The Outlawed Incandescent! Could ONLY Buy LED!

[daveamkrayoguy]

A recent trip to Walmart to replace the desk lamp in the den which clamps on to our desk that we used our old computer on (we still have that computer, w/ big hard drive, which still runs & must have stuff on it & can do with it that the new one doesn't have if we still kept all that & it fits there--I just have an ordinary desk for the new, self-contained CPU)...

Anyway, the Walmart had ONE desk lamp, a free-standing one, that operated with a regular incandescent bulb (or allow a CFL, but you wouldn't want to touch the glass on it to install/replace) which upon going to the check-outs, a manager had to be called to override (really deny) the sale in order to continue the transaction for the other items we were buying...

This happened at both a couple Self-Checkouts (which I always use) and even an attempt for the associate to attempt the sale at her "real" register at the podium...

Wonder why all this on an item, that at one time would be able to legally sell, just be "closed-out/discontinued"????

-- Dave

 

[kb0nes]

Are you trying to imply it was illegal to sell this light? That is hardly true.

And the 2nd part of the question, is why would anyone actually 'want' to run an incandescent bulb today?

 

[DADoES]

 
I tried LED floods in one of the theater auditoriums a couple years ago.  I bought 18 for the lobby but wanted to try them on the dimmer system.  Took a while moving a ladder along to change 16 bulbs in the wall sconces, and then change them all back.  They didn't dim at all on low level and I didn't want to go through the additional effort of recalibrating the levels to find that they still didn't dim or were erratic between high/med/low levels and then have to recalibrate back again for the incandescents.  It's not so much wanting to use incandescents for that application as it is having no choice.

 

[askolover]

Per the owner's manual the digital timer controlling my outdoor deck lights has to have at least one 60 watt load in order for it to operate correctly.  So I have one incandescent bulb in the back and LED flames in the rest of them.  When that old-fashioned 60 watt burns out, the things go erratic!  I couldn't find any at Walmart but Kroger had some so I bought a few packs to last a while.

 

[gusherb]

I have a lifetimes worth of incandescent bulbs stockpiled in the basement. I use LED’s where light quality is no concern, nor precise dimming is required. My bathroom is all incandescent because the dimmer on the ceiling fixture goes batty if I try to use LED’s, and the light bar style LED bulbs look silly, so 6 40 watt incandescents for that it is. Kitchen is all halogen, over island pendant is LED, all on dimmers. All chandeliers and ceiling fan lights are on dimmers and incandescent, table lamps are LED. Closet lights also incandescent, outside lights are CFL.
One hallway can light has one of those Cree LED inserts, it hums and doesn’t dim as well as I’d like. I leave it because it’s just a hallway light.

 

[mattl]

I have a large home with lots of lights, at this point I'm at about 90% LED.  Just replaced all the halogen down lights in my kitchen with LED spots, very happy with the 3000K light, just a bit crisper than the old 2700K bulbs, looks very similar to the pools of light the halogens put out.  I think an issue some people have with LEDs is not buying the right bulb, if I put floods in the kitchen I’d HATE it, but spots work very well, but are hard to find.  I have 2 hold outs, only due to cost/benefit.  I have 2 large chandeliers, 15 bulbs each, all 60w.  Calculated it costs me $0.12/hr to operate each of them.  Used mostly during the holidays, so I might spend $5-6 a year on them.  Buying 30 60w LED candelabra base bulbs the pay back would be over a decade. I just tossed about 3 dozen CFLs I had stock piled years ago, hate those crappy things.

 

The BIG plus for me with LEDs is that I can light my home as it has been in years gone by at very little cost.  The entire main floor is pretty well lit for about the energy cost of 1 or 2 100w bulbs.

 

[DADoES]

 
I have the house changed to daylight LEDs except the small dining room chandelier is soft white.  Five spots aimed at walls for artwork that are rarely used are not changed, and two (of four) ceiling sockets in the garage are not changed because they're not used often and I can't get to them without moving machines.

 

[askolover]

I replaced the bulbs in my hallway fixture with the LED's that have the little strips inside them.  They've only been in there a couple of years and not used very often, but one of them is already acting wonky.  Just had one in the range hood die this past week.  I've been finding LED's to not be lasting as long as they say they will last.  My CFL's lasted for years before they quit. 

 

[turquoisedude]

I also have a stockpile of incandescent bulbs to keep me glowing for a few years, hopefully.

For some reason, I perceive a 'pulsing' of light when I attempt to read under LED lights. I admit I have a few in places like storage areas and some outdoor fixtures to reduce power usage however I am not getting anywhere near the longevity promised for this style of bulb. This is most noticable at the house in Ogden which is really and truly 'rural' where the power dips and flips at lot more than at the house in St-Lib. So far, I've burnt out all 3 LED bulbs I put into service in Ogden; bulbs put into service about the same time as in St-Lib are doing fine. Go figure!

 

[blackstone]

10-Year Guarantee?

Does anyone really save the receipts on LEDs, so you can return a light that burns out after 9 years?

Anyway, I bought a 4-pack of LEDs from Dome Depot, and 1 bulb burned out after a month or so. Brought it back, with the receipt. Clerk at service desk looked dumbfounded, then got another 4-pack from the shelf. I was secretly hoping to get another 4-pack, but, no, the clerk ripped open the package and gave me 1 bulb. Well, I got my replacement bulb, but what is Dome Depot going to do with a ripped-open package?

Technically, an LED doesn't "burn out"; I suppose that is a term that will last forever, like "dialing" a telephone.

 

[mattl]

Does anyone really save the receipts on LEDs-

I do and I have on the rare occasion of failure, never and issue.

 

[kb0nes]

Basing the operation of current late model LED lamps on earlier ones is not a fair comparison. They are SO SO much better today especially in dimming as well as in light quality. They are also DAMN inexpensive. I just bought about a dozen new LED lamps to replace all the CFL's in my mom's new assisted living apartment. The new 1600 lumen (100w eq) lamps have serious punch, use only 15w and dim really well. They came in 2 packs from Menards for a mere $5 per two lamps (was a sale price).

I had a box of incandescent bulbs too. They went straight into the trash, and all the CFL's went to recycle I refuse to pay 10 times the cost for electricity to run a hungry filament to get what I consider dim inferior looking light.

It has been about 7 years now since I got down to the single incandescent bulb in the house (self cleaning oven). I have also done all the linear florescent lamps now too. I have had only one LED lamp fail so far, but I will admit I never bought off brand or no-name lamps. I have paid up to $50 for a single LED and I know that they have paid off in energy saved already.

I do save my receipts and I mark the date and a number on the lamp with a sharpie to correspond with the receipt. Even the lamp that failed I could care less, they pay for themselves in energy saved in short order.

 

[firedome]

Incandescents...

we like having a choice, so when still cheap we bought cases of 72 bulbs each of: frosted 40, 60, 75, 100, plus a few clear 200s and 300s (great for garage).

If anybody needs any I'd be willing to sell 6 packs of any wattage 40 to 100 at my cost + shipping at cost... we'll never need them all!

 

[dartman]

If you want old school element bulbs I think you can get them in heavy duty severe service bulbs for drop lights and things. The led bulbs tend to have the electronics fail from overheating. The led lights save money and obviously you can get various color temperatures. We mostly use the 5k daylight/bright white and some of the 2700k yellowish light like the old school lights in the rooms only my sister uses. I really like the 5k white ones myself and they really light up the usually dark areas like our small halways to the bedrooms. When we originally switched over to CFL lights they saved us 20 bucks a month on our electric bill. The new led lights haven't really haven't saved any money but they run cool and don't have to warm up to full brightness.

 

[kb0nes]

The LED lamps we put in our trouble lights at work have been by FAR the best rough service lamps we have ever had. Don't think we ever got 4+ years out of even a "rough service" bulb before. Also really nice to never burn your forearm on the trouble light ever again

 

[dartman]

We use some round flat pancake led bulbs in our droplights at work now too. Same thing, I don't get burned all the time and they put out decent light. We haven't broke one yet either.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

Like I said, the old clamp-lamp is gone, and I have the new LED in its stand-alone design in a stable spot, so I guess to paraphrase the "why would one want to run an incandescent?", I don't have to worry about this new lamp breaking and I hope it doesn't burn out...

The newer, white light isn't hard to get used to either--and I just "something" that lights to accompany our computer use in the den--and unlike this small halogen lamp, we were once using before the clamp-incandescent, I don't mind or squawk about it being left on...

-- Dave

 

[tomturbomatic]

I'm sure that if you went to a lighting supply house and explained that your Suzy Homemaker Easy Bake Oven won't work with anything but an incandescent bulb, they would sell you one.