Anyone using LED home lighting replacement bulbs?

We replaced our porch light with a pair of LED floods on a motion sensor a couple of years ago... they are bright, instant on, no dead LEDs, and light up the whole yard. No problems.

We have one Phillips "yellow" "60w" bulb, and it does exactly what we expect it to... light up the room it's in.

 

Bought something like 3 dozen FEIT 60w replacement CFL's a year ago at Mennards for about 17 cents each. Only replaced two bulbs in 2011, so at this rate, I might pass up LED's for many years until they settle down to being somewhat cost effective. I don't mind them not being instant on, and I am getting used to the color issue.

The lone LED bulb in the house is a very dim 7watt replacement over the cats' box in the basement. That's burned fine for over two years now. Neither cat has complained yet about it.

 

That's because the cats can't see their skin color!

 

lol

 

They also didn't have to buy the bulb......

 

rewired the entire basment for low voltage (12V) and powered all the lights i got from here LED bulb - Free Shipping - DealExtreme with ONE power supply.

checked the usage and cmpared it to the CFL bulbs on 120V and cut the power consumtion by more than 80%

I do a lot of work in the basment with hobbies and what not, and I like the 5000K range because it gives me better light without the washout or strain on the eyes.

 

Given the chance they'd pee on it. Good kitty :flypig:

 

Newegg.com - Feit Electric A19/HP/LED/PARTY 50W Equivalent 120 Volt Color-Enhancing LED Light Bulb shell shocker for $27.99. I bought 3 to try out. 3000k at the whitest setting. Lowes review said that it's not as bright as a true 50 watt bulb.

 

Those have a 5watt star LED inside. You can get these on ebay real cheap.
Definitely not equal in lumens to a 50watt tungsten bulb.

 

I searched ebay but couldnt find anything equivalent to the Feit Electric bulb.

 

Finally found a home depot with many lights plugged in. One in particular was about $25 and hurt my eyes to look at--was quite bright. It had a weird design in which around the bulb itself appeared to be four kind of metal bands. Also, their ecosmart $40W equivalent for $7.99 were there. Not that bright, though...

 

^^ I've yet to find a Home Cheapo or Lowe's with bulbs plugged in as part of their display. However, I think it would be a good idea for them to do it to assist consumers. That's one thing I always liked about IKEA, is that you get to actually see everything out, assembled, displayed, etc. Even in their light bulb section, they'd have bulbs plugged in (although, not all of them). I'd like to see IKEA start to get LED bulbs, as I feel their CFLs are better quality than what is typically sold at other stores.

 

Yeah most of these bulbs were underwhelming, to be kind. I really quickly keyed into the bulb with the "bands" around them because it was really quite bright. There were in fact two of these sold, one with low and one with higher lumens and it appeared that the one plugged in was actually rated lower.

Here it is, it was one of these--at least in design, not sure what its lumen rating was the one I saw. However, not cheap.

Ambient LED 12-Watt (60W) A19 Soft-White Light Bulb (2-Pack)-285106 at The Home Depot

Only complaint on that bulb in the HD reviews is dimmability. I think that's a common issue with LEDs, that they do not dim well.

 

On the contrary, LEDs dim very well. The problem you describe is dimming LEDs with standard TRIAC dimmers (the ones normally found at home). TRIAC dimmers are entirely unsuitable for dimming LEDs, but since most homes have them, lighting designers have to accommodate them. Dimmable replacement LED and CFL lamps have electronics that convert the TRIAC phase control into something acceptable. In the case of LEDs it is usually PWM, or Pulse Width Modulation.

LED fixtures specifically designed for LED lamps do not need these silly conversion circuits, which makes them less expensive, better behaved, and more efficient.

Tom

 

...for Xmas this year I asked for Gold, Silver, and LED Bulbs (no more crap, just things of lasting value).

Well, got the Philips LED 12W yellow bulbs agree these are the very best as far as matching color and distributing light widely. Actually got on Ebay for $48 for 2 Bulbs and $10 Philips rebate so <$20 per bulb. The only reason I don't stock up is now Philips have 17 watt (75 watt equiv) version coming out eg; at Home Despot. The Philips bulbs have a very slight milisecond delay.

Then we got a couple more LED from Amazon that are fantastic if you have a down-pointing fixture (where you don't need the widely distributed light). These are instant on. The EarthLED Zetalux 2 warm color over kitchen sink is doing great, and got a G7Power 60-watt equiv warm light in family room spot, big improvement over a CFL that was useless (dim too long).

Philips rebate was over Dec 31 and paperwork due by 1/15 I think so hurry if you want that. But I think they have perioidic rebates.

 

Agreed on dimming. I actually have a regular dimmer that works just fine with 2 of the LED floods I have. However, when I had to purchase additional dimmers for other lights that I put LEDs into, I did purchase the LED compatible ones. I figured that it was better safe than sorry, especially considering the cost of the bulbs!

I even have a non-dimmable flood outside on a dimmer switch. I'm just careful to keep it at full power and use the separate on/off button on the timer to turn them on earlier than normal if necessary. I overlooked the dimmable part when I grabbed the bulb, and it wasn't until I installed it 16 feet above my steps that I saw it on the package. I determined it wasn't worth borrowing a ladder again to take it down, go to Lowe's, exchange it, etc. I'm just careful when I use that switch.

 

I can't seem to post links, search this on ebay. Their are several different types,
all of these are made by the same chinese company.

"5W RGB E27 LED Light Bulb Multicolor IR Remote Control"

 

Was at HD at lunch. here's the display I spoke about, within the pic is the $7.97 light and also the Philips with the "bands". They really are quite bright and orange like an incandescent. There are three, most powerful on the right as evidenced by the fudging of the light!

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001IVVIR4/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details

try $9 US. I got one for my granddaughters table lamp in her bedroom. Its brighter than a nightlight but doesn't "light" up the room (10' x 12').