Retail price for LED bulbs is substantially higher than that of incandescent. LED bulbs can last anywhere from 15,000 hours up to 25,000 hours. EU standards have relaxed recently, dropping the minimum hours to 6,000. In a recent test by a UK consumer group Which?, they discovered that most LED bulbs on the market do not live up to the promised lifespan by manufacturers.

Which? collected a total of 230 different brand and wattage LED bulbs to test. They then turned on the bulbs for 165 minutes, and then switched them off for 15 minutes. They continued this cycle until they failed, according to a report by the BCC News Network.

The results showed that five types of bulbs stopped working after 6,000 hours, while 66 did not reach 10,000 hours, a far cry from the hours claimed by manufacturers.

”One of the attractions of LED light bulbs is that they’re suppose to last a long time. So if you’re shelling out for these bulbs – typically more expensive than other types of light bulbs – you’ll want to be sure that they’ll live up to those claims,” said Which?.