LED Globe Bulbs?

[kalevi]

LEDs, if they are going to comply with the new standards, should burn for 40,000 hours = 1666.7 days = 4.7 years. If you run them about 8 hours a day, that means they should last about 12 years. The price will eventually come down. What usually goes in the LED lights that screw into a standard socket are the capacitors that are part of the AC to DC convertor. There is an awful lot of research being done on how to get them to be warm white. CREE is one of the very few US companies that make them. You can check out the CREE website for more details http://www.creeledlighting.com/

 

[velvetfoot]

I just searched and it does look like the LEDs are getting more powerful, as in lumens/watt. Last time I looked CFLs were about the same. Thing is, you probably have to pay a premium (above ordingary LED bulbs) for those high output LED bulbs now. I was happy to find CFLs that dimmed nicely. A thought just occurred to me: these LED bulbs are sensitive to power quality, are they? As in, running on a generator, or would you need a fancy solid state inverter generator to go with your fancy solid state bulbs?

 

[GaryGary]

Hi,
You might just trying phoning www.1000bulbs.com -- I've found them to be quite helpful in identifying good products.

Gary

 

[MishMouse]

Has anyone made a sodium vapor light bulb yet?

Is there another gas that can be used in a CFL format to produce an acceptable light?
I am thinking maybe Helium or even Neon of the Nobel Gases.
They use these gases allot in signs but, could there application be modified for use in a more home environment?

CFL's are good, but advances still need to be made to ensure that their electronic ballast system can better withstand regular home use. I have seen improvement in these in the past 5 years, but there is still a ways to go.

As for LED's, I have had LED's in my hand held games that still work after 30+ years. -side note "I found my old Battlestar Galatica game, put a battery in , and it worked just like it did when I put it in storage". Though they are not always on which would be the reason why they do not overheat and burn out, but maybe they will be more suited for regular home use?

 

[Highbeam]

I got a free LED 40 watt equiv bulb for my desklamp at work. Some goofy treehugger swapped it on my when I was gone for the day. These buggers cost 20$ apiece. The lightbulb being replaced is a 39 cent 60 watt soft white incandescent that makes a lovely warm light.

I immediately ripped that stupid white LED out of there and replaced it with the incandescent. The LED is very white, and not too bright. The LED specs are dimmable, 8 watt, 3000k color, "warm white" (my a$$), made by ecosmart, and sold by home depot. The installer dropped one and I got to look inside to see a pair of 1/4" or so LED emitters shinging out through a transluscent globe.

8 watts for a 40 watt equiv bulb and crappy color? No thanks. I prefer CFL at this time.

 

[PapaDave]

Replaced all the incandescents in the house with cfl about 4-5 years ago and none have gone bad. Still have a few I got from the power co. for free last year, but as they die out, and led light prices come down, they'll get replaced. I won't get any more cfl, and need to find someplace that will recycle those.
At the rate they aren't dying, this may take a while. :coolsmile:

 

[billb3]

I've had a couple of dimmable CFL burn up and I've dropped them off at the desk by the entrance doors at Home Depot.

I think I've gotten pay back on a few Philips Earth Light Household CFL I bought around 2000. Still pretty much instant on but dimmer at start as they age. Kinda pinkish now for a few seconds.

 

[jebatty]

How many get the obvious humor in this thread? Not to give humor credits to anyone particular, but this is hilarious:

I got a free LED 40 watt equiv bulb for my desklamp at work. Some goofy treehugger swapped it on my when I was gone for the day.... I immediately ripped that stupid white LED out of there and replaced it with the incandescent.

I'm surprised that there have no hijacks from those that have scrapped their SUV's and pickup trucks for mules, or LED/LCD flat screen TV's for 2 cans and a string, or the computer used to post this humor for a chisel and a stone, or a bucket and a creek for inside plumbing, or incandescent bulbs for rendered lard and a wick.

Keep the daily funnies coming!

 

[velvetfoot]

It's no joke. The 3000 K LED bulb I got at HD was nowhere near warm. You need 2700 K. They had a Phillips LED 2700 K bulb there that was yellow when not lit - who wants that? I tried to make it work, but I'm not buying huge dollar bulbs either. It was interesting at how hot the bulb got - for 10 watts, or whatever, the body got real hot. I can see them burning out from excessive heat in certain applications. Why do they kick out so much heat for such small power use? The cfls you can put your hand on it.

 

[begreen]

Maybe it's glow bulb warming?

 

[Weird tolkienish figure]

I use halogens for my overhead lights because you use them so infrequently. They are flipped on and off and few times a day. Reading lights are used for longer, but CFL's and LED output the worst light in this application. Both are way too dim or are a harsh color... or maybe I just bought crappy CFL's?

If you want to save money with lightbulbs just turn the damn things off every once in a while.

 

[begreen]

You are correct, all CFLs are not equal, not even close in some cases. FWIW, we have been using CFL's for reading lights for a few years now and compact halogens for longer. They can be incredibly bright, it just depends on the wattage. Our CFL floor lamps have white shades which also allows a nice diffuse light besides the direct illumination of the bulb. We have 19watt bulbs in these lamps. The halogens use a 50w bulb, but have a low/high switch and we usually run them on low. I have one with the original bulb still in it from around 1985.

 

[Highbeam]

Not really trying to inject "humor" that's just what happened, I really do work with some treehuggers and the guy tried to trick me. I figured out who did it and we had a great laugh. The only incandescent I have at my home is in the fridge so I am not resistant to change. In a task lighting situation where quality of light is important, the incandescent often reigns supreme.

 

[begreen]

Yes, I look carefully at the color temperature and lumens output specs for these LEDs. Very often I am seeing CFLs or halogens outperform them. I'm willing to acknowledge that there are some LED products on the market that are good. I recently tested a Cree LR6 and it was excellent. They have good color and are bright. But I'm not going to pay for them at the current premium. Their ROI and affordability index still need to improve.

FYI, I have just installed some dimmable CFLs (TCP brand). They work really well so far with a modern Lutron dimmer. I have a couple Feit dimmable CFLs on an old Leviton dimmer and they don't work well at all in comparison. I'm going to replace the dimmer here to see if that's the issue.

We'll see how these TCPs do. They are top rated for dimmables.

 

[velvetfoot]

Those are the ones I got. Again, I noticed some intermittent pulsing on a Lutron (not Leviton as I mistakenly noted earlier) dimmer made for leds and cfls, but not on the model made for incandescents.

 

[begreen]

Oh good, my dimmers are made for incandescents. So far I have to admit it's working better than expected. We'll see how well the bulbs last here.

 

[Mainely Saws]

I have a shop with a lot of grinding machines in it & each machine has a light . I used to replace standard bulbs a lot due to the vibration of the grinders . I switched to all CFL's ( bright daylight , blue package from HD ) & haven't replaced a bulb in over a year . They are on all day 6 days a week . The CFL's seem to handle the ceiling fan vibration quite well too . As soon as the LED's come down in price I'll give those a try .......

 

[Slow1]

I have a shop with a lot of grinding machines in it & each machine has a light . I used to replace standard bulbs a lot due to the vibration of the grinders . I switched to all CFL's ( bright daylight , blue package from HD ) & haven't replaced a bulb in over a year . They are on all day 6 days a week . The CFL's seem to handle the ceiling fan vibration quite well too . As soon as the LED's come down in price I'll give those a try .......

Same experience here but with my garage doors - I went through quite a few bulbs before I installed FCLs in there due to vibrations.

On another note, I've been picking up LED bulbs (40 watt equivilent 7.5w burn) from lowes when they go on sale for less than $10 ea. I get a couple at a time and put them in various fixtures in the house that are heavy use (kitchen lights etc). They have proven to be very good, dimmable and so far none have failed. The big thing that my family has noticed in these vs the CFL bulbs is that there is no 'warm up' period as they are bright right away. This is rather nice. Also, some of the older CFL bulbs have gradually gotten dimmer since first purchased (a few years ago) so the light output was a significant improvement.

I also in my hall fixtures replaced these little bulbs (small socket 25w each) with some that I picked up at Wal-Mart that are LEDs 2w ea that claim 25w equivilent. Very nice looking bulbs and they do seem very bright. Turned a 3-bulb 75w fixture into a 6w fixture so that is a dramatic improvement and the light output is very comparable. Bulbs were on the order of $6 ea so it wasn't cheap, but I anticipate a long service life in a fixture that is used quite a bit so I expect it is worthwhile (I had considered replacing the fixture to avoid burning 75w to light up that hall, so the bulbs were less expensive than that).

Basically I"m going the LED route as we're running out of ways to reduce our electric usage. Crossed under the 500Kwh/mo ave and looking to see how much lower we can go... I suppose we can eat out more

 

[Highbeam]

500 kwH a month. Must be nice. I'm well over 1200 a month with no electric heat. Good for you, really.

 

[Slow1]

500 kwH a month. Must be nice. I'm well over 1200 a month with no electric heat. Good for you, really.

It has been a 5 year project. We were much higher before the addition on the house 4 years ago. Largest drop of course was taking the DHW off electric... to oil which now doesn't seem so smart. Oh well, anyway conservation measures - largely behavioral and some practical change of appliances etc have really made a difference. That and hanging laundry instead of using the dryer.... The real question is how much our consumption will increase as the kids (now 9 and under) get older.

 

[jebatty]

We too have been on a mission to reduce electric usage. Except for the wood stove which heats the house, and electric baseboard to keep the basement at 45-50F and backup when are gone and cannot use the stove, our house is 100% electric - DHW, clothes dryer, cooktop, oven, lights, etc. Our only lights right now that are not CFL's are lights on dimming circuits, which we do not use very much, and some 4' T12 florescent fixtures in the basement. I was at HD about 2 weeks ago and bought 2 LED 8w bulbs, $10/each, 40w equivalent to incandescent, and replaced the incandescent 60w bulbs on a dimmer over our dining room table. The LED light is very much like sunlight, which I guess is pretty "white," and they appear brighter than the 60w bulbs. My wife really likes the LED light. We're very happy with them.

Our total electric usage in 2011 was 11,959 kwh. Of that, 1217 kwh was DHW, 5443 was backup electric baseboard, and 5299 (442 kwh/mo) was general service electric.

 

[Slow1]

I too like the more "white" aspect of the LED bulbs. I think it helps make the lower lumen outputs appear brighter so the 40w equiv do seem to be decent replacements for 60w standard bulbs.

I'm impressed with your breakdown Jim - looks like you have done quite well managing your power usage. One of the areas that reduced our electric use was installing the wood stove. Our oil heat uses electric both for the boiler and for the air distribution (hydro-air system) so when it runs it uses a fair amount of power to drive those fans. I burn on the order of 11-14 Kwh/day when we are home. Lowest recorded is 10kwh - but when we are on vacation we run about 6.5kwh so I don't think there is much more 'variable' electric that we can cut here.