LED bulbs ready for prime time?

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HanLawn
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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by HanLawn » October 28th, 2014, 6:54 pm

Sad to see Cree go in this direction of "cheapening" the product just to shave 2 bucks off the retail price in "the race to the bottom" of LED bulbs.......less efficient than their original bulbs,warranty 3 years vs 10 for their original bulb,plastic instead of glass, no heatsink......the list of downgrades goes on and on. Time to stock up on their original,well built bulbs while they are still on the shelf. http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/1930 ... -led-bulbs

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by kevreh » October 28th, 2014, 7:49 pm

In a way I'm all for it. The way I see it it will get more people to convert to led, and save a lot of electricity along the way. As the market matures and broadens, there will be products at different price and quality points. I'm sure cree will have different quality lines of bulbs meeting those consumer demands.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by BoatDrinksQ5 » October 29th, 2014, 9:06 am

yes they need to be able to compete with Feit, Ecosmart, Polaroid and other generics. Although CREE is already cheaper then all of them... lol

I just hope they continue to evolve - which it looks like they will.

One of those things is making the bulb more 'normal looking' and getting the size to be equal to a regular bulb.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by jglongisland » October 29th, 2014, 9:09 am

BoatDrinksQ5 wrote:yes they need to be able to compete with Feit, Ecosmart, Polaroid and other generics. Although CREE is already cheaper then all of them... lol

I just hope they continue to evolve - which it looks like they will.

One of those things is making the bulb more 'normal looking' and getting the size to be equal to a regular bulb.
Size is a big deal. I have a number of fixtures where the extra size prevents me from using the Cree bulbs, turns out some of the philips were narrower at the base.

The other issue is/are enclosed fixtures. I've got a lot of them and am using the Cree's in them even though I know the lifespan will be shorter.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by McLovin » October 30th, 2014, 6:29 pm

kevreh wrote:In a way I'm all for it. The way I see it it will get more people to convert to led, and save a lot of electricity along the way. As the market matures and broadens, there will be products at different price and quality points. I'm sure cree will have different quality lines of bulbs meeting those consumer demands.

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But if the article that Hanlawn linked is accurate, the Cree 4Flow design is less efficient and costs more to operate over the lifetime of the bulb compared to the filament tower design. While it may be a step up from old bulbs... it is a step down IMHO from Cree's filament tower design. But I do get your point that there may be more choice as long as Cree does not phase out the more efficient design until the next gen that hopefully is more efficient and less costly with the 10 year warranty.


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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by HanLawn » October 30th, 2014, 6:55 pm

Another thing that occured to me regarding this new design,that being the holes on the top and base of the bulb meant to cool the LEDs thru convection,being as the heat rises it exits the top holes and draws in cooler air through the bottom holes.......what if the bulb is used in a horizontal vs vertical position such as many ceiling fixtures?
Also,as this is suppose to be a "long life" bulb,what about the accumulation of dust that is bound to collect in quantity inside the bulb throughout its life?
Personally,I think I will be grabbing a few of the originals in case they decide to quit making them,the 5 we installed in our outdoor fixtures have been running 12 hours a day {one actually 24 hours/day} for the last 19 months now without a hitch.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by McLovin » October 30th, 2014, 7:25 pm

HanLawn wrote:Another thing that occured to me regarding this new design,that being the holes on the top and base of the bulb meant to cool the LEDs thru convection,being as the heat rises it exits the top holes and draws in cooler air through the bottom holes.......what if the bulb is used in a horizontal vs vertical position such as many ceiling fixtures?
Also,as this is suppose to be a "long life" bulb,what about the accumulation of dust that is bound to collect in quantity inside the bulb throughout its life?
Personally,I think I will be grabbing a few of the originals in case they decide to quit making them,the 5 we installed in our outdoor fixtures have been running 12 hours a day {one actually 24 hours/day} for the last 19 months now without a hitch.
Good point HanLawn. Hence the 3 year warranty me thinks.

I just jumped into the LED pool with some Cree filament tower bulbs this week.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by kevreh » October 30th, 2014, 8:02 pm

I think the whole selling point of "invest in the bulb because it will last a million hours! (or whatever)" is sort of a scam anyways. When the bulbs evolve and improve were going to be told to buy the new ones because their better and cheaper. Plus there's certain features that may be common, like controlling lighting from your phone.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/TCP-Connecte ... /205114713

In the meantime upgrading my lighting to LED is strangely addictive. Its hard to justify financially (how long will it take to break even on spending $500 to upgrade my whole house anyways?) but feels good know I'm using a fraction of the electricity. :roll: :D

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by McLovin » October 30th, 2014, 8:08 pm

kevreh wrote:In the meantime upgrading my lighting to LED is strangely addictive. Its hard to justify financially (how long will it take to break even on spending $500 to upgrade my whole house anyways?) but feels good know I'm using a fraction of the electricity. :roll: :D
I feel your $ pain (and also the good feeling from being more efficient)! I bought 12 bulbs and calculated about a year to pay them back from electrical savings. Hoping to wait out a sale to replace some of the recessed can lights that we have (we have something like 25 OUCH).

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Tony alony » October 30th, 2014, 8:39 pm

Can LED lights spy on you? While wearing my tinfoil hat I came across a number of articles and you-tube videos that claim the inaudible frequencies emitted by the LED bulb can become carriers of human voices in the proximity of the greatest, newest, sensation in lighting.
I'm sure the inventors had no malcontent, but what about the bottom dwellers exploiting this?
What do you think? Personally, I also don't like LED's because they emit light in the blue spectrum which is supposedly harmful to human retinas.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by andy10917 » October 30th, 2014, 8:49 pm

We have toilet paper shortages and oil shortages, but not shortage of internet idiots. If only we could crush them and get oil.

Tin-foil hat stuff.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Tony alony » October 30th, 2014, 9:04 pm

Thanks, Andy . I'll just take that personally, since you didn't clarify if you were calling me an idiot or not.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by andy10917 » October 30th, 2014, 9:27 pm

No - it wasn't aimed at you.

Unless you are a tin-foil hat person, for real. That wasn't my read on it.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Tony alony » October 30th, 2014, 9:39 pm

I'm neither a real tin foil hat person nor a self proclaimed oracle; as they are usually obscure & ambiguous.
I was merely stating my suspicions on suddenly new, life changing discoveries, marketed by those who will most likely benefit more than I actually will.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by McLovin » October 30th, 2014, 9:44 pm

Tony alony wrote:Can LED lights spy on you? While wearing my tinfoil hat I came across a number of articles and you-tube videos that claim the inaudible frequencies emitted by the LED bulb can become carriers of human voices in the proximity of the greatest, newest, sensation in lighting.
I'm sure the inventors had no malcontent, but what about the bottom dwellers exploiting this?
What do you think? Personally, I also don't like LED's because they emit light in the blue spectrum which is supposedly harmful to human retinas.
heard the same thing from Rusty Shackelford

Image

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Tony alony » October 30th, 2014, 9:51 pm

Who? Sorry mcloving. Never heard of him. But his characters looks dimwitted. Is that part of it?
Please explain. I honestly don't know who he is. If I did know, I'd probably be able to share the joke with you.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by McLovin » October 30th, 2014, 9:56 pm

Tony alony wrote:Who? Sorry mcloving. Never heard of him. But his characters looks dimwitted. Is that part of it?
Please explain. I honestly don't know who he is. If I did know, I'd probably be able to share the joke with you.
Don't share this information with anyone else, it is top secret stuff.

http://No URL SHORTENERS/1G0Ej83

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Tony alony » October 30th, 2014, 10:03 pm

Mum's the word, McLoving.
Funny! That's why I wear my tin foil hat, so no one will recognize me.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Alan » November 3rd, 2014, 10:42 am

I don't know if this is a good deal, so FWIW:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6E322E7867

It came to me via newegg email.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by kevreh » November 3rd, 2014, 10:52 am

At less then $6 a bulb it is a good deal. However, there are a lot of smaller companies trying to get into the led lightbulb market. Some have good reviews, others not so much (lot of complaints of bulbs failing after a few months). I would stick to a bulb you can get reviews on, via sites like Home Depot or Amazon.

The bulb you reference has 0...zip...zilch reviews.

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