Cree 9.5 W LED A19, $10 at Home Depot

Wow, seriously guys. How is a family on a single income supposed to spend $12.97 (my local HD) on a freaking SINGLE light bulb! I am so sick of this phony ass green energy stuff! 13 bucks used to buy me 3 years worth of light bulbs.

wazzu said:

13 bucks used to buy me 3 years worth of light bulbs.

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And then another $150 would buy you the electricity you would need to power them through their service lifetime.

wazzu said:

Wow, seriously guys. How is a family on a single income supposed to spend $12.97 (my local HD) on a freaking SINGLE light bulb! I am so sick of this phony ass green energy stuff! 13 bucks used to buy me 3 years worth of light bulbs.

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Assuming you are not a troll: The 60W soft white are $7.97, the 60W "daylight" are $13.97. If you run a 60W incandescent bulb four hours each day, 250 days of the year, that is 1000hrs*60w = 60kWh at 0.12c /kWh = $7.20 a year. A 9.3W LED costs 9.3W*1000h=*0.12c =$1.12 a year which saves you almost enough to buy another of those phony ass green scam pinko commie liberal unamerican LEDs.

If you've got security lights that are on 8-10 hours a night 365 nights a year, the payback is even shorter, AND you spend much less time replacing bulbs, AND they attract less bugs.

TE

I am glad to know I am not the only one buying new LED's with some CFL's sitting on the shelf. I am using the LED's for dimmers and areas I want instant bright light and lights I have on a lot. I have enough cfls to last 20 years in the rest of the fixtures. The only complaints I have about the cfls are dimming and instant brightness. If you get 2700k it is pretty close to regular bulbs. All the people that complain about the harsh light either got the wrong color or look at them too much; regular bulbs hurt your eyes if you look at them also.

I have Phillips for my bathroom with dimmer as the crees do make some noise on the dimmer. The crees are finding their place everywhere else around the house and seem to be good. I have had some for over a year and no failures. I actually like their look in the basement laundry. They look more like the old frosted bulbs at my grandparents. I have had some cfl's last only a year, but most are 10 years old and still good.

I have to hold myself back at Home Depot to not buy more. The longer I wait the lower the price. What was I thinking buying that Lprize 2 years ago for $30.00? I did buy a couple CFL's early on, but luckily I didn't really get into it until Home Depot had better ones at better prices when I upgraded my house 6 years ago. Most of those are still on today. The only failures I had are the enclosed ones like bathroom and flood lights. They take too long to warm up and don't last as long with the many on off cycles. The outside flood lights didn't even make hardly any light when cold out.

TradEddie said:

If you've got security lights that are on 8-10 hours a night 365 nights a year, the payback is even shorter...

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Exactly why one of my two dock lights was the first fixture at my address to receive a Daylight 60W CREE. I figured I'd put the first bulb to the ultimate longevity test. The dock has two lights on separate dusk to dawn sensors. I left one of the two fixtures with an existing warm white CFL bulb in it for comparison. The CREE bulb been in use for 10+ months now, working faithfully every night.

I understand the reluctance to replace good CFL's with LED's, use up the CFL's and then replace, etc. For me I likely would die before I've used up my CFL's: the kitchen CFL's have been in use since 1996, and still going strong. Depending on the numbers and the payback, as well as the dropping price of LED's, this strategy may provide the best payback. Not easy for an early adopter to do. But, quite a few reasons to make the switch now: cold weather performance, instant on brightness, good color, dimmable (and then even lower power consumption), relative brightness. In addition to that, many of us are concerned about this area of energy waste, and just doing the right thing to reduce power usage also has value.

Now, if there would be a market for new, unused CFL's which I no longer will use, or better yet my used CFL's that still have years to go before they will die a natural death, then .... Let me know where that market is. Maybe I just can find someone who will take them and use them rather than continuing to use incandescent bulbs, or donate them to a local 2nd hand store.

I've got an expensive case of CFL can lights that all work as good as new but are now obsolete. Worlds cheaper to use than incansescent though.

I gave up on LED lights a couple of years ago.. but have since purchased a few CREE flash lights and LOVE THEM.. they will shine a "mile"..well at least several hundred feet. I also have a 3 or maybe 5 watt LED light that puts out a lot of light. May be time to try inside again.

That noted, I make extensive use of CFL and like them, and they last "forever" for me, I don't understand the comment about short life. Have I just been lucky?

maybe, or you bought better brands of cfls.

the first generation of 'led bulbs' for indoors were criminally mislabelled, dim, blue junk. no longer true.

Right on the bugs, we got 'em by the millions, in warmer weather only... but I had noticed my LED landscape lights don't seem to attract the bugs, at least not swarms of them. I consider that a plus. If one leaves a incandescent or CFL porch light on all night in the hot weather they need a scrapper to remove bugs from the surrounding wall. But on a good note, we have many lovely bug eating birds.

Indeed, my experience with CFLs is they almost never wear out. I had one over my work desk at home which was on at least 12 hours a day and I think it lasted several years, more than a couple, not sure how many.

I have found with these, like any new technology, that the costs coming down isnt the only factor to look at. Its also the quality at the cost. I have found that the quality isnt there with the cheaper bulbs in my experience. Granted, my only experience is with the Feit led's at Costco, but when i put them in the garage because of their cold weather startup they interfered with many radio stations, most likely due to cheap electronics. In the garage, radio is king so back in went the CFL's. Due to the cost of the bigger guys like philips, i havent experimented to see the difference in RFI. Anyone else have any experiences like this with the led's?

I have SunSun 40 and 60 watt A-19 equivalent. Have not experienced any RF interference, excellent dimming, and no buzzing. They also have somewhat lower wattage/lumen (more lumen/watt) than some other brands.

EJL923 said:

I have found with these, like any new technology, that the costs coming down isnt the only factor to look at. Its also the quality at the cost. I have found that the quality isnt there with the cheaper bulbs in my experience. Granted, my only experience is with the Feit led's at Costco, but when i put them in the garage because of their cold weather startup they interfered with many radio stations, most likely due to cheap electronics. In the garage, radio is king so back in went the CFL's. Due to the cost of the bigger guys like philips, i havent experimented to see the difference in RFI. Anyone else have any experiences like this with the led's?

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I have issues with digital TV interference with the electronic ballasts for T-8 fluorescent bulbs but not with my LEDs.

Picked up a 2.5w LED bulb that is a perfect replacement for the incandescent bulbs in a fridge or freezer, about $6.50 at Menards. A bulb had burned out, and the time has come not to replace and incan with an incan.