Topic: LED lights

[Gurgie]

Well, the energy cost results are in and they are spectacular. 

The 30 new LEDs have been in place for just under a month (+ 6 more installed in August) and my bill is down about 40%.  Our consumption went from 1700 KWh (approx) a year ago down to 1000 KWh for the same period this year.

Better still, is that the savings should increase even more.  We installed the lights partway through the billing cycle (Hydro Quebec uses a 2 month billing cycle), which means that the true savings are probably closer to 60 - 70%.  The savings on the electric bill will have paid for all the bulbs within a year or so.

Best of all, we still have a couple of rooms to go and the bulbs have dropped in price considerably.  Me likey.

Good news!
I also have a ton off Halogens I want to change over. Some are MR16 with the small pin spacing. As I understand it, you can now purchase direct replaceable LED bulbs in the same MR16 form factor. Are they truly fit, form replaceable or do I need to swap out some of the wiring and socket bits? Similarly, I have other Halogens which are the GU10 form factor - are there direct replaceable LED GU10 bulbs that are plug and play?
In our kitchen w have eight bulbs with each being 50W. Can I replace each with a 5W LED and not have any drop in brightness?
Certainly, everyone is feeling these new hydro rates and thus need to save however we can. It sounds like thse LED's are the way to go to save significantly.
Railton

https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/search.products.html?autoSuggest=keyword#!q=led mr16:relevance

Oh here... http://www.costco.ca/light-bulbs.html

[aquadorhj]

Well, the energy cost results are in and they are spectacular. 

The 30 new LEDs have been in place for just under a month (+ 6 more installed in August) and my bill is down about 40%.  Our consumption went from 1700 KWh (approx) a year ago down to 1000 KWh for the same period this year.

Better still, is that the savings should increase even more.  We installed the lights partway through the billing cycle (Hydro Quebec uses a 2 month billing cycle), which means that the true savings are probably closer to 60 - 70%.  The savings on the electric bill will have paid for all the bulbs within a year or so.

Best of all, we still have a couple of rooms to go and the bulbs have dropped in price considerably.  Me likey.

Good news!
I also have a ton off Halogens I want to change over. Some are MR16 with the small pin spacing. As I understand it, you can now purchase direct replaceable LED bulbs in the same MR16 form factor. Are they truly fit, form replaceable or do I need to swap out some of the wiring and socket bits? Similarly, I have other Halogens which are the GU10 form factor - are there direct replaceable LED GU10 bulbs that are plug and play?
In our kitchen w have eight bulbs with each being 50W. Can I replace each with a 5W LED and not have any drop in brightness?
Certainly, everyone is feeling these new hydro rates and thus need to save however we can. It sounds like thse LED's are the way to go to save significantly.
Railton

my kitchen had 10   50W halogen pot lights, and i've replaced them with 8W LEDs    about the same brightness, it feels like, but much cooler in the kitchen now.    5W would probably work but may feel a bit dimmer.  but i would go 7W at the least.

[Gurgie]

I picked up some dimmable LED's at Costco a couple of weeks ago, they had an $8 off coupon, so for 4 bulbs they were only $3.99.  I grabbed 3 packs & put them in locations where we usually have the lights on the most.  So far I have to say that they're super bright!!!  In the dining room the fixture calls for 3 bulbs, by I put in only 2 because with 3 it was too damn bright!!  It will be interesting to see the cost savings for us, we don't keep lights on at all & had the energy saving bulbs pretty much installed everywhere in the house... if I get 40% savings I'll be shocked 

[2JDM]

I picked up some dimmable LED's at Costco a couple of weeks ago, they had an $8 off coupon, so for 4 bulbs they were only $3.99.  I grabbed 3 packs & put them in locations where we usually have the lights on the most.  So far I have to say that they're super bright!!!  In the dining room the fixture calls for 3 bulbs, by I put in only 2 because with 3 it was too damn bright!!  It will be interesting to see the cost savings for us, we don't keep lights on at all & had the energy saving bulbs pretty much installed everywhere in the house... if I get 40% savings I'll be shocked 

Are those the Save on Energy coupons?

I bought 10 standard 60W equivalent LED bulbs for a buck each in preparation for my new home. Will likely need more.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[johngenx]

We've used LED lighting to get our average monthly kW/h usage to about 400kW/h now - decent results.  And my bill is pretty much identical to when we started down the road to minimizing consumption.   

One thing is that we have less variance summer to winter now as our lighting load is far less.  The furnace fan and block heaters will add to winter consumption, but the spike generated by turning lights on all evening is now blunted by energy efficient bulbs.

Our electrical utility offered a free audit, and could find only perhaps 5% left to improve on - and it would be fairly expensive and wasteful - a newer fridge.

We invested in energy consumption reduction just because it's the right thing to do - but I bet most people are looking for payback on their investment.  The change from consumption based charging to fixed costs takes away that incentive.  What a bummer.

[Gurgie]

I picked up some dimmable LED's at Costco a couple of weeks ago, they had an $8 off coupon, so for 4 bulbs they were only $3.99.  I grabbed 3 packs & put them in locations where we usually have the lights on the most.  So far I have to say that they're super bright!!!  In the dining room the fixture calls for 3 bulbs, by I put in only 2 because with 3 it was too damn bright!!  It will be interesting to see the cost savings for us, we don't keep lights on at all & had the energy saving bulbs pretty much installed everywhere in the house... if I get 40% savings I'll be shocked 

Are those the Save on Energy coupons?

I bought 10 standard 60W equivalent LED bulbs for a buck each in preparation for my new home. Will likely need more.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

Yeah, those exact ones!  They had dimmable & non-dimmable... we went with the dimmable ones as we have dimmer switches in a few spots & they were the 60W equivalent ones.  Next time I'd pick up some that are only 40W equivalent as these are pretty freaking bright 

[KD]

I have replaced most of the fixtures in our house with new LED replacements and took advantage of rebates to offset the costs.  Most are bright white (3000K), but we prefer the soft white (2700K) in certain areas, and had to install CFLs in a couple of areas where the LED bulbs wouldn't physically fit.  All 7 of our exterior light fixtures have had CFLs since we moved in over 8 years ago and haven't had one fail yet.

Besides the cost savings, I have not had one issue with the thermal switch tripping in my pot lights since the LED replacements run so much cooler.  That used to be a real pita with the old halogen bulbs and I remember having up to 3 of the 9 pot lights pot lights in our living room shut down during hot summer days. 

[Railton]

Thanks guys!
Web site for the coupons here.
https://www.saveonenergy.ca/Consumer/Programs/Instant-Rebates/ConsumerCouponsPrint.aspx?type=single&coupon=/Consumer/Programs/Instant-Rebates/fall-coupons/ENERGY-STAR-qualified-standard-spiral-CFLs/LED-8-Multipack
Railton

[EV Dan]

I've put these, only with smaller base in my outdoor lanterns. It went from 23w to 4w. Love the "incandescent" spiral look. Costco is selling them with coupons as we speak.
http://www.costco.ca/Luminus%c2%ae-Candle-LED-4W-B11-E26-Dimmable-Bulb-%e2%80%93-4-Pack.product.100303828.html - these are large base and more expensive than what they have on the floor.

[OliverD]

I have replaced most of the fixtures in our house with new LED replacements and took advantage of rebates to offset the costs.  Most are bright white (3000K), but we prefer the soft white (2700K) in certain areas, and had to install CFLs in a couple of areas where the LED bulbs wouldn't physically fit.  All 7 of our exterior light fixtures have had CFLs since we moved in over 8 years ago and haven't had one fail yet.

Besides the cost savings, I have not had one issue with the thermal switch tripping in my pot lights since the LED replacements run so much cooler.  That used to be a real pita with the old halogen bulbs and I remember having up to 3 of the 9 pot lights pot lights in our living room shut down during hot summer days.

Which brand did you go with?

I just went to Home Depot and Canadian Tire for something else but was looking at the LED bulbs as well. Unfortunately all of the $1 ones were sold out.

I need to replace the CFLs in my garage with LEDs. They're not bright enough and in the cold they take a long time to turn on.

[random006]

Just to recap:

I am using Philips 5W dimming 2700 K LED bulbs with a GU10 base.  True plug and play.

We will be replacing our 50 W Halogen PAR20 bulbs (and one PAR30 70 W) in the kitchen once we find one we like.  Some are too far in the blue white spectrum, regardless of colour temp listing on the box.  Others hum, especially when dimmed.  Luminus is the offender here.  We had to try them out, though.  They were half price ($4.95) at Reno Depot a week or so ago.

We will probably go Philips again for the kitchen.

[HeliDriver]

I'm happy with the LEDs I've installed outside the house, but still haven't made the switch inside. We run halogens and old-school incandescents, and I'd say 80% of the time they're dimmed way down. I refuse to give up that soft, warm glow, but I understand there are now LEDs that change colour temp as they dim?

Might have to look into it, but I expect they're expensive. Should probably also do the math to see what the electricity savings would be. I figure the cost to run the outdoor bulbs went from $30/year to $3/year, which I suppose is significant, but still only a $27/year savings.

I don't mind the LEDs outside (even the 2,700k "warm" ones are cooler than the halogens they replaced), but I'm not going to put up with them inside just to save a few bucks per month.

[valuator]

Standard 3000K A19 LED are basically a buck a bulb after instant rebate at Costco in NB right now.  I bought a couple of 4-packs so we would have full matching replacement sets for our chandeliers.

[random006]

I'm happy with the LEDs I've installed outside the house, but still haven't made the switch inside. We run halogens and old-school incandescents, and I'd say 80% of the time they're dimmed way down. I refuse to give up that soft, warm glow, but I understand there are now LEDs that change colour temp as they dim?

Might have to look into it, but I expect they're expensive. Should probably also do the math to see what the electricity savings would be. I figure the cost to run the outdoor bulbs went from $30/year to $3/year, which I suppose is significant, but still only a $27/year savings.

I don't mind the LEDs outside (even the 2,700k "warm" ones are cooler than the halogens they replaced), but I'm not going to put up with them inside just to save a few bucks per month.

The Philips change from 2700 down to 2200 as they dim. 

As to the savings, I think ours went down about $90 for the 2 month period.  I will check when I get home tonight.

[HeliDriver]

^^ Hmm, I doubt 2,200 is enough to match the orange glow of a halogen dimmed way down?

And our savings probably won't be that significant. We don't have a lot of lights in the house, and seems like we rarely use them (lots of windows and natural light.)

There are 6 halogens in the kitchen that are cranked for maybe an hour a day while we make dinner. Otherwise, everything is dimmed way down just for ambience. I even put some 15w incandescent appliance bulbs in our wall fixtures, because the 30W incandescent was too bright. 

[KD]

I have replaced most of the fixtures in our house with new LED replacements and took advantage of rebates to offset the costs.  Most are bright white (3000K), but we prefer the soft white (2700K) in certain areas, and had to install CFLs in a couple of areas where the LED bulbs wouldn't physically fit.  All 7 of our exterior light fixtures have had CFLs since we moved in over 8 years ago and haven't had one fail yet.

Besides the cost savings, I have not had one issue with the thermal switch tripping in my pot lights since the LED replacements run so much cooler.  That used to be a real pita with the old halogen bulbs and I remember having up to 3 of the 9 pot lights pot lights in our living room shut down during hot summer days.

Which brand did you go with?

I just went to Home Depot and Canadian Tire for something else but was looking at the LED bulbs as well. Unfortunately all of the $1 ones were sold out.

I need to replace the CFLs in my garage with LEDs. They're not bright enough and in the cold they take a long time to turn on.

Luminus cheapies from Costco. 

 I tried CFLs in the garage and didn't work well for me either for same reasons, so they are still incandescent.  Forgot about those.  I plan on replacing them with the LED fixtures someday.  I don't work much in there at night anyway, so not that big of a deal. 

Edit:  The PAR20 pots are Luminus, but the A20s in most other lamps and fixtures were replaced with Philips.  The Luminus do tend to flicker when dimmed down low though, but the two strings that I have them so far are rarely dimmed anyway. 

If I ever decide to replace the three strings in the home theatre, then I will use Phillips.  I like the colour change of halos when they are dimmed.  I tried a few LEDs in the pot lights down in my ht a few years ago and I didn't like the look at all. 

[random006]

As promised, here is the relevant bit from my Hydro Quebec bill.  The attached image shows the consumption and cost starting with the billing cycle from one year ago and finishes with the current bill.  I have highlighted the current billing cycle and its counterpart from one year ago.

There was some use of the A/C last year, about 2 weeks or so and even that was sporadic.  Which means that the data are comparable.  The big change was in the lighting.  Each new LED bulb represented a reduction from 50 W to 5 W, a 90% savings.  Multiply that by 36 and you can see what a difference that makes.

I'll be able to get a truly accurate handle on the costs as we move into winter.  The use of the electric heating will be fairly constant in both old and new bills, so the real world lighting costs should be easy to determine.

[Ex-airbalancer]

Crappy Tire had some 5 w LED bulbs on sale for 99 cents

[2JDM]

I bought a 4 candelabra bulb chandelier  for my upper level stairway. I picked up 4 40W equiv LEDs for it (Ecosmart brand, soft white, 350 lumens each).

You guys think it will be too dim? The cost of the 4 40W equiv bulbs was $12 after the coupons...if I wanted 60W equiv versions, the cost would've been ~$30 (Phillips, soft white, 500 lumens). 

[Ex-airbalancer]

I bought a 4 candelabra bulb chandelier  for my upper level stairway. I picked up 4 40W equiv LEDs for it (Ecosmart brand, soft white, 350 lumens each).

You guys think it will be too dim? The cost of the 4 40W equiv bulbs was $12 after the coupons...if I wanted 60W equiv versions, the cost would've been ~$30 (Phillips, soft white, 500 lumens). 

Your eyes are still young it will be fine for you, I would need the 150 w ones