Converting house to LED light bulbs

Has anybody bit he bullet and done this?

What kind of energy savings have you seen?


At 30-40 dollars per bulb it would cost me several hundred dollars, could use some input

[SSDVC]

I have taken a look at this over the past few years and have been watching the market and evolution of the bulbs for a while.

You can cut lighting consumption by 90% by going to all LED bulbs. However, they are just now starting to introduce better, warmer lighting 'color" and it is not perfect...yet. I think that over the next 2 years you should see a drastic drop in price for the bulbs, a better color rendition from them and a more robust "spreading of the light output from the bulb. Once this happens, I will jump in.

I am going to purchase several sets of commercial Christmas lights next season. I am not impressed by the Home Depot specials, but places like Planet Christmas have some links to some really good companies selling some nice stuff. Putting those lights up for the holidays will save some decent dollars for me, again about 90% of my normal "seasonal" increase.

Anyway, that's my limited knowledge dump.

[aich75013]

Originally Posted by SSDVC

I have taken a look at this over the past few years and have been watching the market and evolution of the bulbs for a while.

You can cut lighting consumption by 90% by going to all LED bulbs. However, they are just now starting to introduce better, warmer lighting 'color" and it is not perfect...yet. I think that over the next 2 years you should see a drastic drop in price for the bulbs, a better color rendition from them and a more robust "spreading of the light output from the bulb. Once this happens, I will jump in.

I am going to purchase several sets of commercial Christmas lights next season. I am not impressed by the Home Depot specials, but places like Planet Christmas have some links to some really good companies selling some nice stuff. Putting those lights up for the holidays will save some decent dollars for me, again about 90% of my normal "seasonal" increase.

Anyway, that's my limited knowledge dump.

Scott, if you want to buy some good LED Christmas lights, check out http://illumimax.com. He's a friend of mine here in TX. Good guy. He does a large Group Buy of lights every year around February. They won't get delivered until July/August. He buys direct from China and has certain specs that have to be met (we use them for animated lighting, so they have to be able to turn on/off hundreds of times for our displays. His prices will fluctuate yearly due to copper prices at the current time, but once he sets the price, it won't change. I've bought from him for years and have only had one issue and he made it right (someone took part of my order, so he replaced everything at no cost to me.) Yuo can become a member at http://www.lone-star-holidays.com/ to check when the group buy is or send him an e-mail from his website and he'll add you to his list. You can tell him Adrian from Allen, TX referred you.

[mmblz]

last time i looked at them in person i still felt like i was in a morgue, even for the "warm" version.
for me that's the end of the story until they look better. same reason i've never switched to CFLs
until recently, leds could not be dimmed, but now there are dimmable leds.
as of a couple of years ago, CREE seemed to be the one company with a quality dimmable led (this was mostly for recessed lights). at the time they could go up to $70 a bulb.

[ninjavanish]

I think LED's... given prolonged exposure... and the terrible terribleness of them... will rot your cigars and give you a brain cloud.

EDIT: Actually in all reality LED's are the best light source for cigars because they cause no fading (unlike fluorescent) and little heat (unlike incandescent)...

But the brain cloud is a real threat. Don't underestimate it it. Otherwise you'll find your self on an island full of the orange soda drinking native tribe of the Waponii-Woo.

[MrClean]

We have two ceiling fans in our living room that use halogen bulbs. I swear I can feel the room temp increase whenever I turn on the lights. They seem to be going out all the time (to me anyway) so I decided as these 6 bulbs fail I will replace them with the LED version.
Only one halogen has gone out so far. I really like the LED bulbs for this particular room/set up. The LEDs are $30 and have a 6 year warranty, which I've filed the receipts away for these bulbs.
Replacing the bulbs for the can-lighting downstairs will be scary. There are 9 I think, and those LED bulbs are still $50-$60, so we'll keep it with the CFL's for now.

The City requires us to put in LEDS or energy saving bulbs in construction for all our residential homes. The energy saved will justify the costs via your electric bill.

[RGD.]

I don't plan on going full scale on the LEDs anytime soon. I am considering them in some of the case lighting (curio, china cabinets, etc.) I have installed CFL wherever possible. I have a lot of motion sensor switches going into various rooms and hallways that don't always work well with CFL's.

We don't burn a lot of table lamps, ceiling lights etc - but we do have a lot of accent lighting. I also use a lot of halogen ceiling lights for picture lighting. In these cases all of them are on dimmers to get the right effect. Using LEDs I don't think I could get the same effect without the yellow light cast. In most all cases the 50w halogens are dimmed down to about 10/15 watts.

So I don't know - not looking forward to the expense nor the color.

Ron

[SvilleKid]

I'm thinking about replacing my candles and kerosene lanterns with those new-fangled electrical things as my candles burn down.

Heck, I can't get my money's worth out of the CFLs (they just don't last much longer than regular incandescence bulbs for me!) Not likely to pay $40 per bulb for sure!!

[T.G]

Originally Posted by SvilleKid

I'm thinking about replacing my candles and kerosene lanterns with those new-fangled electrical things as my candles burn down.

So you finally upgraded from whale blubber oil lamps?

[ninjavanish]

So doing some quick research and math... Something just doesn't add up to me with the led lights as a cost savings.

According to the Energy Star website it claims that on average the led will save about $6 per year on energy and about $40 over the span of its lifetime. If the bulb itself costs $40 then you haven't saved any cost at all really. Most places I look have 75w incandescent bulbs for about $1 a piece. So even if you have to replace the incandescent every 2 months (which I highly doubt) you are still on par with the yearly broken down cost of an led
Bulb ($40 / 6 years = $6.66 cost per year of usage for LEDs)

So with a little quick albeit potentially flawed math the cost/benefits analysis seems to show that you would still actually save money by sticking to incandescent.

However if you are one of the greenie tree hugger types that needs to believe that they have somehow protected an emperor penguin by spending $40 on a lightbulb... Then LEDs are definitely for you.

Originally Posted by ninjavanish

So doing some quick research and math... Something just doesn't add up to me with the led lights as a cost savings.

According to the Energy Star website it claims that on average the led will save about $6 per year on energy and about $40 over the span of its lifetime. If the bulb itself costs $40 then you haven't saved any cost at all really. Most places I look have 75w incandescent bulbs for about $1 a piece. So even if you have to replace the incandescent every 2 months (which I highly doubt) you are still on par with the yearly broken down cost of an led
Bulb ($40 / 6 years = $6.66 cost per year of usage for LEDs)

So with a little quick albeit potentially flawed math the cost/benefits analysis seems to show that you would still actually save money by sticking to incandescent.

However if you are one of the greenie tree hugger types that needs to believe that they have somehow protected an emperor penguin by spending $40 on a lightbulb... Then LEDs are definitely for you.

If this is the link you're looking at, that is not talking about LED bulBs, it's talking about plain old bulbs with an energy star rating

http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?...up&pgw_code=LB

Thanks everybody for the input. I'll probably buy a few and test them out in the kitchen

If nothing else, I figure the bulbs have a 6 year warranty on them, and are supposed to last for up to 23 years. If they only last 6, how many light bulbs do you go through in that time. 30 dollars for 6 years of light bulbs seems like a fair trade to me, not even counting in any possible energy savings

[hammondc]

Too damn bright. I don't really even like the curly spiral thingy lights.

[cricky101]

Originally Posted by hammondc

Too damn bright. I don't really even like the curly spiral thingy lights.

I've had mixed experience with the CFLs. The bulbs in my bathroom are great - nice light and no weird colors and they turn on right away unlike some that seem to "warm up" to full brightness.

I recently put some in my kitchen ceiling fixtures and it's like you're in some kind of laboratory. The light is harsh and really, really blue.

I'm sure they were two different brands so I'll have to pay closer attention to what I'm buying.

Originally Posted by cricky101

I've had mixed experience with the CFLs. The bulbs in my bathroom are great - nice light and no weird colors and they turn on right away unlike some that seem to "warm up" to full brightness.

I recently put some in my kitchen ceiling fixtures and it's like you're in some kind of laboratory. The light is harsh and really, really blue.

I'm sure they were two different brands so I'll have to pay closer attention to what I'm buying.

Incandescent bulbs, which is what we are all used to come in one flavor,
2700k. That gives the yellowish light we are used to.

LED/CFL bulbs you need to look at the package to see what you're buying. Warm White (2700k), Bright white (4000k) and daylight (6000k).

In general, the higher the number, the whiter the light.

[aich75013]

Originally Posted by Resipsa

Incandescent bulbs, which is what we are all used to come in one flavor,
2700k. That gives the yellowish light we are used to.

LED/CFL bulbs you need to look at the package to see what you're buying. Warm White (2700k), Bright white (4000k) and daylight (6000k).

In general, the higher the number, the whiter the light.

Yes. The daylight CFL bulbs look odd to me. I bought a pack and had to change them with the warm white ones. I tried to get used to them, but couldn't.

[rizzle]

I put blue LED's under the gunwales of my boat. I don't think that'd be real cool inside though.

[proguy747]

I have 6 in my house and it reduced my bill from $100 a month to $82. I am an electrical contractor and have installed several different models ranging in price. For recessed light I prefer the whole driver/trim in one piece. They offer a cleaner look when off because of the frosted lens. I prefer the 3k models as they give close to the incandescent color everybody want and still high lumen output. The 2700k is not as bright and the 3600k and 4k make you feel like your in a office. This is a great model and is what I have installed in my house. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053 I have installed more expensive models but the main factor to look for is CREE technology.

Originally Posted by proguy747

I have 6 in my house and it reduced my bill from $100 a month to $82. I am an electrical contractor and have installed several different models ranging in price. For recessed light I prefer the whole driver/trim in one piece. They offer a cleaner look when off because of the frosted lens. I prefer the 3k models as they give close to the incandescent color everybody want and still high lumen output. The 2700k is not as bright and the 3600k and 4k make you feel like your in a office. This is a great model and is what I have installed in my house. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053 I have installed more expensive models but the main factor to look for is CREE technology.

Out of curiousity can you guess at how much more your bill would drop if you replaced all of the bulbs in your house?

[MTB996]

Originally Posted by proguy747

I have 6 in my house and it reduced my bill from $100 a month to $82. I am an electrical contractor and have installed several different models ranging in price. For recessed light I prefer the whole driver/trim in one piece. They offer a cleaner look when off because of the frosted lens. I prefer the 3k models as they give close to the incandescent color everybody want and still high lumen output. The 2700k is not as bright and the 3600k and 4k make you feel like your in a office. This is a great model and is what I have installed in my house. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053 I have installed more expensive models but the main factor to look for is CREE technology.

Couldn't agree more, but then again I am biased. I make em...

The biggest problem with LEDs out there is all the crap that give the technology a bad name. LEDs can look great, have excellent CRI, the correct color temp, exceptional lifetimes, fully dimmable, etc. Just have to buy the right brands.