How many people of the future will it take to change a lightbulb?

At least two: one to change it and one to look up how to change a lightbulb on their GoogApple GlasWatch, because lightbulbs will be changed so rarely they’ll forget how.

That’s the real deal with LED bulbs. Yeah, you save a little on electricity, cool. OK, they’re better for the Earth and stuff, always a plus. And for what it’s worth, even though they weren’t talking about these particular bulbs, the SweetHome says another Cree Soft Bulb is the best on the market for their warm incandescent-like white light, steady flicker-free glow, and silent operation. The guts are substantially similar in these, we’re pretty sure, and the price is much lower.

Yeah, yeah, so that’s all great, but time is what really matters. Time isn’t money. It’s more than that. The time you save changing a lightbulb every 12 years instead of three times a year: that’s the real bonus of going to LEDs.

Think about it: incandescent bulbs are rated at around 1,000 hours of life. At 8 hours a day, that’s 125 days, or three times a year. If you have 50 bulbs in your house that each burn out three times a year, that means in an average week you have to change three light bulbs. Or, more likely, there’s always a bulb or three burned out somewhere in your house.

LEDs have lifespans of 35,000 hours, or 8 hours a day for 12 years, although we still don’t know the real upper limit - they haven’t been around that long yet. Or, if you use it one hour a day, 95 years! (We’re comfortable making that assertion because we’ll be dead by the time your great-grandchildren figure out it fell short.)

Three times a year vs. once every 12 years, That’s 1/36th of the time spent dragging out the stepladder. 1/36th of the times you’ll get dead bugs on your hands. 1/36th of the chance you’ll fall off the stepladder and die. Maybe it wasn’t a massive overreach for the government to nudge regular old incandescents off the market.

So at this price, what’s keeping you from getting the LED in? If you’re shy after being burned by the brief CFL fad, fear not: we’re pretty sure LEDs are sticking around. And we don’t mean “sticking around” the way CFLs do, as hazardous waste that you can get arrested for throwing into the garbage.

How many of you does it take to change your lightbulbs? Just one. And you’ll only have to do it a handful of times for the rest of your life. Then it’ll be the people of the future’s problem.