Heh we use feit par 38 bulbs in recessed cans throughout the house. Major installment is in the bathroom upstairs, where they are switched on and used everyday. Second is the little downlight over the window ledge in the master bedroom. Last is a single bulb that is up against an Incan and CFL. The trio were installed November of '14 and nothing of the experiment burnt out yet. The other bulbs remain intact too.

Except for a single table lamp in which I am testing a filament LED lamp (of which I am impressed so far after 4 months) it's all entirely incandescent and halogen in my household and I'm going to keep it that way for the most part for years to come. I used to have a CFL here or there 15 years ago but nowadays I despise them. Incandescent rules.

We don't like Incandescent because it makes too much heat - the last thing you want in Florida.

I use a mix of indescandescent/Halogen and LED Filament lamps for warm white light indoors. As long time light I have flourescent tubes in various colors and since now more than a year two LED retrofit flourescent tubes behind white milk glass. The oldest lamp in use is my desk light with a Philips HPL-N 80W from 1998 which is not really bright anymore but gives a nice moon light- also behind milk glass. And it's my only cycling MV with many 1000s of hours

I just bought and installed two 8.5w LED GE 11w 2700K A19 bulbs today.  I really like them.  Color is very natural and warm, better than CFLs. 

I also have some "BlueFire" 5w daylight LED filament bulbs on the way. 

I thought they only came in soft white colors.
And I have a reputation for getting other people to use LED.

Our biggest issue with the Incandescents was, they were tripping the breakers when they were going out. Sometimes they would take out the 16A for the room, sometimes the 32A main for the house too !

And those were good lamps. We avoided cheapies because those would simply explode, as they did at many of our friends homes

Our biggest issue with the Incandescents was, they were tripping the breakers when they were going out. Sometimes they would take out the 16A for the room, sometimes the 32A main for the house too !

And those were good lamps. We avoided cheapies because those would simply explode, as they did at many of our friends homes

Incandescents tripping breakers and Incandescent Explosions are completely unheard of here.
And why are your breakers in 2^X A form?
Also, Why are your house breakers so small? Here, 200A is considered small.

Incandescents tripping breakers and Incandescent Explosions or completely unheard of here.

The main problem comes from the higher voltage: 120V is way less likely to form an arc than 230V. Therefore the 230V lamps have to contain higher percentage of Nitrogen in the fill, which makes them less efficient.
Then the higher voltage means higher short circuit currents. Both means the arc in the incandescents is way stronger and more persistent, causing the breaker tripping problems.
On the other hand the fire problems with an insulation faults, where the wires barely touch each other and so just sparkle, overheat, cause fire, but still do not trip the breaker are unheard of in the 230V areas: If a sparkle happens, it sets massive fat arc, which always causes enough current to trip the breaker, so the likelihood of fire is greatly reduced (only the initial spark has any chance, but that could be well contained with proper cable materials; with 120V long term sparkling the proper material melts away and then exposes the surroundings to the sparking/heat)

And why are your breakers in 2^X A form?

It is just some of the higher values, but it isn't really general rule. The initiation may have come from the fact, than given the achievanble tolerances and necessary margins, the sqrt(2) is the most optimal spacings (the tolerance bands just do not overlap), which means it doubles each other step.

Also, Why are your house breakers so small? Here, 200A is considered small.

That is quite relative. In your case it means 200A at 240V, which is 48kVA, with the home power input to be the 2x120V.
In 2130V world the house power input uses to be three phase 3x230/400V, so for the same capacity level it means about 3x63A (rounded for the nearest circuit breaker rating). And these uses to be the main input fuses in the main entry point (but not the main circuit breaker, which is then located inhouse and technically makes sure you do not exceed the the power capacity reserved by your utility contract).
For a single home house that is quite high, but I can not imagine, how a single family would make any use of more than about 24kVA or so.
But when some commercial facility is present, the 3x63A as the power capacity reservation is really the minimum here as well...

For a single home house that is quite high, but I can not imagine, how a single family would make any use of more than about 24kVA or so.

Depending on your conditions, It's easier than you think.
Let's do a sample calculation, And for simplicity, We will assume the kW = kVA:
Dryer = 5.4 kVA
Stove = 11.3 kVA
Water Heater = 4.5 kVA
House Air Conditioner = 14 kVA (We don't actually know, This is just an estimate. It's also on a 240V 60A breaker.)
Portable Air Conditioner = 1 kVA
Instant Sink Water Heater = 2.4 kVA
Pool Pump = 4 kVA (We also don't know, But it is on a 240V 20A breaker.)

And this is not including lighting and power outlets.

Depending on your conditions, It's easier than you think.
Let's do a sample calculation, And for simplicity, We will assume the kW = kVA:
Dryer = 5.4 kVA
Stove = 11.3 kVA
Water Heater = 4.5 kVA
House Air Conditioner = 14 kVA (We don't actually know, This is just an estimate. It's also on a 240V 60A breaker.)
Portable Air Conditioner = 1 kVA
Instant Sink Water Heater = 2.4 kVA
Pool Pump = 4 kVA (We also don't know, But it is on a 240V 20A breaker.)
And this is not including lighting and power outlets.

That is overrated. It may represent the required individual breaker capacities (there with the mobile airco I would expect a bit higher level, but it is possible yours are designed with lower inrush relative to the steady power - mainly the "inverter" types; the just 120V mains may require that).
But many of these are way higher than I see as realistic real power input. The thing is, you can not just sum up the breaker ratings, with many of them the inrush current (mainly the motors - so the air conditioner and the pool pump) requires way higher circuit breaker rating than is then the real power input (about 5x for motor loads; so the pool filter pump will be less than 1kW, the air conditioner about 4kW; assume they are compensated for the steady state operation, so the power factor is unity).
The thing is, all such loads will never turn ON at exactly the same time, so for the main breaker you do not have to sum them up together, but the individual branches need that high breaker rating (60A for the airco, 20A for the pool pump,...). The only thing you have to is to take the steady load of all others and add the inrush current of the last device.
Similar with the stove: I can not imagine, how would you have to cook to need 11kW for any longer time (the 11kW is just the peak input for few minutes), so it is very unlikely it will happen together with inrush of all other high power devices.

The realistic power requirements I would see as:
Dryer = 5.4 kVA (that's already quite high, ours are 2kW and even that is sometimes too much heat for the clothing, so it has to be reduced to 1kW settings. But lets assume it is so)
Stove = 6kW (11.3 kVA short term)
Water Heater = 4.5 kVA
House Air Conditioner = 4kVA (14 kVA inrush) (assume about 12kW of removed heat; about the same as needed for space heating here)
Portable Air Conditioner = 1 kVA
Instant Sink Water Heater = 2.4 kVA (I've not seen suchthing when there is the central water heater installed; mainly the 3.6kW most common here for the 16A/230V is way too low power, it allows really only very slow water flow rate; no sense if you have hot water waiting in the main heater tank)
Pool Pump = 1kVA (4 kVA inrush)
The rest is below 1kW (lighting,...).

That sums up to about 24kVA steady (so 3x35A for the 3x230V; an inrush of 35kVA is smaller than factor of 2 over the steady load, so could be swallowed by the breaker time dependence, so no need for higher capacity), about the same as common here for the "better" equipped houses (here the pool and/or airco are really quite rare, mainly due to the colder climate - the weather just won't allow you to use the pool longer than few weeks in the summer; same for the air conditioning - it's use is only for few hottest weeks, otherwise not needed).

Of course, you may overrate the main input, technically there is nothing wrong with it. But it is just too expensive here, because quite significant part of the electricity payment is derived from the reserved power (so the main breaker rating). And that makes you think twice what you really need to pay for...
The reason for such politics is the fact than the idle losses in the distribution network follow the installed capacity and not the real power usage. So when all customers would ask for twice as much reserved power capacity than really needed, the idle losses will double without actually providing any extra service. So there is that push to keep the reserved power really corresponding to the real power usage.
And there are even proposals to make the "reserved power" part relatively larger, as for most homes the 3x35A is still too much here (with gas for heating and stove being very common here you really do not need more than 3x16A or so; even that contains quite some buffer for some airco or so; of course, counting for our climate and reasonable house thermal insulation).

Quote from: wattMaster on May 23, 2016, 08:04:41 AM

Depending on your conditions, It's easier than you think.
Let's do a sample calculation, And for simplicity, We will assume the kW = kVA:
Dryer = 5.4 kVA
Stove = 11.3 kVA
Water Heater = 4.5 kVA
House Air Conditioner = 14 kVA (We don't actually know, This is just an estimate. It's also on a 240V 60A breaker.)
Portable Air Conditioner = 1 kVA
Instant Sink Water Heater = 2.4 kVA
Pool Pump = 4 kVA (We also don't know, But it is on a 240V 20A breaker.)
And this is not including lighting and power outlets.

That is overrated. It may represent the required individual breaker capacities (there with the mobile airco I would expect a bit higher level, but it is possible yours are designed with lower inrush relative to the steady power - mainly the "inverter" types; the just 120V mains may require that).
But many of these are way higher than I see as realistic real power input. The thing is, you can not just sum up the breaker ratings, with many of them the inrush current (mainly the motors - so the air conditioner and the pool pump) requires way higher circuit breaker rating than is then the real power input (about 5x for motor loads; so the pool filter pump will be less than 1kW, the air conditioner about 4kW; assume they are compensated for the steady state operation, so the power factor is unity).
The thing is, all such loads will never turn ON at exactly the same time, so for the main breaker you do not have to sum them up together, but the individual branches need that high breaker rating (60A for the airco, 20A for the pool pump,...). The only thing you have to is to take the steady load of all others and add the inrush current of the last device.
Similar with the stove: I can not imagine, how would you have to cook to need 11kW for any longer time (the 11kW is just the peak input for few minutes), so it is very unlikely it will happen together with inrush of all other high power devices.

The realistic power requirements I would see as:
Dryer = 5.4 kVA (that's already quite high, ours are 2kW and even that is sometimes too much heat for the clothing, so it has to be reduced to 1kW settings. But lets assume it is so)
Stove = 6kW (11.3 kVA short term)
Water Heater = 4.5 kVA
House Air Conditioner = 4kVA (14 kVA inrush) (assume about 12kW of removed heat; about the same as needed for space heating here)
Portable Air Conditioner = 1 kVA
Instant Sink Water Heater = 2.4 kVA (I've not seen suchthing when there is the central water heater installed; mainly the 3.6kW most common here for the 16A/230V is way too low power, it allows really only very slow water flow rate; no sense if you have hot water waiting in the main heater tank)
Pool Pump = 1kVA (4 kVA inrush)
The rest is below 1kW (lighting,...).

That sums up to about 24kVA steady (so 3x35A for the 3x230V; an inrush of 35kVA is smaller than factor of 2 over the steady load, so could be swallowed by the breaker time dependence, so no need for higher capacity), about the same as common here for the "better" equipped houses (here the pool and/or airco are really quite rare, mainly due to the colder climate - the weather just won't allow you to use the pool longer than few weeks in the summer; same for the air conditioning - it's use is only for few hottest weeks, otherwise not needed).

Of course, you may overrate the main input, technically there is nothing wrong with it. But it is just too expensive here, because quite significant part of the electricity payment is derived from the reserved power (so the main breaker rating). And that makes you think twice what you really need to pay for...
The reason for such politics is the fact than the idle losses in the distribution network follow the installed capacity and not the real power usage. So when all customers would ask for twice as much reserved power capacity than really needed, the idle losses will double without actually providing any extra service. So there is that push to keep the reserved power really corresponding to the real power usage.
And there are even proposals to make the "reserved power" part relatively larger, as for most homes the 3x35A is still too much here (with gas for heating and stove being very common here you really do not need more than 3x16A or so; even that contains quite some buffer for some airco or so; of course, counting for our climate and reasonable house thermal insulation).

Yes, I probably exaggerated the power values, And the sink water heater dispenses near-boiling water for cooking. It's for skipping boiling water when you want to make instant soup.
The house air conditioner takes a lot of power because it has gigantic resistance heaters,
But I can't be sure of the power level because the attic is a pain to get to.

Resistance heaters in an airco assembly? Thats would indeed mean the huge power need, but it is stupid:
There is already the complex heat pumping machinery. To turn it into a high efficient heater you just need a single reversing valve around the compressor (so few dollars; I would guess way cheaper than the resistive heaters with all the extra fire protections it needs as it may reach very high temperatures when the fan fails or so) and you get a heating with efficiency factor at least 3 (with temperatures fropping below freezing; so for each 1kW consumed it gives off 3kW of heat), so saving at least 2/3 of electricity for heating.

Here (so with the heating season about two weeks below minus 10degC, otherwise most of it around 0 till +10degC) the experience with the cheapest wall mount units is they do reach the efficiency factor of 3 in average, the really cold periods (when the efficiency does drop significantly) are included in that average, so I don't thing larger machines would be any less efficient than that...

Resistance heaters in an airco assembly? Thats would indeed mean the huge power need, but it is stupid:
There is already the complex heat pumping machinery. To turn it into a high efficient heater you just need a single reversing valve around the compressor (so few dollars; I would guess way cheaper than the resistive heaters with all the extra fire protections it needs as it may reach very high temperatures when the fan fails or so) and you get a heating with efficiency factor at least 3 (with temperatures fropping below freezing; so for each 1kW consumed it gives off 3kW of heat), so saving at least 2/3 of electricity for heating.

Here (so with the heating season about two weeks below minus 10degC, otherwise most of it around 0 till +10degC) the experience with the cheapest wall mount units is they do reach the efficiency factor of 3 in average, the really cold periods (when the efficiency does drop significantly) are included in that average, so I don't thing larger machines would be any less efficient than that...

We also do have a reversing valve, But I think the resistance heaters are required to be in there.
Only for a few days does we need the resistance heater because it is too cold for the compressor.
But I think the breakers are turned off for the heaters, Or it could be a false memory.

I have a whole house heat pump (only one compressor). I believe it is 2 ton, but maybe 2.5 ton. I do have an electrical resistance heater coil in the inside air handler. It is divided into stages so it does not come on all at once, but in total it is close to 20 000 watts. It is needed for the cold windy months. I live by the ocean, and with the cold wind coming from the water, the compressor alone cannot suffice in cold weather. The wind chill factor for the house is too high and it simply cannot keep up. The coil then kicks in to bring the temperature to the thermostat set point in such situations. Normally it kicks in at minus 5-7 degrees Celcius, but on really windy days it kicks in at plus 4-5 degrees Celcius.

Another use for the coil is to supply a bit of heat to the cooling cycle when the outside unit is in defrost mode. That happens at the most for 3-4 minutes every hour when needed. For the defrost cycle, it is way less than the full 20KW that runs. Of course, the electricity usage in winter is way more than in the summer.

Smaller wall mounted units may be different, and I'm not sure if they have a resistance heater or not.