# What is the predominant type of lighting in your home?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-predominant-type-of-lighting-in-your-home/760185>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 18, 2016, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-predominant-type-of-lighting-in-your-home/760185 "2016-07-18T03:32:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2017, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-predominant-type-of-lighting-in-your-home/760185/81 "2017-02-13T21:09:51Z")

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> [@Mama\_Zappa](#):
>
> We have a few incandescents in less-used fixtures - like the garage and our closet. Everything else, we’ve switched first to CFL and as those go, we replace them with LED.
> 
> I must say, the early LED bulbs did NOT have as long a life as they were “supposed” to. I have a lamp that I use routinely where it lasted just a bit over a year. We’ll see how the replacement does.
> 
> We had a similar problem with early CFLs - we had to replace the recessed lights in our kitchen very frequently at first.

We have same line up and plan. In some cases I replaced working incandescents in 100’s hrs/yr fixtures to stockpile replacements for the few hours/year fixtures like the basement and closets which will remain incandescent for some years.

We’ve had no LED bulb fail yet but ‘FEIT’ brand CFL’s from Costco were annoyingly short lived when we bought them, often less than a year. I’d get warranty replacements, but what a hassle. I went to EcoSmart brand from Home Depot and they’ve usually lasted at least a couple of years in often used, often turned on/off fixtures, not as long as they claim they will, but OK.

The problem with LED’s is for enclosed fixtures. Philips had a model specifically authorized for them but I don’t see it in stores anymore, which may force more CFL purchases at some point. I’d prefer to just go LED now that prices have dropped. But I’ve heard that LED’s not specifically approved for enclosed fixtures, and some packages specifically say not to, can have a very short life if you use them that way.

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**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-predominant-type-of-lighting-in-your-home/760185/82 "2017-02-15T16:32:10Z")

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I’m at 50% LED, 25% CFL, 20% halogen, 5% incandescent (mostly appliance bulbs). Slowly making the switch to 100% LED via replacement as the other types burn out.

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