Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: K Frame on April 22, 2023, 05:02:29 PM
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When I moved into my house in 1993 with the ex, I was a "turn out the lights" warrior. Wife and I had a bunch of fights about that. She'd leave every damned light on in the house. Those were the days of lots of incandescents some fluorescents.
Since I started replacing lights with LEDs starting about 10 years ago, I've noticed that I'm not nearly as diligent about turning off the lights anymore. In fact, I leave the front porch light on 24x7 (60 watt equiv. LED) and I have a pillar lamp in the dining room that I also leave on pretty much 24x7. It's a 3 way, but is most always set on 60 watt equiv. It's really nice because it throws enough light on the stairs if Seren gets me up in the middle of the night that I don't have to blind myself turning on the overheads.
While I generally turn the other lights off, I no longer worry about it the way I did when I first moved in. This evening after I got home from picking Seren up from day care I noticed that I had walked out and left the living room lights and the new LED undercabinet lights on.
Even with all of those lights on, I doubt if the wattage draw adds up to a single 100 watt incandescent, and that got me to thinking... have your light usage patterns changed as you've moved to more LEDs?
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Hasn't changed much.
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Ours haven't changed much. I still turn the lights out when I leave a room, except for the undercabinet LED strip in the kitchen. I turn it off about half the time, don't worry about it the other half.
I've got at least a dozen (honestly haven't counted them recently) 100 watt equivalent 5000k LED bulbs lighting the main part of my basement man cave work shop. Those I turn off pretty religiously given that in total they suck up about 150 watts.
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I still remember my mother nattering at me for leaving the refrigerator door open while I simply poured a glass of milk.
I still try to hold down the Wattage even though I gradually switched over to Compact Flourescents and now to LEDs. Post-Depression baby behavior, I guess, and there are times in spring and fall when I get below 100 kWh usage.
Occasionally if it snows (or sometimes if it's raining hard) I keep the back porch light (now a 60W equivalent CFL) on all night so I can observe the precipitation progress. The building lights (required by Code) are kind of around the corner and normally it's dark as a bat's groin out back.
The one incandescent I have is a little 7-1/2 Watt incandescent night light on 24/7. I could change to a modern night light, but I've had this one for decades and stocked up on 7-1/2 W bulbs a while ago and I recently noted you can still buy them. They quit about every 18 months and get whiter and brighter just before they burn out. It's just sort of an old friend, kind of, and gives out just enough light for "instrument navigation" around the house. It consumes about 66 kWh per year, about $8.60 annumly.
I have noticed two things about CFLs. One is that, like any flourescent lamp, they are very dim when cold and might have to warm themselves up, and the other is their lives are much shortened with lack of ventilation. I modified my bathroom fixture slightly to allow a modicum of convective airflow over the bulbs.
My last bill was for 145 kWh, if I recall without looking. But I'm in an apartment with heat provided and I rarely use dishwasher or stove, both of which are terrific users / wasters of energy. Of course I'm paying for heat and water indirectly.
Terry, 115RN (Just conserving numbers there.)
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I'm still pretty old fashioned when it comes to turning things off when not in use. What has changed is more need for night lights. My wife has some balance issues, and falling has become an expensive and painful option. So we use small lights in several places. LEDs make this cheap and easy. My favorite is one that doubles as a USB charger. It lives in the kitchen and lights a lot of the walkway.
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No change here. Have a couple LED night lights and a couple lamps on timers.
Odd footnote- I have always had excellent night vision except for a time when I had untreated Lyme disease. I completely lost night vision for awhile and had some other vision issues then also.
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I started using night lights fairly regularly when I had Mason. He would move around at night, and he always seemed to sleep right where I wanted to walk. The same is now true of Seren.
My favorite nightlight for that is an battery operated LED candle. It provides just enough light that I can see who's in my way when I get up to pee at night.
It takes 2 C batteries, which last over a year.
Seren's Whistle tracker also puts out an amazing amount of light when it's on the charger, so that's an additional help.
A few months ago I got a 5 pack of outlet covers with built in LED nightlights. I got them mainly for the bathrooms and the kitchen.
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I have a couple of electroluminescent ("Limelight") night lights in the bathrooms which I leave plugged in 24/7 - they put out just enough light so in the middle of the night with your dark-adapted eyes you can get around, but they only draw 0.03 watts. I've had them for somewhere around 20 years and I think they're dimmer now than when new, but they still fulfill their very limited role.
I just replaced my yard light in front with my last CFL. It's on a photocell so it's on at dusk and off at dawn. Originally the light had a conventional 60W bulb, but when they were passing out "free" CFLs at the utility and Home Depot, I got several and put them in since they draw about 1/4 the power of the incandescent and I really don't care too much about the quality of the light out there. A couple of the CFLs burned out in a matter of days, the one I just replaced lasted over 3 years - go figure. When the current CFL goes out, I'll get an LED bulb of some sort.
I replaced the original 60w lamps in my pantry and one commode area with 100W equivalent LEDs several years ago, and they really brightened up both places. But I turn them off when I'm not using them. I have banks of decorative globe lights over the mirrors in my bathrooms, and one of the bulbs went out last year. I replaced all of them with similar LED lamps. (Kept the working ones as "used spares" for when another goes out in one of the other baths.) So far, so good - but I CAN sense a little "flicker" from at least one of the LEDs.
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Occasionally if it snows (or sometimes if it's raining hard) I keep the back porch light (now a 60W equivalent CFL) on all night so I can observe the precipitation progress. The building lights (required by Code) are kind of around the corner and normally it's dark as a bat's groin out back.
CFLs are evil. I threw out every one after I had one catch 🔥 fire.
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No major changes here. I guess the only big change is that I leave my kitchen lights on a lot more during the day. Depending on the season, the kitchen does not always get good outside light, and while it's nowhere near dark, my old eyes like good light in the kitchen so I can see what I'm doing.
I have motion detector LEDs in all the bathrooms that put out blue light to not kill off my night vision. Super cheap on Amazon, but do a really good job.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08RRRX5P5/
For outside, everything is solar charged LED. "Always on" walkway lights, which stay on all night except for NOV-JAN, when they seem to last until 4 or 5 in the morning. Otherwise solar LEDs along the house road/drive, that are set to "always on" at low power, and they go to full power when they detect motion.
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CFLs are evil. I threw out every one after I had one catch 🔥 fire.
LED "fluorescent" tubes have been known to catch fire.
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. . .
. . . I have motion detector LEDs in all the bathrooms that put out blue light to not kill off my night vision . . .
Red light is better at not killing night vision than blue. This was known at least as far back as WWII when submariners would wear red goggles for a while before surfacing at night so the lookouts would already be "dark adapted" when they took their stations.
Here's just one of many discussions on this topic:
https://thehikingauthority.com/what-color-light-for-night-vision/
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I'm indifferent to leaving lights on during winter, because there's no efficiency loss when I'm trying to heat my house anyway. If anything, the waste heat directly in the house cavity from the lights is more efficient than my old HVAC system with leaky ducts.
In the summer I get a lot more picky. I hate paying twice... once for the lights and once to pump the heat back out. LEDs are so much better than incandescent though.
I've given up on this because we basically have no choice anymore, but I used to insist on incandescent for the perfect light quality, not to mention dimmability. I still wonder if the LEDs are causing subtle psychological or physiological side effects. We know you have to use certain lights in aquariums and greenhouses, why not for humans? It could be subtly altering our sleep patterns, brainwaves, hormones or who knows. Probably unlikely but it's not like it was ever studied before we wholesale switched over.
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Yes, I know. But blue is a "brighter" perceived light.
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Yes, I know. But blue is a "brighter" perceived light.
Not only does it mess with your night vision but blue light also suppresses the body's release of melatonin so you may have trouble getting back to sleep.
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We still turn lights off when not in a room, but do leave the kitchen sink overhead on for general nighttime illumination. Works well for the kitchen/living area. A few of the uber low power plug in night lights HankB mentioned sprinkled around in baths and hallways for toe protection. Love 'em. Even have a couple in the travel kit.
Brad
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I bought several Koda motion activated led shop lights and have them in the basement and garage. It’s actually kind of convenient esp when my arms are full. Walk through they come on, soon after they shut off. Brightness and sensitivity and delay all programmable
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I have motion activated LEDs in my walk in pantry and walk in closet in the master bedroom. They were great replacements for the pull chain bare bulb porcelain fixtures that were there.
The only problem with them was that they came with the single crappiest "wire connectors" I've ever seen. Very weak springs with absolutely zero holding power and they would release the second you tried to push the wires into the box. Those got tossed and replaced with traditional wire nuts.
I have two 48" double tube fluorescent fixtures in the basement. I've been thinking about replacing them with flush mount puck lights for some time, but I'm currently only using that room for general storage, so no great urgency to work on that project.
Should be easy enough, though. I'd replace the two fixtures that are there with either 6 or 8 puck lights. I'd just have to reconfigure the wiring a bit, but no big deal. Drill a couple of holes for the pucks, wire them in, snap them in, maybe throw a dimmer on the one switch, and done.
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The Koda lights were a Costco special, I bought the limit of 5. One went bad almost right away and I called mfg customer service and they asked me to send a pic of it not working (?!) and they sent me a free replacement. I bought 5 more and have 3 still in the box.
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I have several LEDs in the kitchen ceiling fixtures, one above the stove, and an LED tube above the sink. Those stay on 24/7 (center of a shotgun house, with heavy shades on the windows).
The rest of the house? LEDs that are mostly off, and... "Alexa, please set fan light 20%." I really like the dimmables...
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I have a couple of electroluminescent ("Limelight") night lights in the bathrooms which I leave plugged in 24/7 - they put out just enough light so in the middle of the night with your dark-adapted eyes you can get around, but they only draw 0.03 watts. I've had them for somewhere around 20 years and I think they're dimmer now than when new, but they still fulfill their very limited role.
I replaced the original 60w lamps in my pantry and one commode area with 100W equivalent LEDs several years ago, and they really brightened up both places. But I turn them off when I'm not using them. I have banks of decorative globe lights over the mirrors in my bathrooms, and one of the bulbs went out last year. I replaced all of them with similar LED lamps. (Kept the working ones as "used spares" for when another goes out in one of the other baths.) So far, so good - but I CAN sense a little "flicker" from at least one of the LEDs.
For a long time, I have used those little orange "neon" guide lights at a couple of locations. They don't really provide enough light to see anything, just a point to know what direction to walk.
I also have two of those pale blue (aqua?) electroluminescent that provide slightly more light, but not much more. The newest nightlight is a GE (made in China) LED light (mod. JP3844) that uses 0.5 watt in a 1.75"x1.125" white panel. It is on 24/7 and does a much better job than the orange neon light it replaced. The flip-switch nitelite in the kitchen is a 7 W incandescent which I stocked up on years ago. I have some 4 W bulbs too and use them in the main bathroom - but only when I'm actually in there. The neon light in the hallway provides enough light to see that nitelite and turn it on when needed.
That same bathroom has a 3-globe lightbar over the vanity. One is a 60 W equiv. LED (800 lumens) with a slight bluish cast to it. The middle bulb has been burnt out for years and is just there for "decoration". The righthand light is an incandescent that puts out 860 lumens of white light and I use it when I shave. I just reach up and give it a twist to give me the extra light I need to see what I'm shaving. I did try two LEDs in there but even with two, it was too dim to suit me while shaving so I keep using the LED and incandescent together for that. I also have spares for that globe.
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The flip-switch nitelite in the kitchen is a 7 W incandescent which I stocked up on years ago. I have some 4 W bulbs too and use them in the main bathroom - but only when I'm actually in there.
Most old-school night lights used a generic C7 lamp. You can get LED equivalents on Amazon by the gross. About the same to get a ten-pack of the white panel-style nightlights, though.
That same bathroom has a 3-globe lightbar over the vanity. One is a 60 W equiv. LED (800 lumens) with a slight bluish cast to it. The middle bulb has been burnt out for years and is just there for "decoration". The righthand light is an incandescent that puts out 860 lumens of white light and I use it when I shave. I just reach up and give it a twist to give me the extra light I need to see what I'm shaving. I did try two LEDs in there but even with two, it was too dim to suit me while shaving so I keep using the LED and incandescent together for that. I also have spares for that globe.
Mix & match isn't your friend when it comes to either quantity or quality. I'm presuming the lamps are G19, G25, or G30. Any would likely work if it's the common bar-style three lamp exposed lamp vanity fixture. Feit makes a 100w equivalent that's 3000K color temp with a 90 CRI. Would make a really good bathroom lamp. Available through Home Depot in a 3-pack.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Feit-Electric-100-Watt-Equivalent-G25-E26-Dimmable-Filament-CEC-90-CRI-White-Glass-Vanity-LED-Light-Bulb-Bright-White-3000K-3-Pack-G25100W930CAFIL-3/316155862
Brad
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CFLs are evil. I threw out every one after I had one catch 🔥 fire.
I make sure CFLs are pretty well ventilated. I don't use the enclosure for the one out back, so it gets good air circualtion. Lost track of how long it's beenout there, but it must been over five or six years. I still have CFLs in the hallway that have lasted a good long iime, too, but since they're more or less out of view I took the enclosures off that fixture, as well. They're a little glare-y but back there, who cares? I already mentioned I rigged my bathroom fixture to allow a little ventilation.
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I make sure CFLs are pretty well ventilated. I don't use the enclosure for the one out back, so it gets good air circualtion. Lost track of how long it's beenout there, but it must been over five or six years. I still have CFLs in the hallway that have lasted a good long iime, too, but since they're more or less out of view I took the enclosures off that fixture, as well. They're a little glare-y but back there, who cares? I already mentioned I rigged my bathroom fixture to allow a little ventilation.
The one that went to flames was in an outdoor fixture open to the bottom and closed to the elements top and sides. I have fixtures next to the garage door to light the drive.
I had turned the lights on to take the dog out early one morning so I was there to see it before it could do any damage. The fixture was sooted black but if I hadn’t just walked out immediately after turning it on it could have been different.
Toss the CFLs, they really are evil. Ventilated or not.