Getting my mind off Boston for a while...

ProspectingCFI

ProspectingCFI

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Mar 11, 2013
Messages
125
Display Name
Display name:
Matt
So this is extremely random and I'm well aware of that, but...

I'm planning on slowly upgrading to LED bulbs in my house for the cost and energy savings. I figured the cost of these things would come down by now but I just checked my local HD and the bulbs I want to buy now (MR16) are $22 a piece! I need 9 of these things just in my kitchen. I don't have a math degree but that equals, like, a lot of money for light bulbs.

My questions are

1. Has anyone made this switch?

2. Are you satisfied with them and what brand?

3. Recommendations of sites for online purchasing?

4. How's the brightness?
 
ProspectingCFI said:
So this is extremely random and I'm well aware of that, but...

I'm planning on slowly upgrading to LED bulbs in my house for the cost and energy savings. I figured the cost of these things would come down by now but I just checked my local HD and the bulbs I want to buy now (MR16) are $22 a piece! I need 9 of these things just in my kitchen. I don't have a math degree but that equals, like, a lot of money for light bulbs.

My questions are

1. Has anyone made this switch?

2. Are you satisfied with them and what brand?

3. Recommendations of sites for online purchasing?

4. How's the brightness?
Click to expand...

Haven't made the household switch. I use LEDs in a couple of VERY hard to access light fixtures due to the nearly forever life.
Plus my carriage lights and a display case that are on 24/7, the low draw and forever life is good for that use.

Most of the rest of the house have CFLs.
 
LED is without a doubt the future for lighting...

The cost / value equasion is no where near close to the pay back at this time IMHO....

Back when the CF bulbs hit the market the greenies touted them as the cure for all ills... Well, fast forward a few years.. They were advertised as multi thousand year life span.. Most, if not all of mine died in less then 1000 hours, and the local trash transfer station will NOT accept them so the greenies that the run recycling center will take them off my hands for more then I paid for the bulbs because of the Mercury and other chemicals in them...:mad:..

It goes back to the old saying " If it is too good to be true, it usually is".

ps.... I went to the store just yesterday to buy some 100W old style bulbs...... The sales person said NO MORE.. They are all gone, apparently outlawed by the guvmint...:mad2::mad2::mad:...
 
Last edited:
I tried the CFLs and gave up. Lousy life, often giving up in a puff of smoke, one light fixture replacement when the burnout scorched the light socket and a useless warranty. I now have LED bulbs in the outdoor fixtures, LED reflectors in the baths, and LED bulbs in the kitchen and dining fixtures. So far so good, no failures so far on the LEDs, even in fixtures on dimmers.

Expensive, yes, but no choice in some cases. See if your locality has rebates - the utility here did for a while, cutting the cost down.
 
We just built a new house that is energy star certified. All lights outside are LED, all lights inside are CFL. Not one regular bulb on the property, by choice. They work great. I like the cfl's inside as the start off dim and brighten in 30 seconds or so. All are dimable.

Keep the recipes of all the lights you buy, some won't last and you can return them.
 
Geico266 said:
Keep the recipes of all the lights you buy, some won't last and you can return them.
Click to expand...

You not only build airplanes, but light bulbs too? Damn, that is extreme DIY!
:goofy:

OP: As far as brightness and color, I took a sample of several home from both the orange store and the blue store and tried them all out to get the bulb I needed for color and lumens in the kitchen, then returned the rest. Ended up needing a '100W equivalent' LED to get the same apparent brightness of the 75W halogens they replaced.
 
For those that are using LEDs, do they come in decorative styles?? I'm talking about the candle flame and big ball type looks.
 
I've had good luck with CFLs when I used them. Actually have never had one go out. In my last house, one of the first things that I did was replace all of the lights with CFLs. 6 years later when we moved, none of them had burned out. That said, we did end up switching some back to normal incandescent lights when we changed out some light fixtures. I think the success/failure rate must have something to do with your local power situation. I was just buying the junk from Sam's Club, so they certainly weren't high quality or expensive lights.

That said, in our new house we have 32 PAR36 flood lights, all incandescent. There are certain areas of the house where the incandescent lights produce a large sum of heat when used, and are used relatively frequently. With summer coming up my original thought was to proactively replace the lights with LEDs, but since prices haven't come down any, I think we're going to wait until some lights actually start burning out, and then replace them. Since I can be somewhat anal about these things I'd actually like to replace all 32 at once, but haven't found anyplace that offers bulk discounts on LEDs yet.

I remember around 20 years ago when I saw some of the first CFLs for sale, and they were about as expensive as the early LEDs were. Prices came down to the point where they were downright reasonable about 10 years ago. So that means we're probably a few years away from the LED lights to come down in price to reasonable as well.
 
One thing I didn't know about CFLs that lead me to being disappointed with their life span is that turning them on and off frequently reduces their life. You need to leave them on at least 15 minutes each time to get close to their rated hours. I had been replacing them in my small walk-in clothes closet way too frequently. I realized I would go in, turn on the light, get something, turn off the light and leave. I might do that 2, 3, 4 or more times in a morning, and again several times later in the day. Now I turn it on when I first go in and leave it on till I go to work. This one has not failed in over a year so far. I used to replace it a couple of times a year. Admittedly, I did buy cheap CFLs at Sam's Club.

I also used to put a couple of them in my garage door opener and they would burn out really quickly. It was a combination of opening the door, light coming on, pulling the car out and closing the door. Then my wife would do the same. THAT, plus the vibration just killed the CFLs. It didn't help the older incandescent ones either but wasn't that bad. I plan to replace them with LEDs when I can save up enough money. :wink2:
 
That's probably why I've gotten good life out of them. Normally I turn lights on and leave them on for a while.
 
Anymouse said:
For those that are using LEDs, do they come in decorative styles?? I'm talking about the candle flame and big ball type looks.
Click to expand...

Yes, to a limited degree. Don't know about the big ball type, but I have seen the candle type.
 
Varied luck with CFLs. The ones with the exposed curled tubes seem to do OK, but I had one fail in a manner that had us looking for the source of the smell of something getting ready to burn. That won had the letters "GE" on the label. Otherwise, they last longer than incandescents, but not so long as to be the savior of the world.

The CFLs that are packaged to look like regular light bulbs or PAR-30 floods aren't worth the powder it would take to blow them to H E Double hockey sticks. They take minutes to come up to full brightness. When I turn on the swith I want light NOW, not later. The PAR-30s will ultimately get replaced with LEDs as most of them are in fixtures in the kitchen that require a ladder to reach. The ones in the entrance to our bedroom will be replaced with nice, old fashioned, incandescents. Same with the one CFL in the walk-in closet.

Ultimately there will be no CFLs in the house. They aren't what they were cracked up to be when they were new.

Oh, and if you want long life, I'd like to find the source of the bulbs in the fixtures over the mirrors in our bathroom. Installed about 16 1/2 years ago and I might have replaced one of them in that period. Incandescents. Probably rated for 130 V, which would help explain the life.
 
Ghery said:
Oh, and if you want long life, I'd like to find the source of the bulbs in the fixtures over the mirrors in our bathroom. Installed about 16 1/2 years ago and I might have replaced one of them in that period. Incandescents. Probably rated for 130 V, which would help explain the life.
Click to expand...

The incandescent globes (about the size of a baseball) in our bathroom fixture have been burning for about 10 years now. There are 8 of them and I have not replaced one yet.

Because of this thread, I went ahead and bought an LED flood to replace the CFL flood I have over my barbeque grill. Damn, I wish I did that years ago. Much better light, and light "right now". No waiting to warm up. I don't have to turn in on minutes ahead of time to be able to see what I am doing.
 
wsuffa said:
Yes, to a limited degree. Don't know about the big ball type, but I have seen the candle type.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I've been using the big bulb and candle CF's as appropriate in my rental units since I can't get the old style anymore. I was hoping to get LED versions whenever I get around to having my house built.
 
Last edited:
catmandu said:
You not only build airplanes, but light bulbs too? Damn, that is extreme DIY!
:goofy:

OP: As far as brightness and color, I took a sample of several home from both the orange store and the blue store and tried them all out to get the bulb I needed for color and lumens in the kitchen, then returned the rest. Ended up needing a '100W equivalent' LED to get the same apparent brightness of the 75W halogens they replaced.
Click to expand...


I make a mean Margareta too! :goofy:
 
I put BR30 LED floodlights in all our recessed fixtures. (12x) Great so far. Light is close to an incandescent. They work fine on a dimmer. Instantly come on to full brightness, unlike CFL. Paid 8.99 each at COSTCO, they were partially subsidized by our local utility company.
 
I've put a few of the Lowe's Utilitech brand in the reflector spots over my fireplace. I like them a lot except I bought ones that are different color temperatures so one doesn't match. If that bothers you, make sure you get three of the same one.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top