[dmoes]

I was at Home depot the other day I was looking at lighting fixtures and saw the strangest looking bulb . The bulb was quite bright and when I touched it it was warm but not hot it was constructed on a metal frame with three lighted sections or pannels. although it was white light when I turned it off the sections were bright yellow.I went to to the light bulb section and saw they were stocking these. They were 60w equivalent led bulbs made by Philips. they also had several PAR types and a few other incandescent lookalikes including one in the working display that looked remarkably like incandescent except for that it was cool to the touch and still had a small aluminum heatsink near the base but not as big as some of the other heat-sink bases that come halfway up the bulb. all quite bright much better than what I saw a year ago or even 6 months ago. and most dimable

I was tempted to buy one but then I saw $39.99 and walked away. but as I remember that CFLs were very expensive in their early days as well.

has anyone tried the latest LED bulbs being offered? and what do you think?

 

[audacity]

I have. The total lumen output is on the low side, but when that is fixed I wouldn't be surprised to see LEDs displace CFLs.

 

[windsor]

The price is way too high and the lumens outputted way to low, but i'm more interested in led mr16 bulbs to replace halogen bulbs in pot lights. Anyone with experience with those?

 

[audacity]

I'm not defending the high price, but the LED blubs I have purchased (to test out) cost $25 each. Comparable CFLs were about ~$5-7/ea. The LED bulb life claimed 25,000 hours, whereas the CFLs were 10,000 hours. So, the price per hour of life while still being higher isn't completely out of the ballpark.

When you add to that the fact that LEDs offer more lumens per watt, they don't contain any mercury thus are simple to dispose of, and that they are dimmable, you're buying something with the price premium.

Still, LEDs a niche product today.

 

[Jaygeetee]

I replaced 4 par20/50w halogens with Rona par20 LEDs for outdoor soffit recessed lighting. The lighting is quite harsh...very cool white and bright. They cost $15 each but barely draw 1 watt. I inquired elsewhere for warm white par20s but they were double the cost.

 

[Danno100]

I suspect in a few years we may ban CFL's due to the mercury and LED's will take over as their lumen output increases. I have a number of LED's in the house and bought them simply because they consume less power.

 

[CamDAB]

I've had 3 chandelier LED bulbs running now for about 5 months. Very little heat, but not very bright. They're kinda like a cross between pale green and yellow in colour of the LED's. The packages stated "equivalent to 40w" but dimmer then 25w bulbs. They can NOT be dimmed, as there's a warning on the packaging to that effect. They're rated at 1.5w each, so for 4.5w it's providing light. Thinking of switching to chandelier CFL's rated at 7w each for a bit more light...

Cameron

 

[recneps77]

CamDAB, if those are the Luminus LED's from costco, they're crap
(I had one burn out within a month, combined with the bad colour temp, returned them)

The best LED bulbs are single (or low number) of high-emitting diodes.
General rule for LED bulbs: Lots of little ones inside? Stay away.

When the costs come down, LED's will replace CFL for most applications.
Especially here in Canada. Use a CFL outside below zero? Okay, but you should be ready to wait 30s for it to warm up. LED? Instant on.

Some of the high power LED's are quite impressive. I have an SSC P7 flashlight - the diode is a single (well.. 4 on a single chip, but it looks single in terms of light source)
Does 900lm with about 13W. That's not amazing efficiency (comparable to CFL, though), but it shows that LEDs are capable of replacing the 'traditional' 60W/700lm bulb.

 

[dmoes]

after posting my OP my curiosity got me and I broke down and bought one of the Philips ambient bulbs

its the one on the right

its 8 watts warm white as you can see the inner element inside the frosted envelope is yellow but lights white. I have only seen these recently I am guessing a new entry by Philips

here is the 12 watt version weird looking thing it too lights warm white.

so I put it in a fixture that had 5 incandescent 40 w bulbs. it was as bright as the others and unlike the version on the left and most other LEDs that Ive seen that shield light away from the base this one seemed to direct alot of light arround the base in the way incandescent or most CFLs do. this is important in some fixtures.

Brightness: it is easily as bright as the 40w incandescent that were beside it. I judged this by looking at the light reflected off the wall and not by looking at the bulb itself as I think this way one can judge usable light better. than by judging by looking directly at the bulb.

Colour: It was very good as close as I have seen to incandescent. I tried a 40w equivalent CFL next to it as well and after five minutes it still was not as bright as the LED. also it had more of the typical pinkish purpleness that many CFLS have including the one I was testing next to it.

Heat: after 20 minutes the glass was much cooler to the touch than the CFL that also had a glass envelope arround it. the heatsink was nearly room temp.

I have not tried it in a dimmer yet. it is dimable so I will do that later on my bench I will try a basic cheep dimmer then a so called CFL/LED dimmer then last an auto-transformer I am curious to see how it performs compared to CFL. I may even take it over to the theater and give it a try on the stage dimmers (ETC Sensor)

at the same time I will set up a more controlled way of judging brightness using a fixed location a photo umbrella and light meter. and we shall see. I will post my findings here. in the next day or two.

 

[classicsat]

I have looked onto some muti-ED Chinese bulbs, glad I passed.

I am using a 1W 6 LED Philips G16 bulb for my bed side light, and it works fine, but could be brighter. Yes the light is a little towards the blue, but it is fine by me. I paid something like $8 for it at Canadian tire, on sale.

 

[TechieFreak]

I bought the larger "bulb" from Home Depot. It was indeed expensive, but I'm using it in my front entrance, where it replaces a CFL that burned out (and created quite a bit of smoke when it went). My front hall light sometimes stays on for many hours, due to many members of the family coming in/going out.

The 30W CFL, replaced a 100W incandescent. And the CFL has now been replaced by a 16W LED lamp. So far, so good. I know that the price of these will come down, but I was just looking for a light that will draw the least amount of current and will be able to stay on for a very long time without burning out. If this lamp lasts me 10 years, I'll be very happy with the initial expense. I'm way ahead of the game already by dropping down from 100W to 16W.

 

[Fry1989]

Eventually. They just have a few problems atm. But considering most emergency vehicle light bars these days are LED, and they're far brighter then previous forms, it's not like LED lightbulbs wont be able to produce similar brightness as we're used to with CFLs and Edison bulbs.

 

[CamDAB]

CamDAB, if those are the Luminus LED's from costco, they're crap

Uh... No. They came from Wal-Mart, a brand I've never heard of. They have multiple bands of LED's around the bottom in a chandelier based bulb.

I first got the "white" ones, but they're too blue for me... The greenish ones were closer to incandescent, just not bright.

When they're turned off, they glow for a while... Kinda weird to see... Hmmm...

Cameron

 

[ScaryBob]

I wouldn't buy any lamps from Walmart. Their CFLs are not that good and I don't expect their LEDs to be any better. Even worse are Noma brand. They are absolute garbage these days. IMHO, it's too early to buy LEDs unless there is a special requirement where they are absolutely required. I've decided to use halogens in spots where good lighting is important, special sized lamps are required or usage is low. The quality of CFLs is declining to pitiful levels for some brands and LEDs are not that cost effective yet. While LEDs may claim long life, some of them decline in brightness quite rapidly. I've seen some that still lit but were practically useless after about a year of continuous use.

 

[txv]

LEDs are very new to the market - the price will drop.

In 7-10 years I very much doubt that CFLs will even be on the market any more.

 

[moonzero]

Your timing exapectaion is huge IMO. Technology versus competion, If the product has realy alternative competitors that means in a 2 years , the products price will be reasonable to buy. Time will show us.

 

[Danno100]

I just bought a number of LED dimmable outdoor floodlights ([email protected]), 8W, Sylvania PAR20 as landscape lights. They have perfect colour rendition (more yellow than blue) and good (350 Lumen) output. They are $10 cheaper in the US (HD) than Canada (R*na). Not even available at HD in Canada. They are supposed to last 50,000 hours and with 6 of them, I am using less than 50 watts total. They are going to outlast my remaining lifespan if I use them 5 hours a day!

Compared to 50 watt Halogen's, I figure the payback on these is less than 2 years.

Energy savings should be around $54/year = (5 hrs/day * 365 days in year * 250 watts per hour * 12 cents per kilowatt hour) / 1,000. The 12 cents is an all-in cost, including transportation, transmission, and taxes for Southern Ontario.

Halogen life span is 2,000 hours, so over 2 years I'd spend $150 (6 * [email protected]) on LED's versus $54 (6 * 1.8 lamps at [email protected]) on Halogen. Lamp cost difference is $96.

At the end of 2 years, my Halogen's will be toast, but my LED's should have over 46,000 hours left of lamp life!

I didn't even look at outdoor CFL's.

 

[ScaryBob]

Don't know about Halogens but we've had the same incandescent floods for over 5 years. They are on for several hours every evening too. I suspect you will be lucky to get 50,000 hours out of the LEDs, especially for outdoor use. I've seen some of them dim to unusable levels much more quickly than that. I've thrown more "5 year" CFLs in the garbage after a year or two than I care to count as well. I just hope they do better with LEDs. I am waiting until LEDs are proven and prices drop before making the jump. In the meantime, I'll find a way to restrict hours of operation.

 

[das75]

using a couple different types off ebay LEDs for a curio cabinet and for the vent hood over the range. Reason went for the LEDs is the halogen weren't lasting that long and were around $7 for the par16 when I could find them and $12 each, special order for the ones in the hood. The LED where about twice as much but if the spec sheets are right should be getting about 10x the life. I got the cool white (6500K) for all but see also available in the warmer temperatures. The ones I'm using in the cabinet are 4.5W and seems way brighter the the 35W halogen they replaced (advertised as 50W equivalents).

Where I am excited with the technology is for aquariums. Currently running a couple 250W MH and change the bulbs each year at about a $100ea. With the LED systems I can get the same amount of PAR for 1/2 the wattage and fixtures should last 15years. Still pricy but still going down.

 

[ScaryBob]

I've had similar problems with Halogens. Out of 6, I've had two duds, one out of the box and another after less than 100hr. There are no currently available alternatives for the fixture though.

I agree about LEDs for aquariums. They are way too expensive at the current time though. As for the $100 MH lamps, they cost about $15 on eBay. They also cost too much to run. Think about the cost of running two 250w halogen lamps indoors, especially in Summer with A/C. All aquarium lighting is way too expensive in Canada. I run CFLs for efficiency but can someone explain why the same lamps are $60 in Canada, $30 in the US and the discount brands are $6 on eBay. I can assure you the $60 versions are not 10 times better. That's a major reason why my tank is being dismantled permanently before Summer. It just costs too much and wastes too much energy, LEDs or not.