Thread: Eco Light Bulbs

I am sick of this shit! This whole damn do away with the evil incandescent bulb deal has crawled squarely up my ass. No the damn things do not last 9.1 years. They seem to last about as long as incandescent bulbs and in some cases no where near as long. But I try to do the right thing and I have started replacing where I can incandescent bulbs with Eco CFL's. For starters YOU WILL NEVER PAY FOR THESE FUCKERS! Ever! With their obscure failure rate and insane cost and over exaggerated energy efficiency you will never make up the difference in price. I have over 100 bulbs on the interior of my home (we like to see shit) and 75% of them are on dimmers (we like it dim sometimes). The dimmable bulbs run around $17 each EACH! Not to mention they do not dim for shit and the light coming off of them is ugly as all hell! Oh and get this.... Just when you decide to bite the fucking bullet and replace a 3 or 4 bulb fixture with $75 worth of these piles of shit one of them dies in 6 months. Guess what? They do not make that style anymore so you have to choices, you can spend another $75 or have one bastard child in the bunch to further add to their ridiculous look. Oh and son of a bitch do not let it get too freaking cold in the house or you will have to wait 6 days on these fuckers to brighten up enough to take a proper shit. It is all the biggest bunch of spoon fed bullshit that I have ever taken right up the ass. I am sick of it.

/Rant

I changed all of my showroom lights from standard Halogens to low watt LED spot and can lights and i cant complain.... Except for the 6 front end can lights that have all blown out prematurely to the tune of 50 bucks a piece. The rest of them have been lighting without replacement for 2 years.

CFLs are the spawn of Satan. Anyone who buys them from now on needs to rot in Hell. Two or three years ago......maybe, but nowdays......LEDs are becoming prolific.


LEDs are the future. They are everything they advertise. ~ 1/5th of the cost to run over standard incandescents. The trim in the recessed can I am sitting under used a 75 Watt bulb , and wasn't nearly as bright as the 9.5 Watt LED retrofit trim I have in it now. They are completely dimmable (the electronic dimmers work the best, but any will work), and have much better color than the CFLs. They also don't heat-up nearly as much as an incandescent.

I have replaced every lamp in the house with LEDs. I am using them on quite a few jobsites as well. Home Dumpster seems to have the best selection, and fairly decent prices (the competition is pretty thick). The Halo as well as the Commercial Electric (HD inside brand.....pretty sure they are also made by Halo anyway) retrofit trims seem to both be great. The stores are hit and miss on the selection, but their website has the standard can sizes and a decent selection.

As for the replacement bulbs (to fit regular surface fixtures), I have been really happy with these: Cree 9.5-Watt (60W) A19 Warm White (2700K) Dimmable LED Light Bulb (1-Pack)-BA19-08027OMF-12DE26-1U110 at The Home Depot
The light is as close to an incandescent as I've ever seen. Not harsh and white like a CFL. So far, I have put ~15-20 of these in, and haven't had a bad one yet. The ones in my coach lights (outdoor) came right on when it was -15F. There is a slight delay when you turn them on, but they fire-up in under 2 seconds to full brightness regardless of the ambient temp.

If you already have a housefull of CFLs, replace them with LEDs as they burn out, or get shot out (as the case may be ). Most of them are rated to last for eons ( something like 4 hrs. a day for 35 years). I guess we will see about that, but so far so good.

I did not have sex with a light bulb.

And, you can get red LEDs for the bedroom! Need I say more?

Originally Posted by SmokenScion

I did not have sex with a light bulb.

Originally Posted by Nuckle

See and I think a light that is turned on and used 8-10 hours per day will last way longer than a bathroom light that gets turned off and on 20 times per day depending on how much hot sauce you out on your tacos.


Sent from my iPhone.

You would think, but i was replacing 6 or 7 halogen and incandescent bulbs every 3 months. I might have gotten 1.5 years out of some of the lights at best. I have since figured out its a power supply issue with the 6 cans out front, so when i get that fixed, i should be in good shape for the long haul. Did i mention the switch has saved a shit ton on the monthly power bill here?

Strange...

I always had incandescent bulbs die on me within a few months. If that. I started replacing all my lights with the cfl's and other bulbs of that sort around 2005. I've replaced ONE since then. Total.

And the early ones did take a second or two to come up to speed, but the ones I've bought recently are instant-on bulbs.