A 6 watt LED spot burning three hours a day costs about 1.85 euro a year. Eight of those in a living room come to around 15 euro together. The same eight points in halogen cost around 123 euro, and that difference is the whole reason LED exists.
What we are calculating with
Two numbers decide the outcome: the power of the lamp and the price per kilowatt hour. For the second we use 28 cents. That is roughly the median of the electricity prices the Dutch Authority for Consumers and Markets publishes on the fifteenth of every month, measured in the summer of 2026. If you have a fixed contract, check your own annual statement, because that can differ by a few cents.
The formula is simple: watts times burning hours divided by a thousand gives kilowatt hours. Times the price is the amount.
What a spot really costs
Three hours a day is 1,095 hours a year. That is a realistic assumption for a living room.
- One 6 watt spot, such as the Ferro: 6.6 kilowatt hours, about 1.85 euro a year
- Eight 6 watt spots together: 53 kilowatt hours, about 15 euro a year
- Eight 50 watt halogen spots: 438 kilowatt hours, about 123 euro a year
That gap of around 108 euro a year is the real answer to whether switching pays. On a spot costing a few tens of euros you earn the purchase back within a year, from one room alone.
How much is that on your whole bill?
According to Milieu Centraal about 11 percent of a household's electricity use goes to lighting, on an average consumption of 2,430 kilowatt hours a year. So that is around 267 kilowatt hours, or about 75 euro a year for all the light in the house together.
That percentage dates from a time when far from everything was LED. If your house has fully converted, you sit well below it. If there are still halogen spots in the kitchen or a fluorescent batten in the garage, you sit well above it, and that is exactly where your biggest saving is.
Where it really adds up
Lighting that burns little is rarely worth the effort. Lighting that burns a lot is. A garage or workshop with a classic 36 watt fluorescent uses about 46 watts including the ballast. Replace it with an 18 watt LED tube and 50 kilowatt hours a year drops to 20, so from 14 to 5.50 euro.
Small amount, but it adds up across several fixtures, and it counts for more in a commercial building. A 30 watt LED panel burning ten hours a day over 250 working days comes to 75 kilowatt hours, about 21 euro a year. Four panels in an office therefore cost around 84 euro in electricity.
Why watts are not the whole story
Two 6 watt spots can differ considerably in what they give. The Ferro gets 600 lumens out of 6 watts, the Quaro 400 lumens out of the same 6 watts. That is 100 against 67 lumens per watt.
Judged on consumption they are equal. Judged on light, you need one and a half times as many Quaros for the same result, and therefore one and a half times the consumption. So compare on lumens per watt, not on watts. That is worked out further in How many watts does an LED spotlight need?
What helps and what does not
Dimming genuinely saves electricity, because a dimmed LED draws less power. Switching off saves more. The idea that frequent switching is bad for the lamp comes from the fluorescent era and does not apply to LED to the same degree.
What helps little: buying expensive spots to save electricity when the difference is a few euro a year. Choose on colour temperature, output and lifespan instead, because those you notice for years. The range is at recessed spotlights.
What does an LED lamp cost per hour?
A 6 watt spot costs about 0.17 cents an hour at 28 cents per kilowatt hour. So you have to run it nearly 600 hours to spend one euro.
Is it worth replacing halogen now?
For lighting that burns daily, yes. Eight 50 watt halogen spots cost around 123 euro a year, the same eight in LED about 15 euro.
Does a dimmable LED use less when dimmed?
Yes. The power drops with it, though not always in exact proportion to the light. Half dimmed usually means slightly more than half the power.