LED Light Bulbs

[dhyatt]

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/productImages/300/ab/aba50f97-0224-4567-b368-d926cda71a26_300.jpg

Home Depot has a $20 light bulb that I can actually recommend. The EcoSmart LED bulbs are rated as providing the same light output as a 40-watt incandescent but seems brighter than that to me. They use a lot less electricity than an incandescent, are safer and last longer than a CFL. They are also dimmable.

I installed 3 of them in a ceiling fan fixture in my home office and they help keep my office bright and cool. Running these bulbs instead of incandescents helps keep the temp 8-10 degrees cooler by mid-afternoon. They are expensive but IMO are the first reasonable replacement for a daily use incandescent that I've seen and I've tried many different CFLs. Some were better than others but I was never totally satisfied with any of them.

So go to Home Depot and try one or more of the new EcoSmart LED bulbs (here (http://www.homedepot.com/Lighting-Fans/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xglZaryu/R-202188260/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053)) today. Tell them Don Hyatt sent you and they'll probably charge you more so you shouldn't do that.

[d4vendel]

Being dimmable is encouraging. Have you tried one in a circut that is on an electronic timer? I have yet to find a CFL (even ones that SAY they are dimmable) that works without flickering when the timer circut is off and I wonder if these bulbs would work...

[SusanA]

Home Depot has a $20 light bulb that I can actually recommend. The EcoSmart LED bulbs are rated as providing the same light output as a 40-watt incandescent but seems brighter than that to me. They use a lot less electricity than an incandescent, are safer and last longer than a CFL. They are also dimmable.

Wonderful news. When I get home for the weekend I will go by Home Depot and get a couple. I have a couple of LED bulbs-about the equivalent of 40 watts - that I bought mail order about 6 months ago for almost twice that price. One of them replaced an incandescent bulb that was on a dimmer. That dimmable LED bulb does work on the dimmer.

An advantage of LEDs over CFLs is that the life is not affected by frequent on/off actions. CFLs are worse than incandesents for having life reduced by frequently being turned on and off. One reason that LEDs are now being used for traffic lights is that they frequently turn on and off. It is very expensive, in terms of labor, to replace a traffic light. So LEDs are very good in applications where they will be frequently turned on for a short period of time, or where changing a bulb is very difficult, such as on a high ceiling or difficult to reach place.

They are also cool, not only helping your house to stay cooler during the summer but reducing the fire danger if they are in locations where heat build up could be a problem.

At $20, I would expect that power savings will pay for the bulb over a period of a few years.

Thanks, Don, for the information.