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I was just curious if anyone was using LED bulbs. I replaced numerous floodlights through my house, from incandescent. At least from the quality of light, I'm happy. I don't have prior electricity bills notice a huge difference in cost of operation.
As each light bulb in my lamps need to be replaced, I have been replacing them with LED lights. I have already switched out some pond lights and some landscaping lights too. I have been happy with the light quality as well. I think I have chosen the "daylight" ones versus the warm white ones.
We bought some regular size at Costco awhile back and overall I like them except for my reading lamp. They had the small end candelabra type also and I replaced the bulbs in my hanging lamp over the sink and it made a huge difference in the lack of heat being generated compared to the incandescent. We also replaced the can lights in the bathroon ceiling with some LED can lights - it was a big improvement. So far I like the LED's a whole lot more than the CFL's.
In our great room we have three rows of track lights that sit on top of exposed beams and point up to a vaulted ceiling. I've thought about replacing them with LEDs, but all of the bulbs I look at seem to have a slightly different shape than a typical incandescent par30 shortneck bulb my fixtures take. The bulb shape is important, as the bulbs have to snap into a ring around the face of the bulb to be held in place. Traditional bulbs have a small lip of glass around the circumference of the face of the bulb. It's hard to tell online if some of the bulbs I'm looking at will fit. I may just have to try the ones they have at Lowe's (not much of a selection) and see if they'll fit.
A majority of my bulbs were mismatched. 1/4 were dead. I decided to just replace them all. It cost me a bundle. Hopefully, I won't have to replace bulbs for a decade, at least.
I'm not a fan of LED bulbs. BUT I had some work done at my home and the inspector changed four bulbs - one over my kitchen sink and three in my kitchen ceiling fixture. They have been there since 2007, with the over-sink light being on 24/7. It's amazing how long they last, but I still prefer the CFLs next to my chair where I read, write and crochet. I generally use a 200 watt in that lamp. I did purchase a 200w. LED (cost $11.) and when my CFL burns out, I'll try this one. Supposed to last for 7.3 years, yet reading the fine print, it states "guaranteed for four years with use of 3 hours/day." I guess that means guaranteed for 7.3 years if you never turn it on!
We bought the Philips LED with the white/yellow plastic. They work great for most applications, but I won't use them anywhere inside the house where I can see the bulbs because, IMHO they look dumb when the light is off.
We also used a few cheap LED that I got from Safeways for the stairwell lights. Their light quality is the same as CFL's, which is to say poor.
Our house has rows of lights (around forty 60 watt bulbs in total) that are right at the apex of the ceiling. They look amazing, but cost a small fortune to run and they were a pita to change, being ~28 feet up. They also didn't produce near enough light on their own. Now we can enjoy them every night without feeling guilty.
I will also say we were very picky about the light quality of these LED's. The house is log with post and beam ceiling and we didn't want to have the slightest hint of fluro light. The Philips LED's were slightly more yellow and the incandescent were more amber, but all up very acceptable.
Here's a close up pic of a few of the LED's. The fan light are also the Philips LEDs.
I went from 24 - 60 watt candelabra incandescent light bulbs to 24 - 3 watt candelabra LEDs that are on an average of about 11 3/4 hours a night throughout the year.
That's 1.368 kWh saved for every hour on or 16.074 kWh average a night throughout the year or 5,867 kWh for the year.
At an average of $.11 a kWh that's about a $650 a year savings or at $.12 a kWh that's $700 a year.
Not to mention that it kinda sucks changing those bulbs so it's nice to know that it'll be between 4.5 - 4.75 years before they'll need to be changed again.
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