Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: cordex on August 30, 2015, 01:07:19 AM
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My power company (as with most, I imagine) has an additional charge built in to their bills that they use to provide incentives to improve energy efficiency via installing more efficient appliances, adding insulation and so forth. One "benefit" - I.e. way I can get some of my swindled money back - is that I can buy LED bulbs at a discount.
The capsule type bulbs they offer are a 10 watt TCP, a 10.5 watt slim Phillips and three types of CREE bulbs (11w, 9.5w and 6w).
Among their candelabra base bulbs they offer TCP 5w and Phillips 4.5w.
Any suggestions from these options?
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TCP makes decent lamps. Philips are good. Cree I hear good things about, but they tend to be a real goofy shape, if that's an issue for where you're using them.
What do you mean by capsule bulb?
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Thanks fistful. So no bad choices if I don't care about goofy shapes? The 11 Watt CREE is a 4Flow model which is almost identical in shape to an incandescent. I don't know how much I really care, though.
What do you mean by capsule bulb?
Just using the terminology from their website. I think they mean "as opposed to a silly spiral".
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No experience with TCP, my Philips work fine, I had a couple crees blow on me but Home Despot swapped them without argument.
Fistful: Capsule probably means 'enclosed like a regular bulb'.
You consider this a goofy shape for a light bulb?
(https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0002/0948/products/cree-led-a19-bulb-4flow-40-watt-replacement_1024x1024.jpg)
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I've used both the Cree and Philips lamps. Hard to go wrong either way. The Cree lamps Firethorn linked are good performers for the price, just not dimmable. I have a Cree 3-way in my nightstand lamp and like it. A lot. The lighting at each illumination level is perfect for the location and the low-power step consumes a miserly 3 watts.
Brad
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I've used all three brands with no issues. You probably can't go too wrong. I tend to prefer CREE but that's likely just brand recognition from CREE LED'S in my flashlights. (Where they also work really well)
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We've got many Cree and Ecosmart LED bulbs we've purchased from Home Depot over the last several years. Nary a problem with any of them. I prefer the Cree only because they've gotten a buck or so cheaper than the Ecosmart bulbs. That's reverse of how they started out years back.
I only have one or two Phillips bulbs. No problems there.
I have three of the TCP connected home bulbs in porch lights. Aside from losing the network control occasionally and the bulbs not turning on or off at the appointed times, they work okay. I don't know if the connectivity issue is with the bulbs or the controller.
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Cree generally have good spectrum in each price segment, and run cool. Some Feit bulbs appear very competitive on lumens-per-dollar, but run very hot (for an LED).
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I know nothing of the brands you're talking about, first hand, but CREE does have a good name. I heard somewhere that the good LED bulbs generally use CREE internals. I think that was on APS actually.
In my house I've had really good luck with the Fiet made bulbs sold by Costco. It's a typical shaped bulb (I think A19 is the style but I'm not certain) that's equivalent to a 60W incandescent and dimmable. I like them. I got a slew on sale for $3 a pop. Very worth it. Their flood lights are nice too but I don't use them as much. I will though, it's just a matter of older CFLs burning out.
I've also started replacing metal halide bulbs at work that run at 150W with 22W "corn cob" style bulbs sold by Hyperikon through Amazon. Holy heck do I like them! You have to bypass the ballast used in HID lights for the LED version to work but that just cuts out another part that needs maintenance. At home I just replaced some 4ft flourescent tubes with Hyperikon LED tubes and they're just like HID -- you have to (or should) bypass the ballast. This particular fixture went TU 5 years ago, I tried replacing the tubes but that didn't work so I did the ballasts and that didn't work, and I have no idea WTF I did wrong. Maybe I had bad tubes maybe I had speced out the ballasts wrong, maybe I wired it all up wrong. I rewired it for LED (which is balls dead simple) and that room with the 72W of LED in there is freaking BRIGHT.
I would never replace a single metal halide bulb or florescent one ever again. LED all the way on those ones.