Anyone use LED lighting in there house?

I switched over to CFL 10 years ago. The lights used to last 6 to 7 years. Now I'm lucky to get a year out of the new bulbs. I buy brand name. I know they rate the LED for 22years plus a better return in the long run less power consumption.  Anyone else using LED is there any pros & cons?

Yes, I do use them. Strange how you are getting such low life with your CFL. I have a friend who experienced the same in his old house that they lasted only a few months where as I've generally had the 6-7 year experience too. We thought there must be something dirty about his power.

I've been switching to LED over the last 2 years and putting them in high use areas of the house. The quality of the light of LEDs keeps getting better. Earlier ones had a high frequency flicker that bothered me. I keep wishing my CFLs would die so I could justify getting more LEDs. I've been getting LEDs when they are on a super sale and changing them anyway. I have a couple of lifetimes supply of CFLs in a box in the attic now.

In my kitchen I replaced my T8 FLT with an 18watt T8 LED. I had to remove the ballast (which wasn't hard) and I only put a single tube in. The old ballast was going out and the cost of a new one was close to the close of the LED tube. It does well and lights instantly. I regret not getting one with a lower color temp as I don't like its blueish tone.

I have 6 can lights on 3 switches in my family room. I put in dimmable 8watt LEDs and that allows me more lighting control than I had with the former CFLs.

I also had some 25watt LED motion sensor lights all around the house. They light their respective areas well and sip energy compared to the 300watt halogens I had before.

Overall I'm content with my new lighting and will probably replace all my CFLs as the prices drop.

I've used Cree 60W Light Bulbs that you can pick up from Home Depot. Great light quality, they seem to hold up good (so far) and the price keeps coming down.

Many times, the marketing info for lights is deceptive.  You can't go by the claims of 5 years, 7 years, or even 10 years. Those claims are based on 2 to 3 hours usage per day. In general, an incandescent bulb is good for 2000 to 5000 hours. A fluorescent bulb is good for 7000 to 10,000 hours. LED lighting is good for up to 50,000 hours. There is also induction lighting which claims bulb life up to 100,000 hours.

David, to avoid the blue lights, buy bulbs with color ratings 3000k (Kelvin) or below. At 4000k, the color is extremely white. Above that the colors srart to turn blue.

We have several LED bulbs in the house. I prefer "Natural Daylight" over "Soft White" or any others. Basically the bright white ones. Sometimes they are hard to find in that particular style. The LED's are all in lamps, lamp in both daughters rooms, both lamps in our bedroom and lamp in living room. The rest of the house is all CFL and none of them have ever burned out in the 10 years or so since I converted them over. The good thing about LED's is that they are "instant on". The CFL's in the bathroom and ceiling fan have to "warm up". Those lights are special ones for some reason that hang upside down. Seems like the normal ones dont like to go upside down so the CFL's are the ones made for ceiling fans or bathroom lights. Will eventually change over to all LED's when the price comes down.

I also replaced all the dashboard lights in my trucks with LED's and it is 100 times brighter and nicer looking.

metaldude wrote:David, to avoid the blue lights, buy bulbs with color ratings 3000k (Kelvin) or below. At 4000k, the color is extremely white. Above that the colors srart to turn blue.

For reference sakes a traditional light bulb is rated at 2700K (I believe)

metaldude wrote:David, to avoid the blue lights, buy bulbs with color ratings 3000k (Kelvin) or below. At 4000k, the color is extremely white. Above that the colors srart to turn blue.

Thanks, I actually meant to mention those things as I learned them the hard way.

Forget about LED, you guys should try LSD lighting.

deathisgain wrote:Forget about LED, you guys should try LSD lighting.

Nah, I got that covered too.

I got one of these on sale a couple of months ago. At Fry's Electronics ironically.
http://www.amazon.com/Feit-Electric-A19-LED-PARTY/dp/B007RTE8XW