We are looking at lights/fans for the bathroom. We don't want to spend a lot of money. The fan/light combination units at Menards and Depot say to use incandescent or energy-efficient equivalent. The more expensive fixtures come with integrated LED lamps. The bottom line question is, can we use an LED bulb in the less expoensive fixture that says incandescent or equivalent?
Incandescent Equivalent for Bathroom Fan/Light
fansvent
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The fan controller is monitoring the lamp circuit to know when the lamp turns off. It seems as though it relies on a low-resistance path to neutral through the lamp filament to run the timer.
The LED lamps have fancier electronics in them so there may not be a direct path to neutral if the electronics is not running.
In very simple terms you are trying to "Condition the Air" not just cool it. There is a term "relative humidity" which affects the way you feel at certain temperature. Weathermen refer to it as a heat index. The higher the humidity the more uncomfortable you feel at a lower temperature. So if you are running a fan at low speed it gives the compressor and cooling coil time to dehumidify the air rather than just cool it. On high temperature low humidity days running the fan at a higher speed will allow the air to cool down faster and reduces the air conditioner's ability to dehumidify.
Best Answer
Isherwood's comment is certainly valid, but here's a rundown of the possibilities (that I am aware of).
It has an Edison socket
That's one of these
It will likely be an E26, which is your standard light bulb size. Anything that fits will work fine (unless you find an incandescent that exceeds the wattage rating on the fixture).
It has an orange connector thingy
I don't actually know what they're called, but they look like this
Since these are mostly used in downlights (recessed lights) you can find LED trims for recessed lighting in the appropriate size (4", 6", etc.) for your vent fixture.
It has a built-in LED
You simply need to wire it. No replaceable bulbs are required.
Other
You could find something that uses a GU10 or another type of bulb that isn't an Edison socket, but this category is largely the same as the Edison socket category. Simply find any matching bulb with wattage equal to or less than the rating.