What lighting do you use?

[tmbrown97]

I'll admit - this isn't a terribly well thought out poll - but I'm curious - are people moving to LED now? It certainly is the hot new thing! I keep seeing the LED thread going on here, and wanting to switch - but the price is astronomical! I have so many lightbulbs in this house... some fixtures/switches with 6-9 bulbs each... the cost of LED is dizzying!

Prior to this house, I always had CFL everywhere; but in this place, I went Incandescent and put dimmers in ever switch. I hate my CFL's now because they don't dim - I prefer the mood lighting of the incandescents (most people hate the warmup of CFL, but I have to admit - the slow warm-up is actually nice a lot of the time!! But, in my power tier, I often pay $.40/kWh, which is ridiculous, so I can't stop thinking about switching - but I also keep wondering what's to come in the next two years.

If they don't reverse it, as I understand, incandescent will be illegal in 2014. Should I go hoard a few cases of recessed bulbs, just switch now to LED, or wait a year to 18 months to see what radical new innovations make it to market? Switching to CFL and losing dimming is just off the table now. Also, I just put in 50 UPB dimmers - I sure hope whatever bulbs come out are compatible, or I'm going to be seriously miffed!!

I'm just curious where others are - please vote and post your comments!

Edit: Dimmable CFL added; I had kinda forgotten about that... they're pretty hard to find.

 

[jumbodogs]

Dimmable CFL as option in the poll? I do have to say that they don't dim as nice as a incandescents but for now it they work for me.

 

[Lagerhead]

What matters to me:
1. Cost -- and I mean the honest cost, not one loaded with "green" incentives, taxes and other government & corporate "do-gooding" & guilt infliction.
2. Light color

 

[mdonovan]

I'll admit - this isn't a terribly well thought out poll - but I'm curious - are people moving to LED now? It certainly is the hot new thing! I keep seeing the LED thread going on here, and wanting to switch - but the price is astronomical! I have so many lightbulbs in this house... some fixtures/switches with 6-9 bulbs each... the cost of LED is dizzying!

Prior to this house, I always had CFL everywhere; but in this place, I went Incandescent and put dimmers in ever switch. I hate my CFL's now because they don't dim - I prefer the mood lighting of the incandescents (most people hate the warmup of CFL, but I have to admit - the slow warm-up is actually nice a lot of the time!! But, in my power tier, I often pay $.40/kWh, which is ridiculous, so I can't stop thinking about switching - but I also keep wondering what's to come in the next two years.

If they don't reverse it, as I understand, incandescent will be illegal in 2014. Should I go hoard a few cases of recessed bulbs, just switch now to LED, or wait a year to 18 months to see what radical new innovations make it to market? Switching to CFL and losing dimming is just off the table now. Also, I just put in 50 UPB dimmers - I sure hope whatever bulbs come out are compatible, or I'm going to be seriously miffed!!

I'm just curious where others are - please vote and post your comments!

I have both LED and incandescent, and that's how it will be for the foreseeable future. I am replacing all of the can lights in the areas I use the lights the most (living room and kitchen are done, porch lights are next). I haven't found any bulbs (normal light bulb shaped vs can lights) that I like, so those lights have to wait for the technology to improve. So I'm not sure how to answer your poll. Mines a mix.

Matt

 

[Kevin L]

I chose incandescent for color and dimmimg, but I would have checked off reason 1, also. I don't buy all this green/global warming con game.

Kevin

 

[pete_c]

I'm not sure how to answer the poll either.

I currently utilize mostly incandescent lighting. But in the basement (unfinished) I am using 9 CCFLs. A couple of years ago I did "try" to convert all of my outside lighting (7 coach lights) to CCFL dimmable's. It didn't work and I didn't really like the style of the lighting anyways.

First attempt at LED lighting for me would be to convert the family room and kitchen cans from spots/floods to LEDs. Later some of the hallways.

Regarding LED lighting I've converted one zone of eight of the landscaping lighting from halogen to LED. (8 to 10 lamps)

 

[tmbrown97]

I guess I wasn't really expecting anyone to be 100% towards LED or CFL - I was thinking about which way people are going if, say, they had to go buy 6 more bulbs for a room... are you actively trying to get to LED? Maybe that's too expensive, so you're actively going to CFL?

I know one thing - I hope the technology gets a lot better - I'm going to miss being able to dim my lights down all the way - the few LED's I've played with so far just didn't dim the same way.

 

[gatchel]

I am very actively moving to LED where good LED devices can be installed with little or no decrease in lighting output and no issues with color.

I have 23 recessed cans in the house. 6 CFL powered, 9 PAR 30 incandescent, and 8 Cree LED modules (LR6 or CR6). The recessed cans will all be changed out to LED in the next few months.

The biggest limiting factor for me right now is the fact that there is not a good LED 60watt bulb replacement that exists yet.

 

[wuench]

I use incandescent so I can dim them. But I recently ran into an issue that makes me rethink that....

I had a covered light where the ceramic sockets had disintegrated, so I went to replace it. When the light was pulled down, the sheathing was an odd brownish color. I thought, "that's an unusual colored wire to use". Then I went to rewiring, all the insulation on the wire started to crack. There was also a burnt spot on one of the neutrals. Luckily there was enough spare wire in the attic to pull wire through. There was a similar issue at my parents, all the insulation on their kitchen lights had disintegrated. At the time I blamed the age of their house, but my house is only 10 years old and the light had the foil and insulation on it they all come with that is meant to protect the wiring from the heat. The fixture was supposedly rated for the two 60W bulbs I had in it.

Now I am concerned about all the closed/dome lights in my house. I am considering replacing all of them with LED so as not to make the problem worse. LED may be expensive, but not as expensive as having to pull new electrical wire or worst case starting a fire....

I can't believe these light fixtures pass whatever testing is required to release them to the public....

 

[cornutt]

Our house is about half halogen and half CFL; there are hardly any non-halogen incandescents. I've experiments with "dimmable" CFLs and I've given up on them; either they have very little dimmable range, or they don't play nice with automation devices.
I've got a few LED bulbs that I'm experimenting with, but I keep running into gotchas with them. For example, I bought a couple of Sylvania PAR-20s to put into can lights, only to find that they don't fit into an eyeball trim for a 4" can.

 

[Mark S.]

I have a mix of mostly incandescent (in areas where I really care about color, like the family room), about 1/4 CFLs (in areas where color is not an issue and I want long life), and an ever-growing handful of LEDs (that are slowly replacing the CFLs). I hate the warm-up time you see with most CFLs, but I don't like the color of most LEDs (Cree excepted). Buyer beware regarding light output - it varies widely with LEDs. Dimming continues to be a problem with both LED and CFL. I am just starting with dimmable LEDs.

With the current price of LEDs, you're seriously deluded if you think they will save you money. I think that is even true with some CFLs. Do the math balancing the cost of the bulb, compared to the KWH savings for the number of hours you actually use it. Paybacks can be very long. In my experience, some CFLs burn out before they even reach the breakeven point over incandescent - and I think I am seeing something similar with this generation of LEDs.

That said, I have been buying LEDs for a few years now, just because I'm curious and can't help myself - I need to play. I am generally using them in fixtures that are on for 6+ hours a day, and/or fixtures in high or remote places where I don't want to change a bulb for many years. I find that LEDs don't do well outside - moisture and cold can cause no-start or flickering/flashing. I've had a few with an annoying buzz, like the old fluorescent ballasts. LEDs are definitely a work in progress, but they are improving rapidly. The Cree stuff is the best I've used.

If you are frugal, stay away from LEDs for now, sit back and let the dorks like me waste our time and money.

 

[Odeen]

I use a lot of Philips Halogena Energy Saver 50W BR30 bulbs in my recessed lights. While the bulbs are expensive ($9), they produce a neat 800 lumens of whiter-than-average light (2850 degrees or so) while only consuming 50W. The extra 150-200 lumens per bulb (compared with run of the mill 65W / 650 lumen BR30 incandescents) made a huge difference.

That said, my electricity is cheap (never over $0.10/kw) so I don't feel the need to go LED just yet.

My parents, on the other hand, get into the $0.40/kw all the time. I'm actively researching LED and fluorescent replacements for their most commonly used lights, since for such high electricity costs, the payback period can be less than a year.

All things being equal,using less energy is always a good thing, regardless of whether or not global warming is a hoax. That said, things aren't equal, so until I can get 3000+ lumens out of a torchiere uplight, or 500+ lumens out of a little candelabra "torpedo" bulb, I may be sticking with incandescent heat balls.

 

[apostolakisl]

I'm in the "buy one and try it out just to see" phase. I plan on switching to LED 100% when they make a bulb that basically can't be told apart from incandescent, and has a reasonable price.

I will take advantage of the BS gov't incentives to buy these things but hate them and wish they never existed. In the end these programs cost us all way more money than if we just paid the extra money to buy them at the real price.

When a bulb is rated at 50,000 hours you kind of need to consider it a lifetime investment and the current state of technology requires me to pass for now, but I suspect that within 2 years that might change.

 

[tmbrown97]

Lou - I think that sums up my current feeling pretty much on the nose... specifically the parts about not being able to tell it from incandescents (expect perhaps with even more consistent color); and not wanting to buy what should be a lifetime bulb that isn't there - because it'll make it that much harder to replace a working bulb later - but I'll still hate the inferior ones every day.

And, I'll of course buy some and mess with them in the mean time, but not invest in changing the whole house just yet.

 

[oberkc]

Incandescent for those fixtures requiring dimming. Mostly CFL for (a few LEDs, no incandescent) for non-dimming.