Choosing the right lighting technology affects your energy bills, your comfort, and your maintenance headaches for years. I'm Sam from City Power Electrical Services (ECRA/ESA #7015314), and I install lighting in homes and businesses across the GTA daily. Here's an honest comparison of the three main lighting technologies.
LED (Light Emitting Diode). LED is the current standard and for good reason. An LED bulb converts electricity directly into light using semiconductor materials, with very little wasted as heat.
Energy use: A typical LED bulb producing 800 lumens (equivalent to a 60-watt incandescent) uses only 8 to 10 watts. That's about 85% less energy than incandescent and 50% less than fluorescent for the same light output.
Lifespan: LED bulbs last 25,000 to 50,000 hours. That's roughly 15 to 25 years of average residential use (3 hours per day). For a commercial application running 10 to 12 hours per day, that's 6 to 12 years.
Light quality: Modern LEDs offer excellent colour rendering (CRI 80 to 98) and are available in every colour temperature from warm (2700K) to cool daylight (5000K+). The old complaint that LEDs produce "cold, harsh" light is outdated — quality LED bulbs at 3000K are indistinguishable from incandescent in warmth and appearance.
Dimming: LEDs dim well with compatible LED dimmers. They don't dim on standard incandescent dimmers (which causes flickering — see my article on flickering lights).
Heat: LEDs produce very little heat compared to incandescent or halogen. This is a significant advantage in pot lights (less heat in the ceiling cavity) and in summer (less added cooling load).
Cost: An LED bulb costs $3 to $15 depending on type and quality. LED pot light modules cost $15 to $50. The higher upfront cost is repaid many times over in energy savings and longevity.
Halogen. Halogen bulbs are essentially improved incandescent bulbs. They use a tungsten filament (like incandescent) inside a compact capsule filled with halogen gas, which allows the filament to burn hotter and brighter.
Energy use: A halogen bulb producing 800 lumens uses about 43 watts. That's about 25 to 30% less than a standard incandescent but still 4 to 5 times more than LED.
Lifespan: Halogen bulbs last 2,000 to 4,000 hours — about 2 to 3 years of residential use. You'll replace a halogen bulb 8 to 12 times in the lifespan of a single LED.
Light quality: Halogen produces excellent light quality. CRI is typically 95 to 100, and the warm colour temperature (2800K to 3000K) is natural and appealing. This is where halogen shines — the light quality is genuinely excellent.
Dimming: Halogen dims smoothly on standard dimmers with no compatibility issues.
Heat: Halogen bulbs are extremely hot. A halogen pot light can reach surface temperatures of 250°C or more. This creates fire risk near insulation (halogen pot lights must have proper clearance from insulation), increases cooling costs in summer, and makes the bulbs dangerous to touch during or after use.
Cost: Halogen bulbs cost $3 to $10 each, similar to or slightly more than LED. But the total cost of ownership is much higher due to more frequent replacement and significantly higher energy use.
Important note: In Canada, most halogen and incandescent bulbs are being phased out under federal energy efficiency regulations. The regulations introduced between 2023 and 2025 effectively ban the sale of most general-purpose halogen and incandescent bulbs. Specialty halogen bulbs (for specific fixtures) may still be available, but for general lighting, LED is the future — and the present.
Fluorescent. Fluorescent lighting uses an electric current to excite mercury vapour, which produces ultraviolet light that then causes a phosphor coating to glow and produce visible light.
Energy use: A 4-foot T8 fluorescent tube producing about 2,800 lumens uses 32 watts. A T5 tube producing similar output uses 28 watts. Fluorescent is more efficient than halogen and incandescent but less efficient than LED.
Lifespan: Fluorescent tubes last 15,000 to 30,000 hours depending on type. That's decent, but still less than LED, and the quality of light degrades significantly before the tube actually dies.
Light quality: This is fluorescent's weakness. Standard fluorescent tubes have CRI of 62 to 80, which makes colours look washed out and unnatural. High-CRI fluorescent tubes exist (CRI 85 to 95) but are more expensive and less common. The characteristic "buzzing" and "flickering" of aging fluorescent ballasts is universally disliked.
Dimming: Most fluorescent fixtures don't dim. Dimmable fluorescent ballasts exist but are expensive and not commonly installed.
Heat: Fluorescent produces moderate heat — less than halogen but more than LED.
Mercury: All fluorescent tubes contain mercury, which is toxic. They must be properly recycled at a household hazardous waste depot — you can't throw them in the regular trash. This is a genuine environmental disadvantage.
Cost: Fluorescent tubes are inexpensive ($3 to $8 per tube), but the ballast that drives them costs $15 to $40 and has a lifespan of about 10 years. When the ballast fails, you're paying for a repair, not just a bulb swap.
The numbers that matter. Let's compare the annual energy cost of providing the same amount of light (about 800 lumens, equivalent to one old 60-watt bulb) running 3 hours per day at Ontario's average residential electricity rate (approximately 13 cents per kWh). An LED at 9 watts costs about $1.28 per year. A halogen at 43 watts costs about $6.12 per year. A fluorescent CFL at 15 watts costs about $2.14 per year.
For a home with 30 light fixtures, the annual energy cost difference between LED and halogen is approximately $145. Over the 25-year life of the LED bulbs, that's over $3,600 in energy savings — for just one home.
For commercial applications, the savings are much more dramatic. A warehouse with 20 fluorescent high-bay fixtures running 12 hours per day can save $3,000 to $6,000 per year by switching to LED, with a payback period of 1 to 3 years.
My verdict as an electrician. LED wins on every metric that matters: energy efficiency, lifespan, total cost of ownership, heat output, and environmental impact. The only area where halogen has a slight edge is colour rendering in certain specialty applications. For general residential and commercial lighting in 2026, there's no reason to install anything other than LED.
For LED lighting installation or a retrofit of your existing halogen or fluorescent fixtures, call City Power Electrical Services at 416-877-3048. We do residential pot lights, under-cabinet lighting, landscape lighting, and commercial LED retrofits across the GTA.