And God said, Let there be light: and there was light...

[mrlynn]

davester wrote:
[quote=mrlynn]
[quote=Lux Interior]
[quote=mrlynn]Got to be helping reduce the heat bill a little.

But at what efficiency? If you replaced the incandescents with a low-heat, low energy consuming bulb (e.g. LED) and had to turn up the heat, would the overall electricity costs be more or less?
Beats me. Not worth the energy to figure out.

/Mr Lynn
For most people it isn't hard to figure out. If the heating system uses gas then using incandescent light bulbs is inefficient and expensive. If you use A/C in the summer then having incandescent light bulbs is definitely going to cost you more money than LEDs. If you don't use A/C and your heating is electric and your light bulbs are not located on the ceiling, then it's probably a wash using incandescent vs LEDs.
We use gas to heat. No AC. The heat from our lights is not a problem in the summer (especially this past summer, with its many cold nights), not really noticeable; and is trivial compared to our heat bill in the winter.

/Mr Lynn

[sekker]

I think the differences in light efficiency in LEDs is remarkable. We just replaced our living room with LEDs; some were clearly brighter than others but had the same specs in the packaging.

As for CFLs, I'm wondering what brands people are using? I can show you the failure rate in my household; far lower than incandescents. But I stopped buying super-cheap bulbs after the Felt disaster.

I'm moving to LEDs because of the presumed life expectancy improvements and lack of hazardous waste. But I'm sticking to name brands where the warranty will be honored.

Does anyone know if Am Ex covers LEDs with their extended warranty? Might be worth making sure I do that if possible.

[Buzz]

sekker wrote:
I think the differences in light efficiency in LEDs is remarkable. We just replaced our living room with LEDs; some were clearly brighter than others but had the same specs in the packaging.

As for CFLs, I'm wondering what brands people are using? I can show you the failure rate in my household; far lower than incandescents. But I stopped buying super-cheap bulbs after the Felt disaster.

I'm moving to LEDs because of the presumed life expectancy improvements and lack of hazardous waste. But I'm sticking to name brands where the warranty will be honored.

Does anyone know if Am Ex covers LEDs with their extended warranty? Might be worth making sure I do that if possible.

If you're really gonna buy "name brands," I'm pretty sure sure the warranties on those is gonna be longer than what Amex extends... OTOH, it may be worth it just in case Amex has to step in and honor the initial manufacturer warranty. I'm a big fan of reduced hazmat in LED's vs. CFL's, but am still trying to figure out the true efficiency comparisons. From what I've seen so far, LED's are not only brighter at the same equiv incan wattage and lumens, but also even more efficient. IOW, an 8.5W LED may be rated the same equiv wattage as an 11W CFL, and both rated at 750 lumens, but the LED will actually put out more usable light, so maybe that same LED at 7 or 7.5W would really be the light output match for the 11W CFL... though from some not very scientific testing, the LED's seem hotter than CFL's, but my brain says that's because the light being emitted in CFL's is spread out over a significantly larger area than the concentrated little emitters in LED's.
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