Replacing incandescent lights with LED - advice needed

[ParB]

I have pentair 500W bulbs in my pool. 3 in the pool and 1 in the spa.

at 35c/kw going up to 40c soon i'm moving all my lights in my home to LED and overall getting energy efficient appliances.

I got a quote from the local pool company for replacing my incandescent bulbs with intellibrite 5G (one quote for color and one quote for white).
Its seriously expensive, as in $4K with tax and installed expensive. About $3K for the lights and $1K for the installation (they have to pull wire about 100ft to a junction box). color is about $4K. They recommended pentair intellibrite because i have intellitouch and it would work great with my automation.

They also said i could get an LED bulb. that would be about half vs pentair.
So i'm seeking advice, what would the community advice me to do. Move to an LED bulb (likely white) or move to pentair intellibrite?

I don't want to repair these a lot, so i want something with quality.
i am in norcal, i have an automatic pool cover. The lights are only on if we are outside in the summer and keep the pool open. Lets say 30-40 days a year for 4-6 hours in the evening.

If you tell me to leave it alone and do nothing then i'm game for that too. But with the local utility putting me in even more punative cost tiers for my energy consumption i really want to cut energy as much as i can.

Thanks for your wisdom!

 

[dfwnoob]

I'd just put an LED replacement lamp in the existing housing, but a new OEM gasket in, and call it a day. Zero chance I'd pay thousands of dollars for someone to come put flaky stuff in. You won't be able to do "gee whiz" stuff like select a color on the controller and have it magically change (you'd have to manually toggle it on and off), but I'd wager most people set the color once and never touch it again.

 

[ParB]

Any particular brand of bulb you would recommend? I'm ok with white, i don't really need color.
my pool is light blue with dark blue tiles at the waterline.

 

[dfwnoob]

I personally have the Florida Sunseeker RGB LED and I'm happy with it, but they do sell white ones and they give TFP members a 7% discount (code is TFP7).

 

[ajw22]

The lights are only on if we are outside in the summer and keep the pool open. Lets say 30-40 days a year for 4-6 hours in the evening.

The payoff is not there.

You will pay about $4 for every night you run the 4 lights. $120-$160/year.

That is a 25 year payback on the $4,000 cost for LED lights.

If you are lucky the Intellibrites may last you 5 years.

There is not even a decent payback for LED bulb replacement costs.

 

[ParB]

Its true that the economic argument is not there at current energy pricing. Part of my motivation is that i hate the idea of giving money to my local utility, its run horribly and we have outages weekly due to their precautions to avoid fires dues to high wind events.
I think i will be at $1/kw in the next 5-7 years. I was at 12 cents/kw 5 years ago and the current trend isn't good.

I'm a bit surprised that the LED bulbs and the intellibrites are this expensive. LED bulbs in general use has dropped by a ton and its surprising to me that the pool lights are so expensive.

Yet, if i chose to ignore the economic argument and let my rage against my utility make the decision for me. Which is the better choice, intellibrites or bulbs? Do they last?

 

[ajw22]

Your rage against your electric utility will be superseded by rage against Pentair if you get the Intellibrites.

Get bulbs if you insist on LEDs.

 

[ajw22]

I think i will be at $1/kw in the next 5-7 years. I was at 12 cents/kw 5 years ago and the current trend isn't good.

The LED lights you install now will not last to see that rate. Wait until you have better economics and maybe more reliable lights.

Even at $1/kwh running your lights would be $2/hour or $10/night or $400/year.

 

[ParB]

Good advice. if they wont last then i won't install them. Thanks for the guidance.