Question about interior lighting.

[Irving]

I've replaced all my bulbs with LEDs and my bill (the electric portion) has dropped significantly. Every month I get a letter from Xcel rating me against my neighbors and now I've been significantly lower than the "efficient" neighbors.

I also have some old (50's) lights in the house on a dimmer. LEDs and compact florescent bulbs do NOT like that fixture and very quickly burn out, even if it isn't dimmed.

[Ronin13]

We're replacing any bulbs at our house with LEDs as they go out... it's a long process. I was even thinking of upgrading a few areas (like bathrooms) with the motion sensor switches that automatically shut off the lights after a certain time. They're running about $20-30, and I figure if we forget to turn off a light it's a no-worry fix.

[00tec]

I've replaced all my bulbs with LEDs and my bill (the electric portion) has dropped significantly. Every month I get a letter from Xcel rating me against my neighbors and now I've been significantly lower than the "efficient" neighbors.

I also have some old (50's) lights in the house on a dimmer. LEDs and compact florescent bulbs do NOT like that fixture and very quickly burn out, even if it isn't dimmed.

You have to replace the dimmer regardless. This really has been the only thing stopping me from swapping my kitchen lights out, as I need 3 new dimmers.

[BlasterBob]

Hey guys, many thanks for the great comments on the electric light thing. This kinda reminds me of the long distance telephone usage when I was a youngster - coming up on 81 years of age soon. Long distance calls were kept extremely short due to the high prices of each minute back in the old days. Now we can chat without the old rush of getting the words rattled off to avoid high phone bills. NO, we didn’t have to use smoke signals to communicate however we did have to go through the local town switchboard and a live operator for ALL outgoing calls. Party lines were kinda neat to check on the activities of the neighbors. Now, that’d probably be unlawful to listen in on the neighbors conversations.

[O2HeN2]

Jogged my memory. I've always liked the scene in "A Christmas Story" where the wife runs back into the house to turn off the leg lamp "to save electricity" and you can see that all other lights in the house, and I do mean all, are on...

O2

[Ronin13]

Jogged my memory. I've always liked the scene in "A Christmas Story" where the wife runs back into the house to turn off the leg lamp "to save electricity" and you can see that all other lights in the house, and I do mean all, are on...

O2

Makes you wonder what the Griswold's electrical bill looks like this time of year...

[fitterjohn]

That's popular here too. Even the city of Denver has a chilled water loop for buildings. All the schools in Loveland are like that too.

[newracer]

I have heard that some of the new LEDs and CFLs do not like to be turned on, off, and on again in short cycles, it will shorten their lifespan.

[hollohas]

I have an engineering degree in "Illumination". Seriously, it's a thing.

Anyway, the power usage on start-up on the fluorescent is only a minor part of the equation. The more important part of the equation is that the surge of electricity used to start them up degrades the electrodes inside the lamp and each on/off cycle significantly degrades the life of the lamp much more than just leaving it on.

In other words, a fluorescent lamp that is left on forever actually has a longer life (in hours 'on') than one that is turned on and off excessively.

[Irving]

I have heard that some of the new LEDs and CFLs do not like to be turned on, off, and on again in short cycles, it will shorten their lifespan.

Not to be too flip, but isn't this true for pretty much everything, both electronic and mechanical?