LED Light Bulbs for Less Than Half of Other Brands and Stores

I have slowly been transitioning our house to LED light bulbs, but I had been taking it slow because LED lightbulb are just plain expensive upfront. We have 39 recessed “can” lights in our house. At the cost of the GV bulbs I had been buying, right around $11 plus tax, that’s over $450 to replace all of the recessed light bulbs with LED bulbs, not to mention all of the other light bulbs in our house.

I was at the point where I had replaced 10 of the 39 when I stumbled upon a display of light bulbs marked as BR30 dimmable LED bulbs at my local Home Depot from a brand I had never seen before, TCP. Each bulb was in a simple windowless box that was smaller than any  had seen a BR30 bulb in, but I was curious and a little excited by the price, even though I had just bought a few spare bulbs. The box even said each bulb had a 22.8 year life (25,000 hours of light). Each dimmable bulb was $4.88, less than half of what I had paid for store brand bulbs at Walmart.

When I opened the bulb to use it, I measured it against the incandescent bulb it was replacing, same size. I took down an LED lightbulb that I had previously installed for a closer comparison. They looked basically the same, other than the brand labeling. I can’t tell the difference when they are installed.

I put it in and it worked. The bulb appears to perform just like any other BR30 LED lightbulb. I was so excited. I started to do the math, remembering also when just after buying my first Great Value brand LED 60w equivalent vanity bulb, going back and being shocked in the price increase. Although the GV brand are still the cheapest LED vanity bulbs I’ve found, we made the decision to go forward and replace the can light bulbs.

I am so excited about the cost savings by purchasing this new brand ($150+tax saved just on the bulbs, 25 bulbs @ $4.88 vs. $10.88) and all the money the switch is going to save us on our electric bill.