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 EagleLight 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 EagleLight’s LED University 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
| If you have a: | Try an LED: |
| 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 |