LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

[aaron]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

damn.. I broke one and just covered my mouth with my shirt, told the kids to get out, and cleaned up. I am probably going to die early.

For me, the mercury is only a problem because the trash people will not take them. Yes, I can sneak them in, but you are not supposed to do it. So, part of the disposal costs (should) include driving the old bulbs to the proper disposal facility. I suspect they will exact a fee as well.

But ignoring that, and I do, CFLs make good economic sense.

It looks like LEDs save maybe 10 Watts per hour over a CFL.

10 Watts * 8 hours * 365 days =~ 30 KW = about 3 dollars. Over the full life time, you may come out ahead, barely.

So, CFLs are the no-brainer money-wise. LEDs are still too expensive.

[lektrode]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

damn.. I broke one and just covered my mouth with my shirt, told the kids to get out, and cleaned up. I am probably going to die early.
..
...
part of the disposal costs (should) include driving the old bulbs to the proper disposal facility. I suspect they will exact a fee as well.

So, CFLs are the no-brainer money-wise. LEDs are still too expensive.

hey - 'only the good die young' dude - you'll be ok... ;)

and homedepot has a drop box for CFL's = free.

[shiny!]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

hey - 'only the good die young' dude - you'll be ok... ;)

and homedepot has a drop box for CFL's = free.

I did not know that about Home Depot. Cool! Unfortunately, most people will just throw their CFLs in the trash, like they do their batteries and old paint.

I remember my brother dropping the thermometer on the floor and breaking it when we were kids. My dad scooped it up and put it on a dime, and there it sat on my brother's desk for months. We played with it.

I also took a field trip to a stained-glass workshop in 2nd grade. They gave every one of us a nice piece of lead to play with as a parting gift.

Guess that explains a lot! ;-)

[lektrode]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

thanks for the comeback, ms shiny!
us boys dont get to flirt with the tulip girls much round here...

I did not know that about Home Depot. Cool! Unfortunately, most people will just throw their CFLs in the trash, like they do their batteries and old paint.

well as long as the trash goes to a fed-spec landfill (and not dumped out back, or along some dirt road on somebody elses land) then there wont likely _ever_ be a problem? (tho personally i think 'landfills' ought to be _banned_ and mandatory recycling for _everything_ in the consumer waste stream, and if it _cant_ be recycled economically?
tax the crap out of it until it _is_ economical to recycle... )

I remember my brother dropping the thermometer on the floor and breaking it when we were kids. My dad scooped it up and put it on a dime, and there it sat on my brother's desk for months. We played with it.

well.. i didnt get much chemistry beyond the kit i got fer xmas one year (and it was decided that a trainset was safer after that) but from what i recall, when mercury is in its pure/liquid form, its not all that hazardous - its when its vaporized (like when burning coal for electricity) that it becomes a problem ? (mr c1ue?)

I also took a field trip to a stained-glass workshop in 2nd grade. They gave every one of us a nice piece of lead to play with as a parting gift.

Guess that explains a lot! ;-)

only if it was cast into a popsicle, flavored like strawberries and you licked it until it was gone or if you ground it up and sprinkled it on yer post toasties?

otherwise lead wouldnt be a problem?
unless one spends a lot of time licking the paint off old houses...
or gets paid to fleece the taxpayers for 'remediation' in public buildings, considering the biggest lead problem was its use in gasoline until the 70's and nears i know hasnt been since?

sorry... i always did get goofy when flirtin...
;)

[stealthcat]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

just a thought to leave those who are still fighting the logically/obvious conclusion that replacing ALL of edison's heatbulbs
has become a NO BRAINER, no matter what ones political POV is (even mr steve's ;)

As someone around here posted once, (Finster, I think), replacing "heatbulbs" is not a no-brainer.

It depends on where you live, and what time of year it is.

Incandescent bulbs that produce resistive heat may be inefficient light sources, but efficient heat sources. Every watt of thermal heat emitted by the bulbs is a watt that does not have to be produced by another heat source (central or space heaters).

Of course that heat becomes waste when the temperatures are warm enough not to require other heating methods.

But it's not any and always a no-brainer.

[lektrode]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

As someone around here posted once, (Finster, I think), replacing "heatbulbs" is not a no-brainer.

It depends on where you live, and what time of year it is.

Incandescent bulbs that produce resistive heat may be inefficient light sources, but efficient heat sources. Every watt of thermal heat emitted by the bulbs is a watt that does not have to be produced by another heat source (central or space heaters).

Of course that heat becomes waste when the temperatures are warm enough not to require other heating methods.

But it's not any and always a no-brainer.

i always get a kick out of the proclivity of some here to argue for arguings sake... but OK.

perhaps if one is using electric-resistance/baseboard for heating that point could be made or validated even... but then.. if one is blowing that kind of money on heat, i guess what diff would wasting 75% of their kwh's for lighting make...
and if i paid 8or10cents for a kwh, i might even think so too - but 44cents _will_ make even the most diehard energy-hog sit up and pay attention

[c1ue]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

Lektrode,

For your case - being in a tropical area plus paying ridiculous amounts for electricity, the bulbs might make sense for at least a few highly used sockets.

The cost of electricity in Hawaii, however, is extremely high because most of it is actually due to the use of oil for fuel.

For some reason Hawaii chose to stick with petroleum fired electrical plants rather than switch to natural gas or coal - unlike pretty much every single other state in the Union.

There might be some good reasons for it, though I cannot offhand think of any, but either way a more productive use of 'energy' might be for Hawaiians to start asking hard questions on why their electricity costs so damn much.

Check this out to see what I refer to:

http://205.254.135.24/state/state-en...les.cfm?sid=HI

[lektrode]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

Lektrode,

For your case - being in a tropical area plus paying ridiculous amounts for electricity, the bulbs might make sense for at least a few highly used sockets.

The cost of electricity in Hawaii, however, is extremely high because most of it is actually due to the use of oil for fuel.

For some reason Hawaii chose to stick with petroleum fired electrical plants rather than switch to natural gas or coal - unlike pretty much every single other state in the Union.

There might be some good reasons for it, though I cannot offhand think of any, but either way a more productive use of 'energy' might be for Hawaiians to start asking hard questions on why their electricity costs so damn much.

Check this out to see what I refer to:

http://205.254.135.24/state/state-en...les.cfm?sid=HI

well the answer to that question is the same for electric generation (out here) as it is for just about anything else that, over there in 'america', would be considered 'progress' = the 'protest committee' that starts howling about anything that even _might_ disrupt the status quo - and it matters NOT, that 95% of the public might be _for_ something - if so much as a fraction of 1% dont like it? = snowballs chance in hell of it happnin

that and its too damn far to haul large amounts of coal; and LNG has its own detractors (see MA and their failed attempts to get a big LNG terminal going there - out here? hahahahaha - next joke - about as much chance as a nuke plant)

and geothermal?
heh - the 'earthy-krunchy, all-natural, non-GMO, anti-nuclear, along-with-anti-just-about-everything that aint 'solar powered' committee saw to it that that option, 20+ years later, would supply only about 1/3 of one island's demand - even tho they keep threatening to build a multi-billion dollar cable to run it up to the big city (honolulu) so they can charge even _more_ for it than the .44 we're already paying

dont get me goin...

[flintlock]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

LED replacement night light bulbs are just about a no brainer.

They are cheap $2 - $4 a bulb, and since a night light has such a high duty cycle, on roughly 12 hours a day every day, the bulb pays for itself in about a year. I do have the night light bases where a photo-electric is supposed to turn off the night light in the day time but they don't work so good. A conventional bulb just dims to maybe 1/3 -1/2 power on a sunny day.
cloudy days the bulb is probably near full power.

full bulb LED replacements are just to much money. As c1ue explains I just have too many bulbs in the house. Most bulbs are only on a few hours a day. I have two kids who run around the house, and throw things. It is likely we will have bulb or two broken long before its life cycle. Also mentioned is the power spike issue. Not sure how often we get these, since most of our other equipment is immune to spikes, or is plugged into a surge protector.

I also don't know if the the LEDs will really last as long as they claim. CFLs burn out long before their rated tube life.

If the cost per bulb drops to where the bulb will pay for itself in roughly a year, I will consider replacing some of my high duty cycle lights with these.

Also, is the mercury thing in the CFLs that bad? I understand if I snort the vapor, probably no, but in a large room, if one of theses breaks, how much mercury is really released, what is the concetration. If I open a window right away, how much can I vent? does it instantly change to a liquid metal? If so, can I carefully clean it up?

Exactly. CFLs have not always lived up to their rated lives either. Will LEDs end up working out the same way? I'm dying to try LED but like some others say, waiting will make more sense. Prices will drop and they'll probably only get better in terms of lamp life and lighting quality.

I finally finished reading a copy of Electrical Contractor magazine where the whole issue was devoted to LED technology. Seems the sales pitch they recommend to contractors will be lamp life as well as energy savings. On paper they already make sense now, especially in commercial applications were tons of money is spent changing lamps and ballast in fluorescent fixtures. But waiting still seems to me to be the best tactic. Prices will surely drop and the energy savings are not enough alone to switch from CFL or FL.

Eventually we will see purpose built LED fixtures that will not use the typical screw in type socket, which is just a short term attempt to crossover to the LED technology without the expense of changing fixtures. ( like the CFL) These purpose built fixtures will be better suited to the LED technology in terms of design and heat issues. Some incandescent fixtures are simply unsuited for LED technology.

[flintlock]

Re: LED lightbulbs now more widely available for consumers

i always get a kick out of the proclivity of some here to argue for arguings sake... but OK.

No kidding. Electrical resistance heating has to be some of the least efficient ever invented. I still have customers who insist on paying me lots of money to install wiring to handle space heaters, rather than just spend a little and insulate. They actually think they are saving money by not running the furnace as much.