LED light bulbs

[Ron]

Anyone using these in place of incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs?

I went back to the old style incandescent (and a couple of the halogen incandescent bulbs) from CF's and am much happier with the light in my home.

It would be ideal if I could get the same light quality with the long term reliability and savings of an LED. The initial cost of going LED is high though; what saith the hive mind?

[AZRedhawk44]

I have one in my bedroom, and I like the color temperature of it a lot.  It's a matter of about $300 to convert my entire house to LED.  Right now I'm running a mix of incandescent and CFL.

[Ben]

I just started switching mine, using the bulbs Costco sells. We have a rebate program with SoCal Edison in CA, so you can get a good part of the purchase price reimbursed. They are called Conserv-Energy bulbs, by FEIT Electric. I'm quite happy with the light, favoring it a bit over the CFLs they replaced (my CFLs were all pretty old, so I can't speak to newer generation CFLs vs LED). They are 40 watt equivalent, but seem brighter to me.

I also replaced a bunch of my mom and dad's lights with these because my dad was griping over us no good rotten kids wasting all his electricity keeping the lights on over Christmas. He's pretty curmudgeonly about change, but is happy with the light from these ( a good bit whiter than the incandescents they replaced). Six of them are in ceiling fans in their kitchen/dining area. I did notice that when the ceiling fan lights were dimmed that I could hear a slight buzzing. I don't know if that's the bulbs or the ceiling fans.

I only have experience with this one brand, so would be interested to hear about other brands and the kind of light they throw.

[roo_ster]

Have not taken the plunge yet into LEDs, especially since I found CFLs to pretty much blow chunks with regard to working life expectancy.  I bought over 100 100W incandescents before the asinine ban on them, so I am good for several years in those applications where an incandescent is the absolute best option.

I hear LEDs have the same problem CFLs do WRT working life expectancy.  All those big life span numbers being taken in vibration-free and well-ventilated (to dissipate heat) labs.  When used in the wild, I have found CFLs to last as long as incandescents at several times the total cost of ownership.

If CFLs had panned out as advertized, I would have been happy.  The awful CFL color can be attenuated with shades & filters in many applications.

[p12]

Recently purchased one for the over the kitchen sink spot. Don't remember the brand was purchased at Lowe's. It is dim-able bulb and had to buy a dim-able switch to go with it. Seems like is was just under 40 bucks.

Love the light. It's bright and good color.

When I can afford it I will be changing every bulb out.

In the mean time we bought a butt load of 60w incandescent bulbs.

  

[Brad Johnson]

I hear LEDs have the same problem CFLs do WRT working life expectancy.

Depends on the brand.  The cheapo bargain LEDs are junk.  The driver circuits are poorly designed, use pathetically bad components, and have mondo problems with heat control (which kills the crappy driver circuit in short order).  The good stuff (GE, CREE, and Philips) far outpaces the cheap junk in every respect and are good buys at current prices.

We have tested the Cree and Philips products for durability and light quality.  No comparison with regard to the quality between these brands and the cheap stuff.  The better products are worth every penny.  For durability the Philips "yellow petal" lamps win hands down.  Pick one up and you'll see why.  Built like a tank.  The CREE lamps are aren't nearly as robust due to their use of a rubberized glass globe, but it is more traditional in appearance and is more efficient (9.5w vs the yellow-petal Philips 12.5 w for a 60w incandescent equivalent).

Also, Philips now also has a more traditionally appearing lamp, the 429381.  It is on par with the CREE in efficiency and price.  My personal impression, based purely on a weigh comparison, is that it is not as physically strong as the previous yellow petal model.  However, given the older model's survive-a-nuclear-holocaust construction, saying the new model isn't as strong is kinda like comparing a Mack truck to an F150.  Also, IIRC this new lamp is not dimmable, though that may have changed recently.  Check current mfg specs to be sure.

Both lamps are available in 2700k incandescent equivalents.  A light meter and spectrum analysis shows color temp claims by both manufacturers were accurate on our samples, mimicking incandescent lamps so well that the difference was imperceptible in impromptu tests with passersby.

Ron, go for it.  There's no real downside if you get good units.  I am slowly converting my house to all-LED as the old incandescent lamps burn out.  Lamp prices have dropped radically in the last year and continue to get lower on an almost daily basis, making the switch even more economically appealing.

Brad

[AJ Dual]

I just started switching mine, using the bulbs Costco sells. We have a rebate program with SoCal Edison in CA, so you can get a good part of the purchase price reimbursed. They are called Conserv-Energy bulbs, by FEIT Electric. I'm quite happy with the light, favoring it a bit over the CFLs they replaced (my CFLs were all pretty old, so I can't speak to newer generation CFLs vs LED). They are 40 watt equivalent, but seem brighter to me.

I also replaced a bunch of my mom and dad's lights with these because my dad was griping over us no good rotten kids wasting all his electricity keeping the lights on over Christmas. He's pretty curmudgeonly about change, but is happy with the light from these ( a good bit whiter than the incandescents they replaced). Six of them are in ceiling fans in their kitchen/dining area. I did notice that when the ceiling fan lights were dimmed that I could hear a slight buzzing. I don't know if that's the bulbs or the ceiling fans.

I only have experience with this one brand, so would be interested to hear about other brands and the kind of light they throw.

Curious as to how well the Feit brand "blubs" hold up.

ALL the cheap junk in the electrical dept. at Menard's here in WI is Feit brand. Their CFL's last about a month. 

OTOH, they had some nice 4W LED standard base small bulbs I got as bed/reading lamps for my girls, since they didn't get hot beyond maybe body temp., even when they left them on and threw blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals on them. And they're still trucking along.

So I'm curious if the higher wattage units are decent, and they've managed to not screw up what should be the inherent stability and simplicity of LED lighting in the name of being the cheapest.

OTOH, Feit might just make whatever it is a retailer wants on spec. And I'd suspect Costco's demands are higher than Menard's by far.

[230RN]

....

[Ben]

OTOH, Feit might just make whatever it is a retailer wants on spec. And I'd suspect Costco's demands are higher than Menard's by far.

Yeah, the ones I saw were totally an impulse buy - I had not done any research beforehand. That said, yeah, I've found Costco generally has pretty high standards, so hopefully these meet some minimum Costco standard even if the general brand is junk. If not,  I guess on the bright side, the Edison company paid for most of them. :)

[K Frame]

So far I've bought one LED bulb. I forget who makes it, but it's a 60W equiv. I currently have it in my living room in the table lamp. The light is bluer than I like, so I'm probably going to replace it with something like a Samsung Warm White and put this one in the fixture outside.

[brimic]

I'd like to take all of the idiots who foisted the low flow toilets and showers upon us, tie them to the bumper of a Hummer H2, and drag them through a field of crushed CFLs.

[vaskidmark]

I'm on the second round of LEDs in the kitchen.  Learned the hard way that the glass globe enclosing the bulbs retained too much heat & caused them to essentially burn out.  Got a cheap clip-on shade - as nobody comes and admires my kitchen ceiling it does not matter how cheap/chintzy it may look.

Been running a LED flood in the living room for about a year now.  Much better than the CFL it replaced.

I've got LEDs from Home depot to use when the incadescents burn out.  Cost will be recouped if they last 3 years after the last incandescent goes TU.

stay safe.

[TechMan]

I just put in our first LED bulb, 100W equivalent.  It went into the bathroom next to 2 incandescent 100W bulbs.  I have to say it seems brighter and is the right color temp that we are looking for in the bathroom.  As my other bulbs die out, I will replace them with LEDs. It was a Sylvania that I got at Lowes.

http://assets.sylvania.com/assets/Documents/RETRO053.64ed2042-64e7-4e16-9150-ffda82e7bd6d.pdf

[Brad Johnson]

Figured those unfamiliar with color temps and such might like some basics.  This chart does a pretty good job.





From this you can see where the "warm" and "cool" color descriptors come from.  Lower on the color temp scale is warmer (yellow and yellow-orange light), higher is cooler (white and blue-white).  FYI, terms like "warm white" and "cool white" are (at best) general guidelines.  They lack any type of standardization and can be very subjective.  It's better to have a baseline understanding of color temp (see chart above) so you can tell where the light output really falls.


Along with color temp there is also color spectrum.  Just like sunlight through a prism, differing light sources have differing spectra.  The more complete the output spectrum, the better the illumination will be at rendering colors accurately.  The spectral "notching" of fluorescent (long tube and CFL) is why fluorescent illumination always seems to have a vaguely artificial quality.  Modern CFLs have solved this to some degree with gas mixes and filter coatings, but it's still an issue inherent to fluorescent light sources.  To illustrate.




LEDs have an inherently more complete color spectra vs fluorescent so I wouldn't worry about it other than to file it away as a handy factoid.  It is nice to note, though, that a 5500k LED closet light will accurately render clothing colors the same as would noonday sun, or at least as close as makes no everyday difference.  No more getting those almost-the-same sock colors mixed, or trying to figure out what that tie will really look like with that shirt.

Brad

[Ben]

I just put in our first LED bulb, 100W equivalent.  It went into the bathroom next to 2 incandescent 100W bulbs.  I have to say it seems brighter and is the right color temp that we are looking for in the bathroom.  As my other bulbs die out, I will replace them with LEDs. It was a Sylvania that I got at Lowes.

http://assets.sylvania.com/assets/Documents/RETRO053.64ed2042-64e7-4e16-9150-ffda82e7bd6d.pdf

How big is that thing? I wanted to get a couple of 100 watt equivalents when I bought the 40s, but the 100 watt ones at Costco were huge (though not much bigger than some of my CFLs). I'd love some of those in the same size as an incandescent.

I have to say, I like LED light too. I put the little candelabra lights in the light over my dining room table, and they dim way better than the CFLs I had there did, and they have a much brighter and more pleasant light. I actually like the color better than the light from the original incandescents that were in that lamp.

[AZRedhawk44]

Brad, the above is what stops me from spending that $300 to convert my house to pure LED.

Nobody wants to actually declare a color temperature on their packaging.  And it's driving me nuts.

I want that 4000-6000K nice midrange color temp, in LED, without the pulsy/stark CFL feel.  I run a mix in my 3-bulb ceiling fans right now to give higher K temps from CFL, but smoother light from incandescent.  The only people labeling their bulbs seem to label them between 2500 to 3000 K, which is too yellow for my goals.  About once a month I scavenge through Amazon, looking for someone willing to advertise a nice midrange color temp.

I'm ordering 4 of these, this month:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0073COMUW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AAF37WJS3P6BT

They're 6000 K, which should help with some of the excessive yellow sensation I get in my house sometimes.  I'd prefer to get 5000K right in the middle of my desired spectrum, but I've got 30 bulbs to change to convert my whole house.  I'll take what I can get, when I can get it.  It's very hit and miss to even find a midrange color bulb.

[Gewehr98]

I just put in our first LED bulb, 100W equivalent.  It went into the bathroom next to 2 incandescent 100W bulbs.

Holy sheep dip, do you tan in that bathroom, or just keep the serving trays warm?   

[Brad Johnson]

AZ,

The mfg I mentioned put color temps somewhere on the packaging AFAIK, though it may sometimes be hard to find.  A visit to their web site, or even Amazon for that matter, usually gets the specs. 

Also, 4000-6000 K color temp is considered by most to be pretty harsh.  Noonday sun harsh, and usually more suited to an environment calling for that color temp.  3000-3500 k seems to be the sweet spot for general interior illumination.  The LED troffers in my office are 3500 K and the light is pleasantly neutral, neither stark white nor yellow-ish. If you've never tried a 6000 K lamp, you might want to find one locally and see it in action first before hauling off and ordering a bunch.

I have two of the 2x4 3500 K version of these in my office:
http://www.cree.com/Lighting/Products/Indoor/Troffers/CR-Series 

I looked at your link.  Not sure about that one.  I'd have to see it in action.  Based on the color temp and the fact that I've never heard of it in the reams of stuff I've researched for LED lamps, I'm guessing it's a cluster array of plain white LEDs using a heavily frosted cap for light dispersion (common in some of the hurry-up-and-get-something-on-the-market imports).  I'm curious to know how well they work in a real work environment given the price.  Would you post an update on performance when you have a chance?  More than a few of the reviews mention flickering and reliability issues, so I have to keep that in mind too.

Brad

[roo_ster]

I'd like to take all of the idiots who foisted the low flow toilets and showers upon us, tie them to the bumper of a Hummer H2, and drag them through a field of crushed CFLs.

Can I ride shotgun?

[lee n. field]

Anyone using these in place of incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs?

I went back to the old style incandescent (and a couple of the halogen incandescent bulbs) from CF's and am much happier with the light in my home.

It would be ideal if I could get the same light quality with the long term reliability and savings of an LED. The initial cost of going LED is high though; what saith the hive mind?

I picked up one a couple months ago.  It was a name brand, I forget which.  Price was around $8 for a 60W equivalent.  Seems to work well, light resembles the incandescent (ie., not garish bluewhite).  It gets warm but not hot.

I'll be getting more, in the fullness of time.

[lee n. field]

Have not taken the plunge yet into LEDs, especially since I found CFLs to pretty much blow chunks with regard to working life expectancy. 

They vary.  We have one that's still working that we installed when we moved in 20 years ago.

[lee n. field]

I have a box of them with date installed and date of death written on them with a magic marker.

Why, you ask?

Because when and if our stupid, stupid Colorado hyper-left legislators decide to try to mandate them, I'm going to send that box to my local stupid-stupid hyper-left Legislator with a note not to believe the lobbyists and to shitcan the notion that "They do it in California, why not here in Colorado?"

Then let her dispose of them in a proper manner.

Pack those careful, now.  Wouldn't want them to break in transit.

[lee n. field]

Holy sheep dip, do you tan in that bathroom, or just keep the serving trays warm?   

Our dining room light has 6 60W equivalent bulbs in it.  It helps my mood in the winter.

[AZRedhawk44]

Brad, I'll let you know when they come in.

My house is an older style with less natural lighting than many newer designs, and I do find myself craving more ambient light.  These bulbs will simulate that for me, I think.  All I know is my light is much too yellow in my house as it is right now.

[Brad Johnson]

Brad, I'll let you know when they come in.

My house is an older style with less natural lighting than many newer designs, and I do find myself craving more ambient light.  These bulbs will simulate that for me, I think.  All I know is my light is much too yellow in my house as it is right now.

If the ones in your link don't work out, you might give these a try.  They may even be available at Home Depot now.

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-425264-Household-Daylight-Dimmable/dp/B00APTS030/ref=sr_1_1?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=lamps-light&ie=UTF8&qid=1388699785&sr=1-1

5000 K color temp, and I'm familiar with the light dispersion from a similar Philips product (nicely uniform).  Scroll down in the description for a comparison table.

Brad