 per bulb per year in energy alone.
Quick reference (single bulb, 4 hrs/day, $0.1883/kWh): 60W → 9W LED saves about $14/year; 100W → 14W LED saves about $24/year; a 10-bulb household swap at that same usage saves roughly $140-150/year combined, before counting avoided incandescent replacement costs.
The energy savings alone often undersell the case: incandescent bulbs last about 1,000 hours versus 15,000-25,000 hours for a quality LED (per ENERGY STAR/DOE), so over an LED's lifespan you also avoid buying and replacing 15-25 incandescent bulbs per socket.