LED light bulbs

[sukhakuli]

We're trying to make our house more energy efficient. Our house was built in the late 80's, so we have tons of track lighting, recessed can lighting, and a gazillion candelabra lights. Almost every light in the house is on a dimmer, too.

I'm really confused about LED's. Can they be used in track lighting and recessed lights? Or do they get too hot? Do they sell candelabra sized LED's?

 

[pryncess527]

We're trying to make our house more energy efficient. Our house was built in the late 80's, so we have tons of track lighting, recessed can lighting, and a gazillion candelabra lights. Almost every light in the house is on a dimmer, too.

I'm really confused about LED's. Can they be used in track lighting and recessed lights? Or do they get too hot? Do they sell candelabra sized LED's?

Yes, they sell recessed LED bulbs. They use very little energy so do not generate much heat.

You can also buy candelabra sized LED bulbs

Not all LED bulbs are dimmable, but those that are should be labeled. They may not work if your dimmer was not designed for LED though, which they probably weren't.

 

[EMAW_KSU]

We're trying to make our house more energy efficient. Our house was built in the late 80's, so we have tons of track lighting, recessed can lighting, and a gazillion candelabra lights. Almost every light in the house is on a dimmer, too.

I'm really confused about LED's. Can they be used in track lighting and recessed lights? Or do they get too hot? Do they sell candelabra sized LED's?

The LED lights are changing so quickly it is hard to keep up. There is a LED replacement for most incandescent bulbs. You do have to check to see if the LED is dim able some are not. We are starting to replace the ceiling lights at work with LED. It would not have the payback if we were just replacing bulbs but we spend almost as much to get rid of the old florescent bulbs as the new ones cost.

 

[sukhakuli]

The LED lights are changing so quickly it is hard to keep up. There is a LED replacement for most incandescent bulbs. You do have to check to see if the LED is dim able some are not. We are starting to replace the ceiling lights at work with LED. It would not have the payback if we were just replacing bulbs but we spend almost as much to get rid of the old florescent bulbs as the new ones cost.

That's my problem, things are changing so fast that I can't seem to find the info I need.

So, they aren't too hot for recessed or track lighting? Why are there cool burning ones, and ones with fins to keep them cool?

We will probably replace the dimmers at some point, but we've been having trouble replacing the bulbs we have with CFL's, so I want to change them out now and deal with the dimmers later. We actually had a few light fixtures catch fire after changing to CFL's, and others buzzing so bad we put the regular bulbs back in. We also have some lights that are 20 feet up, so it would be nice to rent a ladder, replace them all, and not think about it again for another 15-20 years.

And I'm hoping to reduce our energy usage, too. We had the solar guy out here today, and yipes, I guess we use a ton of kilowatts. I'm honestly not sure where it is all from? We replaced all the appliances with energy efficient ones, replaced the pool pump and filter, never watch TV during the day, never use any heating or cooling, never use lights during the day, replaced all the switches we could with timers (so the kids don't leave them on), and our electric bill hasn't changed at all. If anything, it's gone up. I paid $640 in electric this month. I guess it must be the lights?!? After that, I'm out of ideas.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

Costco has a good track/recessed bulb. I'm in the lighting business and we carry the same one. We sell them by the pallet full

 

[Straitlover]

Have you considered changing out some of your fixtures? Using fewer bulbs might save more than what you spend on the new fixtures.

 

[sukhakuli]

I've thought about it, but I'm not sure it would help. We have really large rooms with tall ceilings, and they take a lot of light to light up. Fewer bulbs aren't going to light the room up better. At least I don't think it will.

I don't know what we could replace them with, either. We have several can lights over the wet bar area of the living room, and the others are track lighting that is attached to the open beams in the gabled roof of the living room or in the kitchen. What do people use for ceiling lights, anyway?

 

[Mommee]

Two weeks ago I put a lamp downstairs with an LED lightbulb in it, and told the kids to use that instead of the overhead, recessed, old-style lighting in that room if they were just watching tv or playing video games. My electric bill came today, and it was $20 cheaper than last month.

The LED canned lights are expensive!! I figure I'll replace them as they burn out.

 

[Colleen27]

LED bulbs aren't going to work with your existing dimmers. I've switched over to LED pretty much everywhere in my home now - as the old bulbs burn out, I put in an LED replacement. We have only changed out one dimmer to an LED-compatible version, though. For the other dimmers we used to have we simply replaced them with regular switches because we seldom used the dimming feature anyway. An LED-compatible dimmer switch runs about $20.

They generate almost no heat, so LED bulbs are great for enclosed fixtures. I've never seen a "cool burning" LED, just "warm" or "cool" describing the quality of light, and the fins help distribute the light to better simulate the glow of a regular/incandescent bulb. The big downside is the up-front cost but they do seem to be longer lived. The first one I put in is almost 2.5 years old now and still going strong. Incandescents and CFLs never lasted longer than a few months in that fixture (ceiling light in the most-used room of our home, the office). That's a nice feature, especially for fixtures that require a ladder to reach.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

That's my problem, things are changing so fast that I can't seem to find the info I need. So, they aren't too hot for recessed or track lighting? Why are there cool burning ones, and ones with fins to keep them cool? We will probably replace the dimmers at some point, but we've been having trouble replacing the bulbs we have with CFL's, so I want to change them out now and deal with the dimmers later. We actually had a few light fixtures catch fire after changing to CFL's, and others buzzing so bad we put the regular bulbs back in. We also have some lights that are 20 feet up, so it would be nice to rent a ladder, replace them all, and not think about it again for another 15-20 years. And I'm hoping to reduce our energy usage, too. We had the solar guy out here today, and yipes, I guess we use a ton of kilowatts. I'm honestly not sure where it is all from? We replaced all the appliances with energy efficient ones, replaced the pool pump and filter, never watch TV during the day, never use any heating or cooling, never use lights during the day, replaced all the switches we could with timers (so the kids don't leave them on), and our electric bill hasn't changed at all. If anything, it's gone up. I paid $640 in electric this month. I guess it must be the lights?!? After that, I'm out of ideas.

Make sure you are unplugging your chargers and what not when you aren't using them, I found that doing this dropped our bill down quite a bit, also I wonder if your meter is working properly.
How about well pumps, electric hot water heater.
Oh and your tv! We changed our tv from a plasma flat screen to an LED smart tv and our electric bill dropped $200 that month and we didn't use it at all during the day. After that we started changing out bulbs to LED and my bill is down to $90 a month. My next step is coming up with a way to change the window air conditioners out to something more efficient.

 

[shortbun]

Make sure you are unplugging your chargers and what not when you aren't using them, I found that doing this dropped our bill down quite a bit, also I wonder if your meter is working properly.
How about well pumps, electric hot water heater.
Oh and your tv! We changed our tv from a plasma flat screen to an LED smart tv and our electric bill dropped $200 that month and we didn't use it at all during the day. After that we started changing out bulbs to LED and my bill is down to $90 a month. My next step is coming up with a way to change the window air conditioners out to something more efficient.

Good grief! How much was your bill before you switched all that stuff? I guess we live in the land of cheap electricity. Yay! We just turn everything off and unplug it unless we need it with a few notable exceptions-like the fridge. Often, I bring in the solar lights from the garden if I need ambient light. Is that weird? We've done that in a power outage too.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

Good grief! How much was your bill before you switched all that stuff? I guess we live in the land of cheap electricity. Yay! We just turn everything off and unplug it unless we need it with a few notable exceptions-like the fridge. Often, I bring in the solar lights from the garden if I need ambient light. Is that weird? We've done that in a power outage too.

Bringing in the solar lights during an outage is brilliant! I need to make note of that, way cheaper than batteries.

Before we swapped out our TV and the light bulbs our bill averaged $300-$350 in the winter and $500-$550 in the summer. The month the well pump died our bill was $650, that was painful!
We also switched back from an electric tankless hot water heater to a water heater attached to our furnace. Some sort of transducer conductor something or other kept blowing and then it was struck by lightening so we gave up. LOL

This past winter out electric bill has been between $89 and $100, not sure what summer will bring though. It will depend on what we do for AC.

Keep in mind too, we are a family of 6 so by default we use a lot more power than a family of 2 or 3. Lots of things are plugged in all the time.
But I was really surprised at how much money we saved just by changing out the TV.