TP Link SmartPlug & Incandescent Bulbs?

[malliekm]

I hate LED bulbs.  I know, "hate" is a strong word but I absolutely HATE them and have stockpiled every conceivable incandescent wattage I could ever need.  I tried to like LEDs.  I found a warm glow Philips (dimmable) bulb when we remodeled DH's bathroom a couple of years ago.  It still isn't as warm as incandescent and they don't dim as low.  LED has some growing up to do.  Soooo, will an incandescent lamp plugged into a TP Link (or other brand) turn on and off via Echo Dot?
Thanks

[mike27oct]

Of course.  In fact, the 3-way incandescence bulbs I replaced in our living room lamps with 3-way LEDs worked fine with the new TP-Links switches.  I know what you mean about LEDs, and the first few we tried years ago were pretty bad and we returned them.  So, a couple of years ago we saw some Feit brand floods at Costco for our halls and kitchen lights.  We tried them.  I first put just one in between two of the incandescence floods.  Not bad, my wife agreed, so we replaced all in the kitchen.  When done, just slightly brighter room, and the next day we were used to it.  We later did all the floods in our hallways.  Overall, we must have replaced 25 of these things.  You need to get soft white for the home and they have a temperature rating of 2700 degrees that burns cooler so as to get the soft white lighting.

So, for the living room lamps we had to order the 3-way Feit bulbs from Costco, since they don't carry them in the stores
anymore.  In the 4-pack, the bulbs cost $15 ea.  Yes, they are a little different than incandescences, but they use 1/3 the electricity and will last over 22 years.  So, we are determined to like them!  Even did our bathrooms in LEDs over the summer, Home Depot has some nice house brand ones at good prices, too. We do have incandescences in most all the other lamps around the bedrooms, etc. 

BTW, before getting the new 3-way bulbs from Costco, I tried a GE that cost $22, it has nice light, but its switching is weird; instead of low-med-hi sequence, it did something like med-hi-low and I hated that.  I did not want to reprogram my brain for a different sequence.  So it gets returned now that we have the Feit bulbs.

Oh, about the tp-Link switches:  our first one was the oversize original Smart Plug, but I found the newer Smart Plug Mini and ordered two.  They were pretty pricey or out of stock every where I looked other than Newegg.  They were just $10 more than the original plug, and order was limited to TWO per order (because of the short supply).  Only kind I will buy from now on since two will fit perfectly in one wall outlet.  And, the TP switches work great with their app and with Alexa.

 

[malliekm]

Thanks Mike!  Hi, my name is Monica and...Im a lighting snob.  I don't care what it cost (well, kinda), I want the warm romantic ambience that incandescents provide.  Every light in our house from recessed lighting to ceiling fixtures to bathroom vanity lighting and lamps are all on dimmers (except the laundry room).  Sadly, LEDs just don't cut it yet.  Maybe someday they will.  We updated all our Lutron dimmer controls to LED compatibility (once I found out about dimmable LEDs) and bleh!  Took the bulbs back to the store.  I did learn that different brands can make a big difference tho.  Just not sure how much I'm willing to spend on a silly lightbulb!  Mike, you sound like the type of person that would have calculated this next question (g)...how long will it take you to recoup, in electrical savings, the amt you spent on LED bulbs?
Thanks for the info on the TP Link Plugs.  Only have two lamps I think would get real use out of the smart plugs.  One I'd like to turn on before getting home when we're out at night BUT it would have to be able to work with an extension cord we have running under the couch.  The end table and lamp are out in the middle of the room. 

[mike27oct]

OK Monica ( knew that, BTW) I did not calculate, but since the boxes are still here for the 3-ways I put in last week, they say they will last 22.8 years (25,000 hours --that's a lot of regular bulbs that won't be purchased for a long time)  And they estimate $354.year savings on electricity.  I think the biggest savings will be for less bulb replacements.  Forgot to mention we have CFL floods on our front porch lights kept on every night until morning (via a timer), and each one has lasted over 5 years on for that long.  Have LED floods on back porch that are on only when we go outside.  CFLs take too long to get fully bright, so why LEDs are used for back.

I put dimmable LEDs in a few of our dimmer controlled floods -- did not need to upgrade any for the LEDs.  Did not like LEDs above in dining table lamps, kept the regular bulbs there.

Yes, extension cord is OK. We have two lamps in living room connected to extension cord into one smart plug, and a single lamp in another plug.  So, we wanted simple but effective names to call them.  We settled on naming one smart plug "One Lamp" and the other "Two Lamps", so the command to Alexa is "Alexa, turn on two lamps",  (or, turn on one lamp)  Even if we mistakenly say light instead of lamp, Alexa usually "gets it".