LED Refrigerator Light

Intro: LED Refrigerator Light

Why is there a 60 watt heater inside my refrigerator? An incandescent lightbulb is a heater, and I don't want it in my refrigerator wasting energy, even if it only does it when the door is open.

For that matter why is the door on the side instead of the top so all the cold air runs out whenever the door is opened?

How can you find out if the light turns off when you close the door or not?
Arthur Schwieger of St.Cloud MN figured out this nifty way to do it:

STEP 1: Replace the Incandescent Bulb With an LED Bulb

Good LEDs aren't any better than fluorescents in efficiency, but they deal with temperature swings better.
Also they don't have mercury in them.

A final advantage is the festive colored light show to be had from this Color Kinetics unit.
http://colorkinetics.com
It's the "Lighttro" model available online for $20. There's a button on the side to change what pattern of colors it plays. Hey vendor- gimme free ones or I'll prostitute myself to your competition !! :)

Here's the fridge after and before changing the bulb. Actually it looks nothing like these pictures thanks to an automatic camera. But I'm happy cuz the bulb burns 2 watts versus 60 watts.
The fridge isn't as brightly lit as before, but that doesn't matter. The only reason for a fridge light is to remind you that your fridge is still working anyway.

Comments

[carlos66ba]

This is REALLY A WASTE of resources. The amount of heat pumped into the fridge by a 40-60 W bulb is negligible compared to what happens while you open and close the door. Furthermore, creating the LED light consumes much more resources than creating an incandescent bulb (even worse since the bulb was already there). High efficiency bulbs are meant for places that use them a lot. The interior of the fridge is not one of them. Regarding the mercury on the CFL, do you know that the LED's may have arsenic in them? (maybe these don't but red and green LED's do). Not a very interesting instructable and a VERY ENVIRONMENTALLY UNFRIENDLY ONE (resources to get the LED lamp are not free of environmental consequences).

[Michaelrobb98]

Finally! Someone with brain cells!

[eBrain]

By gawd, you're right. All light bulbs are Evil! I'm going to do the environmentally conscious thing and replace the bulb in my fridge with a small, well-tended fire of windfall twigs.

[James (pseudo-geek)]

HAHAHAHAHAHA

[Derin]

HAHAHAHAHAHA *Finds seat on bandwagon*

[Esmagamus]

I'm gonna get myself a sack and a length of rope to hang my perishables inside my water well.

[hillskie]

LED's put out little or no heat?!? What ... are you kidding? Um, what do you think those heat sink fins are for? Look at any good par30 LED. FINS all the way around ... for diffusing heat. Little or no heat.
HA ! No ... only the useless junkie LED's put out no heat. They self destruct in record time too. The electronics that drive good LED's do put out heat.

[Crank2112all]

You can test this very easily. Just put a 60 watt bulb in a socket and turn it on. Do the same with an LED of comparative lumens (15 watt). Leave them both on for 10 minutes. Now hold your finger to the incandescent bulb - hint, you can't. Now touch any part of the LED - hint, it will be warm, but not uncomfortably so. You may be thinking about high wattage LEDs. Those emit far more light and can get very hot, but keep in mind that a comparable incandescent would be hot enough to boil water. What makes LEDs so much more efficient is that they turn more of the electricity to light than heat compared to incandescent and fluorescent bulbs.

[Crank2112all]

The wattage of a fridge bulb does not matter because the light is only on when you open the door and it will cool down very quickly, thus extremely unlikely to affect the temperature in your fridge. You let in far more heat just by opening the door. And LEDs are FAR more efficient that even the best incandescent bulbs. And mercury should almost never be a factor unless you plan to shatter the bulb while it's inside your fridge.

[Swaps07]

Hey. Can anyone comment on humidity/water condensation??
What if the condensed water droplets gets into the led driver circuit?
Even in 1w led, there are electronic components.

[Yonatan24]

Our refrigerator (Samsung, I don't know exactly which one) has a really bright LED panel on the top...

I also didn't exactly understand what is the point of this 'Ible, anyone can just replace the incandescent light to an LED light... Is there something I missed?

[gromit1943]

Hmmm.

Why not just climb inside and close the door?

Actually, you will find that the lght will go out just before the door is clompletely closed, if the switch is properly adjusted.

--Terry

[gromit1943]

LEDs ARE more efficient than fluorescents!  Look at the heat that fluorescents put out -- that is wasted.  LEDs put out almost ALL of the electrical energy they consume as light -- very, very little as heat.  And they last much, much longer!

--gromit

[Soksume]

thank you for saying what i was thinking

[toomuch]

Another easy and quick option is to use a CFL. I know its not exactly the same, but it is cheap, readily available, and fairly effective. I didn't read all the comments, so I don't know if this was touched on.

[BluTiger]

I tried using cfl's in the frig. they dont handle the cold well, burn out fast and you risk getting mercury on the food should something break the bulb.

[Snakerog]

Help please. I have an Electrolux refrigerator that has regular incandescent light bulbs. I would like to replace them with LED lights the only problem is the Electrolux has a feature whereby the light slowly illuminates when you open the door. Kind of a reverse dimming effect. So, I am guessing the LED bulb will have to be dimmable. Is there such a thing as a dimmable LED bulb that is not expensive? Thanks. Snakerog

[jatrophacostarica]

My fridge actually has four bulbs in it. 60w each. Ouch.

If I imagine it is on for .5 hour per day (it is probably open less), then I can save the following:

4x15watt bulb= $4.86/year savings in bulb consumption, ignores heat.

4x1 watt LED bulb= $6.37/year savings (LED= very little heat, thus slightly more savings)

The 15w bulbs cost... $1.25/ea? The LED's cost $10/ea (or more).

4x15w bulbs: year 1= $0, year 5= $20 savings year 10= $43 savings
4xLED: year 1= -$33, year 5= -$8, year 10= $23 savings
3x15w bulbs: year 1= $1.50, year 5= $22.50, year 10= $49 savings

The LED's savings= 4x15w at year 23. The LED's= 3x15w savings at year 33.

It is unlikely that you will need to replace any of the bulbs. If you do, it was probably due to faulty bulbs or to power spikes, not bulb age. If you do replace a bulb... it throw the LED "benefit" into the garbage, but only makes a small effect on the 15w bulb.

My conclusion: better to buy 3 15w bulbs than to buy 4 LEDs. They will produce as much light and cost less up front, while still returning solid savings vs. the 60w bulbs that are there.

This is, as an aside, also a good argument for why it isn't such a great idea to phase out the incandescent light bulb. In areas where you only need light for short durations, and infrequently, incandescent is hard to beat.

[beehard44]

probably if u do not have a fridge with a light, or a freezer without d light, you can just get a small pen light and somehow attach it to the fridge and put a contact or a reed switch.

[PSPerson]

The Point of this is to show off. it also saves money in the long run 'cause u don't need to replace the bulb EVUR!! i think it's cool =]