LED lighting

If you've waited to have your florescent bulbs replaced by LEDs because of the higher price it was say 7 months ago, you're losing money now if you didn't switch over at the higher bulb price. The payback comes pretty quick so waiting for a cheaper price on bulbs, in my opinion, is not worth waiting for. I've cut my wattage consumption by more than 50% 1.5+ years ago and my calculations show I am saving $245/month on lighting alone. It's very difficult to tell what your savings are if you have your tanning, water tank, treadmills all on the same bill so you basically have to calculate it.

Cutting your power consumption in half is in fact 50% savings. Ballasts will consume energy just by being in the circuit, but certainly not near your bulb wattage for the fixture. Usually, any any kind of current regulator, like the ballasts are, will consume energy and give it off as heat. The electronic ballasts aren't so bad as what was used previously. Personally, I like eliminating as much in a circuit as I can. Less parts in your circuit means less parts to go bad. If you keep the ballast and it goes bad, you need another ballast OR you are wiring the bulbs direct anyway. The positive side of keeping the ballast besides avoiding the extra time of rewiring? I wonder what affect it would have on fluctuating spikes in line voltage say during a power outage, as an extra layer of protection for my LED lamps. This I am not sure about.