How many folks use the energy saving bulbs?

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Does anyone know how much if any money is saved with an LED dimmed to 50% or so? I only have one fixture that is dimmable and that's a ceiling fan with a light kit which has two 40 watt equivalent LED's in it. We keep it dimmed most of the time and it's on 24/7.

Dimmers work FAR better with LEDs than they do with Incandescents.

If you Dim your LED by 50%, I will use my particular can light LEDS as a reference which is the equivalent of a 75W Incandescent which uses at full brightness 13W of electricity.
That LED dimmed to 50% would be using approx 5W, it is roughly 10% MORE than what the percentage of dimming is so the LED is even more efficient dimmed, whereas the Incandescent get LESS efficient when dimmed.
However on an incandescent that is dimmed 50% you are still using approx 51W of electricity so only about a 30% savings in wattage but a 50% dimming in output.
Dim that same LED to just 20% output and you are using about 2W of electricity whereas the Incandescent at 20% is still using 34W of electricity.



Just guessing, but mostly likely your 40W equivalent LED is probably using 6W at full brightness, thus approx 3W EACH at 50% thus you are most likely using somewhere around 6W total at 50%
As a comparison your average small incandescent night light uses 7W

Average cost savings for you dimming your 2 LEDs from 12W down to 6W is this if you pay roughly .10cents per KWh.
at 12W that would be about $10.51 per YEAR burning 24/7/365
at 6W it would be about $5.26 per year so about .44cents per month savings.
BUT Vs an Incandescent dimmed to 50% with two bulbs which would still be using 102W would cost about $89.35 per year vs $5.26 or a savings of about $84 per year $7 per month for just that one fixture LED vs Incandescent.
PLUS the heat savings which translates to AC use savings to boot.



http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/ibcGetAttachment.jsp?cItemId=uTOfgIi-fQE9hCgAo9BhQg
 
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Thanks nyb1.

That's exactly what I was wanting to know. I feel even better about swapping my bulbs now.
 
Welcome, although I just noticed I made a rather large mistake in the difference between the two 40W incandescent Vs two 40W LED I actually used the 51W times 2 from the 75W I was talking about.

Actual difference is closer to $49.00 (2 40W Incan) Vs $5 (2 40W LED) not $89.

The two 40W (80W total) dimmed down 50% would be about 56W you would be using.
Still a considerable savings with LED.
 
Mhhhhmmm, yeah...

The problem is that I pay 11 cents a kilowatt hour, so it really doesn't matter on a small scale whether a light bulb uses 5 or 10 watts an hour, if I leave it on 24-7 that 10 watt bulb uses exactly... 240 watts a day x 365 = 87.6 kilowatt hours, or about $10 a year.

You know, I'm just not concerned in a home where 20 light bulbs operate, whether my annual electric bill for those lights comes to $50 or $100, it may sound like a big difference but on a monthly electric bill it really isn't.

I mean, at the very least I don't see it being worth my while to run all around my home playing with dimmers every day to try and save a few lousy bucks.

Even going from CFL to LED the difference for me was about $5 a month, if that.

The biggest difference was getting away from incandescents.
That made a difference of around $25 a month.
Now $300 a year for a one-time investment, that's noticeable.
 
I also see this as a case of being an early adopter. I only bring this up because I think I might be a bit older than a few of the members here. In my life I have seen a lot of technological changes and when my dad was alive it was a subject we used to talk a lot about also. If he was alive still he would be 100 now and there are people over 100 so I like to think about what they have seen in the form of change in their lifetime. The rate of change of technologies has been measured and it isn’t lineal it is growing exponentially and always has. I remember as a much younger guy being more like my dad and believing in being an early adopter we had the first tv in our little town and the first color tv. The prices in terms of hours worked were unbelievable. As a young guy I bought a VHS 2 head player for the small sum of 800 bucks that weighed 50 pounds. Again an unbelievable number of hours worked for being on the cutting edge.

Not only will price come down of these new light bulbs quality will improve and so will the technology. As I get older I love the new stuff and embrace it but I hold off just a little longer than I used to.

I always wonder as I approach 60 years old should I be buying light bulbs that last 40 years or 50 years?
 
I always wonder as I approach 60 years old should I be buying light bulbs that last 40 years or 50 years?

The bulb may outlive you but you should buy it anyway. You get the savings as long as you are alive. Do you want to leave a slightly bigger inheritance for your descendants, or give it to the utility company? :)
 
It's the old; "cutting edge or bleeding edge" argument. You want to adopt early enough to reap the benefits before the next innovation, but if you adopt too early, you are the guinea pig for the industry.

My approach has been to change over the bulbs as needed. I had been replacing with CFLs for years and now I replace with LEDs. I have no problem moving an existing CFL to a new location if the LED does a better job in a spot. Hallways, stairways and bathrooms are high priority for LED because I want the light to come to full brightness quickly, before I am finished using the location. The CFLs still are fine for situations where the bulbs will have time to warm up. Eventually all my lights will be LED...or maybe something new will come along before then.
 
The bulb may outlive you but you should buy it anyway. You get the savings as long as you are alive. Do you want to leave a slightly bigger inheritance for your descendants, or give it to the utility company? :)



Hi Henry and welcome to the forum.

Money has a way like water of seeking its own level.

I was pumping gas in my full size GMC2500 truck a year or so ago and a cranky old guy came up to me and basically said I was crazy for driving that big truck and pointed out how much money I was wasting on gas and told me I need a little thing like he was driving. I thought a second and seeing a pack of cigarettes in his pocket and by the smell of his breath, I told him you got it all wrong sir I get my gas for free. He said how do you do that and I said I pay for it by not smoking. He said what. So I said how much are a pack of cigarettes these days I’m guessing 75 cents to a dollar am I right? He came off the ground and said you are crazy try 5 bucks. Man I said does a pack last you a couple weeks? He said you are a joker I go thru about 2 packs a day. I came unscrewed and replied Holy smokes you spend 70 bucks a week on cigarettes and I only spend 50 on gas! I need a bigger truck. He turned around mumbling something and lit up and drove away.

Just about everything works out like that at some point. Its good these energy saving things are coming along but they will save energy but I don’t think they will save money. I heard this morning on NPR a far from right leaning news organization that one by one over the next ten years all the coal fired electric plants will be closing one by one it is starting now. To leave them open as there is nothing yet to supply the demand they will be fined to death and pass that cost on to us. It will by design limit consumption and transfer more money to the government. It always seems to come around to the more you make the more you spend.

I guess I can put a stipulation in my will that my LED bulbs be passed down I hope they don’t have to pay 50% inheritance tax on them.
:confused:
 
It's the old; "cutting edge or bleeding edge" argument. You want to adopt early enough to reap the benefits before the next innovation, but if you adopt too early, you are the guinea pig for the industry.

My approach has been to change over the bulbs as needed. I had been replacing with CFLs for years and now I replace with LEDs. I have no problem moving an existing CFL to a new location if the LED does a better job in a spot. Hallways, stairways and bathrooms are high priority for LED because I want the light to come to full brightness quickly, before I am finished using the location. The CFLs still are fine for situations where the bulbs will have time to warm up. Eventually all my lights will be LED...or maybe something new will come along before then.


My sister is a little different I don’t know if she’s nuts or way smarter than me most of the time. She went to big lots and bought solar landscape lights on sale for a buck a piece I think she got about 20. She sticks them out in a pot during the day and brings them in at night and distributes them around her house 3 or 4 in each room and that’s her light. Then she boils a gallon of water on her electric stove to make a cup of tea to drink by candle light. :)
 
My sister is a little different I don’t know if she’s nuts or way smarter than me most of the time. She went to big lots and bought solar landscape lights on sale for a buck a piece I think she got about 20. She sticks them out in a pot during the day and brings them in at night and distributes them around her house 3 or 4 in each room and that’s her light. Then she boils a gallon of water on her electric stove to make a cup of tea to drink by candle light. :)

What does she do on cloudy days?
 
My sister is a little different I don’t know if she’s nuts or way smarter than me most of the time. She went to big lots and bought solar landscape lights on sale for a buck a piece I think she got about 20. She sticks them out in a pot during the day and brings them in at night and distributes them around her house 3 or 4 in each room and that’s her light.

Not so crazy really. But you have to balance that against the effort. And the solar lights are unreliable.
 
What does she do on cloudy days?


Haven’t you heard it’s always cloudy in Erie Pa. That’s where the crazy part comes in and most likely why the lights didn’t sell in the first place. Most people that buy them here bring them in during the daytime and sit them under a lamp to charge up and then put them out at night to light their path. :D
 
I hate them, they do not fit my ceiling fans. bulbs are to big. the globe wont go back on.

to slow to light up and are dim.
 
I have an LED bulb in my bedside lamp. In the past the lamp got knocked over and glass bulbs broke. This thing gets knocked over all the time and the bulb is still working. It doesn't get hot like the old ones. I really like it. Only drawback is that it isn't quite as bright as the other ones.

Solar lights are garbage though. Never found any that weren't dim as hell and that lasted more than 5 min- and that is if they even worked in the first place.
 
I have fluorescent bulbs in my nightstand fixtures and hate them, they take ten minutes to warm up to be able to see anything, how is that energy saving?
 
I hate them, they do not fit my ceiling fans. bulbs are to big. the globe wont go back on.

to slow to light up and are dim.

I assume you must mean the CFL's and not LED because the LEDs are none of what you listed.
All the LEDS we have and our entire house is LED 90% of them have to be put on dimmers because they are so bright and they come on full brightness instantly.
I am even about to replace all the bulbs in my 4Runner with LEDs, Headlights, Running lights, Brake, Tail lights turning signals everything.
They are 300% brighter and are basically lifetime bulbs.
 
I have an LED bulb in my bedside lamp. In the past the lamp got knocked over and glass bulbs broke. This thing gets knocked over all the time and the bulb is still working. It doesn't get hot like the old ones. I really like it. Only drawback is that it isn't quite as bright as the other ones.

Solar lights are garbage though. Never found any that weren't dim as hell and that lasted more than 5 min- and that is if they even worked in the first place.

I have 8 of these Solar LEDs on our walkway, as long as they get a good 6+ hours of direct sunlight per day they work perfect for what I need them for which is just to light up the walkway when we come in at night.
They have about a 3W light that stays on and a 40W light that comes on when you get within about 10 feet of it.
On days when it rains pretty much all day they are fairly worthless though.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I66ZVEA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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I have 8 of these Solar LEDs on our walkway, as long as they get a good 6+ hours of direct sunlight per day they work perfect for what I need them for which is just to light up the walkway when we come in at night.
They have about a 3W light that stays on and a 40W light that comes on when you get within about 10 feet of it.
On days when it rains pretty much all day they are fairly worthless though.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00I66ZVEA/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Haven't seen those before. Clever. Do they get enough light in the winter to charge properly? That's the big problem for me - not enough sunlight.
 
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