Find out exactly how much your LED installation costs to run. Enter your setup details to get realistic power draw and electricity cost estimates.
300 total LEDs
Most ambient use is 20–50%. Effects average ~33% of peak.
Rates shown are approximate averages. Check your electricity bill for your exact rate. Australian rates vary significantly by state and retailer.
Peak (all LEDs full white)
90.0W
18000mA at 5V
Realistic estimate
15.0W
Typical mixed-effects usage
At 50% Average brightness, 6h/day, $0.32/kWh
CONTEXT
A typical WLED installation running ambient effects at 30–50% brightness uses less electricity than a single incandescent light bulb.
Estimates assume realistic mixed-effects usage at ~33% of peak current. Actual costs vary with effect type and LED efficiency. Peak figures assume all LEDs at full white simultaneously.
Addressable LED strips are substantially more power-efficient than incandescent lighting but less efficient than simple non-addressable LED strips, because every pixel contains its own driver IC that draws a small baseline current even when the LED appears off. Understanding your true running cost requires knowing your strip type, your average brightness across your effects, how many hours per day the installation runs, and your local electricity rate.
The Running Cost Estimator uses the actual rated current draw of each supported chipset at full white, then applies a brightness multiplier based on the average effect brightness you specify. A fire effect running at 50% intensity draws roughly 35% of the theoretical peak. A solid white scene at 80% brightness draws approximately 80% of peak. The estimator lets you dial in a realistic average so your annual cost projection reflects actual use rather than a worst-case that never occurs in practice.
WS2812B strips at 60 LEDs per metre draw up to 60mA per LED — 3.6A per metre at full white. A 5-metre strip at full white draws 18A at 5V, or 90 watts. At a typical ambient brightness of 40%, that drops to around 36 watts. SK6812 RGBW strips draw similar amounts but produce better whites. WS2815 12V strips draw around 12mA per LED, so a 5-metre 60 LED/m strip peaks at just 36W.
WLED effects vary enormously in average brightness. Solid white at full brightness is the worst case. Rainbow cycle effects average around 33% of peak. Candle flicker, fire, and other sparse effects often average 20–30%. If you set WLED's brightness to 128 out of 255 (50%), your power draw scales roughly linearly. The estimator's brightness slider represents your combined effect and brightness setting.
Running an LED installation for 2 hours per evening versus 12 hours per day makes a 6× difference in annual cost. Ambient room lighting installations that run all evening typically average 4–6 hours per day. Always-on accent lighting for media centres or staircases might run 10–16 hours. Be realistic about your usage pattern — the estimator lets you set hours per day to reflect this.
Electricity rates vary significantly by country and even by state or region. Australia averages around $0.30–0.35 AUD per kWh. The United Kingdom averages around £0.24–0.28 per kWh. The United States averages around $0.12–0.16 USD per kWh. Germany typically pays around €0.30–0.35 per kWh. The estimator allows you to enter your actual tariff for the most accurate projection.
Manufacturer specifications give the maximum current per LED at full white brightness. Real-world draw depends heavily on the effect and brightness setting. The estimator's brightness slider is the key variable — set it to your typical average, not the maximum. For most ambient installations, 30–50% is realistic.
The ESP32 controller draws around 150–250mA at 5V during normal Wi-Fi operation, and up to 350mA during OTA updates or Bluetooth scanning. At 5V that is 0.75–1.75W — a small fraction of your total LED draw for any installation over 1 metre, but worth including in your calculation for very short strips.
To some extent. Using warm white or amber colours instead of full RGB white can reduce draw by 50–60% at the same perceived brightness, because white requires all three LEDs at full power while a warm amber uses only red and green channels. Using SK6812 RGBW strips and driving the dedicated white channel is more efficient than mixing RGB for white.
A single Philips Hue White and Colour bulb draws around 8–9W. A 3-metre WS2812B 60 LED/m strip at 50% brightness draws roughly 16W — equivalent to two Hue bulbs but covering 3 metres of linear lighting. For bias lighting or accent strips under 2 metres at moderate brightness, addressable LEDs are competitively efficient.