Anyone using LED home lighting replacement bulbs?

Which ones did you get?

GT-I9000 ?

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-h...lighting-replacement-bulbs-2.html#post1447462

 

My entire house has been LED since 2010. Having waited (especially since I didn't like CFL for several reasons) until the bulbs got bright & cheap enough really made for a painless & rewarding conversion.

These are the bulbs I use for the living room and bathroom, where bulbs are aimed up and illumination bounces off the ceiling. Sylvania flood

And these are the bulbs I've been most impressed with as 60-watt replacements, which locally there's a special price of just $14.97. Philips 60W

The 75-watt version is really nice too, and obviously brighter. Philips 75W

I've got a lamp with one of these that has impressed me too. Eco-Smart 60W

There are others around the house too, like the first I tried. They were 40W Toshiba's that I can't find locally anymore. They're still on my ceiling fan (LED are fantastic for vibration resistance) and look real nice as a bulb directly exposed for visual appeal.

My mom got some baby floods for her track lighting. They use far less electricity than the ceramic ones she had to replace on a regular basis from cracking due to bulb heat. Their dimming ability is well proven by how heavily they get used & adjusted.
.

 

Great price, these are the ones I indicated earlier I liked among those at home depot plugged in, pretty bright!

 

Is that Home Depot at 14.97? I would stock up at that price.
But the 75-watt version would be even better...

...any good 40-watt dimmables for ceiling fan?
Need 4 so hoping for $10 range.

 

...just got some sample LED's from Digikey, burned one out since I am not an EE. Working on an idea, probably need some EE help.

 

Maybe its a form factor thing. As a GU10 spot, these 4W ones I have a very close in output to a 50W.

 

Target last night I saw in clearance a couple of single LED "narrow flood" Gu10 to replace 50W, but even with $10 of they were still $15/piece and didn't bother. Was some major brand but cannot remember which! GU10s put out way too much heat and I've never seen a gu10 cfl (that doesn't look ridiculous, that is).

 

They were probably GEC or Phillips.

The standard Halegon GU10s do kick out a lot of heat.

These cheapy LEDs I have, have a finned heat sink surrounding them, but they hardly seem to kick out much heat.

 

Let me guess: you applied voltage to the LED without any sort of current control?

Tom

 

Our country also has very large numbers of instinctively cheap people would much rather send $300 to the electric company in the future than spend $100 in the hardware store today.

 

One additional note on Home Depot -- they don't really advertise it, but if you are an Active Duty, Reserve, Guard or (I think) retired service member you get another 10% off the top. I really appreciate it, thanks, Home Depot!

 

Depends on your electricity costs though doesn't it?

At 60 GBP it was going to see at least 4-5 years for a pay off. Given that I`ve seen standard energy saver bulbs blow after a couple of years, when they should have lasted 8, I wasn't sold.

There is also the wife to get this by. Not sure what your other half is like, but if you tell mine you are about to spend 60 on a set of light bulbs that isn't going to see pay off until years to come, you may have well said you are leaving for another women.

 

The super low electric rates that allowed incandescents to remain economical have nearly vanished from this country. Even the lowest tier in my historically low-cost region is no longer low enough to justify them in standard fixtures.

I didn't become financially independent by having a financial planning horizon that short.

Can you give more detail on what those bulbs were? Among standard incandescents, efficiency and long life are mutually exclusive. And when they cost $0.25 to buy but $7-8 for the electricity to light them, I don't give a **** about long life versions.

Mine is well aware that my permission for her early retirement was conditional on finances, and is revocable.

 

Financially independent? If I was, I wouldn't be talking about the price of light bulbs!

These bulbs were Osram CFL's for standard light fittings. 9W and 11W if I remember correctly. Most did last about 6-7 years, a few popped after 2. At the time they were pricey around 9 GBP, but these things can be had for less than 1 GBP each now, so one going pop after a couple of years isn't a big deal anymore.

Well, it certainly seems you've got her in check. I think you need to come and talk to my wife.

 

But how do you plan to get there? Most of those who make it don't get there by ignoring many things at this level.

Life expectancies of those things should be averages, not assurances for each individual unit. Since most of yours went a long time, it seems that they worked out for you.

That said, there were a lot of bad CFLs on the market, both early when designs were new and devices costly, and later as plummeting prices squeezed unit costs harshly. But I still came out ahead then. Now, units are so cheap that real life expectancy is hardly an issue.

It is a two way street. She gained freedom from commuting aggravations and corporate wage slavery many years earlier than she could have on her own.

A talk won't do it. How soon and how strongly does she want to quit having to earn a paycheck? And what does she have of offer?

 

Nice overview, with description of even more efficient bulbs coming shortly from Phillips:

Digital Solution: Picking the Brightest, Most Efficient Light Bulb - Katherine Boehret - The Digital Solution - AllThingsD

 

In keeping with the discussion about why LED lamps fail, here is an article from a trade magazine:

Full link: Here

And from that article, another link to one about LED failure modes:
http://www.edn.com/article/457596-Burn_out_Weak_links_affect_HB_LED_lifetime.php


Tom

 

Do you have a light or two that stays on nearly all the time? Just getting one and trying it out there is not much of a risk, but could be the step needed to see how good an LED bulb might work out.

 

I already have 6 of em. Read back, I bought cheapies from eBay.