Household LED Style Light Bulbs Inquiry

[A383Wing]

I know years ago the way to reduce power consumption was to change out the regular bulbs with compact florescent bulbs.

sounds like to me that the next big savings plan would be to change out interior house light bulbs to LED style.

Has anyone changed to LED styles and what was your savings and how is the lighting effect on the eyes and interior of the house?

I have a couple "corn style" LED bulbs coming for my porch light as a test to see how it lights up my walkway as a test....was just wondering about the inside living quarters as well

Bryan

[Fred]

We changed to lead a few months ago so it's too early to know about the savings although there must be as the wattage used is heaps less.  In regards to the globes, they're not at full strength when you first switch them on so they take a little while to reach their full brightness. They are much brighter than an ordinary bulbs though which is a good thing in the dining room and kitchen but maybe not so good in the living room. The one thing that annoys me is that there is a slight time delay (now here's the strange bit....in some of the rooms.......not all) when first switching on so you're actually waiting for a second or so for something to happen. That's hard to get used to but in the end we won't have a choice so the sooner we adapt, the better I guess.
I like them enough so as not to change back to the old globes.

[thedodgeboys]

I like the led idea but the initial buy in is pricy currently 20 to 40 bucks a bulb  so I'm slowly replacing the old style as needed or justified.

I have a lot of can style fixtures in my house and found depending on the construction of the bulbs housing they may not fit and some act as a sot more than a wide pattern.

In the long run they should last lots longer and be less expensive to operate.

[plum500]

I am definitely on board with reducing power consumption, waste, etc. I think the price of these green bulbs is an unfortunate cash grab though - and represents little green motivation on the part of the manufacturer and retailers.

That being said, I bought some dim-able Philips mini spots for our kitchen a couple years back when they first came out - 27 bucks a pop, but I have been very happy with them. The light they give off is very nice, bright, and directed like halogen, they dim nicely, and they have to be more energy efficient - because of the lack of heat they give off. Plus I do believe they will last the supposed 15 years (I think) if not longer - just because they are LED vs incandescent. I suspect whatever circuitry is inside might fail before the LEDs themselves.  

I bought some cheaper ones - not a known brand, and half the price for the basement, I bought 6 - the light was a cheap annoying flicker and in half the time I have had them, 3 of them have died. The Philips ones I bought are definitely far superior, and I will buy more gradually.

I question the recycling cost of these new bulbs - but that is a cost and process I believe that should be provided by manufacturers and retailers with transparency, but that's another discussion

[skip68]

Saw them at Home Depot the other day when I was looking for lights.  Says the last 22+ years.     The price was pretty steep.  I want to wait and see how they do for a bit first.   

[bakerhillpins]

My father-in-law replaced all of the incandescent bulbs on his sailboat with LED lights that go into the existing sockets. (system is 12v) He tested his power consumption before and after with all lights on.  He went from 70 to 0.7 amps total. On the boat that is a BIG deal.

He said that the change in lighting was as good or better light than before. I know that during my recent 4 days on the boat that there was PLENTY of light. However, this isn't a home application but I was easily blinded by the light they produced because I stupidly looked when he mentioned the change. 

[Charger RT]

the wattage drop from regular bulbs to cfl is a big drop the led is only a little more of a drop. I changed out the six 7 watt night light in the house to led about 5 years ago. My drop was from 42 watts to 7 watts. It was a big savings because I was tired of always having one of these 7 watt chinese bulbs burned out.

I also have not found a cfl that will hold up in a bathroom so 2 years ago I bought 3 led bulbs for it. They seem to be doing fine except I think I found a small issue with led bulbs. Last summer my house was hit by lightening. I lost a router, modem, old xbox eternet port (xbox still works), 3 led night lights, and 1 of the three bathroom led bulbs. A second bulb quit 2 months later.

I plan on a new set from this company. They have the ones I have been looking at on sale for 12.99. http://www.maxximastyle.com/ They also made my night lights.
Tim

[bakerhillpins]

I also have not found a cfl that will hold up in a bathroom so 2 years ago I bought 3 led bulbs for it. They seem to be doing fine except I think I found a small issue with led bulbs. Last summer my house was hit by lightening. I lost a router, modem, old xbox eternet port (xbox still works), 3 led night lights, and 1 of the three bathroom led bulbs. A second bulb quit 2 months later.

I have the same issues with CFL as you have. I don't put them in any room where they don't have significant on-time because they just burn out 3x as fast and cost 10x as much as incandescent ones. I had been hesitating to move to LED bulbs for that reason so I am glad to see your experience with them was positive.

For the lightning issue you might consider a whole house surge protector. They mount on your main electrical service panel and typically are 30-$50. Or were anyhow.

[Charger RT]

I always felt the bathroom issue was the moisture in the bathroom. My old house they took a utility room on the first floor and split it in half one side was a laundry room the other was a full bathroom. They never split the lights so if one room was lit the other was too. fluorescent lights lasted just fine on the laundry room side but not in the bathroom. I tried a set in this house as well took no time to failed in the bathroom. I have the same bulb with a smaller base in my dining room and they are holding up fine. That is why I tried the led in the bathroom.

Another problem I find with the whole light bulb issue is when switching from regular bulbs to cfl they say this cfl is equal to this watt bulb but uses this amount of watts. That is easy to pick the right bulb you need. Led bulbs don't do that they list what lumens they are and what amount of watts they use. So there is no easy comparison they say a 40 bulb equals about a 13 watt cfl. What I am thinking a 450 lumen led bulb is about equal to the 40 watt and uses about 9 watts.
Tim

[plum500]

I always felt the bathroom issue was the moisture in the bathroom. My old house they took a utility room on the first floor and split it in half one side was a laundry room the other was a full bathroom. They never split the lights so if one room was lit the other was too. fluorescent lights lasted just fine on the laundry room side but not in the bathroom. I tried a set in this house as well took no time to failed in the bathroom. I have the same bulb with a smaller base in my dining room and they are holding up fine. That is why I tried the led in the bathroom.

Another problem I find with the whole light bulb issue is when switching from regular bulbs to cfl they say this cfl is equal to this watt bulb but uses this amount of watts. That is easy to pick the right bulb you need. Led bulbs don't do that they list what lumens they are and what amount of watts they use. So there is no easy comparison they say a 40 bulb equals about a 13 watt cfl. What I am thinking a 450 lumen led bulb is about equal to the 40 watt and uses about 9 watts.
Tim

Check this out...
http://www.clarkhoward.com/news/clark-howard/environment-energy/new-watt-lumens-conversion-may-confuse-some/nDJf5/

[Charger RT]

so that chart shows what I have been figuring out as in the ball bark. The problem is people already changed from regular bulbs to cfl bulbs. So to me we need to compare from cfl to led. They want you to think back to regular bulbs and convert to led with no comparison from cfl to led. I converted most of my home to fluorescent lights in the late 80's before they were compact. My kids have grown up with fluorescent lights and think of these bulbs only they don't understand the old bulbs and are now asked to convert to led with something they really don't use. Its like when I pull out my old albums the kids call them big cds and call the record player the big cd player.
Tim

[A383Wing]

Thanks for the replies guys...keep 'em coming.

And I agree with the thought of more energy saved going from standard to compact florescent style bulbs, but maybe not much more savings going from florescent to LED style.

When I turn on my inside lights, there is a "brightness delay" of about 15 seconds from initial turn on to when the florescent bulbs get full bright. My problem I have with these bulbs is that the "ballast in the base" gets rather hot to the touch. I have also heard some "melting" issues with these bulbs.

I went to local hardware store to look at 110v LED style bulbs for interior of house...roughly $13 per bulb...and with as many inside bulbs in our house, not exactly cost efficient for me

I did buy 2 of these LED lights below for my porch light at my front door, I think I might experiment on how these light up on the inside of my house as well. I bought a pair of these for $12 with free shipping. These also come with more LED's as well. Choice of colors is warm white or that pure blinding white light which I really don't like.

Bryan