If you're looking for a home improvement project that pays for itself in months — not years — LED lighting upgrades should be at the top of your list. It's not the flashiest renovation, but dollar for dollar, nothing delivers a faster return on investment for homeowners across Portland, Scarborough, and the rest of Southern Maine.
At Goodnow Electric, we help homeowners and business owners switch from incandescent, halogen, and fluorescent lighting to modern LED systems. The energy savings start with the next bill, the light quality is better, and the fixtures last for years. Here's what you need to know.
The Numbers: LED vs. Incandescent vs. Fluorescent
Let's start with the hard facts. A traditional 60-watt incandescent bulb produces about 800 lumens of light and lasts roughly 1,000 hours. An equivalent LED bulb produces the same 800 lumens using just 8-10 watts — an 85% reduction in energy consumption — and lasts 25,000 to 50,000 hours.
You can work out your own savings with simple arithmetic. Replacing a 60-watt incandescent with a 9-watt LED saves 51 watts. A fixture that is on for 5 hours a day saves 51 × 5 × 365 ÷ 1,000 ≈ 93 kilowatt-hours a year. Multiply by the total price per kilowatt-hour on your electric bill (supply plus delivery) and by the number of bulbs you replace. The rooms you use most — kitchen, living room, outdoor lights left on all evening — pay back first, which is why we usually start there. Fixtures that are rarely switched on can wait until the old bulb fails.
Fluorescent tubes — still common in kitchens, garages, and basements — are more efficient than incandescent but fall well short of LED. They also contain mercury, flicker as they age, produce a harsh color temperature, and take time to reach full brightness in cold weather. LED replacements eliminate all of those issues.
Beyond Bulb Swaps: When You Need an Electrician
Swapping a screw-in LED bulb for an old incandescent is a simple DIY task. But many of the highest-impact LED upgrades involve your home's actual wiring and fixtures. That's where professional lighting services come in.
- Recessed lighting conversion — Older recessed cans designed for incandescent or halogen bulbs can be retrofitted with LED trim kits, or replaced entirely with modern LED-integrated fixtures that are slimmer, more energy-efficient, and produce better light distribution. It is one of the most requested lighting upgrades for homeowners in Falmouth, Gorham and across our service area.
- Fluorescent-to-LED conversion — Replacing fluorescent tube fixtures with LED panels or integrated LED troffers in kitchens, basements, workshops, and garages. This involves rewiring the fixture to bypass the old ballast or installing a completely new fixture.
- Under-cabinet lighting — Hardwired LED strip lights under kitchen cabinets are one of the best lighting upgrades you can make. They eliminate shadows on countertops and add a warm, modern feel to any kitchen.
- Outdoor and landscape lighting — LED path lights, floodlights, and accent lights use a fraction of the energy of traditional outdoor fixtures and last through multiple Maine winters without burning out. We install complete outdoor lighting systems on dedicated circuits with proper weatherproofing.
- Dimmer compatibility — Many older dimmer switches are not compatible with LED bulbs, causing flickering, buzzing, or limited dimming range. Replacing them with LED-rated dimmers is a quick fix that makes a big difference in light quality.
Smart Lighting Integration
LED technology pairs perfectly with smart home systems. Modern smart switches and dimmers let you control your LED lighting from your phone, set schedules, create scenes for different activities, and even adjust color temperature throughout the day — warm tones in the evening, cooler tones for focused work.
If you're already thinking about smart home upgrades, our post on what to wire in your Maine smart home covers how LED lighting fits into a broader smart home strategy. The short version: start with smart LED switches in your most-used rooms and expand from there.
Commercial LED Upgrades: Even Bigger Savings
The ROI on LED lighting is impressive for homes, but it's even more dramatic for commercial properties. Offices, retail stores, restaurants, and warehouses typically run lighting for 10-16 hours per day, making the energy savings substantially larger.
Common commercial LED upgrades we handle include replacing fluorescent troffers with LED flat panels in office spaces, upgrading parking lot and exterior security lighting to LED, installing occupancy sensors paired with LED fixtures so lights turn off automatically in unoccupied rooms, and retrofitting warehouse high-bay fixtures with LED equivalents that produce better light with 60-70% less energy.
Because commercial fixtures run so many more hours, payback on a commercial LED conversion is usually much faster than in a home — the same per-fixture arithmetic above, multiplied by longer operating hours. Businesses in Westbrook, Saco and across the region should also check Efficiency Maine's current commercial lighting programs before buying fixtures.
Efficiency Maine Rebates
Speaking of rebates — Maine homeowners and businesses can take advantage of Efficiency Maine incentives for qualifying LED upgrades. The specific rebate amounts change periodically, but they can meaningfully reduce the cost of a whole-home or whole-building conversion. We stay current on available incentives and can help you understand what applies to your project.
Lighting Design: Not All LEDs Are Created Equal
A common mistake is buying the cheapest LED bulbs available and then being disappointed with the light quality. Color temperature (measured in Kelvin), color rendering index (CRI), and beam angle all affect how a room looks and feels. A 3000K warm white LED with a CRI above 90 makes a living room feel inviting. A 5000K daylight LED with a low CRI makes the same room feel like a hospital.
When Goodnow Electric handles a lighting upgrade, we help you select the right color temperature and fixture style for each room. If you're building new, our guide on electrical planning for new construction covers how to design a layered lighting plan from scratch.
Light Quality in a Maine Winter
Portland gets only about nine hours of daylight around the winter solstice, so for several months a year most of your waking hours at home are spent under artificial light. That makes quality matter more here than in sunnier places. A few practical rules:
- Living spaces — 2700K to 3000K with a CRI of 90 or higher feels warm and renders skin tones and wood naturally.
- Kitchens and workspaces — 3000K to 3500K gives crisper task light without feeling clinical.
- Garages, basements and workshops — 4000K is fine, and LED fixtures start at full brightness in a cold garage where fluorescent tubes struggle.
- Consistency — Keep one color temperature per room. Mixing 2700K and 5000K fixtures is the fastest way to make a renovated room look unfinished.
Recessed Lights and Your Attic
Old recessed cans under an attic are often not airtight and leak warm, moist air into the attic all winter, which wastes heat and can contribute to ice dams. Current energy codes require recessed fixtures in an insulated ceiling to be rated for insulation contact (IC-rated) and sealed. Replacing old housings with airtight IC-rated LED fixtures fixes the heat leak and the lighting at the same time — and slim LED wafer fixtures need very little ceiling depth, which helps in older homes with shallow joists.
The Maintenance Advantage
Beyond energy savings, LED lighting dramatically reduces maintenance costs. Incandescent bulbs burn out every year or two. Fluorescent tubes degrade, flicker, and need ballast replacements. LED fixtures last 15-25 years under normal residential use, which means fewer trips up the ladder, fewer bulb purchases, and fewer calls to the electrician for burnout replacements — especially valuable for hard-to-reach fixtures like vaulted ceiling recessed lights and exterior floodlights.
Start Saving This Month
An LED lighting upgrade is one of the rare home improvements where you don't have to wait years to see the benefit. Your next electricity bill will be lower. Your home will look better. And you'll stop replacing burned-out bulbs every few months.
Goodnow Electric offers free estimates for residential and commercial LED upgrades across Southern Maine. Whether you want to convert a few key rooms or do a whole-property overhaul, we'll walk through your space, recommend the right approach, and give you an honest quote.
Contact us online or call (207) 318-1022 to get started. Check out our panel upgrade guide if you're wondering whether your electrical system can handle additional circuits for new lighting. Local details are on our pages for lighting installation in Portland and lighting installation in Westbrook.