LED Light Bulbs

[Jeepers]

I thought I was using LED light bulbs all this time. The swirly ones that look like Dairy Queen ice cream cones. Now I don't think that's what they are. I think I've been using the CFL ones. Sigh. So, now I need to know about wattage and brightness as evidently I don't know a thing about light bulbs.

 

My electric company is a country REMC and they will sell their members LED light bulbs cheap. I can get up to 30 a year. I like a fairly bright bulb. I'm going to copy/paste what their website says.

 

My question is...anyone know the difference in brightness between the 60 watt soft white and the 60 watt daylight bulbs? Does the soft white give out the same amount of light only not quite as harsh? I do reading and crafts so I do need good lighting. At $1.00 a bulb...heck yeah I'm buying.

 

 

As a courtesy to our members, you can purchase five types of Energy Star LEDs at the REMC office:

• 60-watt equivalent, 10W, 2700K (soft white) — $1;
• 60-watt equivalent, 10W, 5,000K (daylight) — $1;
• 65-watt equivalent, 8W, 2,700K can light (soft white) — $2.50;
• 40-watt equivalent candelabra-$3.50;
• 100-watt equivalent, 15W, 5,000K — $2.50.

Members can purchase up to 30 bulbs per calendar year under the program guidelines.

 

 

They also have a free membership card that offers all kinds of discounts at local stores. I'm probably not interested in most of them (I printed out the list) but I'm going to order the card tomorrow anyway.

 

But wait...there's more. They will come to your house and do an energy audit. FREE. I think I'm going to like that Hoosier country livin' after all.

 

Who knew! Moral of the story is whom ever you do business with, check out their website. I just went on my electric company's site to sign up to go paperless and found this stuff out.

 

Oh, and the tax is included on the bulbs. They really are just $1.00.  

 

[Mt_Rider]

I love LEDs!!!!    We'd tried the curly stupid things but they weren't good at all.  And how to you dump them....folks went all HAZARDOUS-Mercury-Waste-Zone about them.    

I've had one early LED bulb running for 7 yrs straight before we had to change it.....low wattage night light.  Had all the LED bumpy things showing.  New ones look like a while snow cone.  A line half-way down the dome top.  Fit in the usual way.  We even have LED outdoor spotlights!  Since they don't have a filament to break....and they aren't the fragile fluorescent ones....they are durable!  You'll like them, Jeepers. 

 

I put them first in areas that were DIFFICULT to change the bulbs.  They're still there...years later.  Only had one newer one fail.....and be warned:  They begin to flash like a fast strobe light when there's something going wrong.  They might cause another in the same light fixture to strobe as well but it was only one bulb that was faulty, in our case.  Other one is still working fine a year and a half later.   I'm taking all my LEDs with me when we move...someday. 

 

I'm guessing....but i think the "daylight" bulbs might have more of the light spectrum range?  Hard to say with someone else's label.

 

MtRider    ....me too ... needing light to SEE! 

 

[Jeepers]

I'm also thinking the daylight ones.

 

These look like a sno-cone with the line half way down too. I will have some very high ceilings in the living room so I'm glad they last a long time. Now that I think about it, I think the ceiling lights are on the ceiling fan. There are two skylights but that won't help at night.    And there are about 6 lights recessed into the kitchen ceiling.

 

I think I'm going to have to get a 'cherry picker' for the riding mower to reach things in that house. Gonna have that John Deere tricked out buddy.

[The WE2's]

4 hours ago, Jeepers said:

60-watt equivalent, 10W, 5,000K (daylight) — $1;

 

Is what we have changed all 3 of our houses over to...and what a savings!  The softwhites are probably ok, but we prefer a more "white" light rather than a "blue tint" light.

[The WE2's]

We have changed all 3 of our houses over to...and what a savings!  The softwhites are probably ok, but we prefer a more "white" light rather than a "blue tint" light. We also changed out all the bulbs in our camper van and our travel trailer.  The CFL's are worthless, other than in an emergency...and burn out just about as fast as the old regular light bulbs.  We've only had to replace ONE of our LED bulbs in the 5 years we've had them.

[The WE2's]

3 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

LED outdoor spotlights

 

Same here...on all three houses.

[The WE2's]

3 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

They begin to flash

 

They'll also do this if your "receptacle" can't handle LED's ... and some can't...or if you don't have it screwed in all the way.

[The WE2's]

3 hours ago, Mt_Rider said:

"daylight" bulbs

 

These have "white" light, the soft white's  have a blue tint to them...we use the daylight.

[The WE2's]

Every one of hubby's elderly or handicapped clients have him change their bulbs when the bulbs croak...to LED's.

[Mt_Rider]

The other thing about these LEDs.........If you're using them in lamps or overhead lights that have a dimmer capacity.  You must match the LED which comes in "dimmable" or non-dimmable" and you can't interchange.  I've got some "dimmables"  [cuz DH hasn't got great situational awareness in his purchases...LOL]  and no where to use them. 

 

Just looked at ours.  Some are a more yellow tone.  A few are like WE2 said, more bright and a touch blue, compared to the others.  The four over our kitchen are a mix of both.    I don't know which is which.  They are made by different companies too, so that might make a color tone difference. 

 

MtRider   

[Jeepers]

Thanks for the input ladies. I'll go with the daylight. I really do need the light. Plus if it turns out to be too harsh I'll get the soft light ones for lamps. Or give them to my son.

 

I've had the CFS bulbs ever since they stopped making the regular incandescence bulbs and I still haven't had one blow out. I'm more concerned with saving money right now than a blowout.

 

[euphrasyne]

We like very bright bulbs, so we always go with a higher wattage and more blue tint when using LED because it seems brighter to me. I have trouble seeing thread and needles in the more yellow light.   The ballasts in the garage went out and DH changed them to LED ballasts last weekend.  He used a fairly high wattage, but it is about 10X brighter now.