Kinky curly save the world lightbulbs

[magic452]

Not much of a fan of the kinky curly bulbs my self, have a few but have been stocking up on incandescent bulbs, I think I have enough to last till my bulb goes out. I"m old, very old.

The point is what do you think of the LED bulbs, are they worth it?

Magic

[DarkFish]

Originally Posted by magic452

The point is what do you think of the LED bulbs, are they worth it?

On the long term, definitely. The lifetime and the savings on your energy bill outweigh the cost of buying one.

But then again, I've seen some of the technology that's about to come out in the coming years (one of the advantages of studying Electrical Engineering) so I'd say wait one or two years and you can get cheaper LED lights, more efficient ones or LED lights with a more "natural" light (I've seen LEDs that are even more pleasant to the eye than a light bulb. Also the more expensive models will be able to change color, e.g. if you want to do some work you can set the color to a sharper fluorescent lamp-like tone, if you want to relax a bit you set it to a warmer more pleasant tone. If you're having a romantic dinner with your GF you set it dimmed with its warmest tone )

[GoldenRivet]

LED bulbs don't contain the murcury that Mr. Gore's kinky curlys do.

i know that much.

and the light they put out is great!

[magic452]

I think I might give them a try, thanks.

Most all of my lights are on dimmers so I not too worried about energy use.
Only use full light when I need it.

Magic

[DarkFish]

Originally Posted by magic452

I think I might give them a try, thanks.

Most all of my lights are on dimmers so I not too worried about energy use.
Only use full light when I need it.

Magic

Remember that there's a high chance the dimmers you've got currently installed are not compatible with LED lights. LEDs by themselves aren't really dimmable (they're either on or off) so the only way to get dimmed LED light is by letting it flicker on and off. If your LED doesn't flicker (not counting the usual flickering because of the AC net frequency) it's always on and you've got max light. Now decrease the on/off ratio, and your LED will give less light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse-width_modulation

You may have to buy some PWM dimmers.

[frau kaleun]

I've had great luck with the new "curly" bulbs. I started swapping them in as old bulbs burned out over three years ago and I don't think one of the new ones has burned out yet. And that's in light fixtures that are on almost constantly when I'm home. I have a pretty good idea of how many old-school bulbs I would've gone through in that time, so, yeah, in the long run they will be inexpensive.

Aside from the fact that I've bought them all with special "introductory" coupons that saved me around $1 a bulb, plus the fact that our local electric company is sending out boxes of them for free every year to customers just to encourage their use.

Haven't had any problems like what GR describes yet, but then I've got so many of them on hand ATM that I can change a burned out bulb as soon as I know it's shot so I don't know that it's something I'd worry about.

[Platapus]

We have had mixed results with the compact florescents. If you buy cheap ones they don't put out much light and the burn out quick. If you buy well made ones, they last a lot longer.

We like to put them especially in lights that are harder to change (up to high) or lights that are on for long periods of time (our mandatory outside lights for our home.

Did you ever notice that lightbulbs you can't stand don't seem to ever burn out.

In the decade I have lived in my home, I have replaced many of the lightbulbs in my house. However, in our bathroom are these horrible glaring lights that the builder put in. We use them ever day and they suck!

And those light bulbs never seem to burn out. .

I should just take them out and replace them, but I have this problem with replacing light bulbs that still work (cheap bastage).

I have been looking at the LEDs, but I think I will wait a bit until the price goes down.

As for LED's
I don't have any in the house yet.
I DID replace all the lights on our Triumphs with LED's.
All I can say is they are GREAT there!
A tad more expensive but probably increase our life expectancy by a fact of 5.
I'm 5 times more likely to be seen before I'm run down I hope.

[TorpX]

I have 7 or 8 of them in my house. I like the light and energy savings, but 2 have already burned out. This would seem to negate, or greatly reduce, the energy savings. I've also noted that they vary a lot in price. I don't think it's really worth it to replace all your bulbs with them, but rather just the ones that are used the most. I've read that turning them off and on a lot, decreases the life quite a bit.

It seems outragous to me, that any gov't would actually force people to use them. We should be able to buy and use whatever type we like. Are we to be treated as children, incapable of making these decisions for ourselves?