Incandescent 65 Watt Downlights Are Out!
I have them in my house.......and there is a good chance you have them in your home or business as well. The old Incandescent can or downlight.
They are extremely inefficient, require regular re-lamping, and have a bad habit of going out at the wrong time.
Compact fluorescents are an option to consider but they seem to have downsides as well such as a limit to dimming, or taking time to come up to full brightness.
A Better Option, The CREE LED Downlight Insert
The days of being annoyed with recessed downlighting are over. No longer do you have to choose between fluorescent or incandescent lamping options which each have faults.
The CREE LED Downlight is a clever "insert" that fits into your existing can housing. It's comes in
120V and 277V for commercial applications. Wattages range from 10.5W to 12W, with the 12W being a direct replacement for a 100W incandescent.
Let's see how they stack up to Incandescent downlights.
Take A Look At The Numbers:
Incandescent- A typical BR30 65W lamp has a rated life of 2000 hrs. The CRI is 2600K and the Lumen output is right around 50. Most people like the Incandescent for its dimming abilities which is why they keep it.
LED Insert- The CREE LED downlight insert has a rated life of 50,000 hours and consumes only 12.5 watts of electricity. The CRI is available in 2700K as well as 3500K and it's dimmable down to 20%. The LED technology produces up to an amazing 1000 lumens, that's 80 lumens per watt!
Annual Savings Between 65 Watt vs. CREE LED
Let's look at a business or school that has the lighting on 3650 hrs. annually(10 hrs a day). We'll assume something small, 20 fixtures total with a .10KWH rate.
Incandescent- $474.50 annual cost to run.
CREE LED- $91.25 annual cost to run.
Energy savings = $383.25!!!!
Is That All?
Actually no, the lights were on 3650 hrs in a year that means that all of our incandescent lamps burned out and need to be replaced. 20 X $3.50 = $70.00 for lamps.
The new LED is $91.25 a year to run.....but throw in $70 of lamps every year and we knock it down to $21.25 a year to operate LED over the existing!. If I factor in labor costs to change the lamps yearly it's essentially FREE light over what you have now!
Wondering if LED downlights are a good fit for your school or business? Contact us today, we can show you what rebates are available and the energy savings you can achieve!
