Can we earn Verra credits for replacing tube lights or bulbs with LEDs?
By default, no. Verra's VCS Standard v5.0 limits replacing incandescent bulbs with light emitting diodes (LEDs) or compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), and CFLs with LEDs, to least developed countries (LDCs), and India is not one. The table does not name tube lights, so a tube retrofit depends on the methodology's own conditions.
What Table 1 says
Section 2.1 of VCS Standard v5.0 gives a default eligibility for replacing incandescent electrical bulbs with LEDs or CFLs, or replacing CFLs with LEDs: activities in LDCs, for new registrations and crediting period renewals. India is not on the United Nations list of LDCs.
What the table does not say
It names three replacements: incandescent to LED, incandescent to CFL and CFL to LED. It does not name fluorescent tube lights, which are what most Indian factories run. That does not make a tube retrofit eligible. It means Table 1 is silent, and the applied methodology's own applicability conditions, and a geography rule if it has one, decide.
The savings are yours either way
A lighting retrofit pays through lower power bills whether or not it earns credits. The size of the cut is easy to work out from the fittings, the hours and the grid factor, as the example shows. Keep the before and after bills, because they are the evidence for any claim.
Example: 200 tube fittings to LED (example plant)
- Each fitting now: 36 watt (W) tube plus 4 W ballast = 40 W. LED: 18 W. Saving: 22 W each.
- Lit 3,000 hours a year across 200 fittings: 22 x 200 x 3,000 / 1,000 = 13,200 kilowatt-hours (kWh)
- At 0.675 kg CO2 per kWh (Central Electricity Authority (CEA), financial year (FY) 2025-26): 13,200 x 0.675 = 8,910 kg, about 8.9 tonnes (t) CO2 a year
Example figures to show the sum. Use your own wattage, hours and bills.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads electricity bills into monthly kWh and carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) at the grid factor for the bill's financial year, so a drop after the retrofit shows against earlier months. Eligibility for credits is for Verra and the methodology, not Senseible.
Sources: Verra, VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025), Section 2.1, Table 1, CEA CO2 Baseline Database, version 22.0
Last reviewed 2026-11-04. Section numbers are from VCS Standard v5.0 (16 December 2025); re-check them when Verra publishes a new version. Re-check the grid factor when CEA publishes a new edition.