Led vs t5

[Diabolic]

I would have to run 2 4 ton units all night to heat my house to 78 in the winter, I keep my thermostat at 72 and have them kick on for a hour in the morning to take the chill off the house. I used to keep them set at 76, but that buried me about $200 into tier 5. I have the same problem in the hot months of the summer with AC, and we do tend to sacrifice tier 5 to keep the house cool in July and August. My tank heaters spin the meter pretty good and I have often thought of building a natural gas water heater heat exchanger system to heat the tanks. A long loop of thin wall Pex style tubing with a special pump on a controller to flow water through this coil of pipe in the sump. This is how Steve Garret keeps over 2000 gallons heated in his outdoor system and is much more efficient than electric heat. I think many of us do not realize how often the heaters are on, the controller log opened my eyes for sure. Anyways I just bought over $2500 in Led bulbs for my house and dropped my bill about $200 a month so I can use a little more power on my fishy friends. I like the Spectrum of the Ecosmart 2700k in the house and replaced 89 50 watt bulbs with 10 watt Led, and 22 90 watts with 18 watt units. You cant look at the bulbs because they are much more harsh, but they light the house quite nice. I long for the days of a $20 swing in the bill, mine can have a $500 swing.

What model of the ecosmart's did you go with? I've tried every single LED bulb at home depot / costco and I can't seem to find a one with a light spectrum that is similar to incandescent bulbs. Most of my recessed lights are on dimmer switches and all the LED bulbs have dimmed terribly. Either I need to replace the dimmer switches (the ones I installed weren't cheap either) with ones made for LEDs or accept they will not dim very well. I've only tried the bulbs, not the retrofit units.

 

[christygirl]

I use the 2700 k retro kits. The dim nice and the color is good. Warm even.

 

[westminsterfrag]

Hi Scott,

So why have you not gone to solar? You seem to be the perfect candidate for that. You might need 2 sets of solar due to the size of the house

Vu

Scott doesn't have a house. He has a castle! The lost city of atlantis

 

[pciscott]

The HD bulbs I use are the Ecosmart 2700k in the 6" and 4" with built in trim ring. They are $35 each for 6" cans and $43 each for 4" cans, I do have problems with my 2007 Lutron dimmers on 1 or 2 bulb zones and need to order new Special low watt LED dimmers from Lutron, but on any multi bulb zones they work perfect. The color temp is the best I have found and I ran regular bulbs until I found these. This gives a very warm light that looks great. My wife likes the Sylvania Retro bulbs from Lowes in her Laundry room and the garage, 3000k and very brite white. They work well, but one of the 4 bulbs on the zone does glow a little when you turn them off and probably need to update those dimmers as well. If you have any friends in MA, I have a friend in Boston and the HD bulbs are about half price their. Put in a different Zip code on HD web and you will see what I mean.

 

[Diabolic]

The HD bulbs I use are the Ecosmart 2700k in the 6" and 4" with built in trim ring. They are $35 each for 6" cans and $43 each for 4" cans, I do have problems with my 2007 Lutron dimmers on 1 or 2 bulb zones and need to order new Special low watt LED dimmers from Lutron, but on any multi bulb zones they work perfect. The color temp is the best I have found and I ran regular bulbs until I found these. This gives a very warm light that looks great. My wife likes the Sylvania Retro bulbs from Lowes in her Laundry room and the garage, 3000k and very brite white. They work well, but one of the 4 bulbs on the zone does glow a little when you turn them off and probably need to update those dimmers as well. If you have any friends in MA, I have a friend in Boston and the HD bulbs are about half price their. Put in a different Zip code on HD web and you will see what I mean.

I think I'm using the same Lutron dimmers as you. I bought them around that time. The first ones I want to replace are the ones in my kitchen since they use halogen bulbs are produce a great deal of heat. I just haven't been able to justify the cost of the 4' can because my electric bill is only around 100 dollars a month right now. Although that will be higher once I pick up my new tank from Randy and even higher come summer when it starts heating up in Cypress.

Thanks Scott/Randy for the info.

Ryan

 

[christygirl]

Diabolic. For sure. You saw my house. Small. Relatively speaking. But, because of my 2500 gallon pond with 3 pumps running 24-7 and 2 tanks an 2 birds need light all day and 2 turtles with a heated tank to sleep in at night an 4 dogs plus a wife that doesn't turn of lights. TIER 5 for me all month long. So, this is why the new 180. One tank instead of two. Plus, I was looking into dc pumps for both the tank and the pond. And I, like Scott, am slowly changing of all light to LED. in my tank room I am going with the Phillips hue lighting system. It is cool. Take a picture of a sunset or reef tank with you iPhone and swipe the picture to set the color of light. All through your phone. Check it out. Anyway, I am going to reduce what I can to try to get to tier 4. We will see. You guys all have been a huge help in this discussion. While the prospect of led lowering electric sounds good, I think T5 is the way for me to go. I JUST CAN'T GET PAST THE SUCCESS OF MIKE (solitude)