Samsung has introduced three new LED light bulbs that will help you in your efforts to reduce your daily energy consumption. There are three different styles with different light output available. Costs vary from about $17 to about $60 per bulb, depending on style. Each bulb promises to deliver 20X the lifespan of a halogen light of the same style. And each bulb is energy efficient – producing more light and less heat than the equivalent halogen bulb. They are available at Samsung now.
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I wonder if any of the gadgeteers have experience with LED lighting in general. I hate to spend a good chunk of money on LED bulb just to find out that they don’t perform well, or don’t last long, or both.
$17 to $60 per bulb? Even the cheap bulb would need to last over 22 years at minimum (always assuming an equal and equally useful light output) to make a reasonable cost trade-off with my standard incandescent bulb.
I just bought two different brands to try (LG at Costco and Utilitech at Lowes on sale) because the bulbs were around $10 each. Both are warm white and 40 watts (the daylights were around $20 each.) I didn’t tell my wife for a couple for weeks after I put them in to see if she would notice and she did not. The only comment she made once was that one lamp seemed a bit dim. That’s because the bulbs have cooling fins for more than half the bulb length so they don’t illuminate towards the socket end like regular bulbs do. I haven’t run them enough to notice a change in the power bill so all I can say is that they can pass for incandescent bulbs. I’m using them in lamps that are used the most to maximize the energy savings and will probably use them in other lamps as those bulbs burn out.
Personally, I hate LED and CFL bulbs out of principle. If LEDs and CFLs are better than incandescent bulbs, then put them on the market right next to incandescent bulbs and give consumers the freedom of choice.
Our government has no business outlawing a perfectly good and safe product, forcing American factories to close sending those American jobs to China, and forcing American consumers to buy a more expensive product that has not lived up to the hype.
@Eric – The problem is that you are assuming two things: 1) that consumers have complete knowledge and 2) that consumers act in a rational manner. Neither of those are true.
You make the point yourself. Assuming led and cfl bulbs are cheaper in the long run, you still won’t use them because of an emotional reaction to legislation. Spock might say that spending more money on a device that uses more resources is illogical.
The problem with your position bob_r is that you apparently assume government has complete knowledge and that it acts in a rational manner. Based on solid evidence, I’d say neither condition is true.
Let the market decide. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better than anything else.
Calm down everyone 🙂
Let me put it this way so you may understand better.
If you lived in a home that was only powered by solar panels, you would definitely use LED light. LED are the only lights I use in the house. I also use them outside on a timer. At night I run everything on batteries, laptop, TV, everything, but I don’t really have to turn off the LED lights when not needed because they use so darn little energy, but I do it by habit.
Incandescent bulbs would drain my batteries in a matter of a few hours 😛
I’ve installed a few LED lights in my home. I got 900 lumen lights to replace bulbs in ceiling fixtures in my kitchen. I got them from HomeDepot, and they work great and are just as bright as the incandescent bulbs that they replaced. It’s a little work to install them, but well worth the effort. These are dimable units, but I haven’t upgraded the switch to a dimmer. Now we use the task light much more and don’t feel too bad about it.
That worked well enough that I bought a screw in replacement for the flood light in my bathroom. This came from Costco. Much easier to install, but just as bright (about 750 lumens replacing a 100w bulb). I don’t remember if this is a dimmable unit, but I don’t plan on having a dimmer on this fixture.
Then I saw 900 lumen screw in bulbs at HomeDepot that are meant to replace regular incandescent bulbs. So I bought 2. One went into my desk lamp, the other is in my bedroom lamp. Both work great, throw a lot of light, don’t hum, and are dimmable.
So, with all of these bulbs, I’ve been very happy with the light they produce. The replacement cost is higher than incandescent lights, so I hope they last a very long time. The oldest bulb isn’t 2 years old yet, so time will tell.
I also haven’t tried to determine how much my electrical costs have decreased to calculate payback. I’m sure it’s made a dent, but we’ll turn on lights when we need them and try to turn them off when we don’t. I have to admit that the turning off part hasn’t become as good a habit as it could be.
I am considering LEDs for other fixtures that we use a lot. The porch light and living room fixures will come next. We burn the 50 watt porch light from dusk to 10 pm or so every night. It’s not a lot of power, but it’s predictable consumption. The living room lights are on every night as well, so they are great candidates for upgrades. I’m just watching prices fall and
@Ray
When I was installing mine there were no manufactured ones made that I could find and had to build my own LED lights and got them to work off of 12VDC… That was a long time ago… I’ve been on solar since the 70s 🙂
I checked out rooftop solar installs too early and it scared me off with the cost. I have no idea what it would really cost to install today. If we ever get a plug-in car, we’ll get serious on the solar.
The new lamps and bulbs really do throw a lot of light for a real energy savings. I like the dimmable high lumen bulbs. Bright when I want it, and no buzzing when I don’t need 100%.
The question is longevity. If the capacitors in the driver circuits break down before the LEDs die, you still lose the bulb. Most people aren’t going to fix a lightbulb, so the high cost is still a barrier and a gamble.