Greetings and salutations once again! The time has again come to share the stories of thumbs flattened by hammers, ceilings crashed through, and whatever mishaps or successes have recently occurred. If you have questions about a project, our intrepid team of pros and DIY'ers will do our best to answer or at least point in the right direction, with coffee on the house (you just have to come on over to get a cup).
For years, LED bulbs have intrigued me. Reading time and again how efficient they are, I've long wanted to try them; the growing pains of a new technology (and cost) have been holding me back. Then I got a letter of increase from the local utility company. Cue the rage, and a shopping spree at Amazon. Although the prices have dropped significantly to half or less of what they were a year ago, LED bulbs are still far more expensive than incandescent or CFL's. But, I bit the bullet, and replaced all the commonly used bulbs with LED. The question is: is the initial cost worth it?
This diary is about initial impressions and functionality. Part 2 will be a few months down the road; I'm partially through a billing cycle for the utility, and not all the bulbs are in yet. So stay tuned past the Orange Warp and further, and we'll all find out together.
The truth of the matter is, this all started when I wound up with a 60-watt equivalent (800 lumens) LED bulb from a holiday Yankee swap. The living room has no central light, so we depend on a torchier lamp which is on all day, every day. Being on the first floor surrounded by 2-story houses will do that. After I put it in, my wife said "Gee, that's kinda yellow," not realizing that color temp has been one of the biggest obstacles for LED's. Finally, they seem to be reaching the 2700-3000K range that's been so elusive (the higher the number, the warmer the light).
So, a-shopping I went. Here's the breakdown of equivalent bulbs with cost:
40-Watt (500 lumens), 3-pack $16.58
50-Watt PAR20 (500 lumens), 2 @ $19.97 each (recessed lights)
60-Watt (850 lumens), 2 @ $7.95 each
75-Watt BR30 (750 lumens), 3 @ $19.98 each (recessed lights)
100-Watt BR40 (1065 lumens), 2 @ 29.25 each (motion-detect spotlight)
Usage breakdown:
40 Watt uses 7.5
50 Watt uses 9.5
60 Watt uses 13.5 (CFL's use 20)
75 Watt uses 13
100 Watt uses 17
OK, so I dropped some cash, but that's why I'm writing this up.
Initial observation: these suckers are heavy. Most of the volume of an incandescent bulb is air (or more correctly, a vacuum), so I knew they would be heavier, but the weight difference was more than a bit noticeable. Instead of weighing them in a few ounces, the LED equivalents are probably at least a pound each. When using them in overhead fixtures, be sure the fixture is properly mounted and secured.
This is a BR30 75 watt incandescent next to it's LED counterpart. The diameter of the face, overall dimensions, and screw threads are the same - but again, the weight difference is substantial.
And the 60 watt equivalent LED next to it's CFL counterpart. Although it doesn't look it, the LED is omnidirectional - another obstacle the industry had to overcome. There may only be 7 watts difference between the 2 types, but like the living room, the overhead kitchen fixture is on all day, every day. Every bit helps, right?
And the 40 watt equivalents over the bathroom vanity...that actually look like regular bulbs! I used to shave as quickly as possible and brush my teeth in only whatever light came though the window to avoid turning that fixture on, but with all 3 bulbs only using 22.5 watts
total, I have no guilt about using the vanity light anymore.
Initial impressions: very good. The lights for the kitchen came in while the wife was at work, so installed them before she even knew they were here. After she'd been home an hour, I asked what she thought of them; she had no idea the bulbs had been changed. Same light output, same fixture, no noticeable difference. The vanity lights look like regular bulbs, and that is one of the best things. The open nature of the vanity lights let you see the semi-ugly CFL spiral, and that's not something I'll miss.
Drawback: dimmability. The recessed lights in the kitchen use the BR30's, which is on a dimmer. There is a minor flicker when adjusting, they don't actually go as dim as the incandescents did, and there's seems to be the faintest of humming when turned down. The hum was so quiet I could only hear it when the rest of the house was absolutely quiet, but I have 9 foot ceilings; it may be more noticeable up close.
The most important bulbs to change out were the BR40's for the motion activated spotlight out front. Because CFL's take some time to warm up to full brightness (and quite a while in a New England winter), it wasn't feasible to use them for the spotlight. By the time they warmed up to even half brightness, the sensor would turn off the light. Result: useless. But LED's come to full brightness in about 1/10 of a second. Additionally, I have no way of knowing how often those lights get triggered at night.
Initial failures: none, yet. This has been a common problem for any new technology, LED's included. All seem to work fine, and have manufacturer's warranties between 3 and 5 years each. For this reason, I've kept all the paperwork, and a few packages intact in case I have to exchange them. That said, the expected life at 3 hours use per day is about 22 years, or 25,000 hours. If that holds to be even remotely true, they should be worth the initial cost.
But are they? Time will tell. Part 2 of the LED experiment will be in a few months, after I have some data from household kilowatt use. A bit of multi-year averaging for any given month should produce enough information for me to calculate the savings (I hope) from the new utility rate. With any luck, it will be enough to have justified the upfront cost of the bulbs. Watch this space for a few months, and I should have accurate data for you.
Bulb cost: $190.86 + shipping and tax.
Bulb usage: 142 watts total, if I had all 13 bulbs on at the same time. For comparison, my computer has an 800 watt power supply; more than the average system, but I didn't build an average system.
Kind of an improvement, maybe an upgrade, but hopefully worth it. Ok, floor's open to one and all, what's on your to-do list?