Ever Forward

I can see!  I can see!  Well, you might understand my excitement better if you ever sat at my dining room table.  The conical fixture that hangs over my dining table tends to drown most of the light from a normal Compact Fluorescent Lamp (CFL) before it gets anywhere.  The result is an almost romantically dim dining area at all times.  Well, now I can actually see what I’m eating.  I’ve just installed EarthLED‘s 7-Watt, cool white (5000 Kelvin) Zetalux 2 PRO bulb.  And to think I was such a skeptic!

Granted, given my cooking skills, it’s probably best not to see what I am eating.  Throw in the fact that I typically inhale my food, and I rarely actually see it anyway.  Even so, the difference the new LED is making on its inaugural installation leads me to think I’m going to want to replace the ones in my bathroom and kitchen, too.  I may actually want to see what I’m shaving (maybe that explains the hair missing from the top of my head).  Anyway, here’s the “after” shot showing the Zetalux bulb:

Dining area with EarthLED Zetalux 2 PRO cool white bulb

So… what did it look like before, with the 13-Watt CFL?  How does this strike you?

Dining area with standard 13-Watt CFL

Both (the CFL & the LED) are replacements for 60-Watt incandescent light bulbs. I was honestly quite skeptical, as I have found it difficult to compare LEDs with other bulbs, since the technical information isn’t all that helpful for the layman.  Lighting engineers understand all about various degrees of light, Kelvin temperatures, etc.  The average person doesn’t.  Even experienced facility managers rarely have more than a basic grasp of this subject.  I simply had to test it for myself.  And you see the result right here.  This is the difference a good LED can make.

The dining area is fairly well lit in the mornings, but by early afternoon it’s time to turn on a light.  The kitchen is totally in the dark.  One thing that did throw me for a loop is the heat the LED core generates.  I was under the impression that LED bulbs would generate little or no heat.  Well, the bulb itself may not, but the core certainly does.  I suggest that, assuming your hands aren’t slippery, you should be able to grab the bulb to unscrew it from the fixture if need be.  Mind you, I shouldn’t need to worry about that for another 10 years or so.

While these LED bulbs are far more expensive ($35.00 for 1), they will use nearly half the energy and last at least 3 years longer than most CFLs.  The greatest cost savings is for those who have yet to switch from incandescent bulbs to CFLs.  Also, I did drop the bulb on my tile floor from about knee-high and it just bounces.  The EarthLED video shows them dropping from a ladder.  Definitely don’t do that with your CFLs!

Going forward, I would like to replace my bathroom lights for sure.  I currently have 5 13-Watt CFLs over my bathroom mirror.  If I put 5 Zetalux standard (40-Watt replacement) cool white bulbs in my bathroom, at a cost of roughly $25.00 per bulb, that will come to $125 total.  Still, at roughly 54% of the energy use, I should earn that money back fairly quickly.  Considering the lights I use the most are the ones in the bathroom, dining room and kitchen, that’s where I should invest my efforts.  I already use LED lamps in my bedroom and at my front door.  So this is, for me, just a logical progression toward a more efficient home.

Now let’s give it a little time and see what happens over the longer haul.  Still, I am very excited about the future of LEDs.

Update:

I just tried the Zetalux in my bathroom.  I’m only going to need two – at most, three – LED bulbs.  Period.  Can you imagine two 7-Watt LED bulbs replacing five 13-Watt CFLs?  That means eliminating 51 Watts altogether.  Maybe I need to post another pair of photos.