Saving on electric bill: LED light bulbs

[cardtrick]

It's amazing how much money can be saved by switching to LED bulbs. We need to buy about 30 bulbs to replace everything in our house. Does anyone have a recommended brand? Or, a place where we can get the best deal on these bulbs?

I ordered a couple from Tmart, to test them out. Paid about $7 a piece shipped for bulbs that replace 60W regular bulbs.

[LuckyRobin]

We got ours from Costco and it came out to $6 a bulb. Not sure what the brand was, just whatever it was that they carried. But the savings has been substantial. We were using CFL's before, which were cost effective to a point, but the LED's blew them out of the water. They are also a much more natural light. We've been using them for a year and there's no sign of one burning out. You can always replace them over time instead of all at once to spread out the cost. We bought a 3 pack a month until we'd replaced them all and then had one on hand for burn outs.

[UnknownXV]

This reminds me, I'm not sure where I saw it but there was an LED lightbulb that let you control the intensity and even the color via your smartphone, it looked freaking awesome. Also the light generated just feels softer and warmer. It has so many advantages, the only disadvantage is they're more expensive upfront, but they last long so that mitigates it. Definitely worth while.

[cardtrick]

I will check out a few stores tomorrow and see what prices I can find. I don't have a Costco membership. The smartphone controlled bulb is called Insteon. $37 a piece!! Way too pricy for a light bulb.

[bUU]

We've learned something about light bulbs the hard way. Light bulbs have three important metrics:

Lumens - This expresses how bright they are. For incandescent bulbs, this mapped pretty well to wattage. They try to do the mapping for you with CFLs and LEDs ("wattage-equivalent") but often they take some liberties with that.

Wattage - This expresses how much power they use.

Voltage - You wouldn't expect voltage to matter, or to be involved, but it, regrettably is. Most of the less expensive light bulbs out there are rated to work fine, for their promised lifetime, at 120 volts. The problem is that your electrical service may not be that consistent. If your electrical service runs at 121 volts or 125 volts or even 130 volts, at times, you won't really notice, except that the weakest links in the chain (cheap light bulbs) will have very short lifespans.

Electrical supply stores do sell bulbs rated at 130 volts. They are made better and will last longer. (Paradoxically, they tend to have a lower Lumens number for the same wattage. This is because of the nature of how they make the bulbs more long-lasting - that modification does make the bulbs a bit dimmer, but at least they won't break every six to seven weeks, as was happening at our home - or at least that's what our electrician promises.)

[kork13]

I'm a big fan of the LED bulbs, I've seen them used a few times. I'm not going to rush out and replace all of my bulbs at once, but over time, as my currently-installed incandescents burn out, they'll be replaced with LED's.

[cardtrick]

Found some on Ebay for about $4.8 each shipped. Just ordered 10. That should replace all of the bulbs that we frequently use in the house and as the others burn out, I will replace them. BTW, does anyone know if we can still get the energy efficiency tax rebate for tax year 2013. We've never gotten a rebate/credit before.

[disneysteve]

We've learned something about light bulbs the hard way. Light bulbs have three important metrics:

Lumens

Wattage

Voltage

There is one other metric that is extremely important, at least with CFL bulbs: Color temperature. This is what determines the color of the light. Typically ranging from 2,700 to 6,500 Kelvin, the higher the temp, the whiter the light; the lower the temp, the yellower the light. So before buying a bulb, don't just grab the 100W equivalent and don't just look at lumens. If you don't buy the right color temp, you won't be happy with the result.

[MaraJadeC]

I agree that LED light bulbs could help you save on electric bill. And they also have a longer life span than the conventional incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. But they do come at a hefty price. However, if you are willing to invest on LED light bulbs then go ahead and use them!

[ryaneinstein]

Saving on Light Bulbs? Your Experience vs. Mine

I purchased my bulbs from a supplier named Satco from this light bulbs website. I purchased a 13 watt 120 volt LED bulb for the house. I didnt remember the amount of bulbs that came in the pack but I guess according to the listing it was 24 LED bulbs for 42 bucks a piece. As of today (purchased 5 months ago) I can not say it has saved us money but over the long term supposedly it is supposed to help.

Has anybody else here been in the same boat that the saving has yet to kick in?

[shaggy]

A few questions for those of you using LED bulbs:

1. one of the irritants of CFL is the time to come to full brightness after you turn them on. Are LED bulbs faster in this regard?

2. are LED bulbs available in cool white, natural daylight, and warm white? I can only seem to find warm white and I prefer natural daylight.

[disneysteve]

1. one of the irritants of CFL is the time to come to full brightness after you turn them on. Are LED bulbs faster in this regard?

Yes. LEDs don't have to warm up. They come right on.

[bjl584]

There is one other metric that is extremely important, at least with CFL bulbs: Color temperature. This is what determines the color of the light. Typically ranging from 2,700 to 6,500 Kelvin, the higher the temp, the whiter the light; the lower the temp, the yellower the light. So before buying a bulb, don't just grab the 100W equivalent and don't just look at lumens. If you don't buy the right color temp, you won't be happy with the result.

Don't buy anything above 6500K or so. Any more and the light will shift away from white and start to turn blue and eventually violet. If you've ever seen those HID headlights on luxury cars you will see what I mean.

[bigdaddybus]

Did a quick light bulb count last night and came up with 97. No switching yet in our home, and the kids wonder why I always say "Turn off the lights when you are done!"

We have mostly all CFL's and they are not created equal. The ones that came in the Hunter ceiling fans I recently installed are awesome and come right on pretty bright. The cheap ones I bought(that I moved to the storage room and exercise room) take awhile.

[ryaneinstein]

Don't buy anything above 6500K or so. Any more and the light will shift away from white and start to turn blue and eventually violet. If you've ever seen those HID headlights on luxury cars you will see what I mean.

Agreed everything under 6500 kelvins is best for comfortable lighting.