Scooby074
Super Member
A general comment/question... not aimed at any one specific.
Anyone else hate the new light bulbs?
- Thread starter sixdogs
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A general comment/question... not aimed at any one specific.
Scooby074
Super Member
Dont forget those schools had lead paint too! A miracle any of us survived
I agree with your statement that any "heat" given off is offset by some spewing plant somewhere. If your heating your house with lightbulbs... you're doing it wrong:laughing:
pokerboy57
Silver Member
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I changed out 12 90-watt tungston spots for LED spots in recessed cans in my ceiling. My power bill dropped..... I think partially due to the fact that LEDs do not give off the heat the tungston spots did. So that's an additional savings in the summer. For my money it's LED all the way I have no plans to ever purchase a traditional of CFL bulb ever again. Now for my shed , it's 8 foot florurcent bulbs.....
Otto Syracuse
Gold Member
I went to both HD and Lowes tonight looking for a good looking bulb to put in a fixture over our dining room table. It's an old style light with exposed bulbs. For me, that rules out any CFL spiral styles, and even some of the "enclosed" CFL bulbs. I would be happy to pay extra for the LED, both for the savings in electricity and cost, and the bother of changing the bulbs all the time. However, all of them were UGLY. I would to be happy with that bulb in a classic fixture.
Of the traditional type bulbs, there were only 40 and 60 watt, barely enough light to see your food!
Not sure what to do? Maybe search on EBay and see if there are any old bulbs up for sale.
Of the traditional type bulbs, there were only 40 and 60 watt, barely enough light to see your food!
Not sure what to do? Maybe search on EBay and see if there are any old bulbs up for sale.
MotorSeven
Elite Member
6dog, I went with LED's inside and out except for the track lights that have 23 - 50W halogens(ea equivalent bulb in led cost over $20). So as the halogens burn out we are replacing them with led....so far only one & the price is down to $15 ea. Some led brands throw a better light then others, but overall I like them. It's been a year and only one burned out, and several others in a bad batch started winking on & off....HD took them all back.
It's too soon to tell if the led's will make their reported 20 year life. Led technology is rapidly closing the gap in price and quality compared to cfl's & I bet in 5 years almost all bulbs will be led's.
It's too soon to tell if the led's will make their reported 20 year life. Led technology is rapidly closing the gap in price and quality compared to cfl's & I bet in 5 years almost all bulbs will be led's.
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dave1949
Super Star Member
Rick that reminds of the led flash lights, they are like disposable lighters now if you shop around.
MotorSeven
Elite Member
Yes, they are next to many cash registers at checkout for under $2 eh?
dave1949
Super Star Member
I bought an 8 or 10 pack for about $10 a while back, could have been TSC's el cheapo tables. They all work, still can't find one. :laughing:
SPIKER
Elite Member
Dont forget those schools had lead paint too! A miracle any of us survived
I agree with your statement that any "heat" given off is offset by some spewing plant somewhere. If your heating your house with lightbulbs... you're doing it wrong:laughing:
Scoob:
I think you missed point almost entirely, what I was talking about is "Total Cost" for a bulb, that the cost of the CFL or LED vs Energy Saved and Energy to make, run and disposal costs overall. When do you use lights? (is when it is dark for 95% of the lights made, they are on when needed in the dark.)
So lets take a regular light inside someones home, they get up in AM and turn on the bathroom lights and bedroom lights. While getting ready for work or school these lights run maybe 30 min in the AM. Same for after work/school during the winter you get home and it gets dark at 4:30 so on come lights. These lights are now on from 5ish till 11pm say. The use of lights can now come into play for overall costs, LED vs CFL vs standard Incandescent bulbs. If you look at them in terms of cost to buy, LED $20 to $40 bucks, CFL $2 to $15bucks and the incandescent is .40cents to maybe a buck. So now for real world you have to figure electricity cost vs bulb cost and the expected life span. A bulb that has a high cycle rate vs time on rate will burn out sooner (hours of actual use) vs one that is on till it burns out 1000s of hours later. Conditions also comes into play one used in a dark cold damp spot vs a warm dry living room
also comes into play as to what bulb you should use.
This is where a LOT of different things needs to come into play, for example how many times a day it is turned ON/OFF or how long it is ON vs time OFF. How many times the bulb will last under these ON/OFF cycles and times. A bulb that is put ON in a commercial bathroom & stays on till it burns out vs a bulb in a home closet or basement or one outside that turns ON when someone walks by then goes out some time later.
A Bulb that is on 24/7/365 till it burns out is excellent candidate for LED or CFL where as a closet/basement bulb used maybe a few times a month then the incandescent is the way to go for best use of your purchasing dollar. This is the no nonsense easy to see because they are at the outside areas of the point of use graph you could draw. The real number crunching comes into play when the use (number of times turned on/off and when/where used) falls in this peak of a graph that cost to buy vs energy saved vs bulbs life or easy replacement really is the guts of what is better for every particular situation..
That is probably less than 1%, over regular light-bulbs that are momentary used inside a home/office. If there is a can fixture 30 feet in the air and difficult to get to then the 40buck high lumen LED would be the choice over a incandescent version.
On the regular incandescent bulbs which are not efficient at producing light but produce heat better. This added heat in winter is not wasted but is a gain to overall homes efficiency when total calculations are done. Remember that Electrical Heating is about the most efficient in heating applications as none of that goes up a chimney. So when you have a bulb say on the coffee table that is run 4 hours a night in winter or maybe 1hr in summer only when needed. The energy used in the 4 hours in winter is not quite the same VALUE in $ as one would might think. Lets look at a 100Watt incandescent light under these conditions. 100Watts = 1740 lumens and that is only ~2% efficient so 98 watts are given off as HEAT and 2% as lumens. This heat in winter can help out the heating side by that additional 98watts given off in the room. (FUNNY NOTE: I do heating systems for a living and had several calls to same place where lady kept saying the heat was very inconstant that it would get real cold in much of the house. When I went to take a look I found the issue, she had a side table with a lamp setting under the thermostat. She would set and read by the 3 way lamp which would keep the thermostat from coming on when room temps dropped. Showed her what was going on by having her hold her hand over the top of the shade to feel the warmth vs rest of the room.) She learned that having 100+ watts of heat under her thermostat caused the furnace to NOT run and home cooled off.
Our bathroom is only maybe 36 SF (270CF) but we have 200 watts of lights inside it. In the winter close the door and turn on the lights and it warms it up nicely after a few minutes, we dont have to be COLD climbing into the shower do to the heating from the lights. does that cost more $ vs using LEDs no not when you have a warm room
Even CFLs are better at producing HEAT than LIGHT (CFL=45-75 lm/W) vs 12.5-17.5 lm/Watt from Incandescent.
There are a lot of items to consider when you decide to do a buildings load calculations for lighting/heating and the like so just to let you know what does go into these things.
Mark
DarkBlack
Elite Member
Mark. I've posted on the facts you just elaborated on so well ( better than I explained), a year or 2 before. You are 100% correct. The problem is, most readers/listeners and for sure... those in political positions of authority, are not of the science based type. Certainly not versed in the conservation of energy. It puts an unwanted twist, and an unwanted calculation in the "green" movement. Big political movements can't deal with 2 sets of views, being someone who read/knows that if they live a certain distance from the equator with short days- cold weather, that they shouldn't be forced by government to buy hazardous material lights, as 100% of the incandescent bulb shaped heater is substituting electric or oil heat, and the high frequency heat "light" is actually a free energy before it changes form. They unfortunately have to resort to 1 size fits all.