Rebates To Cut Price of $60 LED Bulb

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You know the price of a light bulb is too damn high when you need to include rebates as incentives to buy them. Hell, you might need to open a line of credit / get financing just to swap all the bulbs in your house to these things. ;)

The bulb is the most energy-efficient yet, lasts about 20 years and is supposed to give off a pleasing, natural-looking light. But what separates it from the pack most is the price tag: $60.
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I might be interested in buying these things but even at $20 that s steep price for one light bulb. I'll worry about it when they get to about $5. Until then I'm sticking with incandescent and there ability to dim.
 
Wenthral said:
I might be interested in buying these things but even at $20 that s steep price for one light bulb. I'll worry about it when they get to about $5. Until then I'm sticking with incandescent and there ability to dim.
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1. The LED bulbs can dim with standard dimmers.
2. The warranty on the bulb coupled with standard usage rates puts no risk on you.

The place you use these bulbs is in areas where you will typically have lights on. You don't put these in the closet or rooms you use for more than few hours per day. Your bedreoom is NOT a good choice. A great place for these would be yor living room or kitchen where lights are often on for more than 4 hours per day.
 
And it probably costs 80 cents to build and ship from China.
 
meh.. its a mere 60watt bulb. I'm using CFLs right now all rated at 100watts or more and they work great.
 
Philips won a race, in which they were the only runner. And, they didn't even properly qualify (their bulb is too expensive).

Here's a hint to our government, if you have to subsidize it, it probably uses more energy to produce than it saves.
 
I'm the sure the $60 price tag includes the amount you might have spend on replacement bulbs over the course of 20 years.
 
$60 is a bit much for a bulb, but if it lasts 20 years, that's only $3 per year, which doesn't sound terrible compared to incandescent bulbs, and that's even before you start factoring in the massive power savings over those 20 years...

Not only is power saved on the generation of light, but a LED bulb will have MUCH less waste hear too, so the AC will work less hard in the summer.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038618596 said:
Not only is power saved on the generation of light, but a LED bulb will have MUCH less waste hear too, so the AC will work less hard in the summer.
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Hear = heat.. Stupid lack of edit button.
 
I'm in for the 60 dollars in high use areas for sure.

My only concern is what will the replacement cost in 20 years.....if I'm still alive.:eek:
 
Stone Cold said:
Here's a hint to our government, if you have to subsidize it, it probably uses more energy to produce than it saves.
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+1

That's the reason many of these so-called energy saving devices cost so much. The net effect is just as much (or sometimes even more) pollution and no net savings in energy.

In the case of bulbs like this, you are saving energy in the US (generally clean/low polluting engery by world standards) and replacing this with production energy in China (not clean with much higher pollution levels) .
 
I haven't kept track...have they yet managed to make an LED bulb that puts out as good a spectra as an incandescent? CFLs can get close-ish, but last I knew LEDs just couldn't do it.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038618596 said:
$60 is a bit much for a bulb, but if it lasts 20 years, that's only $3 per year, which doesn't sound terrible compared to incandescent bulbs, and that's even before you start factoring in the massive power savings over those 20 years....
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You can replace your incandescent bulbs with inexpensive CFLs, and get over 80% of the savings for just a few $.


Zarathustra[H];1038618596 said:
Not only is power saved on the generation of light, but a LED bulb will have MUCH less waste hear too, so the AC will work less hard in the summer.
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And during the winter, your heater will have to work harder to make up for the lack of wasted heat.
 
nutzo said:
You can replace your incandescent bulbs with inexpensive CFLs, and get over 80% of the savings for just a few $.
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Catch being, inexpensive CFLs are usually the one's with really harsh spectra IME. CFLs that put off warmer light cost more money than incandescents did.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038618596 said:
$60 is a bit much for a bulb, but if it lasts 20 years, that's only $3 per year, which doesn't sound terrible compared to incandescent bulbs, and that's even before you start factoring in the massive power savings over those 20 years...

Not only is power saved on the generation of light, but a LED bulb will have MUCH less waste hear too, so the AC will work less hard in the summer.
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Do you plan on staying in your house for 20 years or just taking all the light bulbs when you move?
 
Meh, I'm on all CFLs. I don't think I'll move to LEDs until they're around 5 bucks.
 
nutzo said:
You can replace your incandescent bulbs with inexpensive CFLs, and get over 80% of the savings for just a few $.
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Very true. The quality of the light is not as good though, and you have to deal with (or at least are supposed to) special disposal due tot he lead content.

nutzo said:
And during the winter, your heater will have to work harder to make up for the lack of wasted heat.
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Again, true, but most home heating solutions (heat exchangers, home heating oil, natural gas, etc.) are actually more cost efficient than electric filament heating. Direct electric filament heating is one of the least cost effective ways to heat your home.

Not a big deal if you live down south where home heating barely needed most of the year, but if you live where we get real winters, it makes a difference.
 
I have some LED bulbs, I like em, got em for 30 bucks a pop marked down from somewhere. Also have LEDs on my fishtank, super happy with the purchases.
 
roaf85 said:
Do you plan on staying in your house for 20 years or just taking all the light bulbs when you move?
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No immediate plans on moving. Maybe I'll be here in 20 years, maybe not.

At $60 a pop, I'd probably opt to bring the lightbulbs with me though.
 
For their current price, I would say absolutely. lol

It is nice they are developing and showing they can do it. The long term cost is nice, but having to purchase 7 of these would not be easily done for me. (7 bulbs between kitchen and living room).

I would probably want to do the other 6 in our kids bedroom as they like to leave the room with the lights on. And yes they do get reminded all the time to turn them off when the leave the room. lol

That upfront cost adds up really quick, even with the possible rebate prices.
 
I'm not having much luck with CFL's. The lightbulb went out in my apartments kitchen and I replaced it with a CFL which lasted for about 4 hours then stopped working. Tried another one and I think it lasted about a day. :(
 
Outlaw85 said:
For their current price, I would say absolutely. lol

It is nice they are developing and showing they can do it. The long term cost is nice, but having to purchase 7 of these would not be easily done for me. (7 bulbs between kitchen and living room).

I would probably want to do the other 6 in our kids bedroom as they like to leave the room with the lights on. And yes they do get reminded all the time to turn them off when the leave the room. lol

That upfront cost adds up really quick, even with the possible rebate prices.
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The trick is to buy them one by one as needed. Then the cost is spread out.

I slowly, bulb by bulb as the old ones died, transitioned my entire house to CFL's. I started about 6 years ago, and just replaced the last one maybe a year ago or so.

This method works pretty well, as on average, the bulbs in high use areas will burn out more quickly and get replaced first, giving you the most bang for your buck up front.

I just had my first CFL in six years burn out on me this week. Havent decided what to replace it with, or figured out the proper way to dispose of it yet.
 
Danith said:
I'm not having much luck with CFL's. The lightbulb went out in my apartments kitchen and I replaced it with a CFL which lasted for about 4 hours then stopped working. Tried another one and I think it lasted about a day. :(
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Cheap, made in china brand?

not all bulbs are made the same.
 
I just replaced my floor lamp (tri-select) that had 50/100/150 with new bulbs I found at Lowe's that do 50/200/250! So awesome I can see! That's the problem with LED lights they are to weak.
 
two things I noticed about CFLs, never buy the cheapy cheap ones, and if it's a light fixture you are going to be turning on and off multiple times over the course of the day, the bulbs wear out much much faster.
 
I've replaced almost all of my (non-dimming) bulbs with CFLs. At first the savings were pretty nice. But here in the south, Duke Energy has upped their rates TWICE in the last two years, so those savings were temporary from my starting point. By the time that LED's are cheaper, the energy rates will be triple to make up for the difference.
If everybody is saving on the energy consumption, the energy production costs should drop, and require less $$ to maintain, right? Somebody's getting rich off of me again.
 
I have led bulbs in my home that cost between 20 and 30 dollars at lowes or menards...abs I think I found them for under 20 at amazon.

They put off good quality light, are 60 watt equivalents and are dimmable. Can't remember the brand off the top of my head. Sure, they're expensive for a light bulb, but given the claimed benefits, I see no issue. That philips light bulb doesn't even attempt to compete on price, what does it have that mine don't?
 
GruntUltra said:
I've replaced almost all of my (non-dimming) bulbs with CFLs. At first the savings were pretty nice. But here in the south, Duke Energy has upped their rates TWICE in the last two years, so those savings were temporary from my starting point. By the time that LED's are cheaper, the energy rates will be triple to make up for the difference.
If everybody is saving on the energy consumption, the energy production costs should drop, and require less $$ to maintain, right? Somebody's getting rich off of me again.
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Just think of how much you'd be paying if you hadn't swapped your bulbs :p
 
The problem with modern bulbs is that I have never observed the advertised lifespan.

Temperature shifts in my lit areas as well as unclean power in my area causes a lot of premature failures.
 
crazypooljunkie said:
I have led bulbs in my home that cost between 20 and 30 dollars at lowes or menards...abs I think I found them for under 20 at amazon.

They put off good quality light, are 60 watt equivalents and are dimmable. Can't remember the brand off the top of my head. Sure, they're expensive for a light bulb, but given the claimed benefits, I see no issue. That philips light bulb doesn't even attempt to compete on price, what does it have that mine don't?
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Not sure. not familiar with your bulbs.


Most LED bulbs on the market right now (actually all bulbs on your local stores shelves) do not put out light equivalent to a 60w incandescent. in fact they put out a lot less light than even CFL's ( though it tends to be more concentraded, giving that spotlight effect).

This is what is supposed to be so good about the Philips bulb. It supposedly gives off light similar in quality and dispersion to a good incandescent. Not having seen yours, I can't compare.

What I have found with many of the ghetto eBay specials on LED's for cars - however - is that they are just normal LED's that run over-volted, and thus burn out much more quickly. You also don't get a reliable low wattage rating as you do when you buy something through official channels.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038618805 said:
The trick is to buy them one by one as needed. Then the cost is spread out.

I slowly, bulb by bulb as the old ones died, transitioned my entire house to CFL's. I started about 6 years ago, and just replaced the last one maybe a year ago or so.

This method works pretty well, as on average, the bulbs in high use areas will burn out more quickly and get replaced first, giving you the most bang for your buck up front.

I just had my first CFL in six years burn out on me this week. Havent decided what to replace it with, or figured out the proper way to dispose of it yet.
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I wish I could have done mine that way, but the vapid part of me would have hated seeing 2 of one bulb and 3 of another in a fixture, so with my tax return this year I replaced every major bulb in the house with CFL's. I think I worked the math out to dropping a maximum of 800W of potential lighting energy off my foot print. The main fixture in my living room alone went from 300W (60Wx5) down to 45W and it's just as bright. I wanted LED's, but that cost was simply too much for me.
 
I've replaced all my CFL's with high powered incandescent bulbs. Specifically 150w to 200w bulbs. Yes Why?
Because fuck you.
That's why.
 
Really I use both incandescent and CFL at the moment. Make a dang 100-150watt equivalent LED bulb and I'll bite. I hate darkness. The only CFL I will use are the 150W equivalent ones. When I found the 250W incandescent bulbs at Lowe's I bought several.
 
Zarathustra[H];1038618805 said:
The trick is to buy them one by one as needed. Then the cost is spread out.

I slowly, bulb by bulb as the old ones died, transitioned my entire house to CFL's. I started about 6 years ago, and just replaced the last one maybe a year ago or so.

This method works pretty well, as on average, the bulbs in high use areas will burn out more quickly and get replaced first, giving you the most bang for your buck up front.

I just had my first CFL in six years burn out on me this week. Havent decided what to replace it with, or figured out the proper way to dispose of it yet.
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Thats what we did. In the CFL fixtures I think I've finally replaced my first bulb in 5 years.:eek:
Unfortunately you can't use CFL in a dimmer, so I had to keep my boyonet style bulbs (some fixtures only take the bayonets anyway)

What I have seen is wierd behavior of CFL spotlights.....some of my ceiling can fixtures caused them to blink like crazy. I finally threw up my hands and went back to incandesents.
 
I switched everything to CFL's a few years ago. This year i switched back to incandescents. The goddamn things burn out ridiculously fast... and no, I wasn't flicking them on and off dozens of times a day.

The 130v rated 'can's last way longer, I dont need to be conscious of how often I flip the switch, and they arent full of mercury so I can throw them in the trash.

CFL's are crap. The only upside to them is that I prefer the "daylight" spectrum available with CFL's and LED's (5000k+).
 
Zarathustra[H];1038618886 said:
Not sure. not familiar with your bulbs.


Most LED bulbs on the market right now (actually all bulbs on your local stores shelves) do not put out light equivalent to a 60w incandescent. in fact they put out a lot less light than even CFL's ( though it tends to be more concentraded, giving that spotlight effect).

This is what is supposed to be so good about the Philips bulb. It supposedly gives off light similar in quality and dispersion to a good incandescent. Not having seen yours, I can't compare.

What I have found with many of the ghetto eBay specials on LED's for cars - however - is that they are just normal LED's that run over-volted, and thus burn out much more quickly. You also don't get a reliable low wattage rating as you do when you buy something through official channels.
Click to expand...

Feit Electric is the brand I've bought. Can't tell if the 60 watt equivalent is on amazon or not can't remember the lumens...

I see mixed reviews on amazon, but I've had really good experience with then so far.
 
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