I'd like to try some LEDs without having to through out the existing fixtures. Is there such a thing as LEDs Bulbs that fit a T-12 Fluoro fixture or so some sort of converter?

I just went though this ordeal myself. The builder brought in Water Boy (see my posts on this forum about him) and he tried to rip me for 8 thousand dollars. I solved the problem myself for 1000. As mentioned above - get your water professionally tested. You must have very accurate measurements of hardness and iron so that the filtration system can be optimized for your specific situation. My well water is hard (9 grains per gallon) and the iron is also high (2 parts per million which equals about 8 to 10 grains per gallon). This meant that I had a problem that a small water filter was not going to address. I found a great source - www.abundantwaterflow.com. Talk to a guy named Mark in sales. He is very knowledgeable and honest. I ordered a water softener from him for a total of 700 dollars which included shipping. It came with a Fleck 7000 valve which is (as I found from many searches on the Plumbing forum) a high end control valve - very easy to program as I did in about 5 minutes. I had my plumber (nickname John Wayne - and I swear he looks exaclty like him, except he speaks with a Slavic accent) install the system for 300 dollars. Very simple. I also thought that I would need an iron filter - and if you read on the Plumbing forum (see aliceinwonderland posts) - the Pyrolox filter is recommended for iron. Mark convinced me to NOT buy the iron filter yet - to install the softener first since it will remove some iron. That is why I like Abundantwaterflow - they could have easily made another 1000 dollars since I was ready to buy that too. But they gave me an honest opinion and a lower cost solution that can be expanded if required. I had the plumber set the system up so that I can add in the iron filter myself if that becomes necessary. I am waiting on the results of a recent test to see if I really need that type of filter or the softener will do the job for both hardness and iron. The softener was delivered to my house in 4 boxes. The tank is fiberglass and is very light, the resin filter material is heavy - one box about 45 pounds the other box around 25 pounds), and finally the brine tank and otjer parts which is light and looks like a small garbage can. I assembled it myself - the hardest part by far was getting the resin into the tank. The stuff is like caviar - small beads - and was a little difficult to pour in because I was dumb. I hoisted the 50 pound bag up and poured directly into the tank. DON"T do this - use a small pail and dump some resin into the pail - then pour that small amount of resin into the tank. It will take a little longer but is much easier and safer. It took me about 1 hour to assemble all the parts and connect up everything except the main water input and the flex line drains - which John Wayne did for me. I hope this helps. One thing i found out is that there are a lot of people who will throw a lot of mumbo jumbo at you on the complexities of doing this yourself. It is not that hard - just do your research.

Sorry to disagree. But LEDs are fantastic for general lighting. The quality of the light looks just as good as a normal bulb. And the Cree LRP-38 Par 38 bulb has light just as good as a halogen. We've actually replaced halogen PAR bulbs in a retail store with the LRP 38. She's saving over 3000 watts of power with absolutely no sacrifice in light quality. Different LEDs have different qualities though. I don't know how good the Excel ones are. And if it's just a screw in bulb, I would question how good it is. The Cree bulb is the one exception I've seen, but it's also very pricey. But for recessed light applications, we've been extremely successful using LED light sources. They are brighter, more flexible, have better color rendering and sometimes even less expensive than equivalent fluorescent bulbs.

We found the IKEA one pictured (first one) to be worthless. It gave off no light. It is rated for too small a bulb I put two of them in our basement hall years ago. For our new guest room we decided we didn't want to go with such a BAM fixture it is what people noticed when coming into the room. I think there are times the fixture is part of the decor and make a statement but for us the guest room wasn't one of these places. We replaced the circa '70s builder's grade square glass cover with a frosted round one. Not a huge step up by any means, $6.00 at Menards..but it updated and can hold 60 watt bulbs.