Ideas for retrofitting with LED light bulbs

If you are in the process of retrofitting your existing lighting with energy efficient LED light bulbs this lesson will walk you through the process. As the technology for LEDs is advancing some bulbs have greater benefits that others. Here is how ReaLEDz recommends proceeding with a retrofit:

* Identify what lamps you currently are using
* Determine what lamps have best return on investment
* Select best replacement bulbs for each application
* Change out to new LED light bulbs

Identify existing inventory of lamps
Collect the type, quantity and hours of operation for your existing light bulbs. If you like you can open a pdf work sheet sheet to help with this inventory here. If you are not certain of types of lamps you have you can use ReaLEDz Lighting College to identify the types of lamps you are currently using here. You can also use the chart below to find replacement lamps that may work depending on the specific application.

Determine what lamps have best return on investment
There are a few considerations to determine what lamps will save you the most energy costs and have the largest impact on energy efficiency.

* Lights that are on more hours a day have greater savings in electrical cost
* Lights that are harder to get to will save you time replacing them when they burn out
* Lights that are of a certain type get greater savings. Typically you will see the greatest returns from these common types of bulbs:

Original Bulb

Replacement Type

Example % Reduction in Wattage

Incandescent bulb

LED A bulb

60W to 6W is 90% Savings

Flood Lamp PAR bulb

LED PAR bulb

100W to 11W is 89% Savings

Spot Lamp PAR bulb

LED PAR bulb

75W to 9W is 88% Savings

CFL bulb

LED A bulb

18W to 6W is 67% Savings

Florescent Tube bulb

LED T8 bulb

32W to 15W is 53% Savings

T12s can also have a very high ROI for retrofit.
Select the best LED replacement
The key considerations on retrofit selections bulb shape, size, socket, beam angle and color temperature.
Traditional Incandescent Household Light Bulb Replacements

30watt soft white incandescent

3-4watt E27 replacement

40watt soft white incandescent

3-5watt E27 replacement

50watt soft white incandescent

4-7watt E27 replacement

60watt soft white incandescent

6-8watt E27 replacement


Traditional Fluorescent Tube Lamp Replacements

If you have a:

Try an LED:

16watt 2 foot T8 tube lamp

8watt 48″ T8 T848-G13-8W150

20watt 3 foot T8 tube lamp

12watt 48″ T8 T848-G13-12W225

32watt 4 foot T8 tube lamp

15watt 48″ T8 T848-G13-15W276

40watt 4 foot T8 tube lamp

22watt 48″ T8 T848-G13-22W300

64watt 8 foot T8 tube lamp

30watt 48″ T8 T848-G13-30W600