The Facts About Energy Efficient Light Bulbs
 

A quick and interesting article that provides some good info. As we head into the winter season, looking at lighting again becomes more and more important. I know I'd like to replace a bulb or two that I use a lot with LEDs or something a little more efficient if possible. I have a couple normal 100W (equivalent) bulbs that I'm currently using 23W CFLs that could be replaced and are used for hours each night.

Energy Efficient Light Bulbs - Green Lighting Facts - The Daily Green

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I'm looking forward to LED to replace a bunch of halogen task lighting in the kitchen that my wife uses a lot. The price still needs to drop in half to justify the expense though. Everywhere else LED would be nice since it doesn't have the mercury the CFL's do but from an energy/money savings standpoint I don't see it as a worthwhile change like replacing the Incandescents was.

I agree. I've converted 95% of my house to CFL and the cost wasn't too bad at all. The only remaining lights in my house are 50W halogen dimmable par 20 lights, or outside lights that need to work in the bitter cold. LEDs would be great for either of these applications, however they are still prohibitively expensive at this point, especially for the short duration that they are used. I do plan on replacing the more heavily used lights to LED though.

I presume they're talking about the payback of replacing incandescent with LED.

What about replacing CFLs with LEDs? If it's more efficient, I'd probably buy an LED for the lamp I use most often, but the LEDs I've seen so far produce about the same lm/W as CFLs. In many cases, the LEDs are LESS efficient than CFLs.

I would have agreed with you in the past, and I still do see inefficient LED lights out there. However, I am see them improving as I am looking now. However, to get the more efficient ones, you have to pay a hefty sum. It appears they're ~2x as efficient as CFLs currently are.

I replaced all my Incandescents with CFLs and finally with LEDs, 47 bulbs in total.
The Incandescents rate at a total of 2820 watts..
The CFLs rate at a total of 611 watts.
The LEDs rate a total of 282 watts.
So ya its a great savings .. sort of .. cost of LEDs $1508.19 taxes included.

I've installed CFL's where the light is on for longer than a few minutes per day. The rest are incandescents which are being replaced by halogens. The latter looks like a normal bulb, but has a smaler halogen bulb inside, and uses about 20%-30% less energy (42W instead of 60W24W instead of 40W, etc.). They are good for places where the light is often switched on and off for short periods of time, like in the bathroom or the hallway.

The idea that they are only a good investment if you own your home or plan to stay there for a number of years... it's thinking like that that holds alot of people back! I only used incondecent bulbs in places like my attic (light gets turned on every 10+ years) or closets, or the motion sensor light in the garage by the bicycles, bulb comes on for 15 seconds at a time, mostly use them because the bulbs are still good and I have them.
But rental houses and apartments should have CFL's in all the lights, if the owners don't put them in then the tenants should, if you are worried about the cost to install them then take them with you when you leave!
I have a 3 year old LED as my bed side reading light, a light next to the couch that is just over a year old and as the fridge light that is 6 years old, each of them cost about $45 each and every few years that same $45 bought me an LED almost twice as bright as the last one and I'm impressed as to what a $45 LED's look like now.

WD-40,

I really like your commitment to LED lighting.

Could you go into a bit more detail about what you've learned in the process?

Regards,

-AC_Hacker

The reason I decided to go all or nothing was the fact my kids and their families move in and out of my house as they run into and out of financial hardship.
So as many of us may know, lights are continually left on.
And I was not happy with the wattage being wasted.
Yes I knew I wanted LEDS, I have read about them for a long time but they were never available locally. So when Home Depot in Canada finally got them in I went nuts and filled my boots.
These are very bright and very white almost like daylight. As my son put it .. I don't wanna come home drunk and have to use the bathroom, without sunglasses on.
If I left every light on in the house it would still use less watts then my 52" TV .. yes its next on the LED (back-lit) list.
Overall I am extremely pleased with my choice in bulbs, short of the price.
Of course some of the LEDS at Home Depot have already dropped from $29.99 to $19.99, but such is life.
Thanks for reading .. Dennis