LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

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LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

1)Yes - I believe they will in reality, last long enough to make them the financially smart move now, I am going to change whole house to LED as bulbs burn out
28
33%
2)No - I do not believe they will in reality, last long enough to make them the financially smart move currently
15
17%
3)Don't know
15
17%
4)Yes - But only in specific areas in my home
28
33%
 
Total votes: 86

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LH
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LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by LH »

Are LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

This post is purely about LED and money.

Will they last as long as they say they will, will they in reality save you money?

I have recently bought a couple LED, and marked them with the date. The light seems fine.

I am wondering will they in reality pay off? Will they last? The box I think mentions 22 years.

Also, it seems to me, the longer I wait, the cheaper/better/more dependable/standardized they will become.
HoosierJim
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by HoosierJim »

I am currently in year 1 of a twenty year trial on my outside dusk-to-dawn garage LED lights. The lights stay on an about 11 hours per day. I will post an update on 3/15/2033 :D
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by DieselEngineer »

I replaced the most frequently used lights in the house all at once and noticed an eight dollar drop in the monthly bill. I will slowly replace more. My utility company has an energy star mail in rebate program and it am using it to the limit.
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runner9
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by runner9 »

Compared to CFL at $1 a piece, we're waiting for the LED bulb price to come down more before trying.
chw
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by chw »

Just replaced 2 halogens that run 6 hours a day- payback is about 2 years. At this point, not worth replacing CFls unless getting huge rebate on the bulbs.

Other side benefit to replacing the halogens with the LEDs is that they throw off much less heat, which reduces the AC bill in summer.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by carolinaman »

I have undercabinet LEDs in kitchen and recently replaced recessed lights in den and bedroom closets lights with LED. I could not cover the recessed lights in attic with insulation due to fire hazard. Alternative would be to enclose them or to go with LEDs which do not generate much heat. LEDs were a lot cheaper in that instance. I have eliminated 4 major air leaks which should improve heating/cooling and reduce costs. Also, the recessed lights are brighter which may be partially due to design but DW was really happy with them.

Another advantage for LEDs is that they should rarely have to be replaced. This could be really important for seniors who should not get on ladders. This was a major concern with my elderly mother in her later years. She lived alone and would not hesitate to get on a ladder to replace burned out lights even though it was very risky.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Valuethinker »

LH wrote:Are LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

This post is purely about LED and money.

Will they last as long as they say they will, will they in reality save you money?

I have recently bought a couple LED, and marked them with the date. The light seems fine.

I am wondering will they in reality pay off? Will they last? The box I think mentions 22 years.

Also, it seems to me, the longer I wait, the cheaper/better/more dependable/standardized they will become.
I think your conclusion is basically true re waiting: prices fall, quality improves. LEDs are a lot higher quality now than they were say 3-4 years ago.

However when I have a CFL I tend to replace with an LED. CFLs last 4,000-8,000 hours but as we have discussed, many of them don't last that long. I have not yet had an LED bulb go, so I have no idea if their estimated life is accurate.

There are 8760 hours in a year, so I figure a lightbulb is typically on 1,000-2,000 hrs pa. My LED bulbs should last 10-20 years-- we'll probably replace the light or light fitting first ;-).

My payback of switching halogens to LEDs was around 2 years, but I pay USD 23 cents for a kwhr electricity (so 50W halogen to 7W LED).

My advice to you would be to not replace preemptively BUT when you do replace a bulb, go with the LED-- the additional cost justified by the longer life span. I think CFLs will rapidly become a niche technology as LEDs improve and expand. This is particularly the case with light fittings that are a pain to access-- there's a cost/ risk to changing a bulb like that.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by SpringMan »

I am a big fan of LED flashlights. Prices on home lighting with LEDs are still a bit high IMO.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by nisiprius »

Now that prices have dropped... we are not going to replace any working bulbs with LEDs, but I find that I am tempted. Based on our experiences with LED bulbs so far we are never going to buy CFLs again. We have one Philips bulb we bought a couple of years ago just for the novelty value, at about $30. We put about five LED bulbs in during a bathroom remodeling. We replace two CFL bulbs in outdoor locations (front door, porch) that were billed a special models specifically made for outdoor use. They didn't work worth a darn (come on dim, and in cold weather stay dim); the LED replacements seem to work fine.

Overall we have one Philips, several Utilitech (Lowe's house brand???), and a couple of Cree's. All good.

Service life remains unclear... and the rate at which they dim with age remains unclear. The life of both LED and CFLs is so long that I don't think the extra cost of the LED bulbs matters much. I haven't kept records, and don't know what the average is, but CFLs definitely have an annoyingly high early failure rate. Maybe there is a high incidence of defects, but we often need to replace CFLs that are not even close to their rated service life. We've only been living with LED bulbs for about a year so don't know how that is going to pan out.

I love LED bulbs for these reasons:

a) The quality of the light is just better. Probably a more even spectrum. All fluorescent bulbs have a terrible tradeoff between brightness and color temperature--blue or dim, choose which. And even the warmest of warm-white fluorescents just make things look a little funny.

b) LED bulbs seem to come up to full brightness instantaneously. Faster than incandescents, not that it's a problem, but it does take a split second. The best and newest CFLs turn on and provide some light immediately--none of the nasty click-click flickering--but they start out dim, and take probably three minutes to come up to full brightness. In even a cool location, like a basement in winter, say 55 or 60 degrees, the situation is worse. And the specially-designed-for-outdoor CFLs were worse yet.

c) A silly thing, but LED bulbs are a much better match in shape and dimensions for incandescent bulbs, so if you are just putting them in old fixtures there are fewer surprise.
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Boglenaut
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Boglenaut »

You need more options. Compared to what!?

If compared to incandescent, they'll pay for themselves. Compared to CFL, no.

We already are on CFL every where it is practical. When the LED go on sale and as the CFL, I plan to swith over. But that is for the better quality, not cost.

The move from incandescent to CFL was cost driven.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Boglenaut »

SpringMan wrote:I am a big fan of LED flashlights. Prices on home lighting with LEDs are still a bit high IMO.
We put a LED flashlight in a Halloween pumpkin last year. The next morning it was dimmer but still going. The old fashioned bulb would have been dead in an hour or two. It's great technology for flashlights.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by YttriumNitrate »

My electric company has been giving out CFL bulbs for the past few years, so once my lifetime supply of CFL is used up I might switch over to LEDs...if I'm still around. By that time LEDs will probably be a good value.

On a somewhat related note, back when CFLs were introduced, weren't they touted as having such a long life that they'd never need replacing?
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by HoosierJim »

There are other use case LED bulb applications. This one is a bluetooth speaker

You can pipe music via bluetooth to your light cans. For renters - it moves with you and no wiring.

http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-72284-Mu ... d_sxp_f_pt


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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Boglenaut »

nisiprius wrote:CFLs definitely have an annoyingly high early failure rate. Maybe there is a high incidence of defects, but we often need to replace CFLs that are not even close to their rated service life.
We bought three 60-watt replacement LED bulbs at Costco for $6 each (local utility subsidizes $5 each, normally $11). One failed in a week. The other two work great.

With many electronic items, failures happen early due to defects (and can still be returned) or very late due to age. Once the initial period is passed, they tend to work a long time. I suspect LED bulbs will be like this.

The quality of the light is fantastic.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Boglenaut »

YttriumNitrate wrote:
On a somewhat related note, back when CFLs were introduced, weren't they touted as having such a long life that they'd never need replacing?
The bulbs I bought around 15 years ago were rated 7 years. One died in a few months. I e-mailed the company and they sent me 2 free replacements.

I don't keep track of how long they last... but it is definitely longer than incandescent.

By the way, my little girl had a class project to count the number of light bulbs in the house. We had 108, not counting small ones in electronics, the car, flashlights, etc. Just normal ones in fixtures.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by jeffyscott »

Boglenaut wrote:You need more options. Compared to what!?

If compared to incandescent, they'll pay for themselves. Compared to CFL, no.

We already are on CFL every where it is practical. When the LED go on sale and as the CFL, I plan to swith over. But that is for the better quality, not cost.

The move from incandescent to CFL was cost driven.
Exactly. If all you care about is cost, then CFL still beat LED, since the electricity used is nearly the same. We are also switching to LEDs as bulbs burn out. We stopped buying CFLs a couple years ago.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Carlton »

I converted all my exterior and motion lights to LED mostly to eliminate maintenance. CFL's take forever to come up to full brightness in cold weather, and some of the bulbs are a real pain to get to. Indoors, I've been very impressed by CREE LED lamps available at the Home Depot. They aren't the cheapest, but are made in the USA and seem good quality. On a side note, many of the cheap CFL's are poor quality and some even smoke and burn when they fail. For CFL's I stick with name brand Philips, Osram/Sylvania of GE.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by mhc »

I just purchased a case of 100W and a case of 75W incandescent bulbs. I really like the quality of the light. Once my stockpile is gone, I will probably switch to LED lights.

I like the way my 100W light bulbs warm up the bathroom.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by jridger2011 »

Does anyone recommend any brands? I'm interested in getting some but have been overwhelmed by the number of brands I don't really recognize anywhere else.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by steve r »

I said no ... and I have spent hundreds of dollars on these things and love them. My guess is fluorescent lighting is cheaper ... but I hate it. LED is less than the old standard though.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Valuethinker »

mhc wrote:I just purchased a case of 100W and a case of 75W incandescent bulbs. I really like the quality of the light. Once my stockpile is gone, I will probably switch to LED lights.

I like the way my 100W light bulbs warm up the bathroom.
Unless you heat electrically that is an expensive way to heat a bathroom. A kwhr in my gas furnace (and my gas prices are x2 at least US average, if not x3) costs about 1/3rd of a kwhr in my light socket.

Aesthetically I think the LED bulbs are there, now, at least up to 60 watt. I cannot tell them apart from incandescent.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Valuethinker »

jeffyscott wrote:
Boglenaut wrote:You need more options. Compared to what!?

If compared to incandescent, they'll pay for themselves. Compared to CFL, no.

We already are on CFL every where it is practical. When the LED go on sale and as the CFL, I plan to swith over. But that is for the better quality, not cost.

The move from incandescent to CFL was cost driven.
Exactly. If all you care about is cost, then CFL still beat LED, since the electricity used is nearly the same. We are also switching to LEDs as bulbs burn out. We stopped buying CFLs a couple years ago.
Yes but LEDs likely have a much longer life. So you might still come out ahead with LEDs.

Given the discount rate would be c. 3.5% ie risk free rate + maybe 1% at max (I could make a case you should discount by the risk free rate).

The main point as OP points out is that prices are falling fast and the technology is getting better, so waiting may have a payback. Hence my strategy of replacing CFLs only as necessary.

If someone has an incandescent or halogen, assuming decent hours of usage (say more than about 700 pa) it probably pays to replace *immediately*. It certainly did in my case. I dropped my electricity usage/ bill pcm by about 10%.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Valuethinker »

Boglenaut wrote:
With many electronic items, failures happen early due to defects (and can still be returned) or very late due to age. Once the initial period is passed, they tend to work a long time. I suspect LED bulbs will be like this.

.
The 'technical' term for that is apparently 'bathtub curve': lifespan on the X axis, failure rate on the Y axis. It's true of most microelectronics apparently, especially anything semiconductor (where you are trying to cram more and more in to a smaller and smaller space).
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by jeffyscott »

Valuethinker wrote:
mhc wrote:I just purchased a case of 100W and a case of 75W incandescent bulbs. I really like the quality of the light. Once my stockpile is gone, I will probably switch to LED lights.

I like the way my 100W light bulbs warm up the bathroom.
Unless you heat electrically that is an expensive way to heat a bathroom. A kwhr in my gas furnace (and my gas prices are x2 at least US average, if not x3) costs about 1/3rd of a kwhr in my light socket.
Not that I think a few 100 watt bulbs would make a noticeable difference, but electrically heating the bathroom to a few degrees warmer than the rest of the house could still be cheaper than raising the entire house by those few degrees using a gas furnace.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by placeholder »

Valuethinker wrote:Unless you heat electrically that is an expensive way to heat a bathroom.
I interpreted it to mean "warm up" in terms of copious amounts of soft light rather than temperature but I might be wrong about that.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by telemark »

Valuethinker wrote:My advice to you would be to not replace preemptively BUT when you do replace a bulb, go with the LED-- the additional cost justified by the longer life span.
Also, the CFLs that burn out early are probably in locations where they get turned on and off frequently, and LEDs should do better with that kind of use.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by dbr »

Considering that CFL's are a technically unacceptable lighting solution, there is no doubt LED's are cost justified over incandescents.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Stonebr »

I'm just about finished converting the whole house to LEDs. The quality of light is wonderful, especially the GU10 LED bulbs that replaced the old halogens in our track lighting. The improvement over the slow to start, flickering, buzzing CFLs is even greater. I've even found a source for 3-way bulbs for table lamps.

The downside is obviously the cost. :( But it's a bit like improving the energy efficiency of your house for heating and cooling. There are some things that are worth the extra cost simply because they make the house more comfortable and beautiful, regardless of the payback period that everyone obsesses over. The $200 I spent on 8 little bulbs for our kitchen have made the room so much brighter and more livable. And they use a total of 40w. We could easily have spent twice that much on new fixtures in a failed attempt at achieving the same thing using cheap bulbs.

I couldn't care less what the payback period is. LEDs make our house look nicer.
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LH
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by LH »

Stonebr wrote:I'm just about finished converting the whole house to LEDs. The quality of light is wonderful, especially the GU10 LED bulbs that replaced the old halogens in our track lighting. The improvement over the slow to start, flickering, buzzing CFLs is even greater. I've even found a source for 3-way bulbs for table lamps.

The downside is obviously the cost. :( But it's a bit like improving the energy efficiency of your house for heating and cooling. There are some things that are worth the extra cost simply because they make the house more comfortable and beautiful, regardless of the payback period that everyone obsesses over. The $200 I spent on 8 little bulbs for our kitchen have made the room so much brighter and more livable. And they use a total of 40w. We could easily have spent twice that much on new fixtures in a failed attempt at achieving the same thing using cheap bulbs.

I couldn't care less what the payback period is. LEDs make our house look nicer.
what three way bulb you go with?
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Stonebr »

LH wrote: what three way bulb you go with?
Two brands -- FEIT and Switch. (Sounds like an old cigarette commercial. :wink: )

One reason I'm converting now is that I'm concerned that our American corporate leaders will do what they always do when they bring prices down -- compromise on quality. I want to get the good LEDs while they are still available. I have no other basis for this than my deep distrust and suspicion of corporate America (for whom I worked for 30+ years).
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by mhc »

Stonebr wrote:
LH wrote: what three way bulb you go with?
Two brands -- FEIT and Switch. (Sounds like an old cigarette commercial. :wink: )

One reason I'm converting now is that I'm concerned that our American corporate leaders will do what they always do when they bring prices down -- compromise on quality. I want to get the good LEDs while they are still available. I have no other basis for this than my deep distrust and suspicion of corporate America (for whom I worked for 30+ years).
Do you know that corporate America is developing the technology to make LED lights possible?
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by emoore »

telemark wrote:
Valuethinker wrote:My advice to you would be to not replace preemptively BUT when you do replace a bulb, go with the LED-- the additional cost justified by the longer life span.
Also, the CFLs that burn out early are probably in locations where they get turned on and off frequently, and LEDs should do better with that kind of use.
I think this is a key flaw with CFLs. All my bedroom and hallway and basement floods are CFLs and they have been going for over 6 years. The bathroom CFLs burn out in 6-12 months. Only thing I could think of was duration of time on.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by walker46 »

After a lifetime of buying bulbs that only last a year or two, it’s a little disconcerting to see the promised life on the LED package and realize that you are now buying light bulbs that will likely last longer than yourself.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Stonebr »

mhc wrote: Do you know that corporate America is developing the technology to make LED lights possible?
Duh.

But I've seen products cheapened by bean counters all my life. And the bean counters are in control.

That's why I'm buying LEDs now -- the engineers still have some say.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by tibbitts »

I don't think they're economical yet for most traditional fixtures that accept screw-in bulbs.

I use them for can lights in the kitchen: the allow for frequent on-off, and less chance of the heat from the cans burning the house down.

My most desired application would be for 60w globe replacements for the bathroom. The CFL globes seem to take a long, long time to warm up (15sec or so) and the frequent on-off limits the life. But using that huge number of 60w incandescent bulbs generates too much heat and costs a lot for air conditioning. And buying that many LEDs is still expensive, so there seems to be no good solution for that yet.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by earlyout »

Isn't this supposed cost savings just a a way to rationalize a decision to try new technology? It doesn't make any difference if the LED bulbs last 10 years or 20 years. Are you going to take all these LED bulbs with you when you move in 5 years?
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Stonebr »

earlyout wrote:Are you going to take all these LED bulbs with you when you move in 5 years?
You can unscrew them like any other bulb, so why not take them? Heck, maybe you can pass them on to your grandchildren.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by jeffyscott »

tibbitts wrote:My most desired application would be for 60w globe replacements for the bathroom. The CFL globes seem to take a long, long time to warm up (15sec or so) and the frequent on-off limits the life. But using that huge number of 60w incandescent bulbs generates too much heat and costs a lot for air conditioning. And buying that many LEDs is still expensive, so there seems to be no good solution for that yet.
Well, you could save 20% with 40 watt globes :happy (60 watt seem too bright to us, anyway). That is about the only place we never went to CFLs. I think I will transition to LEDs there, despite the cost...which would currently be about $120, based on costco.com price, for the 11 bulbs in two bathrooms. We have one 3 pack of incandescent globes left to use up...
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Valuethinker »

tibbitts wrote:I don't think they're economical yet for most traditional fixtures that accept screw-in bulbs.

I use them for can lights in the kitchen: the allow for frequent on-off, and less chance of the heat from the cans burning the house down.

My most desired application would be for 60w globe replacements for the bathroom. The CFL globes seem to take a long, long time to warm up (15sec or so) and the frequent on-off limits the life. But using that huge number of 60w incandescent bulbs generates too much heat and costs a lot for air conditioning. And buying that many LEDs is still expensive, so there seems to be no good solution for that yet.
Here's how I worked it out.

Cost of an incandescent bulb : £2. Cost of an LED £20.

Savings (5w vs 60w). 1000 hours pa = 50 kwhr pa saved (55 rounded down to 50).

Cost of electricity for 50 kwhr at 15p/kwhr = £7.50

Payback period £18/ 7.50 = 2.4 years . Much shorter for bulbs like kitchen which are probably on 2000 hours pa.

I have ignored the fact that I would go through at least 5 incandescent bulbs over the 10 year life of the LED.

Now your electricity prices will be much lower (the waste heat from an incandescent is, conversely, useful to me-- we don't have AC). But I suspect your LEDs will be cheaper, too.

In NPV terms it actually pays to replace halogens and incandescents *now* before the end of their useful lives. Sad person that I am, I built a spreadsheet and proved that to myself (I think I got something like a 9% IRR on replacing the halogens with LEDs). CFLs of course it doesn't pay off, but I prefer the LED technology so I am replacing as they burn out (as others have noted they don't seem to last the advertised 6-8,000 hours).
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Valuethinker »

earlyout wrote:Isn't this supposed cost savings just a a way to rationalize a decision to try new technology? It doesn't make any difference if the LED bulbs last 10 years or 20 years. Are you going to take all these LED bulbs with you when you move in 5 years?
Well I am hoping for at least 10 years in this house, if not 20.

But I ran the numbers, discounting at 4%, and I got positive NPV from switching out halogens and incandescents *now* and replacing with LEDs. Sad, I know, to be that nerdy about it (but I am the son of an engineer ;-)).

CFLs you might as well wait until they burn out, but I won't again buy a CFL if I can find an LED replacement.
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Valuethinker »

Stonebr wrote:
mhc wrote: Do you know that corporate America is developing the technology to make LED lights possible?
Duh.

But I've seen products cheapened by bean counters all my life. And the bean counters are in control.

That's why I'm buying LEDs now -- the engineers still have some say.
Perhaps a greater worry is that as production concentrates down to a few manufacturers, there will be no incentive to make LED bulbs long lived-- just kills their own market.

In the early stages, when you get lots of suppliers, they are reaching for technological advantage. But demand for light bulbs is going to implode. Granted we will have more light fittings (I counted over 50 bulbs in this (small) house). Number of dwellings will grow. But still, if you go from buying a new bulb ever 2 years to buying one every 10, or 15, it changes completely the dynamics of the market.

The under cupboard LED strips in the kitchen (IKEA) are *great*-- heartily recommended.
HoosierJim
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by HoosierJim »

Valuethinker wrote:In NPV terms it actually pays to replace halogens and incandescents *now* before the end of their useful lives.
Let say your halogens and incandescents have 5 and 2 years respectively life left in them, did your IRR factor in the cost of your own labor NOW vs delaying your labor cost for 5 or 2 years? :idea:
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Epsilon Delta
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Epsilon Delta »

Valuethinker wrote:
Savings (5w vs 60w). 1000 hours pa = 50 kwhr pa saved (55 rounded down to 50).
The claim that a 5W LED produces the same light as a 60W incandescent is suspect. The Cree LED takes 9 or 9.5W to generate 800 lumen, which is the output of a typical 60W incandescent in the US. A UK 60W incandescent is a little dimmer* but it's not that much dimmer. UK suppliers do not publish the light outputs for their bulbs so it's hard to say for certain, it would be interesting to hear what somebody like Which? magazine has to say on the matter.

* A higher operating voltage requires a thinner filament to get equal light output for the same power, but a thinner filament reduces bulb life. To get similar life spans a 240V incandescent will be slightly less efficient than a 120V incandescent with the same power consumption, life span and technology.
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ElJay
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by ElJay »

I think it's worth it. I like the 5000K light from LEDs much better than the CFL version of 5000K, LED lights are at 100% brightness instantly, they don't dim over the years, and they stand up better compared with CFLs in areas that have short on/off cycles (e.g. the bathroom.) I don't put 5000K everywhere; in the bathroom and the kitchen I like warmer light. Some bulbs sold under Lowes' house brand, Utilitech Pro, disburse light in a pattern much like incandescent bulbs which makes them work well in table and floor fixtures. My bulb of choice
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jeffyscott
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by jeffyscott »

Valuethinker wrote:
earlyout wrote:Isn't this supposed cost savings just a a way to rationalize a decision to try new technology? It doesn't make any difference if the LED bulbs last 10 years or 20 years. Are you going to take all these LED bulbs with you when you move in 5 years?
Well I am hoping for at least 10 years in this house, if not 20.
I've been in my house for 17. But in any case, in 5 years maybe the price of replacements will be $5, so it won't really matter much. Also, looking at this:
Image
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/23/techn ... -lamp.html

maybe we'd say "I don't want those clunky, heavy old style LED bulbs..."?
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by The Wizard »

SpringMan wrote:I am a big fan of LED flashlights. Prices on home lighting with LEDs are still a bit high IMO.
All of my underwater dive lights are LED based now. And they keep coming out with more powerful units each year it seems...
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The Wizard
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by The Wizard »

For home use, I'm an early adopter kinda guy as regards LED bulbs. I do still have a few CFLs here and there but I find they decline in brightness over time and are slow to get to full output level in cold weather. I seem to do these upgrades in spurts, as I find new products at Home Depot or wherever...
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interplanetjanet
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by interplanetjanet »

If you need any of:

directional light (to replace spotlights, for example)
colored light
frequent on-off cycles
operation in cold areas
operation is a very inaccessible fixture
constant light over the lifespan of the lamp

then I think they are basically a no-brainer at this point in time. If none of these are needed, fluorescents (not necessarily compact fluorescents!) may be a lower cost option. For new commercial installs, centrally ballasted fluorescent systems still eke out more efficiency per lumen (but this is offset by bulb replacement costs, so it's not necessarily an obvious choice).

I'm not aware of how vibration resistance compares between different lamps, but I would think that LEDs would tend to be hardy, certainly hardier than incandescents.

Light spectra should be similar to fluorescent lights as they mainly use the same phosphors - the difference is in how they are pumped. That's not to say that the light quality will be identical and I suspect that the phosphors in fluorescents suffer some damage from the discharge that pumps them over time.
dumbmoney
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by dumbmoney »

The Crees have a 10 year warranty, which inspires confidence even if nobody knows if they will last. Definitely start buying them, but there's no sense in doing a mass conversion. Incandescents are good for little-used lights, and if a flourescent is working well I would leave it alone. And the price of LEDs will surely continue to drop.

By the way, LEDs do get dimmer with age. The "25,000 hour" spec is for 70% of original brightness.
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Valuethinker
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Re: LED lights currently worth it personal financewise?

Post by Valuethinker »

HoosierJim wrote:
Valuethinker wrote:In NPV terms it actually pays to replace halogens and incandescents *now* before the end of their useful lives.
Let say your halogens and incandescents have 5 and 2 years respectively life left in them, did your IRR factor in the cost of your own labor NOW vs delaying your labor cost for 5 or 2 years? :idea:
;-). Yes.

Go to PC. Order bulbs. Take delivery of bulbs. Stand on stepladder and replace bulbs in kitchen and bathroom ceiling (it wasn't 5 minutes per bulb, but let's say it took around 2 hours in total).

When you pay c. USD 23 cents per kwhr for electricity, the savings clock up quite fast.

Also there was entertainment value in ordering a couple, comparison shopping etc. ;-).
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