LEDing the way

I’ve finally decided to bite the bullet and switch over to LED light bulbs throughout the house, although I may have to set up an Indiegogo account to get it funded. Those things are seriously expensive.

I’m not sure I can justify this plan on purely economic terms. I counted more than a hundred bulbs in our house (and that doesn’t include some of the desk and table lamps). LED replacement bulbs range from about $8 for a chandelier bulb to over $40 for some specialized high-wattage models. Even assuming an aggressive estimated average of only $15/bulb, this means that we’ll pay $1500 to completely redo the house. The bulbs are indisputably more energy-efficient and long-lived than incandescent bulbs, but I suspect it will take a long time to recoup $1500 in electricity savings.

Things get even pricier if you want to swap out recessed lighting receptacles to the smaller ones that accommodate LED equivalents. I’m not planning to do that, because I don’t think the smaller bulbs look odd in the regular receptacles, but there’s always the chance that I could get overruled by the Chief Designer.

However, I really like that the bulbs put out almost no heat, and often have a higher lumen/watt ratio than standard bulbs. Most of them are dimmable, and most come in a variety of color temperatures (I tend to like cooler, less red/yellow light). You can even get bulbs to replace those 4′ fluorescents in your garage, although that requires bypassing the ballast. Fortunately, that’s relatively simple to do and there are a plethora of instructional videos on YouTube. And although I’m not the greenest of Gaians, I do like the fact that LED bulbs have no mercury in them (but…there’s always a “but”).

So, I ordered a boxful of chandelier bulbs, frosted and clear, and I’ve swapped out 16 of them this weekend. I’ve got another handful to replace outside when the rain lets up. The LEDs are longer than the standard bulbs so they were a tight fit in our ceiling fan fixtures, and the tips peek out from the inverted glass fixtures over our dining table, but the results are still pleasing. And if the propaganda literature is to be believed, we won’t have to replace any of them for the planned period of our continued home ownership. (No, that’s not an announcement, but 50,000 hours is a long time.)

There are a lot of places to buy LED bulbs online; I happened to pick EarthLED because of the selection, good product descriptions, and what seem to be competitive prices.