LED bulbs ready for prime time?

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tlinden
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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by tlinden » February 5th, 2016, 2:48 pm

Ikea only has LED now. The options available now are way better than even a year ago!

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Ikea

Post by dfw_pilot » February 5th, 2016, 3:19 pm

I love Ikea LED's!

I may be a bit too conspiratorial about this, but I feel like we could have jumped straight from incandescent to LED, once LED was ready for prime time, and skipped the awful, mercury filled, curly CFL's all together. Florescent tubes are great and have served a purpose for many years in offices and warehouses. However, then the government got all green-crazy and started mandating time tables to phase out some technology to push new technology like CFL's. I feel government regulators' intervention was misplaced. The market will always sort these things out, and when the technology is ready, i.e. LED, it will hit the market and take off because it's being driven by capital. When government regulations drive the tech push, it flops. I realize that's a bit of an over simplification, but either way, good riddance CFL . . .

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by LoneRanger » February 5th, 2016, 6:34 pm


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Plastic

Post by dfw_pilot » February 5th, 2016, 7:16 pm

Interesting article. Thankfully, unlike CFL's, household LED bulbs seem to be hard to break, made mostly of plastic.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by HSB3-LI » February 5th, 2016, 9:26 pm

Breathing in fumes of a broken open LED... Interesting.
Garbage article.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by LoneRanger » February 6th, 2016, 10:55 am

The quick take away from the article, which has been known for a very long time, is that LEDs have hazardous waste and need to be recycled. All backlit LCDs are the same.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by laadams85 » February 6th, 2016, 8:07 pm

So does every CPU but we don't stop using them because of this.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by LoneRanger » February 6th, 2016, 10:12 pm

Keyword is recycled.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by tlinden » February 8th, 2016, 11:20 am

Yeah I've never broken an LED bulb. I've heard crazy stories of what CFL's do though..

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Green » February 13th, 2016, 10:50 pm

LEDs are definitely taking over, and are better than fluorescents for sure...
but we had one "blow up" last week. It flickered, smoked, and turned black, releasing noxious fumes into the air. Thankfully, it was a relatively warm day, because we opened all the windows. I didn't know this could happen with LEDs.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by Ware » February 13th, 2016, 10:54 pm

Green wrote:LEDs are definitely taking over, and are better than fluorescents for sure...
but we had one "blow up" last week. It flickered, smoked, and turned black, releasing noxious fumes into the air. Thankfully, it was a relatively warm day, because we opened all the windows. I didn't know this could happen with LEDs.
It has been my experience that once you let the smoke out of an electronic device, you cannot put it back in. :sorry:

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by bpgreen » February 13th, 2016, 11:47 pm

Ware wrote:
Green wrote:LEDs are definitely taking over, and are better than fluorescents for sure...
but we had one "blow up" last week. It flickered, smoked, and turned black, releasing noxious fumes into the air. Thankfully, it was a relatively warm day, because we opened all the windows. I didn't know this could happen with LEDs.
It has been my experience that once you let the smoke out of an electronic device, you cannot put it back in. :sorry:
A computer repair guy once told me that smoke is the ingredient that makes computers work. His "proof" was that every time smoke leaked out, computers failed.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by GeorgiaDad » October 13th, 2016, 4:35 pm

Thought I'd bump this back up since led bulbs are pretty much in the main stream now.
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. The Cree's have lasted longer but we really don't care for the light they produce.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » October 13th, 2016, 7:11 pm

I upgraded my main area lighting system to a smart home setup using Osram lightify smart LEDs. Great so far for me.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by andy10917 » October 13th, 2016, 7:24 pm

GD, what color temperature were you buying that you didn't like in the Cree's? I find them very true to the stated temperature...

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by GeorgiaDad » October 13th, 2016, 8:45 pm

The spot lights in the kitchen are the ones neither of us care for. We like the Sylvania's but we've had 2 of 5 fail within a year. Both the Cree and Sylvania are 5000K (if I read it right). The Cree was rated at 650 lumens, Sylvania 800. The Cree's just seem a bit more yellowish. For the kitchen, us two old folks like a bit light for reading the paper.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by andy10917 » October 13th, 2016, 8:53 pm

Lumens should have nothing to do with color. If you want very sharp light that appears bright white, move toward the Daylight bulbs (6000-6500). It will appear crisp and slightly blue. As you move down to the 3300 and even the 2700 neighborhood, the light will be the "warm" incandescent yellowish light.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by LoneRanger » October 13th, 2016, 10:54 pm

I have 88 Utilitech A19(40We-7Wa, 3000K, 80CRI, 450lmn) bulbs installed for almost 4 years now. No problems what so ever, with any of them. I'll see if I can find the model, but I think they are no longer produced. Due to a cashier glitch, we paid ~$320.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by GeorgiaDad » October 14th, 2016, 2:50 pm

andy10917 wrote:Lumens should have nothing to do with color. If you want very sharp light that appears bright white, move toward the Daylight bulbs (6000-6500). It will appear crisp and slightly blue. As you move down to the 3300 and even the 2700 neighborhood, the light will be the "warm" incandescent yellowish light.
I should have left the lumens out of the discussion. Both brands are 5400. But the Cree just seems a bit more yellowish than the Sylvania. I like the Sylvania' but they don't last long. I bought the Cree's at the big orange store. I'm wondering if they had a batch of "oops" lamps. I have Cree's in all the other locations around the house and love them. It's just the kitchen and nook area we're having problems with.
LoneRanger wrote:I have 88 Utilitech A19(40We-7Wa, 3000K, 80CRI, 450lmn) bulbs installed for almost 4 years now. No problems what so ever, with any of them. I'll see if I can find the model, but I think they are no longer produced. Due to a cashier glitch, we paid ~$320.
I've used the Utillitech's too. Just can't find them around here any more.

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Re: LED bulbs ready for prime time?

Post by andy10917 » October 14th, 2016, 4:13 pm

No, you shouldn't leave lumens out of the discussion - but it should be a later component of your decision...

Cree makes a series of bulbs called the TrueWhite (or TW) series. And GE makes a "Reveal" series. These bulbs are designed to render colors much better instead of focusing on low-cost (sorry, you can't have them both!). A CRI of 80 is "meh" these days - respectable but many people can see yellowness or greenness.

The Cree's are up in the 93 CRI range and the GE's around 90 (but the GE's seem to test a little higher than they claim on the box).

It matters. I'm very vocal on this because color rendering in a planted aquarium is very important, and the amount of light laid down to 12 sq ft of space is very large.

Now, back to the lumens. LED's make "white" light by doping the LED with impurities (but let's leave HLG out of the discussion for now). The amount of light that actually is seen is different from one bulb to another. Therefore, the 93 CRI Cree TW actually emits more light (lumens) than the GE Reveal bulb at the same wattage. It's not a big deal, but buy for lumens and not wattage. You might want to compare a 60W (equivalent) Cree bulb with a 75W (equivalent) for equal light output.

I guess what I'm saying is cough up a few more bucks if you eyes can see the yellowness in a 80-CRI 5400 degree bulb.

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