LED House light bulbs?

[mowerman1193 29]

Anyone here using any of the household LED bulbs?

I switched all my bulbs over to the CFL bulbs a few years back and am happy with them other than in a fixture I have in the bathroom. I have a fixture with 4 lights mounted just above the bathroom cabinet and I keep blowing the CFL's ( I believe caused by vibration from opening/shutting doors ) about one a month.

I been thinking about trying the LED's as they are starting to come down in price a little. Still much more than any of the other bulbs of coarse but I don't mind paying a little if its going to be energy efficient and last more than a month..As it stands I am paying more for the CFL's because they cannot handle the vibration. So I am either going back to the candesent style or LED's..

Just thought I would see if anyone has had any experience with the LED's..

Kevin

[krazy_horse 59]

We being Mother earth types, tree huggers, etc. changed over to CFLs in our house up_stairs down stairs. even the lights under our house. At that time it cost us a total of right at $300.00 This also included our out side lights which we never turn on. I am happy, Ms. K horse said we save money on the power bill. She bought me a LED light three months to go over my puter that has twenty four small lights in it and it was made over Yonder. I am sure you know where I mean. Three of the lights have started blinking and it is driving me crazy. Most of the time I set here at night with my little free Harbor Freight Led flash light and type with one hand only. ...krazy_horse

[HorseFixer 2,012]

well I can get em wholsale being I am a Contractor and they are still too much for me. I have changed over to CFLS and a couple years ago went to All electronic ballasts and 32W T-8's in the garage horse stable basement and a couple other rooms I think I changed 30 over so 30 x 8 = 240 Watts of savings.

[mowerman1193 29]

Yes they are pricey but I can get what they cosider 40 watt Equivalant at lowes or menards for about $8-9 each..That would mean around $40 for this bathroom fixture since it takes 4 bulbs..If the LED's last as long as they claim and can handle the shock of the cupboard doors opening/shutting then they would save me money over the CFL's that only seem to last a month..Otherwise I may just have to go back to the energy hog old fashon lights, LOL.. I was only planning to change out the 4 bathroom ones that I have problems with..The rest of the house does good with the CFL's...

I also have changed over to the 32 watt T-8s and I really like them

Kevin

[rmaynard 14,949]

I am really impressed with the new household LED lights. I just recently helped with the installation of a whole-house LED lighting system. The color is natural, and the cost savings is amazing. I think that CFL's are soon to be a thing of the past. If you have 7-Eleven stores in your area, they are all being upgraded to LED lighting, inside and out, including the canopies over the gas pumps. The total cost for lighting has been reduced 63% to 80%.

Cast my vote in favor of LED's for the future.

[can whlvr 991]

i have led lights outside my front door,they are photovoltaic,so they turn on when dark,off when light out,they say they burn 3.50 a peice per year,i dont like the cfl,s,its hard to beleive that you can get your money back on them being so costly to buy and they do burn out,im more worried about the hot water heater,fridge and freezer,the real consumers in my house

[rmaynard 14,949]

i dont like the cfl,s,its hard to beleive that you can get your money back on them being so costly to buy...

Down here, Lowes stores are selling 6-packs of CFL's for $2.48. That's pretty cheap. but it still doesn't encourage me to buy them. I still buy all the 60 watt and 100 watt incandescent bulbs that I find on sale.

[mowerman1193 29]

Thanks for all your replies, I think I will replace the burned out one I have with a LED and see how it goes. If all is well and when the next CFL blows I will get another LED to replace that one.

Kevin

[Coadster32 793]

I bought 4 led lights for our living room to replace the cfl's we had. Stood at the display for about 1/2 hour contemplating the cost/vs lifespan, savings etc. The cfl lifespan they claim I have never experienced as of yet. When we lost power from Sandy for 6 days, I put one LED bulb in every room. Just as much light came out as three cfls..(No bs). The generator thanked me tremendously for it. I know they will cost a pretty penny, but the light from it is really nice, and at almost 50% savings, and definatly longer lifespan, I'm sold on them. I do know that LED last a really long time, and I like the fact that they are dimmable.

[dobeleo 7]

I started buying CFL's a few years ago to replace incandesants as they burn out. Beleive it or not, I am starting to replace burned out CFL's and the house is over 2/3rds the house still has incandesants.

[mowerman1193 29]

Yes I have not been overly impressed with the CFL bulbs at all..in fact I somewhat think my old incandesants lasted just as long if not longer..

On another note, I see they make LED's that can replace the T8 Florecent bulbs in our shops now..But I don't think they could ever be cost effective at the prices they are at right now, LOL hopefully they will come way down in price by the time I will need to replace the bulbs in my new shop..

Kevin

[JamesBe1 80]

I bought a bunch of the cfl's a few years ago when the price started dropping. I was getting sick and tired of replacing the 'designed to burn out prematurely' incandescents that are now being produced. I have to say, I don't like the cfl's They take a while to come to full brightness. The three-way one that I have makes a ringing noise on the low setting, and I can still hear it slightly on the high setting. To me, they are just a poorly manufactured replacement for what works very well already. Not to mention all the electromagnetic pollution that they put off.

I may try the LED ones when they become more affordable. But I look at more than just the price. All the toxic chemicals that get put into a light source is well worth considering. I'm not too keen on bulbs with trace amounts of mercury in them. Even if they do save me a little bit.

I found a good source for 10k hour incandescent bulbs here: http://newcandescent.com/index.html The best thing, is that they are still made in the USA.

For what it is worth, this is a great eye opening documentary on the planned obselence of light bulbs: http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/light-bulb-conspiracy/

[mowerman1193 29]

Ok I went and bought one of the cheaper LED's at Menards today. I bought the one that is supposed to be equivalant to a 40 watt incandecent bulb but runs only on 5.5 watt, it also says it shock and bump resistant to that is a plus for where I am using it. I was a little worried about putting it in my light fixture with the other three being the 13 watt CFL's that are supposed to be equivalant to a 60 watt incandecent. My wife and my son both say the LED bulb is brighter but I say its very close to the same. The higher wattage ones are ALOT more money, like 20+ per bulb..not paying that much and I am sure they would be way to bright comparing them to the one I bought to the CFL's anyway. They do not generate any heat at all that I can tell..Had light on for 20-30 min. and I could touch the bulb and it was just room temp. Time will tell if it really last the 20,000 hours LOL..Like I am going to have a hour meter on my light bulb, LOL

Kevin

[wh500special 2,073]

It could be that the CFL’s don’t like the moisture in the bathroom. Just a guess to the root of your problem.

Anyway…

I moved in to a brand new home about 2.5 years ago. Per my request, the contractor used all CFL’s except in the recessed spotlights in the kitchen and the bulbs in the bathroom fixtures. 2 years in, I have replaced the majority of my CFL’s at least once. I am finishing my basement and installed lighting about a year ago. All CFL’s. These aren’t seeing the same duty cycle as upstairs, but of 15 bulbs I have replaced 3 already.

The incandescents in the kitchen have also been going out. So far, 4 of the 6 have expired. I’ve replaced them with CFL spots. Two of THOSE have croaked. Only one bathroom bulb has died, which I guess means we don’t spend an inordinate amount of time in there.

Like most places in the USA, the utility power is very stable here. So I don’t blame the short lifespan on anything other than hype and choosing data carefully when advertising lifespan on the CFL’s.

Nothing likes transient conditions, so I suppose if you leave a light burning all the time and never cycle it that it could last 7 years as advertised, but I am doubtful. One CFL in a ceiling fan literally smoked before it died. We don’t run the fan, so it wasn’t a vibration deal. There’s a lot going on inside a CFL, and as cheap as they are my expectations are pretty low. Still, I do like them.

I do like them, but I have my worries. Mostly this relates to having a broken bulb dump its Mercury payload on the floor, which does happen no matter how careful you are. Suck it up and aspirate it with the vacuum cleaner and it’s a bad situation. I also worry about how the plastic bases on long term service CFL’s are always yellowed and sometimes are cracked from the extreme UV and heat loads from their life cycles. You’ll also never convince me that from a full Life Cycle Analysis perspective that CFL’s offer any advantage over a simple, easy to manufacture, non-poisonous old-fashioned bulb…

I digress…LED’s…

I keep waiting for the price to get more attractive, and am greatly interested. From what I can see, actual light output levels for LED bulbs aren’t where I need them to be for general room lighting. I like it bright, and while LED’s can put out an intense spot of light, they seem to not have the power to light up a room economically yet for me.

We easily confuse a bulb being bright when we look at it with equating to putting out a large amount of light. I can stare at the 8’ fluorescent light fixture above my desk and not be bothered, but a quick glance at my desk lamp blinds me. Yet when I turn off the overhead fixture and run just my desk lamp, it’s quite dark in here. LED’s seem to offer that same intensity, but lack overall lighting power.

I bought a bunch of LED bulbs at Lowes on clearance to replace the 65W equivalent CFL’s in my recessed cans in the basement and was completely disappointed, but not surprised. I replaced the 6 bulbs in one circuit at one end of the room to evaluate. It was bright enough right under the bulb, but too unevenly distributed to be any good for what I wanted. I took the LED’s out, and brought them to the office for task lighting in the shop where they have excelled and seem to take a beating.

For spot lighting and task lighting, LED’s are huge winners from an energy perspective. No contest. Lighting up an entire room to the same levels as with traditional or fluorescent lighting is a harder case to make. LED bulbs and fixtures don’t diffuse light as evenly as a CFL or Incandescent, so even though they may advertise lumen levels comparable to a standard bulb of any empirical size, they usually don’t broadcast that light in all directions or tell you how that lumen level is focused.

Trying to find useful data beyond the package label is hard to do.

I’m not a naysayer, but – to me - LED’s aren’t yet a direct, drop-in replacement for your standard lightbulbs without some homework and experimentation. In many applications, they excel…like in your desk lamp, above the shower, etc. But for general room lighting their advantages aren’t as obvious. They are way ahead of where they were a couple years ago and will continue to progress under a performance growth progression not unlike what computer chips are undergoing. As it stands right now, it’s hard to beat the overall operating efficiency of fluorescents.

Just my opinions…and I am frequently wrong according to my wife and daughter.

Steve