New LED light bulb from Best Buy

[JDP]

Just bought a few of the new LED bulbs made by the Best Buy Insignia brand. I would have bought more, but with a 22 year life they'll out live me. They give a more natural light than florescent, no mercury, and will pay for the $17 cost in under five years. (OK, they cost me much less with my discount.) I expect the LED's to come down in price and replace florescents in a few years.

http://www.insigniaproducts.com/products/home-office/NS-LED60F.html

[shifter4]

I am edging closer to LED home lighting . The price is now attractive compared to
a couple of years ago. We use comparatively little lighting in my house but my main
reading light floor lamp is real power hog . It is a Mogul Base 100/200/300W heater , but
actually is the only light on 90% of the time , and is on 200W , 75% of the time that it is on.
In the winter it is a heat source , and in the summer there are a lot fewer hours of
on time , so.....

[JDP]

I am edging closer to LED home lighting . The price is now attractive compared to
a couple of years ago. We use comparatively little lighting in my house but my main
reading light floor lamp is real power hog . It is a Mogul Base 100/200/300W heater , but
actually is the only light on 90% of the time , and is on 200W , 75% of the time that it is on.
In the winter it is a heat source , and in the summer there are a lot fewer hours of
on time , so.....

When we get our store remodel, we are going LED's and skylights everywhere in the place. A energy audit shows a 13K year in energy savings not to mention the cost savings in replacement bulbs and labor savings. Still, it will take almost a decade to recover the changeover cost before it's all gravy.

[gordr]

Two questions in my mind: how durable are the LED bulbs, and how good is the color rendition? LED home lighting I have seen so far is not truly white; it's kind of a "faux white" made by a suitable mix of blue and yellow. Has kind of an "arc-light white" look to it. Might be OK for task-oriented lighting, but looks a little harsh for regular room lighting.

And the durability issue is still unsettled. Until we have real-world, long-term experience with them, we won't know just how well they hold up in the hands of consumers.

I will be real happy to let others be the beta testers for these things. Now I have LED flashlights, and like them a lot. But there, power consumption is paramount.

[swvalcon]

I know a guy who replaced every light in his house with the new blubs so he could save money on his light bill. Said next month the bill never changed.

[Jeff_H]

I would expect these to be instant full brightness? My biggest beef with the CFL's is that most of them seem to take several minutes to come up to full brightness. Says "instant on" and they do come on instantly, but about the brightness of a ember. Not a huge problem if you turn on the light in a room and plan on leaving it on for a while but a real problem if you turn it on for only a minute or less just to dash in and out of the room. I've put incandscents back in a for that reason alone in some locations. My other problem with CFLs is they break easily. Was down at my Moms last weekend and she wanted a outdoor porch light replaced. The CFL there was dead. Got a new one but my sister being shorter than me had trouble getting it started in the fixture (bulb goes in screw end down but you had to do it from the top w/no access to the base of the bulb to grip it) and cross threaded it and it cracked the tubes down near the base. Instant $5 of junk.

[JBOYLE]

$17 bucks for a light bulb?
Great for those with an income that can support changing them over...how many lamps are in your home?

As it seems in other areas (check out the cost of electric cars...$60,000+ but tax credits... bring them down to "only" $50,000) you have to have money to be green.

[plwindish]

Any one using the CFL flood lights? You first turn them on and its like a candle in the wind. Takes about 5 minutes for them to get to full lighting capability. My low voltage patio lights put out more light than the flood lights do.

[JBOYLE]

Any one using the CFL flood lights? You first turn them on and its like a candle in the wind. Takes about 5 minutes for them to get to full lighting capability. My low voltage patio lights put out more light than the flood lights do.

Yes, I have them on the porch and garage area. You're correct, they take 5 minutes to get bright.
And I have solar lights...so i'm not anti-green...just concerned for those making less than $30 an hour.

[JDP]

I would expect these to be instant full brightness? My biggest beef with the CFL's is that most of them seem to take several minutes to come up to full brightness. Says "instant on" and they do come on instantly, but about the brightness of a ember. Not a huge problem if you turn on the light in a room and plan on leaving it on for a while but a real problem if you turn it on for only a minute or less just to dash in and out of the room. I've put incandscents back in a for that reason alone in some locations. My other problem with CFLs is they break easily. Was down at my Moms last weekend and she wanted a outdoor porch light replaced. The CFL there was dead. Got a new one but my sister being shorter than me had trouble getting it started in the fixture (bulb goes in screw end down but you had to do it from the top w/no access to the base of the bulb to grip it) and cross threaded it and it cracked the tubes down near the base. Instant $5 of junk.

Yes instant on, and very durable. (Plastic not glass and cool running) You can read the reviews just starting to come in at the link. (Only been out a few days.) Expensive to buy, but will payback many times over their life. Think how long your LED dash lights work, they too are good for decades.

[JDP]

Than something else happened. If you reduce the power used by lights by 80% and the bill stays the same, you are using it somewhere else. BTW, don't expect big savings, i.e a single 100 watt bulb used 100 hours a month might cost you a dollar or so a month, maybe .25 cents for a LED.

[nzstude]

My work place has been replacing the lights in the coridoors and toilets with LED lamps. I thought it would look horrible with harsh blue light, like my LED tourch, but they look exactly the same colour as before. These lights are on 24/7. The change has been driven by the bean counters so there must be cost savings as bean counters don't do anything for a feel good feeling.

[j.byrd]

swvalcon, perhaps the electric bills are done like some other places we have lived. An average is established and the "normal" bill is made from that for periods of time. That is a really good reason to always read your own meter and have the numbers ready- -they will adjust them. My 1st taste of this was in Athens, Alabama when we moved in a house that had been occupied by a couple that had 4 daughters and entertained frequently ! Our bill after the adjustment was a couple of hundred less from then on.

[shifter4]

swvalcon, perhaps the electric bills are done like some other places we have lived. An average is established and the "normal" bill is made from that for periods of time. That is a really good reason to always read your own meter and have the numbers ready- -they will adjust them. My 1st taste of this was in Athens, Alabama when we moved in a house that had been occupied by a couple that had 4 daughters and entertained frequently ! Our bill after the adjustment was a couple of hundred less from then on.

We have recently had " Smart Meters " installed by Florida Flicker and Flash ( AKA FPL ).
These allow you to go online and monitor your power usage , since it is monitored in real time.
Of course some think that it is a plot by FPL , although the perceived nefarious intentions seem to vary from
person to person .
We also have "drive by " water meters , wherein the reader just passes down the street , and magically
gathers our data.

[4961Studebaker]

Switched over to LED landscape bulb replacements by Philips (through Home Depot). Bi Pin Halogens were getting too expensive to buy. And many places are not carrying them anymore.

I will use up the CFL's I have on hand before venturing into the LED interior lighting.

Everyone should get used to looking at the light spectrum indicator on the packaging.
For example the LED bi pin replacements were a white light. Where as a factory LED Malibu landscape spotlight was in the yellow light spectrum.