Why I'm Replacing All of My Light Bulbs with LED Bulbs

If you hadn't taken notice, the remaining ban on incandescent bulbs has gone into effect.  There will be no new 40W or 60W incandescent bulbs produced.  Retailers will only be allowed to sell out of their inventory.

This doesn't mean you can't use them if you already have them.  They are cheaper than the alternative CFL's and LED's.  Wait..... are they really cheaper?

Buy LED Lighting on Amazon

Types

Let's back up a minute and talk about the main types of bulbs there are:

Incandescent: These are being phased out and are known to be a very cheap upfront cost, high energy usage, and they produce a lot of heat. They last 700-1000 hours and can be used with a dimmer.

Halogen - These are a variation of incandescent.  They get extremely hot and do come in energy efficient varieties (don't touch these with hands, oil can cause them to explode).  These are mostly used in under-cabinet, pendant lighting and recessed cans.  They can last about 3,000 hours.  They also give the closest approximation of natural light. 

 

Compact Fluorescent (CFL):  more expensive upfront cost, lower energy usage (they use 1/4 the energy of incandescents and last 10 times longer), medium heat.  They also contain trace amounts of mercury.  They don't work well on dimmers. 

Light Emiting Diode (LED): most expensive upfront cost (5-6 times higher than CFL's), lowest energy usage, low heat.  They are rated up to 50,000 hours!  This is 5 times longer than a typical CFL.  

Light

There are also different types of light and colors of light. Two bulbs with the same watt rating won't always produce the same amount of light. 

You need to check the LUMENS.  Yes it's lumens that tell you the brightness of a bulb.  If you want to replace a traditional 40w incandescent that produces 500 lumens then you want to be sure that you pick up an energy efficient bulb with the same light output.  

Energy efficient lights that say 40 W "equivalent" aren't exactly equivalent.  They can range from 300-500 lumens.  

Color

Next you want to check out the color of light that you want.  Daylight is 6500K but traditional incandescents are usually around 2000K.  So make sure you are getting the appropriate color.

Shapes

Next there are different types shapes of lights. For me, I don't care a lot about the shapes as long as they fit but here are a few:

Bases

Next are the bases.  My house only has screw type bases with three main sizes.  I have the E26 (standard), one fan has the E17 Intermediate and I have several fans that have the E12 (Candelabra) base. 

I know, there's so many combinations that it will make your head spin!!

But once you figure out the types of bulbs you need it's fairly simple to go and start buying replacements.  

Example

One of my fans for instance has 4 (40w) incandescents at 450 lumens each.  I just purchases 4 7.5W (they say 40 w equivalent) 500 lumen LED lights that are 3000k color on Amazon for $28.  

Another bonus is that these lights are actually a little brighter than what I replaced since they are 500 lumens versus 450.  

The LED's are rated for 25,000 hours of usage.  At 3 hours a day they should last 22.8 years!

At 11 cents/Kwh, these bulbs will cost $.90 / year to operate x 4 bulbs = $3.60.  

A regular 40 W incandescent at 3 hours/day would cost $4.80.  It would cost $19.20/year to operate these bulbs.  

Let's assume the incandescent bulbs were free.  The LED bulbs cost me $7 each or $28 for the set.  Since I'm saving $15.60/year then my break-even point would be 1.8 years.  That's not bad!

Obviously the less you use the lights then the longer the break-even period would be.  If you only used the lights 1 hour a day then the break-even would be 5.4 years.  

I do have some outside lights that are 60W and I leave on about 8 hours a day so these were the first to get replaced.  

I plan to replace the bulbs that I use the most first and work my way to the ones I use the least.  

This will also help me meet one of my 2014 Goals of reducing my electricity usage.