Incandescent bulbs

[Dave9]

It's still a legal requirement in many states to have proper material handling for used fluorescent bulbs. That's the main concern. And I'm pretty sure that a can of tuna doesn't have 5 mg of mercury, which is the current limit for low wattage tubes/CFLs, but could be considerably higher in older tubes. My reading is that it's on average about 275 times less mercury in a can of chunk light tuna than that 5 mg.

1) That 5mg was the upper limit a long time ago, while EU and CA lowered the limit, and manufacturers voluntarily reduced it further to where a typical CFL has less than 1mg.

2) You are only going to eat one can of tuna ever? I suppose we could say the same about throwing away the CFL bulbs, but I feel like they are a more finite supply since few people are buying those new today.

I'm also wondering what I should do with my old Honeywell thermostat with a mercury switch.

What I did with mine was put it in a box in the basement then when my replacement smart thermostat failed, I dusted it off and put it back in service. Turns out that since there are often people home on an irregular schedule, there was practically no power savings from the smart thermostat and the novelty of it wore off so it was just a shorter lived, more expensive way to get the same job done.

 

[Dave9]

Seems like a huge amount of focus put on saving tiny amounts of money in the overall scheme of things. It's really not even worth my time to bother with the calculations. People are talking about saving maybe $20 over a ten-year period on a light bulb. Lots of things one can do to save a heck of a lot more than that. How much have I saved driving my old beater for the last 10 years instead of buying new cars? Easily tens of thousands of dollars. Saving a few bucks on electricity isn't even on my radar.

You have a good point but it depends on some subjective factors. I have recessed lighting and a LOT of bulbs are needed to light up an area. There are 10 in my extended kitchen area alone. They might run 1.5 hours a day, so with 10x 60W incan bulbs that's 0.9KW/day or 329KW/yr, at the national avg of 12 cents/KWH is about $39/yr for just that one area.

Granted, when I wrote they might run 1.5 hours a day, I didn't run them 1.5 hours/day in the summer back when they were incan because of the extra heat, and because longer daytime/sun means fewer hours needing lights on (cost vs benefit analysis), but in winter, longer than 1.5hrs.

 

[Dave9]

I don't see any problem with spending $7 on a half dozen LEDs and having them ready as replacements. Especially since I find it a huge paint to change my ceiling mounted bulbs - especially if it's in an enclosure or where I have to fiddle with screws. It's just set it and forget it.

I find my buck a piece LED bulbs, have shorter lifespans in recessed cans than the BR30 incandescents they replaced. It's the opposite of set and forget, but they more than pay for themselves from the power savings. I've gotten to the point where i take a sharpie marker and write the installation date on the back of the LED bulb to track lifespan.

 

[supton]

Seems like a huge amount of focus put on saving tiny amounts of money in the overall scheme of things. It's really not even worth my time to bother with the calculations. People are talking about saving maybe $20 over a ten-year period on a light bulb. Lots of things one can do to save a heck of a lot more than that. How much have I saved driving my old beater for the last 10 years instead of buying new cars? Easily tens of thousands of dollars. Saving a few bucks on electricity isn't even on my radar.

That is the savings per bulb. Times x bulbs in the house.

Times y houses on your block, times z blocks that your local power utility has to run. At that point it becomes (hopefully) a way to keep ancient power lines up and going for a bit longer. Costs money to put up bigger power plants and to upgrade electrical lines. All of which has to be done eventually, but the longer we can put that off...

 

[ARCOgraphite]

What are people doing with old working incandescent bulbs they swap out for LED?

We saved them. We tried CFL and almost had a couple fires with those when they failed - smoking in the lamp sockets.
Went to try a couple different colour- temperatures of LED, but my wife who is a real hard-nosed "greennie" went and bought a 4 pack of 75W incandescent and put one in her often used reading lamp. She said the CFL and LED bothered her eyes. We have probably five or six assorted bulbs for change out; No hoarding. I did buy a couple Quartz Iodine bulbs to try. But they only save a little energy. Even then, 20 % is a lot on a lamp that is used often. multiply that by millions of lamps and you'll see real energy savings. One inefficient lightbulb uses more power than my stereo or my 39" LED TV! But I see Americans love to waste resources just by the number of people leaving their teens or spouses in the car when shopping; there they are playing with their evil dumb phones with the windows up and AC on! even on nice 75 degree days!
Selfish and careless. Morons actually.

 

[csandste]

We haven't seen frequent bulb failures. At 22 cents a pop for the incandescent bulbs on hand it would take years to make up the cost of buying new LED bulbs in electricity savings. Switching just wouldn't make any sense.

Maybe other utilities don't buy down LED's but you're paying twice as much per bulb as I did at Costco. Plus you use eight times the electricity and it lasts an eighth as long. My LED bulb costs are less than a penny a year. Also have a bunch of Dollar Tree bulbs that I bought before I stumbled across the eight for a buck Ameren/ Costco LED'S.

 

[javacontour]

I only have a few left. Three in the garage door openers and a couple I swap in during the winter in the bathroom, taking advantage of the little bit of heat they add.

oilBabe got some new lamps this week and she managed to miss the stockpile of LED bulbs and installed an incandescent in the new fixture.

I fixed that as soon as I could turn it off and swap the bulb.

 

[csandste]

Where are you getting LEDs for 50 cents? The Home Depot has them for $1.24 each.

Eight sixty watt equivalent bulbs for a buck at Costco once a year or so when Ameren Missouri does their buy down. Might be done now that incandescents are back in favor with the Trump administration but I got 64 bulbs last year for eight bucks and I'm 75 so I won't have to worry. Plus I still have a bunch of Dollar Tree bulbs.

 

[D60]

Well, a thread shaming others about light bulbs means that maybe the novelty of shaming about wearing masks is wearing thin....and I figure that's a good thing!

 

[y_p_w]

I find my buck a piece LED bulbs, have shorter lifespans in recessed cans than the BR30 incandescents they replaced. It's the opposite of set and forget, but they more than pay for themselves from the power savings. I've gotten to the point where i take a sharpie marker and write the installation date on the back of the LED bulb to track lifespan.

Even if they last the life of a single incandescent the energy savings are good enough. But yeah the cheapie ones don't have the best quality heat sinks, which is what helps to extend life in a confined space.

 

[Hillbilly Deluxe]

All those commenting on the ROI for energy use for LED v. Incandescent - Our bank account didn't double in the first two years.... and I didn't notice any huge savings on the power bill.


What I have noticed is that I'm not replacing light bulbs in frequently used fixtures anymore. We leave a lamp on in the living room 24/7/365. It's a 40w equiv LED (7 watts?). Been on for 5 years (we moved into this house in August 2015.)

I started buying LEDs in 2013/2014. We moved out of our house in 2014 to a rental house for a year. I put in LEDs in all the fixtures in the rental house, removed them and took them with us in 2015 when we moved in the new house. I'd say I've replaced 2-3 of those LEDs in 5 years at the new house. I love them.

What kills me is to go to someone's house and they have these jacked up blue-like light bulbs in fixtures and lamps. I guess they don't know there's different colors....

 

[y_p_w]

All those commenting on the ROI for energy use for LED v. Incandescent - Our bank account didn't double in the first two years.... and I didn't notice any huge savings on the power bill.


What I have noticed is that I'm not replacing light bulbs in frequently used fixtures anymore. We leave a lamp on in the living room 24/7/365. It's a 40w equiv LED (7 watts?). Been on for 5 years (we moved into this house in August 2015.)

I started buying LEDs in 2013/2014. We moved out of our house in 2014 to a rental house for a year. I put in LEDs in all the fixtures in the rental house, removed them and took them with us in 2015 when we moved in the new house. I'd say I've replaced 2-3 of those LEDs in 5 years at the new house. I love them.

What kills me is to go to someone's house and they have these jacked up blue-like light bulbs in fixtures and lamps. I guess they don't know there's different colors....

Nobody said the difference in energy usage would be earth shattering. The biggest energy drain in almost any house is a refrigerator. And when needed an air conditioner. Still - 100W down to 12W (or similar) multiple by 8-10 definitely adds up.

And absolutely it's a big pain trying to replace a bulb sometimes. I'll have to unscrew many covers and once (not sure how it happened) I had a glass diffuser break and spread glass over my bed as I changed the bulb. The only thing that's a negative is that these LED aren't effective as bug zappers. Bugs used to have no problem flying onto the surface of a 100W incandescent that could just as easily go into an Easy Bake oven.

 

[dinofish]

If anyone is looking for LED deals, Lowe's store has GE Relax 60-Watt Equivalent LED for 88 cents each. But Lowe's website has them for triple the price. Hmm. And Costco also has 60-Watt Equivalent LED by a no-name brand priced at six for $5.

 

[mfewtrail]

The only incandescent bulbs left in my home are in the refrigerator(s). Those would take years to break even on the purchase price since they're on so infrequently. I have some LED bulbs that are 4-5 years old at this point and haven't had to replace a single one. I only had to replace 1 or 2 incandescent(westinghouse brand) bulbs at my current home in the eight years I had those prior to upgrading to LED's.

 

[mattwithcats]

Remember, there are three basic colors,

2700 kelvin, a yellow white
5000 kelvin, a blue white
and
4000 kelvin, a white white...

I like the 4000 kelvin cool white, but they are hard to find...

I did pick up some clearance bulbs from Lowes, 20 cents for one purple, and one orange Halloween LED’s...
Bought 25 packages, purple makes a good night light, the orange a good bug light...

 

[Jarlaxle]

I only replaced bulbs as they go bad, so no reason to have them around in the first place.

This.

 

[Skippy722]

If anyone is looking for LED deals, Lowe's store has GE Relax 60-Watt Equivalent LED for 88 cents each. But Lowe's website has them for triple the price. Hmm. And Costco also has 60-Watt Equivalent LED by a no-name brand priced at six for $5.

These are excellent bulbs with decent CRI, I use them almost exclusively throughout my house. The light kits I put on the ceiling fans are Feit high CRI candelabra bulbs.

In regard to the energy savings of LED’s, they made a relatively minor but noticeable difference in our energy usage, ~$20 a month after converting from entirely incandescent. I spend that money on delicious coffee.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

Well, a thread shaming others about light bulbs means that maybe the novelty of shaming about wearing masks is wearing thin....and I figure that's a good thing!

Intentional Idiocy and other Moronic acts need more than shaming - they need a spanking.
So, no its not a good thing.

 

[dinofish]

These are excellent bulbs with decent CRI, I use them almost exclusively throughout my house. The light kits I put on the ceiling fans are Feit high CRI candelabra bulbs.

In regard to the energy savings of LED’s, they made a relatively minor but noticeable difference in our energy usage, ~$20 a month after converting from entirely incandescent. I spend that money on delicious coffee.

$20 in savings per month is not minor at all!

 

[PandaBear]

I use them in rental units, tenants can decided to swap them out when they live there and put them back on when they are done, or just keep using it.

I also put them in places that might be harsh condition but not frequently used (i.e. 10 mins a week or two) and bulb die from corrosion or vibration (i.e. dryer or fridge), just use them up then trash them.