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I'm glad that LEDs are available. CFLs were horrible.
And they were sold to us as being the End All
Quote:
Originally Posted by harry chickpea
Nah, the 60s are at the dollar stores, but they don't have filaments that stand up. However, the 1960s are long gone.
Too bad, I dug up an old made in the USA GE bulb from the back of my shed 15 years ago and haven't replaced it yet. In the mean time I'm replacing Chinese bulbs yearly
I'm an electrician and I think it's silly that anyone would not use LED bulbs.
You can get them for $6.50 at Home Depot now. I can get them even cheaper at the contractor-only supply houses. Sure a "regular" 60W incandescent bulb costs around 50¢, but it'll cost you 10x as much in power usage.
The LED's pay for themselves in less than a year in rooms where you commonly use light, sometimes within a couple months! So if you're whining about your utility bills and you haven't switched over, you have zero room to complain about them. It's your own dang fault.
.....and you'll never have to replace them for the next 3 decades. This is especially nice when it comes to outside lighting or anywhere you'll need to use a ladder to reach.
I just replace all my bulbs as they go out with the newer, better bulbs.
I'm on year 7 with my oldest CFLs and they seem as strong as they ever were. I recently got through a big package of CFLs and just put in my first LED bulbs.
Why anyone misses those old bulbs is beyond me. I have one dimmer lamp that I use a halogen in because CFLs don't dim well but I think an LED bulb is in order when that one goes out.
Try this term. A single 200w incandescent bulb on the wall next to my front door throws more light than my neighbors CFL spotlights.
That could be because a) they haven't heated up yet or b)they aren't the equivalent wattage. That said outside is one place I use incandescent because of the warming up issue and the CFL's use more energy at startup anyway. Since the outside lights are typically only on for short time it's pointless to have CFL for that use.
You can get them for $6.50 at Home Depot now. I can get them even cheaper at the contractor-only supply houses. Sure a "regular" 60W incandescent bulb costs around 50¢, but it'll cost you 10x as much in power usage.
The problem is lighting makes up only percentage of the average persons bill, that's not to say you shouldn't try and reduce it but don't expect some huge drop. Running the dryer a few times extra will wipe out those savings.
There is lot of people using them for things other light, they are ideal for an area you want a small amount of heat. For example if you have a coal stove corrosion is an issue when it's not in use. Putting a 60w lightbulb inside and just letting it on for the summer season is a very cheap and easy way to help eliminate this issue.
Other uses might be incubation, keeping propane storage area warm etc.
When I say 'throw light' I guess the best explanation I can give is the how dark the shadow is: the darker the shadow, the more light to make it. (Does that make sense?)
I've got one incandescent that's great to stitch by and pretty accurate for color selection, although I still try to do that by daylight.
I've yet to find an LED that's as good.
If it was 100+ yrs ago, I might see whale oil light as an improvement.
That interesting because in this area LEDs are far superior to incandescent. Incandescent bulbs are essentially point sources, which leads to shadows. LED can and usually are be configured as either line or plane sources. If you haven't found that you haven't really looked.
In terms of color selection, compared to what? Natural light? Not even close. What you are describing is called color temperature. Most incandescent bulbs produce light in the 2700 to 2800 K range. Outdoor light is 5000 to 6500 K. LEDs can be purchase in discrete ranges between 3000 and 5000 K, much closer to true outside light.
I have several antique fixtures that I can no longer use because only an incandescent bulb will fit. It ticks me off that the gubmint decided for me to throw perfectly good light fixtures in the trash, all for the want of a 40W incandescent bulb.
LED are made in all standard bases. We just replace the candelabra base bulbs in out dinning rooms with beautiful LED bulbs. BTW the law that you are complaining about doesn't restrict small base bulbs.
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Hilarious!
