Home Depot Now Selling $20 LED Lightbulbs

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AMDnoob

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These lightbulbs are just chalk full of WIN! You'll only have to replace your lamp about 4-5 times within a lifetime, that's pretty awesome when you think about it. If you burned a 40 watt incandescent for a year and a this 9 watt LED what would that power savings be in terms of $$$, on average? Anyone have any guesses or evidence?
 

zoemayne

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I bought about 15 fluorescent light bulbs from home depot about a year ago they are suppose to last 10 years half of them are dead now.
 
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Quick calc (assuming $0.10/kwh) is that if both bulbs were to run continuously for one year it would save you approximately $27-28 annually.
 
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Yes, but the usage is important to note: "BASED ON 4 HOURS DAILY USAGE."

Because it's only dark for four hours a day... right?
 
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ive seen these for a very long time now but i don't think it justifies the savings.
 
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zoemayne, you didn't just throw those bulbs away in the trash did you? At least the LEDs don't have any mercury
 
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psimmitry said "Yes, but the usage is important to note: "BASED ON 4 HOURS DAILY USAGE."
Because it's only dark for four hours a day... right?"

and you never sleep when it's dark? 12 hours of dark, maybe 8 hours of sleep...leaves you with? 4 hours of light a day, voile.
 

zetawolf

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"BASED ON 4 HOURS DAILY USAGE."

Fair enough, I missed that point. If that is true, then the savings become $4.50-4.70 annually. (Based on $0.10/kwh)
 

endoftheline2

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[citation][nom]zoemayne[/nom]I bought about 15 fluorescent light bulbs from home depot about a year ago they are suppose to last 10 years half of them are dead now.[/citation]

These are LED, they are very different from fluorescent light (probably CFL) that you bought
 

zetawolf

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"BASED ON 4 HOURS DAILY USAGE."

Fair enough, I missed that point. If that is true, then the savings become $4.50-4.70 annually. (Based on $0.10/kwh)
 

Pyroflea

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You will save money besides the cost of power. The cost of replacing light bulbs for 20 years is probably a somewhat significant number. On top of that (if you care) these are better for the environment when you do dispose of them. I'm gonna go buy a few and see how I like them I figure.
 

thejerk

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4.50 or so... per bulb. it adds up quickly if you have a lot of recessed cans like i do. i replaced 10 75W incandescent flood bulbs with 9 11W CFL and 1 7W LED (which stays on 24/7) and in addition to the direct savings, it also keeps my home cooler, saving me in a/c costs.
 

jn77

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I have a flashlight with a CREE LED in it that is 700 lumens. While I like LED Light bulbs, I am looking for something in $6 each range with 3000 lumens.

I guess this is a little progress in the right direction.
 

lamorpa

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[citation][nom]psimmitry[/nom]Yes, but the usage is important to note: "BASED ON 4 HOURS DAILY USAGE." Because it's only dark for four hours a day... right?[/citation]
Shut the light of when you sleep! What, are you afraid of the dark?
 

surfer1337dude

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[citation][nom]thejerk[/nom]4.50 or so... per bulb. it adds up quickly if you have a lot of recessed cans like i do. i replaced 10 75W incandescent flood bulbs with 9 11W CFL and 1 7W LED (which stays on 24/7) and in addition to the direct savings, it also keeps my home cooler, saving me in a/c costs.[/citation]
Hmm nvr thought of the heating aspect of it...I am considering going out and buying one or 2 though (I would like to see a room comparison though for how well it lights up a place...), also 20 bucks for this kind of light might not be bad, but does seem a little expensive for me though :-\
 

cablechewer

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Zoemayne,

The electronics in CFLs and LED bulbs are the most vulnerable part and most likely to fail early. Power fluctuations and wiring issues can shorten their lives dramatically. I suppose that is actually an advantage of the older bulbs - if a power fluctuation doesn't shatter the filament they keep on going.

I had a fixture in my old house where the CFLs burned out far faster then they should and I ended up having to switch back to incandescents because they actually lasted longer in that fixture. When I eventually changed the fixture the new bulbs lasted a lot longer (they were still going when I sold the house). Watch a couple home improvement shows and you will see plenty of examples of wiring that can fry these bulbs in a heartbeat :)
 
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question - what happens if you use it more than 4 hours a day?
does it significantly reduce the lifespan of the bulb? - the reason IMHO most CFL's blow out is that the base which houses the electronics gets too hot and malfunctions and it dies a premature death unless it's cool to begin with SO i'm not sure if i'm already killing cfl's because they're on all night at $3 per bulb i'd be better of using a $20 bulb if it too will overheat and die as well.
So to re-iterate, does using this LED bulb continuously kill it prematurely becasue of whaterver reason of will it run to the expected hours of life?
(within reason obviously, i know that nothing ever lasts as long as they say it will, but will the expected lifetime be significantly less if i do leave it on for say 16/24 hours a day?ie. 60% of the expected lifetime for continuous use?)
Does anyone remeber those hitachi deskstar (deathstar) hard drives that were rated for a few hours of desktop use a day only and how that went?!
 
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If LED are supposed to run cooler, why do they all have cooling fins? Also have they solved the problem of the bulbs changing their color temperature over their lifetime? Finally, are they dimmable? Dimmable CFLs are not that great.
 
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