# Do you still use incandescent light bulbs?



## LCSZ

*Do you still use incandescent light bulbs?
Why?*


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## BillSWPA

Yes.

I have only found one LED 50-100-150 Watt equivalent 3 way bulb, and it costs $50. It will take me a long time to recoup that cost in reduced electric bills.

Putting an LED bulb in my garage door opener interfered with the signal from the remote when the bulb was lit.

CFL bulbs contain mercury, and I have young children. Taking a risk of one breaking would make no sense.

Many of the bulbs in my house are LED, but my wife prefers the way incandescent lights look.


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## CoveAxe

Yeah, but not many. It's been years since I've bought a normal incandescent bulb. I've just been replacing them as they burn out. At this point they are mostly in sockets that are only used sporadically. I still have quite a few CFLs remaining as well.

I was still buying G25 bulbs for my bathroom though because it was only a few weeks ago that I found a suitable LED replacement bulb.

Other the bulb in the oven and under the microwave, I should be completely LED in a year.


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## smokinbasser

I still have quite a few incandescents that have resisted the call of the dead hotwires and continue to light the house. As they give up the ghost they get upgraded to cfl lights. one cfl has been on 24/7 duty for close to 2 years lighting my vehicle and surroundings. No kids here except for visitors. It's just a matter of time before I go to LED lights for the house. I have one hotwire maglight and one LED maglight, all the rest of my hand lights are LED powered.


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## cland72

Yes. I only use warm CFL in family rooms where I know the light will be on for an extended duration. I have two LED bulbs: one in my bathroom, and the other in a lamp in the front window that is on for hours at a time, each day, on a timer.

the rest are incandesents because they are inexpensive, and usually only operate in short bursts which is bad for CFLs (from what I understand). i'm too cheap to replace everything with LED.


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## recDNA

I do because I have found longevity claims of compact fluorescent bulbs to be ridiculous. I've never had one last longer than a year in a regularly used fixture. I guess they're ok in lights you rarely turn on.


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## CoveAxe

CFLs are highly dependent on many things like how you install them or use them day to day. I used to put CFLs in my bathroom lights until I saw how quickly they burned out from being switched on and off so often for just a few minutes at a time. The CFLs in my floor lamp that I only turn on once a day for several hours at a time are on their 6th or 7th year or life. The way CFL works makes it impossible to offer a clear lifetime figure for all use cases. LED is quite bit better in this regard, but not completely immune.


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## poiihy

This thread is weird... Because just a few days ago I posted a poll thread with the exact title on BLF, and the text on this thread looks like it was copied and pasted from BLF. Oh well, I don't care, I'd probably ask the same question here anyway.

Most bulbs we use are CFL or LED, only incandescent bulbs regularly used are in refridgerator and microwave. Then there are a few incandescent bulbs in lamps never used but that is it.

Most of the bulbs we use often are LEDs, and the rest are CFL.
We got tons of CFLs (dirt cheap lawl!!).


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## TEEJ

I think I only have LED left. Due to the shift work, essentially, some lights run 24/7, and, most are on dimmers to boot....so CFL's struck out.

The hardest to replace were some candelabra style that went into some chandelier style lights...as it was very difficult to locate teeny-based versions that put out about the same lumens as the incans they replaced.

I got pretty close though, and the quality of the lighting has been great.

Back when running incans, bulb changing was a constant chore...SOMETHING was always burned out...because there are so many lights.

Since going 100% LED, I only changed ONE, total, in the past year, and that one was bad the day it went in...so, I'm not sure how to count it (Flickered on install, took it back)

The electric bill dropped precipitously too, which was nice.


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## Eagles1181

I am running mostly incandescent lights. We are currently in a rental, but looking for a place to buy. Don't want to donate a bunch of LED lights to the landlord when we move out, and I don't like the way CFL's look. Once we buy, we are planning on going completely LED. 

Eagle


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## CoveAxe

Eagles1181 said:


> I am running mostly incandescent lights. We are currently in a rental, but looking for a place to buy. Don't want to donate a bunch of LED lights to the landlord when we move out, and I don't like the way CFL's look. Once we buy, we are planning on going completely LED.



You could always do what I used to do in this situation: take the bulbs with you and put the old incandescents back before you leave. I used to do this in college when CFLs were ~$5 or more each. If you are paying for the electric, then I would highly recommend doing this as you will definitely save a noticeable amount of money on your bill.


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## Anders Hoveland

LCSZ said:


> *Do you still use incandescent light bulbs?
> Why?*


I'm glad you asked this question, and the answer is absolutely YES !!!

It's not for lack of having tried countless LED bulbs though. I just find the light from incandescent to be much softer and easier on my eyes. In addition all the 2700K LED bulbs I have tried have poor color rendering—almost unacceptably so for my home. The light is kind of eerie orange-colored with a slight unnatural purplish tint. For some strange reason I seem to have some trouble focusing my eyes under LED lighting, it is a little uncomfortable and straining after a while, and things do not seem to be as "in focus". I suspect it has to do with the unique spectral distribution of wavelengths. 

Another problem is that most of my lamp fixtures that are left on all the time—the place where LED would justify its cost—would require 100 Watt equivalents. And for LED that is hard to find and substantially more expensive. Most of these bulbs would not even fit into my lamps because of the very wide diameter of the cooling fins.

I have an unusual skin sensitivity so CFL (with the twisty spiral tube) is completely out of the question for me.


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## markr6

Yes.

- No affordable 3-way, high CRI that I know of
- No high CRI 100w equivalent
- Not worth switching out incandescents that only get used a few minutes per year. I'll use my side garage light maybe 1 minute here and there. Same with the 3 attic lights.


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## broadgage

All line voltage lights in regular use are now either fluorescent tubes, CFL or LED, mainly the later.
Fridge and microwave bulbs are incandescent.
Still got a few 12 volt 25 watt incandescent for seldom used emergency lights, in theory they will be replaced with LEDs when they fail, but at a few hours use a year they should outlast the installation.
Still got of couple of 12 volt 17 watt incandescent reflector lamps in use for backup lighting as well.


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## lightwater

Fridge & oven (2 globes), range hood 2 CFL. In general about 2/3 LED & 1/3 CFL. A couple of clear glass incandescent halogen globes as the light fitting & the cast light looks far better.

Installed a decade ago four 4mm diameter x 30 cm CCFL under kitchen cupboards to light bench top (7 watts for all four). Pretty sure they are still as bright as the day I installed them. Where as, strip LED after 3 years is less than half as bright according to light meter.


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## MattPete

You betcha I still use incandescents (albeit the energy saving infrared-reflecting halogens, such as the Philips Ecovantage or the GE Reveals).

To me, it makes no sense to replace a closet lightbulb with a LED. Or a garage light. Or the lights in my childrens' bedrooms (oldest is age 6). They are on so little, it wood take me decades to recoup.

I did replace the BR30s and Br40s with LEDs in my kitchen, family room, and basement, as they are on up to 10 hours a day.

What about other rooms, such as bathrooms or dressing areas? Sorry, but current CRIs are just too low for me to use in those applications. SORAA is coming out with BR30 in Q3, so maybe I'll have an option in the next year or two (60% of my lights are BR40s, 30% are BR30s, and the remaining 10% are a mixture of A19s and candelabra).


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## PhotonWrangler

The only incandescents here are in the fridge and the microwave. I'll probably replace the fridge bulb with an LED lamp when it burns out. Swapping out the microwave bulb isn't worth the effort for me.


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## kingofwylietx

Yes! I bought GE Reveals for our formal dining room, because...frankly...it makes the space more comfortable and the food looks better. 

Our home is only 2 years old, the builder used CFL's in every fixture. I have replaced all of them with LED (except the ones where I used the GE's) and sold those bulbs as a box deal for $5. That was mostly because I didn't want to throw them away, they were practically brand new. Now, someone else got a screaming deal on some energy saving bulbs. 

I know the microwave and stove vent hood have incans. We bought a new fridge for the house, it came with LEDs. 

I like LEDs, but incans look much better in the formal. They just have a comfortable vibe and you can't beat the CRI.


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## poiihy

kingofwylietx said:


> Yes! I bought GE Reveals for our formal dining room, because...frankly...it makes the space more comfortable and the food looks better.
> 
> Our home is only 2 years old, the builder used CFL's in every fixture. I have replaced all of them with LED (except the ones where I used the GE's) and sold those bulbs as a box deal for $5. That was mostly because I didn't want to throw them away, they were practically brand new. Now, someone else got a screaming deal on some energy saving bulbs.
> 
> I know the microwave and stove vent hood have incans. We bought a new fridge for the house, it came with LEDs.
> 
> I like LEDs, but incans look much better in the formal. They just have a comfortable vibe and you can't beat the CRI.



Yeah. Many times I miss incandescents. I think that paying the price for higher quality light from incandescents is sometimes worth it.

Actually, if you live in cold environments and need a heater, incandescents are actually a good option and you don't gain anything with using more efficient lighting. Incandescent bulbs are mini heaters and are actually very efficient. 80% of energy comes out as light (although most is infrared) and the rest is heat. (The "inefficiency" people talk about is actually "inefficacy"). So your incandescent light bulbs help heat your home.

This is the opposite in hot environments though.


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## CoveAxe

> Actually, if you live in cold environments and need a heater, incandescents are actually a good option and you don't gain anything with using more efficient lighting. Incandescent bulbs are mini heaters and are actually very efficient. 80% of energy comes out as light (although most is infrared) and the rest is heat. (The "inefficiency" people talk about is actually "inefficacy"). So your incandescent light bulbs help heat your home.



If you have gas heating, this actually isn't true. I crunched the numbers for my area (Indiana) once, and it turned out that electricity costs ~3-4x more than gas to generate the same amount of heat. This makes sense, seeing as how gas being burned directly is going to have much lower loss then conversion from heat to electricity and back to heat again. So yes, you can help heat your home with incandescent bulbs, but you're paying a premium to do so. You actually would save money with LED/CFL in this case.

There is no cost penalty only if you have electric heating, and if you ignore how much the incandescent bulbs hurt you in summer with the AC running.


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## BVH

14 left - 2 in the ovens, 6 in one particular ceiling fan to difficult to convert and 6 in small "can" lights in the kitchen that make the granite look purty. 76 each, 4', 5000K fluorescents and 115 LED's. Vast majority of LED's are 5000K with less than 5 ea., 2900K.


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## idleprocess

Pretty much all LED, CFL, and floro in my place. Let's do an inventory...

Porch light is a 5000K EcoSmart 60W equivalent
Living room has an entry light with candelabra-base bulbs - the sole primary fixture with incandecents. The ceiling fan in that room has CFL's. A similar fixture over the stairs has candelabra-base CFL's that suck.
Dining room has a T5 circline floro fixture that replaced a gaudy builder-grade chandelier.
Kitchen area has a 3000K bulb over the breakfast nook, 2 twin T8 floro fixtures lighting the kitchen, and a Utilitech 2700K 40W equivalent bulb over the pantry door that's been burning for more than 4 years continuously
Back porch has a ceiling fan that's hopelessly broken - last incandescent in it died years ago so it's no longer used, similar to the back porch itself
Downstairs bathroom is sporting a trio of Cree 4Flow bulbs - 2x 2700K, 1x 5000K 40W equivalent
Utility room sporting one of the few can fixtures in the house has a Cree LED floodlamp in 5000K 60W equivalent
Garage sports 3 twin T8 floro fixtures
Upstairs hallway has a purpose-built 4000K LED flushmount fixture
Office has 3x Cree 5000K 60W equivalent bulbs in the ceiling light fixture and a cheap EcoSmart 3000K 40W equivalent bulb in its closet
Guest bedroom has 3x Philips 3000K 60W equivalent bulbs of a vintage that are somewhat failure-prone ... since that room is almost never used, not a big deal
Upstairs bathroom has 4x Cree 4Flow 40W equivalent bulbs (2x 2700K, 2x 5000K)
Master bedroom sports a crude color-mixing arrangement in the ceiling fan (1x 2700K, 1x 5000K) with limited effectiveness because the bulbs point opposite directions
Master bathroom has 2x six-bulbs fixtures with a motley assortment of 2700K 40- and 60W-equivalent CFL's. Some ancient GE ~2700K highly directional LED bulb over the toilet.
Master bedroom closet sports the same arrangement as the office closet
Sure, there are incandescents in the oven, stove hood, microwave, refrigerator, and dryer. No huge benefit to replacing any of those and only the refrigerator is a likely candidate for it anyway. 

All the living room fixtures are going to go at some point in the future - they're gaudy builder-grade faux brass and I've replaced most of the fixtures in my house with brushed-nickel. Whenever someone makes a decent LED bulb _(3200-3500K anyone? *anyone?*)_ I'll probably swap for some pendants for the two candelabra fixtures alongside a new ceiling fan and be done with it.

The master bathroom fixtures are where my collection of CFL's is slowly used up. Not looking forward to replacing them, but again the _faux brass_ has got to go.

I've not mentioned my various homebrew LED lighting projects.





poiihy said:


> Actually, if you live in cold environments and need a heater, incandescents are actually a good option and you don't gain anything with using more efficient lighting. Incandescent bulbs are mini heaters and are actually very efficient. 80% of energy comes out as light (although most is infrared) and the rest is heat. (The "inefficiency" people talk about is actually "inefficacy"). So your incandescent light bulbs help heat your home.
> 
> This is the opposite in hot environments though.


Relative to the _tens of *kilowatts*_ it takes to heat or cool a home, a few hundred watts of incandescent won't make much of a difference. And as opposed to the _convective_ effect of air, they're _radiating_ their heat all over the place which has to be absorbed then transferred to the air.


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## FRITZHID

I recall while living in the WI Northwoods, there was a significant increase in temp in the house when we had allot of lights on vs. None.
I'd say it may not be a huge drop in heating costs but Def is some. Especially since you're getting a high cri light source combined with some extra heat.
I've replaced all my lights with either cfl or custom LED lighting, aside from 5 incan.... 2 on dimmers in the bed room and a 3 lamp on dimmer in the family room. These are incan only cause I have yet to find LED bulbs that will perform as well as incan with dimmer. & yes, I'm picky. Eventually I'll build LED versions that will satisfy my snobby lighting part but until then, incan it is.
When I still lived in the colder states, LED wasn't up to the task for outdoor lighting and cfl either burned out or downright failed cause of the frigid temps so incan or HID were about the only choices. 
LED has really come into its own over the last few years but I still think it will be some time before their light performance/quality will equal that of incan. Just my 2¢


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## idleprocess

FRITZHID said:


> I recall while living in the WI Northwoods, there was a significant increase in temp in the house when we had allot of lights on vs. None.


The absolute best it could possibly do is displace whatever wattage/BTU/joule equivalency of air heat it's equal to, but the mechanisms aren't as direct as heated or cooled air.


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## FRITZHID

idleprocess said:


> The absolute best it could possibly do is displace whatever wattage/BTU/joule equivalency of air heat it's equal to, but the mechanisms aren't as direct as heated or cooled air.



Well of course not, I'm just stating the fact that when we had allot of lights on, the house was warmer than usual and the heat didn't have to run as much..... So, we were using the light anyway but getting the benefit of some lower heating usage with it. I'm not saying that heating your house with lights is better than using the furnace but in the colder climates I think heat from incan is a plus, espc in winter.


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## MattPete

FRITZHID said:


> I recall while living in the WI Northwoods, there was a significant increase in temp in the house when we had allot of lights on vs. None.




One of our au pairs used to turn on all the lights in the basement in order to warm it up (she had a basement apartment). To make things worse, she would leave them on all day. That was 11 BR40s, 11 MR16s, and 4 A19s. We put a stop to that by swapping out the BR40s for LEDs.

Likewise, the halogen BR40s in our kitchen did a great job of heating up the floor of our bathroom and bedroom upstairs.


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## 5S8Zh5

Yes. I have 3 SF: 2 G2s and a 6P. The 6P got a Malkoff M61LL, and the black G2 also got an M61LL. The green G2 will stay stock with the incan bulb and will now have two spares.


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## brickbat

Outside of the oven and fridge, the final frontier is the GU10 Halogen lamps over our kitchen table. All I see that I'd want is the SORAA lamps. But they're too expensive to justify right now.


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## PhotonWrangler

I'm a sucker for old fashioned antique "replica" bulbs. I bought a few different styles from the two DIY chains. I don't intend to use them for general lighting - they're way too dim, orange and inefficient - but I might find a decorative use for them someday.


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## CoveAxe

PhotonWrangler said:


> I'm a sucker for old fashioned antique "replica" bulbs. I bought a few different styles from the two DIY chains. I don't intend to use them for general lighting - they're way too dim, orange and inefficient - but I might find a decorative use for them someday.



I imagine these bulbs would last damn near forever with how inefficient they are. At least a few decades or more.


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## more_vampires

My dentist inspected my teeth recently with an incan. I asked him about it. He said it was a "Surgitech." Talking about flashlights when about to get numbed and drilled. Yay! 

I must be sick!!!


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## magellan

more_vampires said:


> My dentist inspected my teeth recently with an incan. I asked him about it. He said it was a "Surgitech." Talking about flashlights when about to get numbed and drilled. Yay!
> 
> I must be sick!!!



LOL

I would have said, "Hey doc, wanna try out a really bright bulb? (as I hand him my Polarion PH40 4000 lumen 40 watt HID light).


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## idleprocess

more_vampires said:


> My dentist inspected my teeth recently with an incan. I asked him about it. He said it was a "Surgitech." Talking about flashlights when about to get numbed and drilled. Yay!
> 
> I must be sick!!!


No shortage of instruments that use specialty incandescent / halogen bulbs. The efficiency doesn't matter and so long as the instruments work well there's little incentive to replace them.


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## Qship1996

PhotonWrangler said:


> I'm a sucker for old fashioned antique "replica" bulbs. I bought a few different styles from the two DIY chains. I don't intend to use them for general lighting - they're way too dim, orange and inefficient - but I might find a decorative use for them someday.



Me to,I put 4 of them in my ceiling fan fixture and run them on a dimmer,usually cranked way back until you can just see the faint orange glow of the beautiful filaments at night.....accent lighting at it's best!


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## PhotonWrangler

Qship1996 said:


> Me to,I put 4 of them in my ceiling fan fixture and run them on a dimmer,usually cranked way back until you can just see the faint orange glow of the beautiful filaments at night.....accent lighting at it's best!



That's an interesting idea.


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## MichaelW

In the attic. 2x 150watt BT style.
They do not even get 10 hours of use per year.


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## poiihy

MichaelW said:


> In the attic. 2x 150watt BT style.
> They do not even get 10 hours of use per year.




I changed the one bulb in the attic to a 75w equivalent CFL.
The one that was in there was a long-life 60w! Pssh! Long-life bulb for an attic! How silly is that! It makes less light.


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## Anders Hoveland

poiihy said:


> Long-life bulb for an attic! How silly is that! It makes less light.


That's the main drawback to incandescent. If you wanted a bulb that had long life you were going to make a substantial sacrifice in efficiency, and probably get dull orange [2600K] light.
There are many less accessible locations where it was just inconvenient to be replacing bulbs so often, hence the need for long life bulbs. About the dull orange light, I have seen an old Duro-Test bulb. These special bulbs were krypton-filled, had an unusual distinctive shape, and were rated to last for *7000* hours. Surprisingly, the light did not really seem that dull and orangish at all. I do not know what their secret was because all the other long-life incandescent bulbs I have seen have had dull orangish light. Amazing that they could do that back then without halogen technology.


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## CoveAxe

An attic is typically easily accessible though. Using a long-lasting light bulb doesn't make much sense.

I know what you mean though. I just replaced some very inaccessible bulbs at my parent's house with LEDs. All three luminaires had their bulbs burn out years ago and never replaced because it required the use of a very long ladder in a difficult location. I thought I was going to break my neck just putting the new bulbs in. I definitely would not want to do it every few months (these lights are on ~12 hours/day, so they never last long). Time will tell, but I'm hoping the new ones will last at least a few years at a time.


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## more_vampires

We all still use incans! You pass them on the highway every night. Incans are everywhere! You cannot escape!


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## kkay

Yes, I still use them. They work fine, and they are cheap. I bought a few of the CFL, and they don't last nearly as long as the incandescent bulbs. Plus I think they are safer. That is enough for me. I can't afford to replace all the bulbs out with LED. Maybe in the future, I will try it.


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## idleprocess

kkay said:


> Yes, I still use them. They work fine, *and they are cheap*.
> [...]
> I can't afford to replace all the bulbs out with LED.


Emphasis added. While incandescent costs less to _acquire_ than other technologies, it costs immensely more to _operate_ than other technologies, and that operational cost is far *far* greater than the acquisition cost.


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## markr6

Just replaced 5 more incandescents with Cree 60w TW. They have to be TW for me with the 93CRI. Walls and wood trim (and everything else) look great and don't have that dingy greenish hue. Picked up a 6-pack for $49 - at about $8/ea I'm a buyer.


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## poiihy

markr6 said:


> Just replaced 5 more incandescents with Cree 60w TW. They have to be TW for me with the 93CRI. Walls and wood trim (and everything else) look great and don't have that dingy greenish hue. Picked up a 6-pack for $49 - at about $8/ea I'm a buyer.



You missed the clearance of Cree TW lamps at home depot. They were selling for half that!


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## markr6

poiihy said:


> You missed the clearance of Cree TW lamps at home depot. They were selling for half that!



No I caught it. Unfortunately there were only 6 in stock, and those were 40W that I don't want. I did buy a few just because they were something like $3.97!


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## poiihy

markr6 said:


> No I caught it. Unfortunately there were only 6 in stock, and those were 40W that I don't want. I did buy a few just because they were something like $3.97!



I got one 60w equivalent for that price.


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## TPA

I absolutely use incandescents! My bulb choice depends a lot on where it's going to be used. At my primary home I have a ton of PAR36 aircraft landing light recessed cans rocking Halogen/Xenon-mix 12v bulbs. Yes folks, real aircraft landing lights. I haven't found anything even close to these puppies in terms of light quality, efficiency, dimmability, and beam patterns. Some of the bulbs actually were salvaged from real B737s too.

Over the master bath sink are 4 Panasonic GU-style CFL bulbs which are 14 years old now. Slow to come up to full brightness, which is appreciated first thing in the morning, but they always come on. I have no intention of replacing these -- 14 years for a CFL and still ticking? They don't make 'em like this anymore. 

I have a ~20 year old Philips Capsulite CFL in the front porch light. Still comes on every evening with an external photocell driving it. This little bulb's been with me from grade school, into college, and beyond. Serious blackening at the ends of the tube and she ain't as bright as she used to be...but 20 years! This bulb's outlasted just about everything mechanical/electrical I own. 

Cove lighting is linear T5, dimmable ballasts. Considering how much these puppies cost, I'm not replacing them anytime soon. 

Dining room has 4 real carbon filament bulbs in the chandelier. Efficiency is terrible but I love the ambiance. Like my other CFLs, these probably will last forever, which is fine by me. But wow, do they run hot! 

At my other home, just about everything is LED. Living areas are high-CRI 2700K LEDs, bathrooms have 5K's, kitchen has both 2700K & 5K on separate circuits. Only fluorescent here is the 4' linear in the master bedroom closet. With these using so little power, I often leave them on dimmed down to the minimum. Already had a few failures of the LED bulbs, notably the Feit ones from Costco and a couple of the 3-way Crees.


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## jayrdwein

Yes of course, we still have 1 in the storage room. I'm only using 60w since incandescent light bulbs consume a lot of electricity.


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## Skeeterg

Why certainly. I have led nite lites which works very well.


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## Sean

We have converted the entire house to LED except for two incandescents in the attic and two over the stove in the fume hood.


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## nightshade

Two. One in each,dual lamped, light fixtures above the map reading/comm station and the comfy lazy boy recliner reading area on my boat. Using Philips 415265 RV and Marine 50-Watt A19 12-Volt light bulbs. The remaining lamp in each dual lamp fixture is led. I prefer reading by incandescent.


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## espresso

I mostly phased out incandescents in the house, although they are the dominant type of bulb in my country. 
I've had good results in combining CFLs of different temperatures: (2500K+4000K+6500K), (2700K+4000K). That's the cheapest way of getting a high CRI light.

I've just recently started taking interest in LED bulbs. The thing I don't like with LEDs is that their radiating angles aren't good and their light surface is much smaller than CFL's resulting in stronger shadows. 

One of the main reasons I started using CFLs in the first place was diffused light and ability to use more bulbs due to less heat.


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## newbie66

Sorta... I use incan flashlights for fun.


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## RedLED

Anyone have any Mougal base bulbs? Hard to find these days mine are 100/200/300 watts. We have a large house and you need the big bulbs in the lamps, even more with high ceilings they bounce beautiful.


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## The Burgh

In my home, I have a "trilight" theme.

Incans that have yet to die, CFLs in places and in stock to replace expired incans, LED bulbs "ripening" as they await their turns.

Yep, *THE TRILIGHT ZONE*.


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## brickbat

OK, the final bastion of the incandescent has fallen to LED in our house. As I noted a year ago, it was some 50W GU10 lamps. We use these over the dining table, so anything that was much of a departure from the look of incandescent wasn't gonna cut it with wifey. I popped in some Sylvania 'Ultra' LED HD lamps (right, High def, jeesh). Anyway CRI is 90-ish at 3000K. They're nice, and at 8W, brighter than the 50W incandescents they replaced. They dim decently, though the lack of warm-as-it-dims takes some adjustment. All-in-all, recommended...


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## iamhacked

Only in my bathrooms. Also the basement has dimmable halogen lights, but I never go down there


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## jtr1962

Last year I finally found decent replacements for the small-base chandelier bulbs. I used 4000K in the living room and 5000K in the dining room, both dimmable. Those were the last bastions of incandescents in my place other than the oven light and a light in the foyer (only reason it's there is because I had installed a dimmer years before, and dimmable CFLs were hard to find). Once the bulb goes, it'll be replaced with a dimmable LED.


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## Subterrestrial

I still uses incans, since I have a mess of them in my hall closet (though that stock is gradually depleting with time). Plus a few of the fixtures in my apartment are still running the same bulbs that were in there when I moved in 9 years ago. My Dad gave me a box of so-so CFLs he got on sale once. Those lasted a few years at best. I have one in the bathroom which is still going, defying all expectations. I have quite a number of those 3-way bulbs, which is good since as other have mentioned, the alternatives are not cheap. 

When they're all gone I'll go LED, at least for my own personal lamps. I did consider replacing the FL tubes in the kitchen fixture with LED tubes and taking them with me when I move, because I had a few FL tubes go too quickly, but they're behaving now. 

I don't think I'll mind LEDs since I like cool white lighting, but I do enjoy a nice warm 60w bulb in the table lamp next to the bed at night. Otherwise, the LEDs I running at the moment are in flashlights and lanterns.


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## ShineOnYouCrazyDiamond

My wife insists that I keep an incandescent in the lamp next to her bed. Also - the LED options for our kitchen chandelier leave a lot to be desired. Other than that my whole house has been converted to LEDs for about 3 years now.


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## Stereodude

Yes, in my fridge, attic, and a few rooms that I infrequently use. Most my lighting is CFLs. I'm not replacing them with LEDs until they die and I use up my remaining few CFLs.


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## bestellen

I was still buying G25 bulbs for my bathroom though because it was only a few weeks ago that I found a suitable LED replacement bulb.


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## markr6

bestellen said:


> I was still buying G25 bulbs for my bathroom though because it was only a few weeks ago that I found a suitable LED replacement bulb.



At least you didn't stick A19 bulbs in there! Why they hell do people do that!??! Not that those fixtures are appealing to start with, but throwing in 4, 5 or 8 A19 bulbs with big white plastic bases and writing all over them without any cover to hide them...not for me 

Do you like the LED replacements so far? I have two bathrooms with these fixtures and a lot of bulbs.


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## Subterrestrial

So after I got home from work yesterday, I went to move my car out onto the street for a "free car wash" (storm coming) and I noticed a cardboard box under the tree next door that says Incandescent Light Bulbs. It's actually printed on the box, not hand written. It's in an area where people leave stuff they're giving away (and don't want to dispose of properly) and there's an old address label for my neighbor. I'm intrigued, so I cautiously lift the flap with my foot and sure enough, it's a case of GE Reveal 100W bulbs! There were a few broken and a few missing, but I still ended up with over 40 of them. Some of them are already being put to use. The Reveal bulbs were my favorite incans and I feel no guilt about being able to continue using them for a bit longer (though I'm sure I'll be sharing them with family and friends as well).


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## bykfixer

^^ Very cool story!!!


Kryptons here.

Places like the attic, crawl space and other hard to reach areas got curly fries... due to the pitb to change factor.

But a couple reading lamps still get kryptons, which so far have lasted a couple of years since swapping out the cfl's in them.


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## Illum

I still use them because they haven't burnt out yet. When we bought this house 21 years ago the house was already 35 years old. The former tenant left a gallery of different lamps that fitted to different fixtures in separate parts of the house. Our dining table light has literally never been changed during our time in this house. 

Some odd reason I bought a few equivalents and installed them in place of the old ones. The new ones were so much brighter and whiter and.... rather short lived. The old ones are a little more dimmer, output a little more orange, but they just chug along like its day one.


Same goes with those 350W/500W Halogen work lights. I have not put enough runtime into them to fry them just yet.


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## espresso

140W Halogen in my dining room. 200W equivalent. It's a beast. The food always looks good.


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## jimsy1

hi
is any led ok for a light bulb and somekind of SMD 5730 led is also ok? or do i need somekind of cree leds?


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## brickbat

No - that'd be fine - just watch out for excessive capacitive diractance on those 5730's.


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## iamlucky13

I still use a moderate number.

Closets - not used enough to be worth replacing. Nerd that I am, I actually took the time to confirm this, digging around until I found life cycle environmental assessments that academics have done on incandescents and LED's. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think I concluded a light needed to be on for somewhere in the ballpark of 30 minutes a day before an LED would save enough energy to make up for their more resource intensive manufacture and disposal. That was a couple years ago. LED production has improved since then, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's more like 15 minutes/day crossover now.

Bathrooms - so far, high CRI LED's that render skin tones well have been expensive. That's probably changing. The Feit bulbs from Costco are 93 CRI. I'm using them in my dining room and they look good, so I might try them in the bathroom next.

Range Hood - Unconventional two level dimmer switch does not work at all with LED's.

A couple outdoor photocell lights - had flickering trouble in the past with LED's and CFL's.


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## idleprocess

15 months later, little has changed:

Entry fixture is still sporting candelabra incandescents; it is used rarely and I intend to replace the fixture if I service it
Living room ceiling fan light kit is also sporting CFLs; also used infrequently
Stairs lighting fixture also unchanged, however I may be motivated to replace the fixture sooner since the slow startup of those candelabra floros is annoying
Dining room proprietary T5 circline fixture isn't going anywhere - I enjoy the 3500K light and use it for work-from-home days
I re-wired the kitchen T8 fixtures for direct AC and installed 4000K LED tubes from a local supplier; so far so good



iamlucky13 said:


> Closets - not used enough to be worth replacing. Nerd that I am, I actually took the time to confirm this, digging around until I found life cycle environmental assessments that academics have done on incandescents and LED's. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I think I concluded a light needed to be on for somewhere in the ballpark of 30 minutes a day before an LED would save enough energy to make up for their more resource intensive manufacture and disposal. That was a couple years ago. LED production has improved since then, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's more like 15 minutes/day crossover now.


Inexpensive LED bulbs lacking the upper-end power LEDs and massive heatsinks of previous years are becoming the norm. Philips, Cree, and GE now have widely-available bulbs following this formula. Rising efficiency and greater thermal ruggedness seems to be the key.


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## markr6

I've been running the GE Reveal LEDs (60 equiv) in my family room for over a year now in two table lamps. Last night my back was hurting so I just lied flat on the floor. I really noticed how nice they are compared to incandescents by looking at the white ceiling. The light above the GE bulbs were PURE WHITE, compared to the 2700K bulbs in my kitchen chandelier just 10' away which painted the ceiling yellow. But the GE bulbs don't give the impression of being cooler; still have that ~3000K look. Very nice!


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## Pellidon

In the winter to keep pipes from freezing is my only incandescent light bulb in use.


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## PhotonWrangler

Well the incandescent bulb in our microwave has burned out. That leaves only one surviving incandescent bulb in our house - the fridge bulb. Not sure what I'm going to do with the microwave bulb yet - that seems like a hostile environment for an LED bulb with the strong RF field from the magnetron.


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## Barabus

Only in fixtures where I have been too lazy to access or where bulbs are rare/expensive


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## brickbat

PhotonWrangler said:


> Well the incandescent bulb in our microwave has burned out. That leaves only one surviving incandescent bulb in our house - the fridge bulb. Not sure what I'm going to do with the microwave bulb yet - that seems like a hostile environment for an LED bulb with the strong RF field from the magnetron.



Actually, I'd be surprised if that was the case. Any microwave lamp I've ever looked at was on the 'outside' of the Faraday cage. IOW, looking at the bulb from inside the oven, it's 'behind' a screen.


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## PhotonWrangler

brickbat said:


> Actually, I'd be surprised if that was the case. Any microwave lamp I've ever looked at was on the 'outside' of the Faraday cage. IOW, looking at the bulb from inside the oven, it's 'behind' a screen.



True. What makes me wonder though is that I've measured at least some microwave leakage around every oven I've ever checked, and if some energy is leaking outside, I'm guessing that some energy is making it through that cage and over to the bulb.


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## brickbat

Of course every microwave has measurable leakage. But if it's high enough to harm a nearby LED, I'd be more concerned about my eyes (and and other parts  )...


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## ameli0rate

I moved in to the new (to me) house in mid 2014. The first thing I did was to replace all bulbs. 
The odd round fixtures in a hallway and a couple of closets and pantry were already the weird round fluorescent. Good enough.
Everything else got the remaining CFLs I had from the "$1 each!" sale my Colorado utility company offered back in the day and I stocked up. 
The few remaining fixtures got IKEA LED bulbs, which surprisingly work well in the photosensitive, motion activated carriage lights outside! I expected a short life, but they're still going strong.

The remaining incan bulbs are 4 candelabra bulbs in the hallway fixture hanging 15 feet up! I don't know how to get to it, but I also rarely use that light.
The flood over the kitchen sink - rarely used due to the large 80's fluorescent tube fixture lighting up the entire kitchen (I want to replace that with some downlights over the island and LED can lights)
The two floods over the fireplace. They're angled towards the wall so as to light a painting or whatnot. I never use them.


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## PhotonWrangler

I needed a high wattage ballast resistor for a project, but I couldn't find one in the specs that I needed at my local store, and I didn't want to wait several days for mail order. So I used a 100w incandescent bulb in the circuit instead. Worked like a champ! Does this count? 

No, it didn't light up. I was only pushing around 100ma.


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