Lighting guide
What it costs to light a room properly in Kenya
Lighting is one of the few home improvements where the cost is small and the effect is immediate. But the numbers are rarely written down anywhere, so people either overspend on a fitting or avoid the question altogether. Here is what it actually costs.
The lamp itself
There are three honest price bands in Kenya. Marketplace and supermarket lamps run about KSh 1,500 to 3,000, usually moulded plastic or thin pressed metal, with the bulb often sold separately. Handmade and studio-made lamps sit around KSh 2,500 to 7,000. Imported designer lighting starts near KSh 20,000 and climbs steeply.
The gap between the first and second band narrows quickly once you account for a bulb bought separately and a lamp replaced within a year.
The bulb
A warm dimmable LED in a standard E27 fitting costs roughly KSh 400 to 900 in Kenya. This is where most price comparisons quietly break: a lamp advertised at KSh 1,800 without a bulb is not cheaper than one at KSh 2,500 with a good one already in it.
Buy the bulb once and it should last years. Buy a cheap lamp with a sealed integrated LED and the whole lamp dies when the LED does.
The electricity, worked out
This is the part people overestimate badly. A typical LED lamp bulb draws around 7 to 9 watts. Run one for five hours every evening and that is roughly 1.2 kilowatt-hours a month.
At Kenya Power domestic rates that lands somewhere around KSh 30 to 40 a month per lamp, depending on your tariff band and the levies applying at the time. Two lamps running every evening cost less than a single matatu fare across town. Lighting is not where your bill comes from. That is the iron, the kettle and the fridge.
What a room actually needs
- Bedroom. One bedside lamp, or two if the bed is shared. Budget KSh 2,500 to 5,000 per lamp with the bulb included.
- Sitting room. Two lamps at opposite ends beats one big one. KSh 5,000 to 9,000 for the pair.
- Desk or study corner. One lamp, positioned so the light comes over your shoulder rather than into the screen.
- A whole small apartment. Three lamps covers a bedsitter or one-bedroom comfortably, so roughly KSh 8,000 to 12,000 as a one-off.
Where the money gets wasted
Two places. The first is buying a lamp without a bulb and then buying the cheapest bulb on the shelf, which is usually cool white and undoes the reason you bought the lamp. The second is replacing a failed cheap lamp twice in the time a better one would have lasted.
There is a full current price list on our lamp prices page if you want to compare specific models rather than bands.