LED bulbs ready for prime time?

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glenforest
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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by glenforest » October 15th, 2016, 6:23 pm

Thanks for bumping this, GD. I'm wondering about a couple of thing myself regarding LEDs.

First, I need to replace a 100 watt incandescent bulb in a bathroom exhaust fan-light fixture. All the 100-watt equivalent bulbs at the big orange store were labeled as not suitable for use in a totally enclosed or recessed fixture. The fan-light fixture happens to be both. Are there any 100-watt equivalents for enclosed fixtures? I presume the problem is heat buildup.

Second, anybody have any experience with the LED 3-way bulbs? Most of our lighting in the family room is from table lamps, and I was wondering if the 3-way bulbs are ready for prime time. They're still pretty expensive.

Thanks

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » October 15th, 2016, 8:31 pm

the Osram lightify series has a white adjustable bulb. The rgb bulb does the same. You can then match them to the color of your existing lights.


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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by laadams85 » October 18th, 2016, 8:28 pm

I put fans in the kids rooms and have used dimmable LEDs. Very happy with them so far.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by chrismar » October 19th, 2016, 8:46 am

I've been slowly replacing my 40ish 100W PAR38 halogen flood lights with 14W Hyperikon LED bulbs from Amazon. I got them at 3,000K, as I find a bit more pleasant than the 2,700K, which for whatever reason are super yellow/orange to my eyes. These aren't as jarring as the sterile looking 5 or 6,000K (not knocking those who like it, it's just not for me). So far I've got about 1/3 of them in service and I've had a few of them in for more than a year, and they're still going strong.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by LoneRanger » October 19th, 2016, 10:43 am

^ I really like 3000K. I also like ~4000K, as well.


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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » October 19th, 2016, 11:31 am

Can anybody recommend LED grow lights for about 4'X4' area worth of plants?

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by HSB3-LI » October 19th, 2016, 5:28 pm

I have ecosmart retrofit led down lights from HD installed throughout my house. At the time, they were also labeled with Cree's name on the housing and had a truewhite technology marking. Have them for 4-5 years now, see daily use and have held up great. Highly recommend them. I've bought some more recently, but didn't notice Cree's label on these ones. Not sure if they still use the same light engine

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by GeorgiaDad » December 30th, 2016, 7:41 pm

I'm wondering if anybody has a favorite brand. I've tried several with mixed results. None have come close to their supposed lifetime. Sylvania's have a nice color temp the wife and I like. But a few of them lasted only a short time.
Well I figured out that problem. I was noticing several things were acting strange. Then one day the wife started the dryer and it was like someone dimmed all the lights. I quickly shut everything down and got out a meter. Turns out phase "A" had 134 volts and phase "B" had 107 volts. I had the power company come out and they found a tree rat had climbed the pole and chewed mostly through the "B" phase and neutral. They replaced the service and now everything is back to normal.

So now that should take care of the short life of the LED's I was experiencing. After the holidays I'll be looking into the Cree "TW" series.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by andy10917 » December 30th, 2016, 8:06 pm

Sometimes, it's even simpler than that. We had a "strobing issue" on one chain of LED's in the kitchen, and yes, it was most noticeable when the dryer was on. Pulled the dimmer a few days ago and found a circa 1990 Lutron dimmer. Replaced and voila!!

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by andy10917 » November 26th, 2017, 1:05 pm

Wow! I was reminded of this thread yesterday when I was at HD and they had ten 60W-equivalent LED bulbs for $13.49. That's $1.35 a bulb. Things sure have changed from when this thread started in 2011.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by ken-n-nancy » November 26th, 2017, 1:17 pm

andy10917 wrote:
November 26th, 2017, 1:05 pm
Wow! I was reminded of this thread yesterday when I was at HD and they had ten 60W-equivalent LED bulbs for $13.49. That's $1.35 a bulb. Things sure have changed from when this thread started in 2011.
That's for certain! In a half-dozen years, LED bulbs have gone from being barely affordable to nearly as inexpensive as conventional bulbs.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Green » November 27th, 2017, 2:09 pm

Now, many states are beginning to replace Sodium Vapor. Mercury Vapor, and HID road lights with LEDs. Especially here in CT. Of course, the majority of lights on the road right now are Sodium vapor. They produce that salmon-colored, mostly monochromatic light. The thing is, the LEDs tend to be broad spectrum, much cooler in color temperature, and also at the same time a bit dimmer in some cases. A lot of people are concerned about the LEDs impacting night vision, and even circadian rhythms...which might cause stress to people. One way to solve these issues would be to use warm colored LEDs as streetlights.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by bpgreen » November 27th, 2017, 3:46 pm

Green wrote:
November 27th, 2017, 2:09 pm
Now, many states are beginning to replace Sodium Vapor. Mercury Vapor, and HID road lights with LEDs.
I read something about a city in Canada that replaced all of its streetlights with LED bulbs to save money and energy (thereby reducing pollution). The problem with that is that they don't produce enough heat to melt snow, so the lights were obscured. That meant that they had to have city workers drive around and clean the lights. The net effect was that it cost more and caused more pollution due to the vehicles driving around.

I don't know if they ended up going back to the original lights or not.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » November 27th, 2017, 6:11 pm

ken-n-nancy wrote:
November 26th, 2017, 1:17 pm
andy10917 wrote:
November 26th, 2017, 1:05 pm
Wow! I was reminded of this thread yesterday when I was at HD and they had ten 60W-equivalent LED bulbs for $13.49. That's $1.35 a bulb. Things sure have changed from when this thread started in 2011.
That's for certain! In a half-dozen years, LED bulbs have gone from being barely affordable to nearly as inexpensive as conventional bulbs.
double this!

I'm working on adding a home theater, guest room, and kitchen/bar in the basement, and the LED bulbs have dropped in price significantly.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Green » November 27th, 2017, 7:16 pm

bpgreen wrote:
November 27th, 2017, 3:46 pm
I read something about a city in Canada that replaced all of its streetlights with LED bulbs to save money and energy (thereby reducing pollution). The problem with that is that they don't produce enough heat to melt snow, so the lights were obscured. That meant that they had to have city workers drive around and clean the lights. The net effect was that it cost more and caused more pollution due to the vehicles driving around.
The snow actually blocked the undersides of the lights?! That is not cool. I don't remember noticing that happening last Winter here in the areas that were already converted to LEDs. I do know that the lights they've been installing are overall dimmer and/or have less throw than the old lights. The net result is that the roads aren't quite as well lit as they were before. Probably has something to do with the bulb Wattage and reflector type they used.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » November 27th, 2017, 8:56 pm

The other great thing about using LEDs in a home theater - type application is that they are much safer. Often you are using a lot of combustible material to sound-treat something like a home theater and it inevitably gets close to the lights. You also use a lot of lights in a home theater. An LED gives off much less heat, lowering your fire risk.

BUT, as previously mentioned - I don't think they give off the same amount of light.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by bpgreen » November 28th, 2017, 12:24 am

Green wrote:
November 27th, 2017, 7:16 pm
bpgreen wrote:
November 27th, 2017, 3:46 pm
I read something about a city in Canada that replaced all of its streetlights with LED bulbs to save money and energy (thereby reducing pollution). The problem with that is that they don't produce enough heat to melt snow, so the lights were obscured. That meant that they had to have city workers drive around and clean the lights. The net effect was that it cost more and caused more pollution due to the vehicles driving around.
The snow actually blocked the undersides of the lights?! That is not cool. I don't remember noticing that happening last Winter here in the areas that were already converted to LEDs. I do know that the lights they've been installing are overall dimmer and/or have less throw than the old lights. The net result is that the roads aren't quite as well lit as they were before. Probably has something to do with the bulb Wattage and reflector type they used.
Oops. My mistake. I think it was stop lights, not street lights.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by MorpheusPA » November 30th, 2017, 12:46 pm

bpgreen wrote:
November 28th, 2017, 12:24 am
Oops. My mistake. I think it was stop lights, not street lights.
Yep, it was. They installed simple resistance heating units within the lights to keep the temperature warm enough to melt snow. It's not as efficient as just the LED, of course, but it's still far more efficient than incandescent light.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by andy10917 » December 1st, 2017, 10:16 am

I use LED lighting in my planted freshwater aquarium. Some of the plants are pretty demanding for light. I supply a little over 21,000 lumens of 6500K light over a 9 sq ft area. It's, umm, pretty bright - a 60-watt incandescent is about 800 lumens. The big trick in that game is to use 3W individual LED's to penetrate 24" of water to the bottom - a higher count of smaller LEDs doesn't work well.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Maizan24 » December 1st, 2017, 11:42 am

Green wrote:
November 27th, 2017, 2:09 pm
Now, many states are beginning to replace Sodium Vapor. Mercury Vapor, and HID road lights with LEDs. Especially here in CT. Of course, the majority of lights on the road right now are Sodium vapor. They produce that salmon-colored, mostly monochromatic light. The thing is, the LEDs tend to be broad spectrum, much cooler in color temperature, and also at the same time a bit dimmer in some cases. A lot of people are concerned about the LEDs impacting night vision, and even circadian rhythms...which might cause stress to people. One way to solve these issues would be to use warm colored LEDs as streetlights.
They switched my neighborhood, if not the whole town, over maybe a month or 2 ago.

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