The Light Bulb Aisle

Whenever Billy and I went to Menards together I have vivid memories of melting into a pile of boredom as he perused the light bulb aisle. I’d groan as we approached “Not the light bulb aisle!!!” and he would seemly take forever just picking out some stinkin’ light bulbs. Well… now I know why! Holy moley there are WAY too many options! Soft white, bright white, natural light, day light, 40w, 60w, 100w… it took a while and I THOUGHT I got what is currently in the bathroom fixture, but nope, it’s obvious which bulb is different. Oh well! 🤷‍♀️😂🤪

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Load up Sharon and replace all your bulbs with new LED bulbs. That way they all match! According to the experts you will never have to replace another bulb and your electric meter will run backwards you will be saving so many kw!

All the ones I looked at are LED and they have that many in variety! We switched to LED a while ago. 🙂👍🏻

I hear ya Sharon. Everything has gotten complicated these days, including light bulbs. At least that’s what I remembered thinking a couple years back, kinda got used to it now. I’m sure you will too!

I wish the LEDs lasted as long as they said on the package

The SCRATCHER wrote:

I wish the LEDs lasted as long as they said on the package

The LED itself probably does

Check your electric company’s website for rebates on LED bulbs.

Did you ever get tempted to follow Billy around on one of the electric handicapped scooters? You’d be comfy and I bet he’d have hurried up a little…

I haven’t had an LED bulb make it even half the time they’re advertised. I feel like I’ve spent more on bulbs than I’ll ever save on my electric bill.

I’m guilty of the same Sharon

A light bulb isn’t a light bulb anymore.

The different choices make sense for different rooms in your house, as well as the ambiance you’re looking for.

Garages interiors, closets, and utility rooms do better with daylight or even bluer light for “work.”

Living rooms, hallways, lamps, and bedrooms are better suited with a lower spectrum “yellow” light, which are more relaxing and feel “like home.”

Exterior lights (like lamps on a garage/entrance) look more natural with a lower spectrum as well.

On top of that, not all fixtures take the same style, and higher/lower wattages play a role as well. Too much light can be bad, as can too little.

Whenever I buy bulbs, I make sure to buy extra of the exact same type. On top of that, I try to store the extra bulbs in the same room they are already used. It makes changing one out a lot simpler instead of going through a box of 10 different kinds of bulbs lol

As for the life of LED’s, I definitely agree with the sentiment above. Most do not live up to their advertised life. The only ones that do seem to are very low wattage ones. Most of my exterior lighting is low wattage bulbs that see the worst of the weather, but they far outlast anything else that’s brighter and inside.

On the back garage I have the same bulbs that I put in 6 years ago. They’ve been on 24/7 since day one and I haven’t burnt one out yet even in our extreme temp swings of Minnesota (50,000+ hours so far in 100° to -35°).

Off the top of my head they are 2 watt LED’s. I remember doing the math on comparing automatic photo-sensing fixtures and regular ones. At the time it would have taken 10 years to break even on the cost of electricity to justify the added cost of photo-sensing fixtures (I think they were $40 more each at the time…X4) versus just leaving the lights on all the time. They’re not nearly as bright in person as in the pic I just took below, but they do what I need

I also think that switching them on and off must have something to do with the life of the LED (since the bulbs that have lasted me the longest have never been turned on and off).

Now that I said that, one will burn out tomorrow lol

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This may help with the led light bulb choice.

https://www.earthled.com/blogs/light-2-0-the-earthled-blog-led-lighting-news-tips-reviews/37176324-how-to-choose-the-best-led-light-bulb-for-any-room-in-your-home

Sharon,
On your old bulb, there are (3) pieces of information that you want to try to match, like shown below;

1) Wattage (not equivalent) like 9.5W as shown

2) Lumens, or amount of light produced (800 in example)

3) Color, ends in “K” (soft, bright, etc) (3000 in example)

Match these 3 items, and you’ll get as close a match as possible.

HRG

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Yep… too many options. I just wanna be able to see, I don’t care what kind of light it is!

#4 that you want to look at is the base style. A19 is the base style in that picture.

Well, I’m going to buck the trend here because I love LED lights.

I finally ripped out all the flourescent lights in my woodshop and replaced them with 4 foot LED lights. Wow! What a difference, I now have all the light I ever wanted and none of that grinding startup, no warmup, and no hum! Awesome.

In my new garage, I put in 8 of the 8 foot LED ceiling mount fixtures. Again, just awesome. I finally have enough light to work without constantly having to rig up work lights and cords for every project.

As far as light bulb lights, what kills LED bulbs is constantly turning them off and on. For lights where this is the norm, I found that buying the best quality bulbs from the big brands gets you a bulb that lasts much longer than the el cheapo specials in the multi pack.

As Mrs. Grouse says, I’m nothing if not cheap. Do the math compared to the bad old days of incan bulbs. In our house, counting the automatic outdoor lights that come on at dusk and run until 11, we normally were burning somewhere between 1000 and 1200 watts of power every hour in the evening. FF to the LED era, we’re at 150-200 watts at the most. That’s not a drop in the bucket, basically we were paying to run the equivilent of an electric heater for hours and hours every day.

I like LEDs, too. My problem is that I’m anal-retentive enough that if one in a fixture goes out, I need to replace them all so that they match. Slight variations in color or brightness kill me.

Previous owner of our house had a thing for CFL’s, I despise them almost as much as I despise slotted head screws. Everything is LED now but my wife likes the ‘warmer’ color so everything in house is that and all my shop lights are the bright white. Made a huge difference in the shop (I also went with higher output bulbs too) when working on stuff.

I do notice some brands, particularly the cheaper ones have a flicker rate that I notice and drives me nuts, I’ve had good luck with Sylvania brand though.

I like to bring the old burnt out one in, and have an employee figure out which is the match, or closest match. Going solo, I’ll find what I think is the answer, than see a different one cheaper and restart the process

I am still using the compact flourescents that are still kicking. I agree that’s it’s way too confusing now and it’s so hard to find one with the right tint. As others have said, I do not want the blue white lights in the living areas. Back in the incandescent days, it was simple since they were all the yellow.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

I like LEDs, too. My problem is that I’m anal-retentive enough that if one in a fixture goes out, I need to replace them all so that they match. Slight variations in color or brightness kill me. [/quote

Me 2. Hate mismatched bulbs. Personally I like the 5000k. FW likes 3000k. So I get to pick the bulbs in the garage.

How does one get bored in Menards?!

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

I like LEDs, too. My problem is that I’m anal-retentive enough that if one in a fixture goes out, I need to replace them all so that they match. Slight variations in color or brightness kill me.

Then my bathroom fixture would be driving you nuts! 😂
I also have 3 very different bulbs in a ceiling fan fixture but it doesn’t bother me so much LOL. It’s what I had laying around. 🤷‍♀️

Deuces wrote:

How does one get bored in Menards?!

Have you BEEN in the light bulb aisle waiting for someone to pick out bulbs??

bigfatcroixbaby wrote:

I learned if you don’t want your living room to look like a surgery center to make sure you get “SOFT WHITE” LED’s! I hear ya though, picking a light bulb shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes…not sure why everything has to be so dang difficult these days?? Don’t even get me started on vehicle replacement bulbs! Gosh I miss the days when you could grab a burnt out Sylvania and pop a new one in without wondering if you had the right one…or worse yet, dismantling your entire front end just to repace a stinking headlight. Technology certainly comes with it’s pitfalls; that’s for sure..

That’s called a engineer that designs something that they will continually make money off the consumer. Almost like having to take out a entire wheel well liner to replace a battery

I must be the only one who doesn’t struggle getting bulbs. I pick the watt and the color and grab 10 at a time and gone.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I must be the only one who doesn’t struggle getting bulbs. I pick the watt and the color and grab 10 at a time and gone.

Not really a struggle per say, just an annoyance at the sheer variety and options available.

bigfatcroixbaby wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
I must be the only one who doesn’t struggle getting bulbs. I pick the watt and the color and grab 10 at a time and gone.

North Branch Hardware Hank probably only has two options and 12 bulbs on the shelf at any given time. LOL!

Not sure never been there. The garage lights are all wired and piggy backed so I can have light in any which way I need it. And the house gets simple 60w soft white led.

Justin Laack wrote:

#4 that you want to look at is the base style. A19 is the base style in that picture.

A19 is actually the shape and size of the bulb. “A” bulbs are pear shaped and 19 is the diameter of the bulb at it’s widest point. For some odd reason it’s measured in eighths of an inch…19 eighths = approx. 2.4″.

Your typical household screw-in socket is an Edison base, E26, or commonly called a medium or standard base.

Pretty sure Sharon already lost interest, but after close to 30yrs at an electrical distributor I couldn’t help myself.

picklerick wrote:

Pretty sure Sharon already lost interest, but after close to 30yrs at an electrical distributor I couldn’t help myself.

Nah, that’s actually really cool. I like to learn! Besides, everyone has something in their wheelhouse on which they know too much info. I get the dazed stare from some people whenever I talk about fonts and layouts. Font choices matter, people!

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Now that is hilarious 😂

Some have spirit animals, I have a spirit bulb, and that would be it.