Light bulbs.

[petros]

First they banned incandescent light bulbs, now people are miffed the compact floroscent have mercury.

That leaves LED.

I don't like the idea of mercury in the house in any form so I've been considering LED.

I was looking at some 7W LED cool whites which are a nice clean bright white light. They are supposed to be equally as bright as a 60W old style or 26W floro, last 15 years but cost $15 a pop and no Energy Star incentive like floro.

Should I go for it and save early or wait for an Energy Star jobber to possibly save a few bucks more?

Anyone ever tried household LED?

Pros? Cons?

 

[VanIsle]

First they banned incandescent light bulbs, now people are miffed the compact floroscent have mercury.

That leaves LED.

I don't like the idea of mercury in the house in any form so I've been considering LED.

I was looking at some 7W LED cool whites which are a nice clean bright white light. They are supposed to be equally as bright as a 60W old style or 26W floro, last 15 years but cost $15 a pop and no Energy Star incentive like floro.

Should I go for it and save early or wait for an Energy Star jobber to possibly save a few bucks more?

Anyone ever tried household LED?

Pros? Cons?

At $15.00 a pop, I doubt that even if you only bought one a month, you would cover your entire household in a year. If there is no energy star incentive, one would have to wonder why there isn't wouldn't they. In otherwords - are they as good as we are being told.
There was a study done (and kept rather quiet)regarding replacing all the old lights in your home with the florescent lights. What they found was that using the new lights as oppossed to the old incandescent, created a heat loss in the home, thereby, the so called savings became moot.

 

[FiveParadox]

I suppose a reduction in the heat would be a downside to the greater energy efficiency.

 

[VanIsle]

I suppose a reduction in the heat would be a downside to the greater energy efficiency.

Rooms are cooler, furnaces get turned up. Where's the greater energy efficiency???

 

[AnnaG]

First they banned incandescent light bulbs, now people are miffed the compact floroscent have mercury.

That leaves LED.

I don't like the idea of mercury in the house in any form so I've been considering LED.

I was looking at some 7W LED cool whites which are a nice clean bright white light. They are supposed to be equally as bright as a 60W old style or 26W floro, last 15 years but cost $15 a pop and no Energy Star incentive like floro.

Should I go for it and save early or wait for an Energy Star jobber to possibly save a few bucks more?

Anyone ever tried household LED?

Pros? Cons?

We have about $160 worth. And LEDs come in different colors. If you want lots of intensity, get clusters.

 

[FiveParadox]

Rooms are cooler, furnaces get turned up. Where's the greater energy efficiency???

I thought I was pretty clear that I was talking about the light bulbs.

“Greater energy efficiency” (i.e., less energy given off as heat, therefore more energy used to generate light—the purpose of a light bulb, and therefore it uses its own energy more efficiently)

 

[AnnaG]

I suppose a reduction in the heat would be a downside to the greater energy efficiency.

huh?
Efficiency goes up because the energy supplied is going into light rather than heat. Same idea as your heaters losing efficiency by producing light. Downside? Only if you want to use inefficient light bulbs as heaters.

Oh, ok. I see where you were going with that. lol

Anyway, it's less costly the more efficient your gadgets are at doing what they are supposed to do. More costly if they do other stuff besides what they were intended for.

 

[petros]

Apparently heat is one of the issues with getting as bright of a unit as 60W/24W.

I have the house the cottage and the farm so I'm looking at about 30 lights to swap out.

If they last 15 years cost and cut costs by around 70% at todays electricity rates then as rates double and triple which they no doubt will within 10 years then the savings are well worth it to start early and still recoup cost in 3 years.

I'll also be young enough to get up a ladder in 15 years but I'll probably wear out before the second set.

 

[petros]

We have about $160 worth. And LEDs come in different colors. If you want lots of intensity, get clusters.

Edison 27 socket? Fit anywhere an old light bulb does? How many did $160 net you?

 

[AnnaG]

Edison 27 socket? Fit anywhere an old light bulb does? How many did $160 net you?

Yep. The clusters fit same old sockets that the incandescents did. We have 4 so far. We stick a LED in every time a fluorescent goes out. We have a couple mercury vapor lamps outside for all night lighting, too. They are also really low energy. Like half watt an hour I think. Don't put them inside the house though.

SB1 Sun Brite LED Light. enclosed led light, small led light

Oooops That link's for the built in types.

 

[petros]

I see spots....

spot lights.

$40 a pop? Oi vey!

 

[AnnaG]

I can't even remember what brand we have, but here's a pile of LEDs:

High Power Led Light Bulbs

Yeah, they aren't cheap. But they are a LOT cheaper than fluorescents in the long term and extremely low emmisivity. No mercury either.

 

[petros]

Crazy prices. Similar to what I saw at a lighting trade show I crashed at the same confrence centre when I was at a mining trade show.

Most of the really bright ones had massive heat sinks and some had fans.

I envisioned dead dried up flies and mothes being ground into powder in some of the nearly enclosed fixtures.




Ick!

 

[petros]

I wish I had a photo of the inexpensive bulb I saw that was 7W and cool white 6500K. It looked like a normal bulb but had heatsink. But if those on that website are that expensive I may have misunderstood the sales rep as to being $15US

 

[AnnaG]

Crazy prices. Similar to what I saw at a lighting trade show I crashed at the same confrence centre when I was at a mining trade show.

Most of the really bright ones had massive heat sinks and some had fans.

I envisioned dead dried up flies and mothes being ground into powder in some of the nearly enclosed fixtures.




Ick!

lol
Anyway, it's all a matter of how much we wanted to reduce our impact on the planet. $30 or $40 every few months isn't a big deal to us.

 

[petros]

No it's not a big deal at all. I'm thinking of going solar and wind for the cottage and farm.
SaskPower offers two way meters and will buy your surplus. So if we aren''t there and the sun is shining and a breeze is blowing we are making money instead of paying.

So spending on LED to consume less also pays back in what can be sold.

In the long run it only makes sense.

I like it.

If i find the gal's card who had the bulb type LED bulbs on the cheap I'll message you.

 

[AnnaG]

No it's not a big deal at all. I'm thinking of going solar and wind for the cottage and farm.
SaskPower offers two way meters and will buy your surplus. So if we aren''t there and the sun is shining and a breeze is blowing we are making money instead of paying.

So spending on LED to consume less also pays back in what can be sold.

In the long run it only makes sense.

I like it.

If i find the gal's card who had the bulb type LED bulbs on the cheap I'll message you.

Awesome! Thanks, Pet. *hugs*

 

[VanIsle]

I thought I was pretty clear that I was talking about the light bulbs.

“Greater energy efficiency” (i.e., less energy given off as heat, therefore more energy used to generate light—the purpose of a light bulb, and therefore it uses its own energy more efficiently)

You were clear and I understood what you had to say perfectly. You don't seem to be understanding me. It's great to have a light bulb that works efficiently but the idea was to cut down on energy use. Since it was discovered that by cutting that down and coming up with less heat in a room that had been generated by the lights burning, people turned up their heat because they are feeling the lack of heat generated by the incandescent bulbs we've always used. Energy efficiancy is depleted once you have to find another source.

 

[petros]

It's all balanced by air conditioners and fans in summer.

 

[VanIsle]

A good heat pump is what you need to conserve energy for heat and cold. My son's furnace should cost him about $70.00 per month for a 4000 sq. foot home. Well - less size than that because the theatre room is included in that and it's above the garage and has electric baseboard heat.