Meralco rates are near record levels, so guessing what an appliance costs is an expensive habit. Here is the arithmetic for a LED bulb at the current rate, with every assumption written down so you can change it.
A LED bulb draws about 9 W. At the current Meralco rate of ₱14.7833 per kWh that is ₱0.13 per hour. Used 6 hours a day it costs ₱0.80 daily and about ₱23.95 a month.
Calculate it for your own led bulb
Change any box. The result updates as you type.
Planning estimate. The rate box is prefilled with a regional average; the figure on your own bill is the one that matters. Power is draw while running, not while switched on.
| Usage | kWh | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Per hour | 0.01 | ₱0.13 |
| Per day at 6 hours | 0.05 | ₱0.80 |
| Per 30-day month | 1.62 | ₱23.95 |
| Per year | 19.71 | ₱291.38 |
What drives the number
Lighting stopped being a meaningful part of a Philippine electricity bill once LED replaced fluorescent and incandescent.Only three things decide the cost: the wattage, the hours, and the rate. Wattage is fixed by the unit you own and is printed on the nameplate. The rate is fixed by Meralco and changes monthly. Hours is the only one under your control, which is why the table below is the useful one.
Cost by hours used per day
| Hours/day | kWh/day | Per day | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.01 | ₱0.13 | ₱3.99 |
| 2 | 0.02 | ₱0.27 | ₱7.98 |
| 4 | 0.04 | ₱0.53 | ₱15.97 |
| 6 | 0.05 | ₱0.80 | ₱23.95 |
| 8 | 0.07 | ₱1.06 | ₱31.93 |
| 10 | 0.09 | ₱1.33 | ₱39.91 |
| 12 | 0.11 | ₱1.60 | ₱47.90 |
| 24 | 0.22 | ₱3.19 | ₱95.80 |
Lighting stopped mattering
When fluorescent and incandescent bulbs were standard, lighting was a real share of a Philippine electricity bill. LED changed that completely. A 9 W LED replacing a 60 W incandescent does the same job for roughly a seventh of the power.
If any incandescent or old fluorescent tubes are still in use, replacing them is among the few energy upgrades that pays back in months rather than years. Beyond that, lighting is no longer where a bill is won or lost.
How to spend less on it
- Replace any remaining incandescent bulbs. The payback is fast and permanent.
- Use daylight where you can. Free and better quality than most fixtures.
Reading this against your actual Meralco bill
Your bill shows total kWh consumed and the amount charged. Divide the total by the kWh and you get your real effective rate, which will differ from the headline figure because of lifeline discounts, senior citizen discounts and the refunds Meralco is currently passing back.
Households consuming 100 kWh or less qualify automatically for the lifeline rate, which is substantially cheaper and applied without registration. If that is you, every figure on this page is an overestimate. Put your own effective rate into the calculator above and the numbers will correct themselves.
How the Meralco rate has moved this year
The same LED bulb cost noticeably less in January than it does now, with nobody changing how they use it. The generation charge is repriced every month against fuel costs, the peso-dollar rate and the wholesale spot market, so these figures move with it.
| Month | Rate per kWh | Bill at 200 kWh |
|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | ₱12.9508 | ₱2,590 |
| February 2026 | ₱13.1734 | ₱2,635 |
| March 2026 | ₱13.8161 | ₱2,763 |
| April 2026 | ₱14.3496 | ₱2,870 |
| May 2026 | ₱14.3345 | ₱2,867 |
| June 2026 | ₱14.4833 | ₱2,897 |
| July 2026 | ₱14.8261 | ₱2,965 |
| August 2026 | ₱14.7833 | ₱2,957 |
Running a LED bulb on solar
The Philippines averages roughly 4.8 peak sun hours a day, well above most of Europe or the northern United States. That, plus a grid rate near fifteen pesos, is why rooftop solar pays back faster here than international figures suggest, often in three to five years in Meralco territory.
| Panel size | Output per day | Panels needed |
|---|---|---|
| 400 W | 1.54 kWh | 1 |
| 450 W | 1.73 kWh | 1 |
| 550 W | 2.11 kWh | 1 |
| 600 W | 2.30 kWh | 1 |
Panels only produce in daylight. If the LED bulb runs at night, that energy has to come from a battery, and batteries remain the expensive part of a Philippine solar quote. Net metering credits exports at the generation charge rather than the full retail rate, so using your own production during the day is worth considerably more than selling it back. Financing options including the SSS Energy Sustainability Loan are worth reading before you commit.