Lighting consumed 641 TWh of electricity, or approximately 17% of the country's total electricity use, in 2015 and approximately 37% of the lighting electricity was consumed in the commercial sector, which also produced the majority of lumens (45%), according to a comprehensive new study of the U.S. lighting market from the U.S. Department of Energy. The new report, 2015 U.S. Lighting Market Characterization (LMC), provides a new baseline and a host of fresh numbers on the real installed base of lighting across four end-use sectors: residential, commercial, industrial and outdoor.
The report, third in a series done every five years, puts hard numbers on the changing picture of general-purpose lighting use and the growing penetration of solid-state lighting. Overall, LED lighting penetration into all sectors has made significant strides since 2010, representing 8% of overall lighting inventory in 2015, vs. less than 1% in 2010. The outdoor sector ranks highest in LED penetration, at 23% of that sector's lighting inventory (up from 8% in 2010) -- followed by the commercial (10%, up from 2%), residential (7%, up from less than 1%), and industrial (4%, up from less than 1%) sectors.
The new LMC shows other notable trends. The total number of installed lamps and luminaires grew from just under 7 billion in 2001 to over 8.2 billion in 2010, and then to 8.7 billion in 2015. Most of this growth occurred in the residential sector, primarily due to an increase in the number of households. But while the number of lighting products per household rose from 43 in 2001 to 51 in 2010, it was 52 in 2015, indicating a leveling-off.
Lighting data geeks will enjoy digging into this one, including a detailed chapter on data sources, as well as extensive data charts throughout.