replacing CFLs with LEDs

300 lumens directed in the direction you want, is going to be far better than 300 lumens in all directions, and then kind of redirected with a lamp shade. I may just get one for my desk lamp. Now if they would only make them that direct light toward the base...

 

Whoa there, that's quite a statement! I've tried and returned numerous LED bulbs and have not found any above 3000K that were satisfactory in our home environment. My wife, who I wouldn't have framed as particularly fussy about lighting, has also been quick to notice any of those bulbs. Whether in our kitchen, living room, bathroom, or outdoors, lighting above 2700-3000K appears harsh, sterile, and unflattering.

I take it that this is a common feeling; a number of neighbors have installed ~3500K bulbs at their front entry which looked terribly un-inviting - and all of them switched them out to 2700K relatively quickly. When we switched to 3500K florescent lighting at work, the complaints were near unanimous.

 

I suspect the majority of people are just conditioned to warm white lighting by having grown up in a home majority lighted by incandescent bulbs. In the case of these bulbs, the color temperature wasn't selected out of preference, but due to limits in technology. So centuries of artificial lighting have people preferring yellow light over full spectrum. Perhaps it goes back further to when we only had firelight to keep the unknown dark at bay.

Whatever the reason, I find it silly and little sad. We have a couple L prize bulbs from Panasonic and some Fiets from Costco. The Panasonics, a 2700K to 3000K bulb, look yellow to me, and they wash things out. The Fiets have a cooler light that makes things crisper. Despite being rated a 100 lumens lower than the Panasonics, they also look brighter.

Perhaps I have been spoiled by having worked in a pet store and keeping aquarium and reptiles for years. We had a lot of full spectrum lighting, which has a higher color temp than cool white, in our home for years. One of the reef bulbs approached near ultraviolet.

 

I will add one more:

5.) LED's are more easily dimable. We have dimmers all over our home, and LED's are the way to go. So now, a 15-w bulb is only drawing 5-w.

 

I'm sure that what we are used to drives some of it, but I think it's more complicated than that. I don't choose my lighting color for mid-day use - as at home we have enough natural light most of the year that any interior lighting is ancillary. For evening/night-time and morning use I don't want daylight color temperatures - the sun is not 5500k at those times, nor is any light source we have had from the dawn of humankind until very recent times (from fire to candles to lanterns to oil lamps to electric lamps). Lower color temperatures feel natural to me at those times of day, and I think for good reason.

 

I get the whole Kelvin lighting color thing ... But what I can't wrap my head around is the color rendition index thing (CRI). When I first saw the initials I thought they were talking CRE manufacturer.
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Perfect CRI as in incandescent bulbs means that colors are represented accurately under that light.

To put a practical spin on it, consider your typical street lamp which is either Low Pressure Sodium (the worst CRI) or High Pressure Sodium (slight better but still bad). Yes, you can technically see under those lamps, but you can't discern differences in color or even accurately make out details.

 

So does that mean at some particular Kelvin rating, the CRI rating will be perfectly matched to incandescent light? If so - what Kelvin # is that equivant to ... somewhere around 2800?
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The white Feit bulbs I have aren't noon sunlight equivalent. They are 3000K, which makes them technically soft white. While many find the 2700K light homey, I don't. As I have said, to me they have a yellow cast. Perhaps I am equating the lower color temperature to incandescent and thus inefficiency, or my poor opinion of lower color temperature lights formed from a lifetime of reading late into the night under incandescent bulbs.

Now some related asides:
I have candles if I want that soft, yellowish light for some reason.
While we are used to lower color temp in the evening, we would probably be less depressed if our bulbs were around 5000K.
It should be a crime to mix warm and cool white Christmas lights in a display.

And a question, the porch lights that were replaced, what were their CRI? While I don't like our Panasonic's color temp, they have a CRI of 93, and should(I haven't tested) do a better job making an object appear their true colors than the Feits which are only listed as >80. The bottom of this link has two photos taken under flourescents. One with 92+ CRI and the other at around 80.
Color Temperature & Color Rendering Index DeMystified
It also has a lot of info there.

 

The link I posted above explains it.
"A simple definition of Color Rendering Index (CRI) would measure the ability of a light source to accurately render all frequencies of its color spectrum when compared to a perfect reference light of a similar type (color temperature)."
So it is independent of color temp. The noon sun and an incandescent bulb both are 100 CRI. The colors of objects seem under them will be fully rendered, but will look different due to the differing color temps.

Color temperatures were based off the sun and other incandescenting black bodies. They are the standard for CRI with a 100 rating. Flourescent and LED lights aren't incadescenting light sources so they may not render the full color spectrum.

There is also the Wiki article. Color temperature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Found these at Home depot just a day or 2 ago: Great price - 360° light, funny flat shape, 10.5 watts & 800 lumens.


I'd of purchased a few, but I'm already full up of other styles - that I'd already paid more for.
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Do that. I replaced 40/60W freezer/fridge bulbs with 6W daylight corn-shaped LEDs and it feels like a new appliance now.
Even though I paid $2 each (ebay), will never recoup the cost, though.

 

Interesting experience with the overstated LED power. I find it very common in the cheap $1-2 ebay LEDs. Advertized as 6-12 W they really consume only 3-4W. As many of those project strong light in only one direction, many buyers are fooled by the power claims. This is the style I'm talking about:

 

Only $10 a piece ! ! ! Oh yea - the future had definitely arrived
Picked up a [EDIT] FOUR pack of these bad boys today and so far they are working great. They come in both warm and cool COLORS. I opted for the warmer ones at 2700 KELVINS rather than the cooler ones rated in the 3000's. Nice & compact - long life rating.... 9 watts - 800 lumens - dimable, and outdoor rated .... for the price - I don't know if it gets any bette. [2nd edit] Ok - I checked 'em in a couple of our ceiling fans. "iffy" they only work in one or our 4 ceiling fan dimmers but all of our 4 wall mount can light dimmers.
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FWIW, we're using the same CREE 60W LED's in two of our ceiling fans because the CFL's that we were using simply didn't last; the upside-down mounting "trapped" heat into their base, where the electronics reside, causing them (CFL's) to repeatedly "die" after only 6-9 months of use. So far, the LED's have made it almost 2 years without a single problem.

 

That is interesting since the achille's heel of LEDs is early death from over-heating of the electronics.

Perhaps the CREE have a better design for heat dissipation.