[PLUG] OT: LED bulbs from PECO

[JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org>]

tL;dr: Spend $25 to get a metric crap-ton of LED bulbs from PECO.

OT but probably of interest, we had a "PECO Smart Home E-Audit" 
(https://www.peco.com/Savings/eAudit/Pages/HomeeAudit.aspx) last week. 
I learned a good amount about simple ways to add insulation and such, 
which I will implement as time permits.  But the real surprise was the 
16x flood lamp [1], 20x "regular" [2] LED bulbs, and 2x "TrickleStar 
TS1103 power strips they gave us.  We spent $25 to get several hundred 
bucks of LEDs and "smart" power strips.

We previously had some CFLs but I got rid of most of them because they 
sucked so bad.  Unlike CFLs these LEDs are great.  They are very "white" 
light, which some may find too bright or white, but so far we like them. 
 I had been holding out until LED prices came down a bit more, but it's 
hard to beat $25 for 36 of them.  In particular we replaced 12x 65W 
floods in the basement with 10W dimmable LEDs, which would have been at 
least $150 all by itself, and I think it's slightly brighter there now. 
 The LEDs do not dim nearly as low as the incandescents but I can live 
with that.

You have to be a PECO customer (they will ask for a bill), and LED 
replacements are based on "usage," so you tell them you use all your 
lights all the time.  :-)  They also do not have LEDs for everything 
(like larger "globe" kitchen lights.  They do have some CFLs for those 
but you'd have to pay me to take those.

[1] LED10BR30D27KUTB	M: BR30012	10W, 65W replacement	
Suitable for damp and fully enclosed fixtures, dimmable
[2] LED10A19DOD27K M: A19023 10W, 60W replacement Suitable for damp and 
fully enclosed fixtures, dimmable

Bonus question I have thus far failed to figure out.  Why can I plug a 
$5 string of Christmas lights directly into 120v AC and they Just Work, 
yet all these LED bulbs require fancy transformers and whatever in them? 
 WTH can't I just take the LEDs from the string, bundle them together, 
and plug them straight in?

Later,
JP
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JP Vossen, CISSP | http://www.jpsdomain.org/ | http://bashcookbook.com/
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