e-watt LED light bulbs - what has been your experience

[Carol]

For those who are selling a lot of the bulbs, how are you selling them? Do you sell them door-to-door, at a school, at the parent's workplace, etc? What's been most successful?

[thefro526]

Last I heard, we had sold something like ~$700 worth of light bulbs just on word of mouth alone. They're pretty easy to sell as long as you push the right points. (Lower cost over lifetime of bulb, longer operating life, money goes to a good call etc.)

[Carol]

Who do you sell them to?

[rsisk]

When you walk into a business, check out their lights. If they are using CFLs, give them the pitch. Try to find the operations manager, or whoever is responsible for buying the lights, they are the ones that will be interested.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by Carol

Who do you sell them to?

Any company, school, hotel, individual, etc., that is not bound to a contracted supplier for light bulbs. It is a very easy fundraiser. We're currently working on Philadelphia City Hall, I believe.

[jvriezen]

We've had at least two bulbs with the flickering problem. Our theory is it may be one or both of the following (or a combination)

1) Bulb for some reason runs hotter than the others.

2) In a ceiling can light, this can cause the can-light fixtures to overheat protection switch to trigger, causing flickering. The can's trigger might also be more sensitive to other cans. Other factors might be amount of insulation/air space above the fixture in the ceiling/attic.

Note that the bulbs are not recommended for enclosed fixtures where little or no air can circulate.

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by Carol

Who do you sell them to?

Family, Friends, a Few Members of Administration, and last I heard we were talking with the Building and Grounds department to see if they had any use for the bulbs.

[klrswift]

In our experience, the bulbs are pretty easy to sell one or two to someone to try out. People seem to like the fact that they are warmer lights than CFLs and give off a similar appearance to incandescents. We have had a few requests for dimmable bulbs as well as different wattages.

My complaint is that the bulbs MUST be purchased from the supplier using a credit card. Our school doesn't have a credit card we can use, so that means a mentor or parent has to put it on their credit card and have a check cut from the school for reimbursement. Of course, the school doesn't like to reimburse for large amounts, which means we'll have some trouble if we want to sell a large volume of LED bulbs. (which we do!)

[rsisk]

Has anyone done price comparisons for comparable products?

I did some internet searching and found a similar product for $40, which is what we use in our sales pitch.

[Steven Donow]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Has anyone done price comparisons for comparable products?

I did some internet searching and found a similar product for $40, which is what we use in our sales pitch.

Recently, Home Depot or Lowes (I forget which, my dad just casually told it to me) had similar bulbs on sale for $10. There was one on Home Depot's website a few weeks ago that was similar, costing $40, I believe, but that seems to no longer be there. As of now, the FIRST LED bulbs do seem to be the cheapest/best ones available, but it seems like more and more similar bulbs are becoming available.

[Aren_Hill]

Kinda made over 4k on these guys so far....

[rsisk]

Originally Posted by Aren_Hill

Kinda made over 4k on these guys so far....

Suhweet! Any tips on how you are selling them?

[Katie_UPS]

Originally Posted by rsisk

Suhweet! Any tips on how you are selling them?

I heard a rumor that their local itty-bitty airport uses them to line the runways. I wonder if I can get MKE's airport to do the same...

[hocman22]

My team, team 358 is looking for another fundraiser, to replace our main fundraiser we cant do anymore. I was wondering how much it cost to buy the light bulbs and how much you guys sell them for. Also how successful are you in selling and making profit with them? Thanks



Team 358

[KarenH]

One of my concerns with the FIRST light is that we don't use 40-watt bulbs much in our house; mostly we use 60-watt bulbs. This bulb is supposed to have light output equivalent to a 40-watt bulb. Our team leader tried one out and said it's as bright as a 60-watt bulb, but he used two different types of light fixtures to display them. While they both nearly blinded me, I didn't think that was a "scientific" enough test, so I devised a somewhat more "scientific" test, using the bulb my husband bought from the team. (If we like it, we'll probably buy more.)

We have a ceiling fixture in our house that had two CFLs and two soft white 60-watt incandescent bulbs. One of the CFLs was burned out. (CFLs do NOT last as long as traditional bulbs.) So I replaced the bum bulb with one of the e-watt LED lights, and turned on the switch. Cameras tend to be pretty objective about things, so I also took pictures. Here is one picture, taken from directly below the fixture. Can you tell which bulbs are brighter or dimmer? Can you tell which is the CFL and which is the LED light?

By the way, if you would like to use a larger version of this picture in your sales pitch, feel free to PM me.