45 recessed light fixtures and more

We moved into a house that has 45 recessed light fixtures. I installed Sense and was rather shocked to see how much power we were using at night. I found that they all had 85 watt incandescent bulbs. Talk about energy hogs. I immediately replaced them with sealed LED trims which use 9.4 watt and put out more lumens of light and less heat. If we figure that only 25% of them are on at a time for about four hours a night that comes out to about $150 to $200 a year in reduced electric consumption. We also replaced all the outside lighting with LEDs although I don’t think that is saving any money as we now keep many on all night for security as they don’t use nearly the light of the 85-150 watt bulbs that were in them before.

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3 Replies to “45 recessed light fixtures and more”

  1. For the outdoor lighting, I suggest going to a motion detector PIR system that triggers a smart switch for your lights,or just go with motion detector lights. Keeping your lights on all night will end up being pretty expensive in the long run and more than pay for the coat of the motion detectors.

  2. Recessed lights are generally far worse then they first appear on your sense reports. The ‘recessed’ portion of the name means that they penetrate the ceiling, often into insufficiently insulated, and air sealed spaces (since insulation is illegal around most such fixtures). This means that the fixture is constantly losing heat, and when on, is forcing more heat through any openings by the stack effect. Replacing with flush mount LEDs (and sealing the holes the wires come through) is a huge win.

    Thank you kindly.

  3. They make sealed cans which can be insulated. But that is what is great about the LED trims, they seal the can so that there is minimal air infiltration.

    I would not go for PIR motion detection because they typically only put the lights on for a minute or so. When I am outside I want the lights on. Also there are lights that I want on all night to deter evil actors. The cost for that is tiny with LEDs. The one at my front door uses just under 10 watts. That means being on for 10 hours at night costs me about 11 cents. The benefit is well worth the cost.

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