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Anyone Else Switching To LED Lighting?

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indie_pizza

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Started buying these LED lightbulbs about a month ago and slowly replacing my CFL bulbs in the dinning area. I’m really happy with them so far. They burn cool, put out a cleaner white light and are 90% more efficient than the CFL bulbs (can’t even imagine how they compare to standard bulbs). I also like that they don’t have any Mercury in them.

Now I just hope the technology gets cheaper so they become a little less expensive and can go into broader use.
 
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The Sam’s Club in my area carries them so I am sure they do online as well. I have around 130 light fixtures in my place so it would make a huge difference in my light bill, but I am waiting for them to get a bit cheaper and brighter as well.
 
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I’ve just started replacing my halogen lights with CFL’s. Now I have to look into LEDs!
 
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I plan to slowly switch as the six 50w halogens on my menu boards burn out now that Menards carries the GU10 bases. Moving to 4w LEDs will save me just over $200/year on electric and bulb replacement costs (as the new bulbs last 10 times as long) at each store. The light isn’t as strong, but I’ve always thought that the halogen were just silly-bright anyways.

I did put a LED in the spot cavity above my makeline and the only thing that the employees don’t like about it is that it gives off a sickly green light (it looks like we’re prepping for surgery in the O.R. now). I’m hoping that’s just the brand or design of that one light I got at Sam’s Club cause I have some spots above my counters that are just waiting for the CFLs to burn out to make the switch. Each one I change out should save me about $8/year, but I really like the idea of not have to worry about replacing the bulbs again for four years!

I’ve seen that the T12, T8 and T5 florescent can be replaced with special LED bulbs now. They are crazy expensive - around $100/bulb last time I looked. Also, I’m not sure what the “long string of little lights” looks like once it’s in the fixture. Has anyone tried these yet?
 
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hey brad, not to steal the the thread but I have one of my best employees, never late quite, fast learner and has a LOT of pride in her work going off to college, I havent talked to her about if she is working or not but if she is can I tell her to look you up, every few workers I would recommend, she is one of them.
 
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Rockstar pizza:
hey brad, not to steal the the thread but I have one of my best employees, never late quite, fast learner and has a LOT of pride in her work going off to college, I havent talked to her about if she is working or not but if she is can I tell her to look you up, every few workers I would recommend, she is one of them.
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Certainly, point her in our direction. If nothing else, I’ll keep her from the competition!
Rockstar pizza:
wow I got a little sticker shock when I saw some online pricing…50 bucks a bulb
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When figuring out if they are worth it or not, don’t forget that the LEDs last like 30,000 hours compared to 3,000 for an incandescent or like 8,000 for a CFL and need much less wattage. The drawback though is that the LEDs just don’t shine as bright a light.
 
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Rockstar pizza:
wow I got a little sticker shock when I saw some online pricing…50 bucks a bulb
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That’s why I’m just using them in our dinning room right now. $15 for three 1.5 watt (40 watt comparable) at Sam’s. Will switch out the bigger CFL’s when the prices drop in a year or so.
 
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I’ve just (finally) replaced the last of my Halogen accent lights with an LED. So now 12 50-watt Halogen bulbs have been switched to 4-watt LEDs. Took almost a year to go through the Halogens, but I shouldn’t have to replace another menu-board bulb until sometime in 2013!

Now, to sit back and count my savings!
 
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LED’s are coming down really fast right now. The ones that were in the $100 a bulb range around here are down to around $40 or so and a lot of the utilities are giving rebates for residential users that covers 100% of the cost. I would look into it for the commercial side also. They are so efficient and last so long they will pay for themselves either way. The problem until recently was the base issues. They were marketed with only a few of the commercial type plug bases and nothing else. The lack of mercury is a big plus also. I wonder how many people on this board use cfl’s and do not know what they are required to do if they break a bulb in their restaurant and they are contaminated. LED’s are the way to go. :mrgreen:
 
How about this one for $13.98? It’s a Par 20 which which I currently have 50 of in one restaurant.

We just finished changing everything to CFL’s over the course of a year, and as they start to go I’ll be replacing them with the LED’s. I’m not expecting the first CFL to go for at least another year, so the LED’s should be even cheaper by then.

What I would really love to do is change out outdoor signs to LED’s too.
 
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If your in our corrupt state you can call SCE and they will replace all your lighting with energy efficient lighting for FREE. They came in and not only replaced the lights but all the ballasts as well. All you have to do is pay California’s ongoing high energy prices and you get “free” lightbulbs!
 
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So I just had to replace my 1st LED accent light. Almost exactly 4 years as promised by the life estimate!

I wish I’d noted the cost of those originals as the 4-watt replacements are under $10 now. I think I paid over $30 four years ago?
 
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LED has come a long way. With that progress has come choices. Now you can choose how bright you want them to be and there are bulbs equivalent to 50W or even 75W halogens. You can also choose color temp which addresses the funny color comments a few posts above. I would suggest that you look at bulbs with at least 3000K color temp or even higher if you are going to be showing food under them. Lower color temps are “warmer” looking but tend toward the red end of the spectrum.

Good to hear that Brad got the rated hours as that is certainly part of the math problem that justifies the price!
 
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I did put a LED in the spot cavity above my makeline and the only thing that the employees don’t like about it is that it gives off a sickly green light (it looks like we’re prepping for surgery in the O.R. now). ?
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Check these out http://meethue.com/ You want to adjust lighting qualities to any possible Hue? They are Wi-i connectable, and can meet any color combination that you could dream up.
I plan on doing these in my dining room, and taking full advantage of their variable hue capabilities.

My kitchen line (open kitchen concept) has track lighting with halogen spot/flood lights on a vaulted cieleing to illuminate our area, I’m looking at standard LED’s in the exhaust hood because CFL’s & Incandescent don’t last long in that environment.
 
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We made the switch to LED can lighting in our home kitchen a couple of years ago and you just can’t imaging the difference it made. We opted for the “bright white” as opposed to the soft white color. The color is a true white, and I thing the lighting is good enough to double as a surgical operating room should the need ever arise. Better light, no heat, MUCH lower energy consumption, but as noted, cost is a factor that needs to be considered. When we first looked into LED lighting they were slow to come on, had rather poor output, and the color was awful so we put things on the back burner figuring that was about par for LED lighting, then a friend of mine convinced me to go back and revisit LED lighting, and boy, was I ever surprised. In two short years things went from awful to great and the cost came down too, but even with that, it still cost me nearly $70.00 a bulb. Expensive at the time, but now that we are enjoying the benefits, it was worth every penny spent. As the LED lights are getting to be more common the cost is dropping rapidly, with the cost of the bulbs that I bought at nearly $70.00 each now going for about $40.00 each.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
 
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