I have a bunch of 100 W incandescent bulbs, and nowhere to use them. The fixtures that would normally use them are filled with fluorescents. I bought the 100 W bulbs before fluorescent ones got so cheap.
The SO likes three-wattage bulbs in the torchiere next to her chair. The thing is, she only likes the lowest setting (except on the rare occasion she really needs more light). When the lowest wattage burns out, she tosses the bulb in the trash. :smack: Even if we don’t have a use for the now-two-way bulb, someone else could use it. I hate wasting stuff.
('We secretly replaced SO L.A.‘s three-way bulb with a three-way fluorescent one…’ She apparently hasn’t noticed yet. )
I recently switched all my CF and halogen lights to LED’s.
The one-off cost will be offset after 1 year of use and they should still be good for at least another 10 years after that.
Plus the light is instantaneous and of the right colour temperature all the time.
I still see them pretty commonly in stores, usually in end of row and special boxes. I don’t really pay attention to them. I have a few left and halogen is just as good to equality wise and AFAIK there is no plan to discontinue halogen. I have also a few LED which are OK. (and many CF’s that suck - trying to use them up in places that don’t bother me to use them in).
Ditto. I didn’t like the first generation of so of CFLs (yes, I know the difference, hold on…), but eventually, they caught up to a quality of light that I liked. Problem is, they were expensive, and they didn’t seem to live up to the life they promised. I’ve had a bunch burn out on me. The current line of LEDs are awesome, great quality of light, and I haven’t had one burn out yet, and as my CFLs and incandescents burn out, I am replacing them with LEDs. I see no reason to go back to incandescents, myself.
The problem is, old incandescent light bulbs are/were cheap enough to stock up on. If I can get a package of four for a buck or less, I can buy them without really thinking about it. There are no LED bulbs available at a price that is below the “just to have on hand in case I need it someday” or “let me think about whether it’s really worth spending this money” threshold.
Then, when a bulb burns out, it’s easier to reach for a replacement that I have on hand (i.e. one of those incandescent bulbs I’ve stocked up on) than make a trip out to the store to buy one of those new fancy-schmancy bulbs that cost at least twenty times as much. (Which means that, if and when they burn out, they piss me off twenty times as much as a lowly incandescent bulb burning out.)
I just had a home energy assessment, which is funded by the state and the power companies here in MA. It was free to me, and they gave me free LED bulbs for any light fixtures that I hadn’t updated to CFLs already and still had incandescent. I think I got 6 LED bulbs, but he was prepared to give me more if I still had any incandescents in the house. See if there’s a program like that near you.
Your using them wrong Buy a LED and replace a working IC. Now you are saving money on energy and have a backup ready to go temporary replacement bulb.
But IC still may be actually cheaper. This is because LED pricing is expected to continue to fall and it may be worth it to burn IC till the LED price falls further.
That is incorrect.
25,000hrs * .1KWH/H = 2,500 KWH
at $.08/KWH that is (2,500 * .08) = 200
Plus 25 lamps at .4ea = $10 for a total of $210 for the incandescent.
The LED is:
25,000 * .012 = 300KWH * .08 = $24
plus $10 for the lamp = $34.
You guys pay a lot of money for light bulbs. I just bought a bunch of 9.5 Watt Feit LED bulbs (810 lumen, 2700K) for $9.99 a three pack at Costco. It’s dimmable, but I don’t even have a dimmer in the house, so I can’t tell you how well it dims. The color is very good, comparable to incandescent, and its got a 25,000 hour life. The CRI is 92+, whatever that means.
It’s this bulb, but packaged in a three pack and a lot cheaper.
I accidentally hoarded CFLs.
About 4-5 years ago I was waiting for LEDs to get cheaper. But I found a great deal on CFLs. I decided “okay, I’ve heard about the crappy life of CFLs, but these are cheap enough I’ll just buy them with a few backups, and that will tide me over till LEDs are cheap”
4-5 years later and not a single CFL has started to fail, they all still look great. I probably should have taken into account, that since I live alone most of the 18 or so I have installed get less than an hour on a month, and only 3 of them probably get more than 3 hours a week turned on.
So I have somewhere north of a dozen extra CFLs of various shapes and wattage waiting in the closet.
Which brings up the interesting thought that with 25000 hour life, if I had LEDs in my laundry room, which are only turned on for 3 5 minute trips a week would last 100000 weeks, or 1923 years.
)
Buy a LED and replace a working IC. Now you are saving money on energy and have a backup ready to go temporary replacement bulb.