LED Lights in the home

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H D

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Has anyone converted over fully to LED lights in their home?



The monetary savings are not very impressive right now, actually it still appears to cost more because of the initial investment.



Thoughts or experiences?
 
Hugh,

I still have not converted all of my lights over to Compact Florescent bulbs yet. Most of the lights are converted, but I have some kitchen and dinning room lights on a dimmer and CF's are not compatible with dimmers.



I also have ceiling fans in some rooms with the 4 Tulip shaped globes that use those pointy chandelier style bulbs. They make them in CF's but they are expensive and really bulky looking. I think it would be cheaper and better looking to change the fan or light fixture to something like a globe that hides the bulbs and can use regular size CF's



LED lights last almost a lifetime, but their cost is still too expensive. I think they would be good for recessed ceiling lights where you have very high 12+ foot ceiling and changing bulbs is a major undertaking and too high for a typical step ladder.



...Rich
 
We currently have all CFL. For the house we're building, I bought all incandescent just to get us in the house with lighting without worrying about the cost. Incandescent bulbs are about $0.30 each. As they burn out, I'll replace them CFL or LED.



CFLs just have not delivered on their advertised lifespan. Lights that are turned on and off frequently seem to last only as long as incandescent. On the other hand, I've had a CFL in an outdoor light on for two years without turning off ever and it's still going. That's great but I really don't want to leave all our lights on continuously.



There are dimmable CFLs now.
 
I have CFL's that I put into my new house 4.5 years ago and they continue to work fine. I think I had one fail since I moved in. Some stay on 24/7 and some are turned on and off numerous times a day. At my old house, I have had CFL's die in just a few months and other's lasted at least 5 years....don't recall if I ever had any last the full 7 years they claim, but I don't know if I have had many if any CFLs 7+ years ago.



I know they have dimmable CFL's but not in the type of bulbs I need. I have a track lighting system in the kitchen that uses small G8 or G10, 50 watt spot lights. The chandelier over the dining table has a dimmer on it but CFLs look ugly in a chandelier with exposed bulbs...even if they are dimmable CFL's. Unless the bulb is hidden by a shade or globe, I will not use CFL's.



...Rich
 
Ah, gotcha.



Maybe next year when incandescents are sold out and the options are between CFL and LED, demand will jump for LED and they'll come down in price. I'm hoping anyway.
 
We've got dimmable lights in most of the rooms of our house. Lots of recessed and track flood lights. I'm replacing them as they burn out with dimmable LEDs. These type are expensive, $15 to $35 per bulb depending on size and wattage. I've replaced some just due to the heat they put out. If I turn on all the lights in my kitchen, the heat is ridiculous. It's so much, that it too affects the cost of incandescent and halogen lighting in the summer when you have to overcome the extra heat with more A/C. The problems is, flood lights never die! So I'll eventually end up with all LEDs in place, and a huge box of flood lights in the garage.



Also in our master bath, the light bars over the vanities put out way too much heat. I replaced them with dimmable LEDs. My wife doesn't like the light color (there were three choices that range in blue content), and they make an annoying buzz sometimes. They are the standard-shaped CREE LEDs that are the cheapest LEDs you can buy. I told her to buy another color (they even have adjustable color bulbs now) and that I'd use the existing ones somewhere else, but I she' hasn't done it yet. That was a year ago.



I did put low-light CFLs in a few outdoor lights that stay on all the time. I've found they average about a year continually on, with minimal switching. After the current box runs out, I'll probably go LED on them as well since they are dropping in price.



Watch for sales and buy in bulk.
 
Our cabin runs all LED lights to conserve power for solar as well as the ability to work at -40 (compact florescent does not work in severe cold)



We are building over the next year and all lighting will be LED
 
I wish I could do all LED immediately in the house we're building now but just the bulbs would be around $5,500 or more for the cheapest of LED bulbs. With the unknowns of unfinished construction and a baby on the way, that's a lot of cash to put out for light bulbs since it's not in the construction quote. We could add a nice stone feature, complete the pond or start an education savings account for the baby. Hard to put that into light bulbs instead of something more significant.
 
Good comments. I am trying to convert to CFLs too. Dimmable CFLs just don't seen to work. I have lots of recessed can lights, and I would love to find good bulbs in the 2700 deg K color temperature. My house is traditional with neutral colors, and the higher temp bulbs look terrible.



LEDs seem to be coming, but still have a long way to get to the affordable price. I took a cruise almost two years ago on Royal Caribbean's newer ship "Allure of the Seas" and there was not an incandescent light to be found on the ship. Everything was LED, including the bright stage spots, etc.
 
Supposedly, spending the money up front for LEDs and putting all future light bulb expenditure savings in an account for your baby's education should yield more money in the long run. Each LED bulb is supposed to save over $100 over the life of the bulb. $5500 is a lot of lighting! Standard 60 watt equivalent LEDs are down to $7 or $8 each. Assuming you're averaging $25 per light to get some floods and track lights, you're still talking 200 bulbs. That's a (200 X $100) $20,000 college fund right there!



I'm sure the "your results will vary" small print is appropriate here.
 
I agreee that there is a savings over the life span of the CFL or LED bulb...but that only applies if the bulb lasts for it's full life expectancy. The problem is when you spend big $$$ for an LED bulb and it fails early in it's life. Most people don't keep the original packaging, the receipt or warranty card for every lightbulb they buy. Then you probably have to send the bulb back to the manufacturer to insure that the bulb did not destroyed due to abuse?



My contention is that the LED's are known to last for hundreds of thousands of hours, but that does not necessarily apply to the electronics that power the LED's, and they are more prone to have imperfections that shorten their life but not detectable during normal testing.



When I deal with any new electronic device, I will usually leave them run continuously for several days or even a week or more to stress test the electronics. If there is a weakness in the electronic components it will usually show up early in the stress test. If it pasts the stress test, then it will probably have a good long life. If it fails early, I have the receipt, and warranty on hand for a quick warranty claim.



I will look around for some replacement LED bulbs for my track light first (6 lamps) and convert them first. I would like to find dimmable bulbs that put out a maximum equivalent 50 watts of light output (Lumens), as the current halogen bulbs since they are the main lighting in the kitchen work areas. I do have dimmable under cabinet lights that help illuminate the countertops, but I often dim them along with the track lights in the evening when I am not using the kitchen. So the ability to dim the LED lights is important to me, along with maximum brightness for working in the kitchen.



...Rich



 
$5500 is a lot of lighting!
Click to expand...



Haha! Wow, that was horrible math. Sorry. No, I don't need 550 light bulbs. I ran with that, too, didn't I? :bwahaha:



We need 55 bulbs. The Cree LEDs at Home Depot are around over $10 each right now. So, roughly $550 for LED versus the $20 I spent on incandescent is a pretty good savings when you're in the middle of building a house. I'll replace them in a few months as the incandescent lights die. So, maybe I won't start an education fund, but $20 now feels a lot better than $550 right now.
 
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We converted to CFL's 10+ years ago. We like them. They do make CFL's that are compatible with dimmers and they work great. With a switch overnight to CFL's, there was a drop in our electric bill of approximately $15.00 month. They do save money.



LED's have not come down in price enough for me to make the switch. We do have a can light above the shower that is LED and we just love it. I have this feeling LED's will change to a more practical style and the price will be more competitive.



I am waiting for that to happen before I invest too much money into LED lights. until then, I will buy cheap CFL's and be done with it.





Tom
 
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Tom,

Thanks for the Amazon.com Link. That's some of the best prices for dimmable CFLs. I just ordered a pack of 6 bulbs.



...Rich
 
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Well I got the (75w equivalent) dimmable CFLs and installed 2 in the pendant lights that hang over the kitchen island but I took them out. The lights were softwhite, but appeared brighter and with more glare. Very hard on the eyes. I had used 60W halogen bubls in the pendant lights and they were clear bulbs, but did not produce any glare.



I found some 60W equivalent, softwhite, dimmable LED bulbs and installed them and they really worked great! The light is nearly identical to the original halogen bulbs.



The only problem is that I need to replace my 600w dimmer switch with a 150w dimmer switch because the lower power LED bulbs do not dim very much with the old switch.



...Rich
 
Gavon,

Perhaps, but I think it would be simpler to just replace the 600W dimmer with a 150W dimmer designed for CFL's and LED's and I can use the old dimmer somewhere else in my house, so they won't go to waste. They only cost me about $6.00, however the 150W CFL/LED dimmer switches are about $20.00.



I think the savings in electricity with the LED's will pay for the bulbs and the dimmer switches very quickly. Just in those to bulbs I am going from two 60W bulbs (120W total ) down to two 5W LED's (10W total)



In the next few days I should be getting my MR16 LED bulbs for my track lights I ordered. I currently have 6 each 50W halogen spotlight bulbs aimed downward at the cabinets and countertops. The new LEDs are 50W equivalents but only use about 5W. That will reduce my total wattage from 300W down to 30W, and the LEDs are much cooler. I can easily tell when the Track Lights are on when I am in the kitchen because they put out a lot of heat...kind of like working under a heat lamp. I think that will save on my AC bills since the thermostat is in the hall way and only about 8 feet from the Track Lights and picking up on the heat the lights are putting out.



...Rich



 
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No doubt you are going to cut your electrical usage! I didn't know they had special dimmers for CFL lights. That explains why my "dimmable" spots in the can lights in my living room barely dim from full to minimum.



My gut feeling is there is still a lot of room for price reductions in LEDs as production continues to ramp up in all sorts of lighting applications. I hope I am right, because LEDs seem to be a win-win for everyone.
 
Richard,

Could you please update this if you see a noticeable difference in your electrical bill?
 

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