For some time, PECO (our local electric company) has been subsidizing high-efficiency bulbs. The current special is the best I’ve seen. For about $5, you can now get industry leading CREE LED bulbs, as well as the highly rated Philips bulbs at your local Home Depot.
If you’ve been considering trying LED bulbs but have found the price to be prohibitive, now’s the time to try a few. The energy savings can easily pay for the bulbs in under a year and they’re so long lasting that you’ll likely never have to change them.
One big advantage these bulbs have over compact fluorescent bulbs is that they instantly come up to full brightness at any temperature, so you can use them in places where CFLs are useless, like outdoor (weather protected) fixtures and on motion sensors. Our driveway lights are all LED and they’ve worked great!
CREE LEDs for Recessed Light Fixtures
CREE 6″ downlights for recessed light fixtures are also on sale. I’ve installed these all over my home and have been delighted by the performance. The output light is clean and bright and they work well on dimmers. The only trick with these is that recessed light fixtures vary in size and shape so buy one to try so you can ensure that these are compatible with your fixtures.
Ted's Energy Tips 
I love these bulbs – they comprise probably 95% of the bulbs in my house at this point; we also have 9 of the CREE downlights.
The A-format bulbs hum a bit on a dimmer, that’s y only complaint.
I was at Home Depot the other day and they had Philips LED bulbs for $1.97! They are 60W equivalent. They come in either warm or cool. I got some of the warm and they light the give off is just like incandescent.
If you replace a 60W incandescent that you use 3 hours per day with one of these, you will save more than the cost of the bulb in less than 3 months.
Ted,
How do you get the PECO bulbs? I’ve heard complaints that the light is very “white” or “blue.” THe LED’s do come in different temperatures which give different colors of light so a little trial and error can be necessary to get what you want.
Mark
Hi Mark,
I’m glad you brought that up. Most of the good bulbs these days come in a warm or neutral color. the earlier and cheaper bulbs did you a very blue LED but I’ve never had that problem with CREE or Philips. I’ve found the discounted bulbs at Home Depot in Warrington though I bet they’re in all Home Depot stores in our area.