How to swap incandescent bulbs for LEDs the right way

What you’ll need

• A step stool
• Your old bulbs for reference
• A box for recycling or disposal

Step by step

1. 1

   Count the hours, not the rooms

   Start with the sockets that run longest each day — kitchen, living room, porch. Those repay the bulb cost fastest.

2. 2

   Match lumens, not watts

   Ignore the old wattage and look at lumens. Roughly 800 lumens replaces a typical 60W incandescent; 1100 lumens replaces a 75W.

3. 3

   Pick one colour temperature per room

   2700K is warm and close to incandescent, 3000K is neutral, 4000K–5000K reads as cool daylight. Mixing them in one room looks wrong.

4. 4

   Check the fixture type

   Fully enclosed fixtures need bulbs rated as enclosure-safe, and any bulb on a dimmer must say 'dimmable' on the box.

5. 5

   Swap with the power off and test

   Turn the switch off, let the old bulb cool, fit the LED, then switch on and check for flicker before doing the rest.

Energy-saving tips

• Do the highest-use rooms first; you feel the difference on the next bill cycle, not after replacing every socket.
• Keep two spare bulbs of each colour temperature so a failure never forces a mismatched replacement.
• Non-dimmable LEDs on a dimmer circuit buzz and flicker — that is the single most common complaint about LEDs.