Back in January I shared some interesting facts about LED light bulbs and I took you shopping with me at The Home Depot as we replaced all of the fixtures on the first level of our home with LEDs. I’d hoped to wow you by reporting dramatic savings on my electric bill, but sadly our bill is actually slightly higher year over year. BUT I have some good theories on why this is the case which I’ll share in a moment.
The installation process was easy as can be — we just unscrewed all of our old CFL bulbs and screwed in the new LED light bulbs. Note that we chose not to discard our CFL bulbs since they’re all still in good working condition. Instead we boxed them up and put them in the crawl space in the basement so that we can take our new LED light bulbs with us when we move. However, if have CFL bulbs that you need to dispose of, I’d encourage you to read the information here on CFL cleanup and disposal.
What immediately struck me after replacing all of the bulbs was the difference in the quality of light. It’s not necessarily a good or bad difference — it’s just brighter and, well, different. I found it most noticeable in the bathroom where the light is forced out of the bulbs rather than being dispersed evenly from the entire bulb because of the way the bulbs are constructed. You can see in the image above that only the forward half of the bulb is giving off light. However, I quickly got used to this within a few days and now it’s not even noticeable to me.
So I mentioned that our electric bill is actually up slightly year over year when I had anticipated it going down based on my research. I have a few theories about why this is occurring:
- First, we already had CFL bulbs installed throughout the entire house courtesy of a great deal at Target a few years ago. Because our electric usage from lighting was already incredibly low, we’re not seeing a noticeable decrease from switching to LEDs. We’ll still see savings in the long run; however, they will come from the fact that we won’t have to replace the bulbs for many, many years to come. I’m also glad to not have to worry about the complications of cleaning up the mercury if a CFL bulb should break.
- Second, we also already have many electricity-saving measures installed in the house. Our kitchen light is on an automatic switch so it shuts off automatically after no movement has been sensed for five minutes. We also have a device that monitors our electric usage constantly so we can see how high our load is. And we tend to use our large appliances like our washer and dryer and dishwasher in the evening and early mornings outside of the peak load times which have a higher cost.
- Finally, as our children get older we’re naturally using more electricity as they start using more technology and such throughout the day, taking more frequent showers instead of baths, and increasing our laundry with sports involvement.
I found it interesting to note that my father’s electric bill was roughly the same as ours. We have houses of similar size; however, he has a two-person household with a regular work schedule outside of the home. In contrast, we have a seven-person household where there are nearly constantly members home since I work from home and my husband is still unemployed.
Overall, I’m impressed with the LED light bulbs and I think they definitely have an integral part in saving on our electricity. I just believe that our savings will take more time to become apparent than a household that was not already somewhat frugal with their electric usage.
Thanks for following along with me as I gave this new technology a try, and I’ve got one more $50 The Home Depot gift card to give away!
To enter: Just tell me — have you given LED light bulbs a try yet? Or after reading more about them, are they something you’ll consider when making your next light bulb replacement?
This giveaway will close at 3:00pm EST on 3/3/11.
The Home Depot works with bloggers such as myself to conduct product reviews. They do not tell bloggers what to say about their products or how to say it. THD fundamentally believes that people should be free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. The Home Depot often provides product – free of charge – to bloggers for review as they did for this post. The Home Depot’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.
Jacquelyn
We have an LED night light and I hate how bright it is. I don’t know if bulbs would be the same.
lurae
I have not tried LED lights yet. I knew they came as Christmas lights but didn’t realize they came as full-size bulbs. interesting!
Lauri Douthit
My husbands company sells LED lighting, we think it’s a great way to cut out our carbon footprint as well.
Megan
I haven’t tried LED lights in the house, only the CFL ones. I would love to try them. Our Christmas lights are LED and those seem to work well. Thanks!
Ruth Tasker
I have almost all LED’s and like CFL’s did not notice a big difference immediately, but overall we do!! I had to change one, near my desk to the old style as it was giving me a migrane daily, and the doc said to try, it made a world of difference.
Hannah
I haven’t tried them out yet, but I would love to try them to save money on my electricity bill!
Ashish
Haven’t used LEDs yet, but would be interested to see how they look and how much money they could potentially save me.
steven brothers
have not tryed them.
Diana B
No, we haven’t tried them yet.
Kelly
I’ve been using LED Christmas lights for a few years now, but not for any other lighting purpose. I will definitely look for LED when I need to replace bulbs going forward. Thanks for the review.
Katy P
I have not tried them- we just bought all CFL bulbs for our new house. I wonder what the price difference is?
Elizabeth
Holy cow.. I missed your LED post… so glad I stumbled on it today.
I just posted about them myself. We have over 80 light bulbs in the house (a mix of regular and CFL) and the spreadsheet I found told about savings on a typical home with 30 lights… OMG!!! So we ran out and bought a few (we will have to buy a few at a time because they are so spendy and we are on a tight budget!).
Love the sensor idea by the way!
Susan
We have not tried them yet but would love to.
Karen P
We haven’t tried LED’s yet. Only a few CFL’s so far.
Kelly Bushong
I haven’t tried them yet, but I would love to!
suzy miller
Yes I have tried the LED lightbulbs on my outdoor porch lights which come on at dusk automatically and have yet to replace them since putting them out last Septimber! Yea! The regulay lightbulbs had to be replaced every other month for some reason. And I’m a DSM fan on facebook.
christyne
We tried some on our Christmas tree
Wayne
I have heard about them before, but didn’t realize they were so readily available now. Will certainly try them. I do have an LCD flashlight, and I LOVE that! Really bright, and so far the battery has lasted quite a while.
Sadie
We use CFL bulbs in the kitchen
Jen Rhomberg
We have some in our home and in our building that we use for our family business but, we are not even half way done replacing them all.
Regardless it is good for our earth right? Be green!
Thanks!
melissa
Haven’t tried them yet but we have used other electric savings devices…thanks for the giveaway!
Ciel
I haven’t tried them yet, but am very interested now after reading this page! :+)
Carrie
Haven’t tried them yet!
Cathy K
I just recently learned about the recommendations for disposing of the CFL’s. I had no idea they were so hazardous. So, yes, I will have to give the LED’s a try.
Erin
The ballast on our undercabinet fluorescent went out so we switched to a long LED strip. It isn’t as bright as the fluorescent, but I do like the lower profile. We want to switch to LED Christmas lights next. All of the rest of our house is CFLs, but I would like to try more LEDs.
Gail P
We’ve tried them, and we like them, but we’re slowly transitioning as we need them since they are a little expensive! So as our CFLs burn out, we’ll get the LEDs. Great giveaway!
Erin Walsh
I have not tried them yet, but I definitely will as my old bulbs expire. That’s probably the best way any way, not such an overwhelming expense all at one time.
ewalsh40(at)gmail(dot)com
ada m
We havent tried them yet,but would really love it & just might have to soon. The thing that has stopped up from purchasing them is the price of them,but actually with the price increase on our electric bill we need to start cutting back & saving in all we can.
Tammy
We have changed ALL the light bulbs in our home over to LED and although it’s too soon to notice any significant savings on our electric bill I at least feel good knowing in some small way I am doing a good thing for the environment!
Kaylan
We have a couple and I’d love to get more!