Does anyone have LED lightbulbs? (not Xmas lights)

[hugh]

I'm curious if anyone has LED light bulbs and if so what are they like?

[Alan Bealby]

I have a Sylvania LED floor reading lamp with a sort of bullet style hood. It does not have a bulb though as the LEDs are built into the lamp fixture and cannot be replaced. I believe that LEDs can be found in flashlights, car headlights, traffic lights, Xmas lights, TV back lighting strips (see the postings on the IKEA TRETTIOEN), and other applications. But I have not yet seen any references to LED light bulb replacements for incandescent light bulbs. One of the problems I am sure is that the LEDs give a directed light beam and not the diffuse light of an incandescent bulb. My reading lamp is sure not ideal in that it gives too narrow a light beam that is a bit too weak for my situation.

[hugh]

Interesting. Thanks Alan. I was curious since LED Xmas lights are selling like hotcakes these days.

[Jake]

I looked into LED GU10 bulbs to no avail. Seems popular in Europe tho. I did find some CFLs at Rona for $14 each in a GU10 base instead. Ouch! Finding the lumen rating is hard too for LED lights. I didn't want to replace my recessed lighting and track lighting which uses GU10 bulbs with something that is less bright.

Good lumen info.

LEDs seems to be about 20 lm/w.

[dabell]

Here is a company in California that has some listed, expensive, but the $$ would be made back over time.

http://www.ccrane.com/lights/led-light-bulbs/index.aspx

[Jake]

Not so sure. A $2 23 watt CFL gives 60 lm/w. Whereas a typical LED only gives 30-40 lm/w. Assuming the CFL lasts 5000 hrs and the LED 50000 hrs you would have to pay less than $20 for 1380 LED lumen to break even. Not even close since 200 lumen LED will set you back $60.

[dabell]

Yep. Their comparisons work well against standard bulbs, but not against CFL's.

[hugh]

I'm not looking to replace my lightbulbs, I was just curious about the current state of affairs in lighting!

I think where LED could make sense is in hard to reach areas (the ceiling in a two story house where its open) or in commercial settings where lights are on 16 to 24 hours a day.

In a commercial setting the cost of changing bulbs can be a big expense so if the bulb lasts ten times longer, the cost of changing them is reduced 90%.

[rpr]

I have the Ikea TRETTIOEN as under cabinet lighting in our kitchen. I used them to replace some really hot halogen lights. They are way too underpowered for this application, I had to buy 3 of them to get a reasonable amount of light from them. You do the math...

[actuator]

Hey,

I am not too sure of the model numbers, but I have LED replacement bulbs for halogen lights, a business partner of mine imports them directly. They are not nearly as bright as halogen however. They do run much cooler and more efficiently though.

dave.

[jnowl]

http://ledkoolight.com/products/GU10.htm

I've been wondering about LED bulbs as well, and found these for Canada.

Not sure if they are dimmable as I'd like to do the same as others and replace some pot light bulbs.

Also would think they would be getting more attention if it was working...

[Maxwedge]

People are trying to do everything with LED in a lighting application and the current technology as far as output is not quite there yet. The same thing happened years ago with the compact fluorescent. Too many "Rube Goldberg" retrofitting into all types of lighting fixtures. Remember seeing pot lights with the tubes sticking out below the ceiling line? The surrounding optics (that were originally designed for incandescent "A" (standard household screw in lamps) and "R" and "Par" (Flood lamps) did not perform well with the screw-in Compact Fluorescent (CF) style lamp and resulted in far less light because of poor fixture optical efficiencies. Same thing for the LED. Manufacturers are tripping over themselves to release current non-LED fixtures jammed full of LED's often with poor output due to both a poor optical design and low lumen/watt LED lamps.
Good Applications of LED:
Traffic Signals (dozens of LED's in a properly designed reflector/retractor system.
Recessed Step Lights - Low illumination Theater aisles, hospital rooms etc.

Bad Applications: Many due to lagging technology.

Future does look "Brighter" while the efficacy is being improved with each new generation of LED design.

[dudler]

just looking at that website with the gu10 led bulbs.....what one is the brightest? see 3 models for the gu10s, two with 48 leds and one with 60. but the 60 led light has less lumens.

i am confused! help! i think i will order some of these to try out, but want some input. i'll email the company, but if any readers can help me out first, let me know!

dude

[Edival]

I've been looking for a dimmable florescent/LED GU10 since I got my new track lights. I saw some in Europe, but not impressed with the dimming feature. Can you let us know if you can dim these ones?

[Maxwedge]

I looked at their site. Be leery of a company selling product with false and/or uninformed statements. This is their MR but they say the same thing for the GU... "The usual complaint with the tungsten MR16's is the uncomfortable aspect of the intense heat that they give off."
This is funny.
These lamps (MR16) give off very, very little heat through the front of the lamp. They have a dichroic reflector that channels light out the front and heat out the back of the lamp. That is why retail, museums etc. use this - so as not to fade (or worse) the target object.

"The biggest advantage for this LED Bulb is that it gives off almost no heat."

The lamps get plenty warm and the lamp drivers get hot as well.

I have nothing against LED for lighting. I sell it everyday for certain applications - mainly for Exit signs and accent lighting. One of the larger manufacturers I represent have developed an LED down light that they want my firm to specify. It is 4 times the cost of the equivalent CF fixture and only 70% of the performance. With the current technology now it is a tough sell for most applications. I think as perhaps Hugh mentioned earlier, it is a very good application for very high, hard to access ceilings (Atria, movie theaters) because of the rated life of the LED's.

For residential I would wait until the output increases. They are being improved on every day and should be something to write home about in 1 -3 years.