More LED bulb options

[apostolakisl]

Hmm tempted to jump on the LED bandwagon, but it's hard to justify the cost when our power up here in Canada only costs $0.06 / kwh

Wow, 6cents. Does Canada have nationalized electricity or are prices different all over the place like in the US? I wouldn't peg Canada as the place to get cheap electricity. My last visit to Vancouver was not cheap! Everything was 2x the price.

 

[apostolakisl]

I'm really liking the Phillips 60W equiv 2700K A19 "Ambient LED" bulbs. They throw light in all directions and are fully dimable. I've got 3 in the living room so far. I bought them for $40 each when they first came out. The price is down to $30 now.

This bulb? http://www.polar-ray.com/Philips-AmbientLED-Dimmable-A19-LED-Bulb--60W-Equivalent_p_235.html

 

[kwilcox]

yep. That's the one. I actually found it for $23 on Amazon today!

 

[michelkenny]

Wow, 6cents. Does Canada have nationalized electricity or are prices different all over the place like in the US? I wouldn't peg Canada as the place to get cheap electricity. My last visit to Vancouver was not cheap! Everything was 2x the price.

Prices differ per province. One big factor is whether the power company is owned privately (higher prices) or by the government (lower prices).

 

[JeffCharger]

There is a tiered rate schedule in Ontario with 3 tiers.

The tiers are:
Off peak =6.2
Mid-off peak =9.2 (weekday working hours)
Peak =10.8 (mornings and dinner hours)

It's not subsidized, although it is regulated. On top of the fees, there are all kinds of add-ons... Such as debt retirement, delivery, distribution, transmission fee, etc. These result in doubling the usage bill.

 

[kwilcox]

.13 US/KWh in WI. I'm very motivated...

 

[kertofer]

I have a .08 rate in the US locked in for the next 2 years. Hooray for de regulation!

 

[Mark S.]

I'm feeling good at $0.15 in Connecticut, down from over $.20 two years ago.

Two years ago I got serious about LEDs.

 

[gatchel]

There are good LED bulb prices around the Boston area if anyone is interested. The 60 watt Philips replacements were about $15 if I remember correctly.


Also, there is now a 4" LED replacement by Ecosmart (Cree). Very cool.
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202899613/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

[pete_c]

In Illinois local rate hikes were approved by the politicans using the "sell" of power grid modernization. How guillible (or not) they have been. Its really no different than just increasing taxes as an easy way out to pay state bills. Most likely they are getting a chunk of that rate increase cuz they are broke and can't think of ways to manage their budgets; blank checks are easier to use. A four way intersection infrastructure "build" today costs (?) over $3 million US dollars to build in Illinois; where as just a year ago it was maybe around 400K USD. The labor costs and material cost is the same as it was; actually cheaper; so what changed?

Personally I see it just more profit for the electric company and way less QOS, poorer service, more blackouts, etc. Already a profitable entity we will be paying their "modernization" tab such that they will not need too many folks to manage this due to automation (we will be subject to their growing pains at an extremely high cost) and their profit margins will increase exponentially. Personally its like how the cable companies are charging a premium for the ability to watch HD; while we pay for their upgrades in infrastructure.

So here it'll be like 4-5 times what our costs are today in just a couple of years and a big push for lower energy consumption (actually it'll kind of force folks to either get really green or just pay a thousand or more a month for electricity). It won't really be a choice in the near future to utilize LED or incandescent lighting; it'll be kind of manditory thing in Illinois which BTW is now on the bottom of the list of states most likely to want to live in.


The state of Illinois is quickly becoming the "Show me" state; relating to showing how easy it is to (word deleted) mess with the taxpayers.

 

[apostolakisl]

In Illinois local rate hikes were approved by the politicans using the "sell" of power grid modernization. How guillible (or not) they have been. Its really no different than just increasing taxes as an easy way out to pay state bills. Most likely they are getting a chunk of that rate increase cuz they are broke and can't think of ways to manage their budgets; blank checks are easier to use. A four way intersection infrastructure "build" today costs (?) over $3 million US dollars to build in Illinois; where as just a year ago it was maybe around 400K USD. The labor costs and material cost is the same as it was; actually cheaper; so what changed?

Personally I see it just more profit for the electric company and way less QOS, poorer service, more blackouts, etc. Already a profitable entity we will be paying their "modernization" tab such that they will not need too many folks to manage this due to automation (we will be subject to their growing pains at an extremely high cost) and their profit margins will increase exponentially. Personally its like how the cable companies are charging a premium for the ability to watch HD; while we pay for their upgrades in infrastructure.

So here it'll be like 4-5 times what our costs are today in just a couple of years and a big push for lower energy consumption (actually it'll kind of force folks to either get really green or just pay a thousand or more a month for electricity). It won't really be a choice in the near future to utilize LED or incandescent lighting; it'll be kind of manditory thing in Illinois which BTW is now on the bottom of the list of states most likely to want to live in.


The state of Illinois is quickly becoming the "Show me" state; relating to showing how easy it is to (word deleted) mess with the taxpayers.

Pete,

I think you need to move to Texas. Not that things are perfect here, but I think you'd appreciate the change.

Here is the thing about electricity. It costs the same amount of money to administer the co and maintain the infrastructure regardless of whether people use the electricity or not. If everyone cut their usage in half, they would need to increase their prices, not quite double, but close.

I am all for efficiency, much more so than the average guy. But efficiency is not the world answer. It is at best a band-aid. Once we all insulate our houses and put 90% efficient lamps and appliances in, then what. Going from 10% to 90% efficiency is huge, but once you hit 90, where do you go?

I'll tell you where you go. You need to make more electricity. A lot lot lot more. Our bozo politicians and green freeks think we can put some wind mills up and all will be hunky dory. Bull. For the state of humanity to improve, we need more power and I mean a lot more. Like 10 times more. Maybe 100 times more. Energy is the answer to virtually every problem the world has. The only way we are going to get power like that is to harness nuclear energy. Our crappy 40 year old slow neutron reactors need to go. We need high speed neutron reactors and we need lots of them. We need to get fusion energy figured out. It is the only way to power humanity over the next 100 years.

With electricity, the deserts turn into limitless fields irrigated by RO water from the ocean and fertilizer made out of air and water. Pollution is cleaned up, hell you could even suck the co2 out of the atmosphere using electrically powered facilities.

OK, I'm done ranting.

 

[pete_c]

Lou,

I've worked in TX and liked it. (gas and oil stuff). Driven around; checking housing; etc.

Illinois is quickly becoming the execrement orifice of the nation; guess its easier than doing anything else in this state.

 

[tmbrown97]

For anyone who thinks their rates are bad, let me remind you:

Baseline <= 511.5 Kwh @ $.12233
101-130% of baseline <= 664.95 Kwh @ $.13907
131-200% of baseline <= 1023.0 Kwh @ $.29385
201-300% of baseline > 1023.0 Kwh @ $.40352

Meaning anything over the first 1,023 kwh is billed at $.40352; and since I'll never be below the 1,000kwh mark, when you average out the tiers, my first 1,023 kwh average out to $.18487

These DO include all the BS charges, like generation, transmission, distribution, etc...

I can get around 1,100 kwh in the winter - but in the summer I hit over 2700kwh trying to cool this place... those bills topped over $800. For me any cost savings efforts can have substantial payback; but since I'm already 80% LED; have no extra computers, stereos, TV's or equipment, my costs are mostly HVAC. And when I get my breaks on electric in the winter, my gas prices seem to make up most of the difference (though if I keep "forgetting" to light the pilot on the gas fireplace, they stay lower ;-).

 

[Waynedb]

Your top tiers have a higher rate than mine, I have SCE and tier 5 is about 31 cents per KWH, I expect our rates to go way up in the future when AB 32 starts to really kick in..

 

[judge_l]

Menards has par30 LEDs for $13. I'm not sure about the quality but for that price, I think I'm going to try some.

http://www.menards.com/main/lighting-fans/light-bulbs/led/c-7482.htm