Hi folks,
I live in central Indiana, so I get everything from violent thundershowers in the summer to heavy snow in the winter, and everything in between. A current pet peeve is that my light bulbs in exterior fixtures (coach lamp on a post, 4 more on wall-mounted exterior fixtures) blow out frequently. Each bulb lasts at most two months. Failure mode is usually "broken glass of the bulb" but sometimes it's just "failed bulb element." The broken glass is clearly due to a drop of water getting in past the seals and hitting the hot bulb glass causing it to shatter. Some years ago I got new fixtures, which lessened the blowout frequency but didn't solve the problem. Windblown droplets get in the vents and such of the fixtures and POOF.
Anyway, I'm sick of the work involved in changing these out (ladder, fiddly screws, etc.). So I bought and just today installed one of these super expensive CREE bulbs rated for 10 years life (5 years at my usage hours per day). They don't get really hot like a traditional incandescent bulb, so maybe no more POOF. And they are rated for damp locations.
I had been using 100 W incandescents (which was the max the fixtures are rated for), but got the 60 W CREE which supposedly draws just shy of 10 W power. This should save me >$21 per year in energy per bulb at my usage level and energy cost (estimated). If it lasted me 5 years, this would be $105 in energy savings, and if I figure $1 per regular 100W bulb, six of em per year, about $30 in bulb cost savings. So, about $135 in savings versus a $14 initial cost. Ten-fold ROI, more or less. Plus the convenience of not having to change it.
The question is, what do you guys think: do these particular CREE bulbs actually last reasonably long in this application? I'd be happy if it would just last a year, actually, and I'd be ahead of the game. I'm saving my proof of purchase and receipt for a warranty claim, if needed, with documentation about installation date and use/hr based on the timer.
My experience with early "energy saving" bulbs was not good (slow starts, blowouts, vibration sensitivity, etc.), but more recent ones have worked fairly well to the extent I've used them, indoors...
Any thoughts on good or bad experiences with energy saving bulbs in the last few years, particularly LED based tech, would be appreciated. However, please no political commentary on the ongoing transition away from incandescent.
Thanks guys.
Marc
I live in central Indiana, so I get everything from violent thundershowers in the summer to heavy snow in the winter, and everything in between. A current pet peeve is that my light bulbs in exterior fixtures (coach lamp on a post, 4 more on wall-mounted exterior fixtures) blow out frequently. Each bulb lasts at most two months. Failure mode is usually "broken glass of the bulb" but sometimes it's just "failed bulb element." The broken glass is clearly due to a drop of water getting in past the seals and hitting the hot bulb glass causing it to shatter. Some years ago I got new fixtures, which lessened the blowout frequency but didn't solve the problem. Windblown droplets get in the vents and such of the fixtures and POOF.
Anyway, I'm sick of the work involved in changing these out (ladder, fiddly screws, etc.). So I bought and just today installed one of these super expensive CREE bulbs rated for 10 years life (5 years at my usage hours per day). They don't get really hot like a traditional incandescent bulb, so maybe no more POOF. And they are rated for damp locations.
I had been using 100 W incandescents (which was the max the fixtures are rated for), but got the 60 W CREE which supposedly draws just shy of 10 W power. This should save me >$21 per year in energy per bulb at my usage level and energy cost (estimated). If it lasted me 5 years, this would be $105 in energy savings, and if I figure $1 per regular 100W bulb, six of em per year, about $30 in bulb cost savings. So, about $135 in savings versus a $14 initial cost. Ten-fold ROI, more or less. Plus the convenience of not having to change it.
The question is, what do you guys think: do these particular CREE bulbs actually last reasonably long in this application? I'd be happy if it would just last a year, actually, and I'd be ahead of the game. I'm saving my proof of purchase and receipt for a warranty claim, if needed, with documentation about installation date and use/hr based on the timer.
My experience with early "energy saving" bulbs was not good (slow starts, blowouts, vibration sensitivity, etc.), but more recent ones have worked fairly well to the extent I've used them, indoors...
Any thoughts on good or bad experiences with energy saving bulbs in the last few years, particularly LED based tech, would be appreciated. However, please no political commentary on the ongoing transition away from incandescent.
Thanks guys.
Marc