LED A19 bulbs for your home

[troyboy162]

Sweet. Man at 5 bucks thats awesome. My electric bill is already low, but i love the idea of a super long life bulb. And hey it makes up for the carbon footprint of the 4runner right? Lol

[4x4mike]

Definitely. Other than the cost savings of use the LED bulbs have other benefits over CFL. I've got Cree LEDs in the eaves of my house so I don't use my porch lights any more. When I did they were not happy in the winter. I doesn't get crazy cold here but the CFL output was decreased and their warm up time considerably increased.

Before buying a home I lived in a few rental homes with roommates. Most of the fixtures had CFLs and the homes had older wiring (one had 4 glass type fuses in the supply panel). The CFL's never lived long, maybe a year, for some reason. When those things went out they went out. Most of the time they would blacken at the base with definite signs of high heat. I was always concerned with fire and was glad to get them out of my current house.

[paddlenbike]

When those things went out they went out. Most of the time they would blacken at the base with definite signs of high heat. I was always concerned with fire and was glad to get them out of my current house.

I nearly had a CFL fire at my house. I was out in the garage with a neighbor when we heard the smoke alarms get triggered. My home is newer so the smoke alarms are all linked; when one goes off, they all go off. We ran in the house and could smell smoke but since all of the smoke alarms were going off, it didn't help us narrow down which room had the issue. Then I noticed one of the rooms was dim and discovered that the ballast at the base of a CFL in a ceiling fan had burned. It got hot enough to blacken the inside of the light housing. It very easily could have caused a house fire, and CFLs have done it many times. I threw them all out.

With the exception of the fluorescent shop lights in the garage and one halogen outdoor security light, my house is full LED. I converted the kitchen, bathrooms and hallways to Cree CR6 can lights.

I can't say enough good things about these. They look more modern than a can light as they lack that huge gap between the bulb and the trim ring (no cobwebs either!), the light looks just like incandescent, and they use 9.5W each instead of 65W, each! (For the six lights in my kitchen, I'm using 57 watts total rather than 390 watts.) They produce virtually no heat.
My chandeliers and ceiling fans have Cree LED A19 bulbs. Same story there, very natural looking light. I can't stand blue-ish LEDs, so none of that here.

None of my lighting pulls enough energy to even show up on my house's digital watt-finder. The lighting is almost free to use; if there is a downside to these lights other than initial cost, I haven't found it.

[Seanz0rz]

That is exactly what I purchased Ken. The next time we paint, they will get sealed to the drywall with paintable caulk.