LJD or anyone using solar (or just low energy lighting)???

Hey folks,
Been trying to cut back on electric use and have done real good by switching out normal bulbs/fixtures with either CF bulbs or 3ft single tube florescent fixtures. Now looking to go a step or two further and swap some to LED.

Can anyone using LED compare in (idiot terms) an LED floodlight, bulb, etc to a normal bulb, CF, or light tube as far as light output? Also looking at a couple solar LED floodlights from HF and NT but don#t know how much they put out in comparison....

Only thing I know is, in two rooms (10'x10'), I replaced bulbs in a 4x50 watt halogen fixture with 4x 3 watt LED bulbs nand the light is just as bright and not so hard on the eyes ..... And went from 200 watts to 12 watts in the process.....

Just not sure what I need to light up an outside ares/yard.....

Same here, Ive converetd to squiggly bulbs in many applications and have a few LED's. The efficacy or "LUMENS PER WATT" is the number youre lookin for and Id think that is hopefully a number you can find on the bulbs or packaging?? The wattage is because thats their strong selling point, not sure if the lumens (light output) is displayed quite so prominent however.

For now based on the cost I see them best (price availability and suitability) suited for the automotive and trucking industry 12 volt use. I havent seen the 120 volt as quite so readily available and the cost seems high.

As the research and production numbers increase plus the color rendition improves I think the costs will come down and YES I think they are the Light of the future, I'm into lowering my energy cost as much as the next guy.

A little funny I heard on TV, a guy was railing against an over aggressive EPA (one of them likened his enforcement strategy to how the Romans CRUCIFIED enemies) and said "Had the EPA been around when the light bulb was invented they would have banned it" THEN HE SAID WAIT A MINUTE THEY JUST DID BAN THEM DIDNT THEY" LOL LOL

Take care now

John T

I prolly got some china made stuff, but fould 10 of the GU10 bulbs for 16 bucks......

Our electric bill/use dropped over half from one year to the next by switching bulbs and ditching an electric on demand water heater...

I like the LED's cause they light up now and not slower like the CF's.....
Our power is about 40 cents a KWH so every little bit helps...

Looking at taking a step further and usind track lights from IKEA (cables that fixtures can be clamped to where needed) that are actually 12 volt after the transformer and using them in the barn and workshop. Have plenty of gel deepcycle batteries OH and can set up a solar panel to maintain them....

"squiggly bulbs" tee hee : D

Dave I switched over from regular bulbs a couple of years ago to low energy mercury bulbs. Only place I can't use em is outside as they don't like the cold. I also switched from regular flood lights outside to LED's. The lighting out side isn't as good as the old fashioned ones but close and light the area I need. That fixture had 2 75 watt bulbs and now has 2 15 watt one. When we did these changes we got several bennies. Electric bill went down about 20 bucks a month and I have not replaced a light bulb in the house in over a year.


Rick

Thats an great advanatge if youre already set up for 12 volt lighting. If you have 12 volt storage batteries and 12 volt solar panels then go direct to the lights YOU DONT HAVE THE HEAT LOSS ENERGY WASTE involved in 120 VAC to 12VDC conversion. Also theres all sorts of smaller 12 VDC appliances that truckers or RV folks use so with batteries and solar panels and no wasteful AC to DC conversion.

We line in the RV up to 4 to 5 months a year with a bunchhhhhhhh of either 12 volt or LP Appliances and we get by just fine, no reason a body cant tailor their home to similar energy use

John T

(quoted from post at 05:27:17 05/02/12) Dave I switched over from regular bulbs a couple of years ago to low energy mercury bulbs. Only place I can't use em is outside as they don't like the cold. I also switched from regular flood lights outside to LED's. The lighting out side isn't as good as the old fashioned ones but close and light the area I need. That fixture had 2 75 watt bulbs and now has 2 15 watt one. When we did these changes we got several bennies. Electric bill went down about 20 bucks a month and I have not replaced a light bulb in the house in over a year.


Rick

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Pretend JUST PRETEND.... that I is/was a tanker.... and give me a link to the floodlight and how much area it lights.... That's my biggy.... I hate not being able to see and have 500 watt halogen floodlights that, not only suck up the electric, but generate an uncomfortable amount of heat at the barn area..... Used to have stuff on motion sensors, but took the ones off at the frt of the barn because of the dogs and a couple of owls that live there......
The LED's would let me use the sensors again and not stub my toes.....

(quoted from post at 05:35:34 05/02/12) Thats an great advanatge if youre already set up for 12 volt lighting. If you have 12 volt storage batteries and 12 volt solar panels then go direct to the lights YOU DONT HAVE THE HEAT LOSS ENERGY WASTE involved in 120 VAC to 12VDC conversion. Also theres all sorts of smaller 12 VDC appliances that truckers or RV folks use so with batteries and solar panels and no wasteful AC to DC conversion.

We line in the RV up to 4 to 5 months a year with a bunchhhhhhhh of either 12 volt or LP Appliances and we get by just fine, no reason a body cant tailor their home to similar energy use

John T

Click to expand...

Am also restricted on what I can do myself (insurance).... Can do all the 12 volt I want, but have to have a ro do any AC stuff..... Aside from the washer once a week or two, the dishwasher once a week, and the fridge, we use nothing other than computers and the TV in the house... Summer is great because we watch hardly any TV and cook mostly on the grill. But I like lights... the more the better......

I have changed every light in the house to LED.
Started 3 years ago and finishing up last week.
The brand I use has some lights that will run on
12 vdc/ac all the way up to 208 and can't remember
but may be to 277. I have 2 and 4 ft. fluorescent
led replacements also. They are expensive but I
sure like the quality of light from them. The
tubes,are shatter proof, don't need a ballast and
I just remove them and trash them. Just get
voltage to one end and N to the other on just one
pin or all. Very simple. They use 17 watts as to
34 watts on the old style.

I buy from Earth Led and they have a chart with
standard lamp wattage and can click on that and
see the LED replacements for that wattage lamp.

I had one lamp to stop working and had no problem
getting it replaced. The folks there have been
very helpful and able to answer all my questions.

I have several lights that use 4 bulbs of regular
40 watt. I replaced them with 8 watt LED's and
have better quality light. And last the power bill
went down. Most of the Led's have a 3 year to pay
back. They are almost all rated 50,000 hr. of this
brand. 3 year replacement if one stops working.

We all know power rates will climb. I've been
working on this for several years now and not just
lights. What I've changed has brought my average
monthly power bill from $178 per month down to
$123 per month and have had 2 rate increases and
fuel charge added that time frame. Prices of Leds
are down now from when I started. I think they are
the best bang for the buck for lighting going
today.

(quoted from post at 05:53:01 05/02/12) I have changed every light in the house to LED.
Started 3 years ago and finishing up last week.
The brand I use has some lights that will run on
12 vdc/ac all the way up to 208 and can't remember
but may be to 277. I have 2 and 4 ft. fluorescent
led replacements also. They are expensive but I
sure like the quality of light from them. The
tubes,are shatter proof, don't need a ballast and
I just remove them and trash them. Just get
voltage to one end and N to the other on just one
pin or all. Very simple. They use 17 watts as to
34 watts on the old style.

I buy from Earth Led and they have a chart with
standard lamp wattage and can click on that and
see the LED replacements for that wattage lamp.

I had one lamp to stop working and had no problem
getting it replaced. The folks there have been
very helpful and able to answer all my questions.

I have several lights that use 4 bulbs of regular
40 watt. I replaced them with 8 watt LED's and
have better quality light. And last the power bill
went down. Most of the Led's have a 3 year to pay
back. They are almost all rated 50,000 hr. of this
brand. 3 year replacement if one stops working.

We all know power rates will climb. I've been
working on this for several years now and not just
lights. What I've changed has brought my average
monthly power bill from $178 per month down to
$123 per month and have had 2 rate increases and
fuel charge added that time frame. Prices of Leds
are down now from when I started. I think they are
the best bang for the buck for lighting going
today.

Click to expand...

Don't hog it all to yourself.... links would be great... Especially the comparison and the tube replacements.....

click on shop by wattage
Earth Led

(quoted from post at 06:08:07 05/02/12) click on shop by wattage
Earth Led

Click to expand...

Thanks! No wonder they aren't common.... I got 10 of the GU10's for less than what one costs on that site.........

My only BIL is a abundant tree hugger that makes external_link look like a conservative. LOL HE switched their whole house over to LED lights. My sister is an accountant. She figured out the electric saving and the pay back time to recoup the upfront cost. It is only going to take them 17 years to break even. That is on the first set of bulbs. So they had better last a long time.

The LED and florescent bulbs are a JOKE. The energy saving is not very much compared to the cost and the energy used to MAKE them. Then lets conceder the TOTAL environmental foot print. Both type of these bulbs have hazardous materials either in them or involved in the production of them.

The good old incandescent bulbs do use more electric in operation. The thing the energy guys don't figure(publish) because it hurts their argument, is that the bulbs give off heat. I burn the lights much more in the winter when I am heating the house anyway. So the bulbs energy "loss" needs to be off set by the heat saving generated. Plus the energy use in production is less than half as much too. That is from a report supporting the newer bulbs.

Then the real good news is that there very few if any florescent bulbs made in the US. The manufacturing process uses so many hazardous material that OSHA and the EPA rules make them just about impossible to make here. So they are made in a country that is the largest polluter in the world today, CHINA!!!!

If you really want to save energy replace your furnace/AC unit with more efficient ones. These things are the biggest energy users in most homes. So getting them more efficient will save much more energy than a few light bulbs.

I remember Dave II having a convoluted heating system/stove. I remember him talking about replacing it with a newer unit. IF you have done that, that alone will save you more than changing all of the light bulbs in your house.

" My sister is an accountant. She figured out the electric saving and the pay back time to recoup the upfront cost. "

Did she figure in the ballast and the efficiency of the ballast? Did she figure in the replacement of the ballast over time? Did she figure in the heat that comes off the ballast and regular lamps? Extra heat in summer means more air conditioning cost. Gotta figure in what the power company rate is too. A ballast is only 80% efficient. That's a good place to start.

Just saying there's a little more to compare than watts against watts. Get all those figures and get her to refigure and post back what you come up with.

Dave, here is a link to something similar to what I have. Each light cast a beam about 100 Ft and 25-30 at the widest point. Good enough for what I need.

http://www.besthomeledlighting.com/product/PAR38-120-E27-W-12x2W-BW


Now I didn't pay anywhere near that price! I got mine from Home Depot on their introductory sale 2 years ago. I think I paid 40 bucks for 2 bulbs.

Rick

Don't have any GU10 bases in the house and use what
I have.

RMinVa : The BIL changed them all at once. So my sister was able to just go by the electric saved compared to the previous bill. (She did this for a year and compared it to several years average) It was not very much. They have a real new home that is well built and insulated well.

She says the electric saved each month is less than $20. The BIL spent close to 4K on changing everything over. He had to replace some of the light fixtures completely as they would not work with the LEDs he found. He also found that the life quoted on the LEDs was way too optimistic. He had several of the lights that did not last six months. Some where warrantied but several where not.

I did not do any of the switching so I am just going off of what she told me. I have not even been to her home since they switched lighting 2-3 years ago.

I am sure the cost has come down since then too. My main point is the saving is really small compared to the cost. We can not save our way to energy Independence. We have to have proven, reliable sources of economical energy. That is the only way this country has a chance to ever prosper again. Wind, solar, and the others are just pipe dreams at the current levels of technology.

The last paragraph, you may be right. But over the years and still hear the same negative talk about synthetic oil. Go over on New Ag Talk and see how many have changed over to it in the tractors and combines now. With the ultra low sulfer fuel and the price of regular engine oil being within a few $ of the synthetic oil, folks are regular switching. Can go longer drains on the new fuel and there's a savings there now. Time will tell.

I have almost all light fixtures in cfl, but it will take a few minutes for them to come on to full light. Plus, where any bulbs go bad is when switching on and off, if you constantly do that, even the promised life spans won't hold up. I did replace the ceiling can lights (recessed light fixtures) in the hallway with leds, instant on at full output, so no one trips over the cat or dog....lol
I am thinking to replace the 500 watt halogen backyard flood lights (7) with leds, if I can be sure they do a decent, perhaps not as god as halogen, but again, decent job lighting up the yard and back porch. Any suggestions??
Also looking for solar powered motion activated flood lights for around the barn, so far not happy with what's in the stores....
Ralph in OK.

(quoted from post at 12:57:14 05/03/12) I have almost all light fixtures in cfl, but it will take a few minutes for them to come on to full light. Plus, where any bulbs go bad is when switching on and off, if you constantly do that, even the promised life spans won't hold up. I did replace the ceiling can lights (recessed light fixtures) in the hallway with leds, instant on at full output, so no one trips over the cat or dog....lol
I am thinking to replace the 500 watt halogen backyard flood lights (7) with leds, if I can be sure they do a decent, perhaps not as god as halogen, but again, decent job lighting up the yard and back porch. Any suggestions??
Also looking for solar powered motion activated flood lights for around the barn, so far not happy with what's in the stores....
Ralph in OK.

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I'm about to order the solar LED motion lights just to see how much they light....
Ooooorrrrrrrr, how about ralph bauer order them and tell ME how they work???? :roll:

Wouldn't do you any good... they use 110 here and 220 over at your place....double roll..LOL, LOL

On a serious note, I tried the ones for 80-90 bucks at lowes, HD, light is ok, but not that good. But my biggest gripe is that I want a 180 and also 270 degree detectors for the mid sections and the corners of the big barn.... and I don't see them offered. changing them out is just too prohibitive.... let me know if you find some over there that work well... I plan on going back Christmas or next year in spring to see my Mom in Seligenstadt am Main.
Ralph in OK.

Laundry once or twice a week?? In those small european washing machines (4.5-5.5kg), Dave?? You and your wife must be of "small stature" or you don't change laundry often or you don't wear much/any...???LOL....LOL.....
My mom always complains that when she has 2 pair of jeans of mine to wash (when I visit)there is no room for anything else (am "only" 6'5", 290lbs...a little fella...).......8-D .....