dchomak,
I believe that you have just inspired many of us out here to look at our present fixtures ‘in a whole new light’ Thank you for taking the time to share.
Quick question(s) please:
Is there much field experience out there with the last 110V driven LEDs shown?..
Can you pay more than $2 ea. to receive better quality LEDs from different manufacturers (or receive varying Kelvin ratings)?
…and are you referring to the thickness of the metal that they would somehow be attached to as the minimum heatsink needed for say a 50W module?
If I could somehow simply install ‘x’ number of those in an old fluorescent tube fixture by simply laying a long piece of metal/heatsink in there to attach them to (while still saving the reflector)…what’s not to like?
DoubleA posted links to these in post #20 of that thread.
Big Clive posted some tear downs of these modules. Very interesting and informative. He seems to think that the quality is good, even though the price is very cheap.
You will not find any long term experience with the IC 110V COBs because they just became widely available in the last few months. I first spotted them in June on eBay while looking for small COB chips for a daytime DIY bike light project and bought my first one. The idea of being able to avoid using a 12V LED driver seemed like a real advance. It also reminded me how hot small high-powered COBs will get and that you need to mount them on metal. The biggest surprise was the low cost though I had already bought small 12V 10W COBs without the IC for a dollar each. Don’t worry about losing the reflector base on a fluorescent lamp retrofit because all of the light from the chip shines in about 120 degrees from the COB. A fluorescent lamp shines 360 degrees so much of the light shines toward the fixture. That’s exactly why my 7 bar light LED garage lighting system works so well. It’s much more efficient than using LED light bulbs because all of the light shines down from the ceiling.
I used a couple of the 7W 76 LED COBs that I bought from Banggood in my whole-house LED retrofit. They’ve been in use for about two years now without a single failure. I always mounted them on metal fixtures or metal plates if used without a fixture. They get warm but not hot and certainly never anywhere near as hot as an incandescent bulb.
The only problem with 120V LED fixtures, COB or discrete, is the nasty nasty flicker. Most I’ve seen are just LEDs and distributed resistance so that the total RMS power doesn’t pop the LEDs, but there’s still lots of off-time that has the LEDs completely dark for a big chunk of the AC cycle. Think of LED Christmas-lights. Rather high peak power, but lots of dark-time. Like little stabbing spikes of light…
I’ve got a nightlight that’s got that hideous 120Hz flicker. I’ve never ever complained about a flashlight’s PWM, as most times I don’t even notice it, but this nightlight just grates on me.
If they have at least a bridge-rectifier and capacitor to smooth the current and thus light output, great, but cheap fixtures probably don’t have that. And caps will always be the weak link in any toasty circuit, so…
I’d like to know whether taking the time to tackle these projects is worth the effort as well.
After receiving over 18,000+ (4000K) dimmable lumens for under $200 shipped (twice; first to the mainland distributor) in an outdoor rated fixture; it just doesn’t seem possible that you cannot receive a reasonable amount of directed or undirected light at a reasonable tint in umpteen different lesser powered models.
I’ve got two oversized 5000K/4000K corncob lights now just sitting in their boxes which will probably be used for emergency lighting of some sort due to the hassle of finding something that they will fit in to properly reflect them. I would switch everything over to these comparably low wattage dimmable outdoor rated flood type lights yet I’m still baffled as to why so few seem to be using them…(so far/so good for me).
What is a heavy duty HPS/MH(etc.) yard light running these days and how much have we been/are we paying for a 10,000+ lumen flashlight?
Two 10,000+ models located (high) next to the front/back of a house (on a switch based over-ridable type motion) and (hopefully) never touch them again.
“It’s like night and day” pretty much describes the 18,000 lumen version in terms of experiencing your property at pitch dark versus previously (yard light or not; sorry don’t do pics).
Last summer on our anniversary we went to Niagara Falls.
While my wife was shooting pictures of the Falls, I was doing what any normal flashaholic would do.
Checking out the lighting system. :innocent:
As you can see we are quite a ways up on this observation deck. That’s water and trees straight down below. This is a picture of the only flood light on that side of the deck.
I knew when I shot this picture that I could blow up the information stamped on the fixture and check it out later.
It’s an “ECOMOD 450”, a 450W LED flood light.
It’s “only” 40,000 lumen. I say that because my brother and I put 128,000 lumen in his garage. :laughing:
Today I received a couple of those modules.
First off, they are a big disappointment. They are not very bright and they consume a LOT of power.
My estimation is that they are about as bright as a 7W LED bulb (about 800 lumen) but consume probably in excess of 30W.
The ones I ordered should have been rated at 50W with 4 driver chips on the right. I got 2
Here is one held up against a 15W, 1600 lumen “dedomed” LED light bulb.
This photo was taken during the middle of the day, hard to tell how much light is output. For this shot I placed identical domes over each light, and also took a shot of the ceiling over both lights running at the same time.
Thanks a bunch for the update on those lights and for the pics (the 450 watt LED pics as well).
I guess that I’m back to scrounging for flea market/garage sale priced antique light fixtures/shielding in both standard and mogul bases for (indoor rated) corncobs…
$150 for 10,000+ and $200 for 18,000+ (lower Kelvin) lumens sporting an outdoor rating (to boot) might be far less of a headache at this time.
If you’re gonna do it, do it right. I got these from eBay. Good price, lots of light, super easy to install. My backyard is about 180’ X 100’ and these light it up like daytime. Check it out. Good luck.
It’s dark outside now so I did a further test to show just how bad these modules are. It’s too bad, I had high hopes for them and as bad as they are, they are much better than the ones I ordered previously about a year ago.
On the left is a 1600 lumen, 15W LED light bulb. To the right is a module with an identical dome covering it I cut off another bulb.
It’s pretty apparent from this picture that the bulb on the left is much brighter than the module on the right
Next I held a box up halfway between the 2 lights. I adjusted the height so that the shadows are directly over each light.
At first this may be counter intuitive, but the lighter shadow on the left is over the brighter of the 2 lights, the 1600W LED bulb. It is important to realize that that shadow is cast by the module. The shadow on the right is cast by the bulb.
The darkness of the 2 shadows show the relative brightness of each light And from this picture it is obvious the bulb beats the module by a large margin!
Next I measured the wattage of each light. Believe it or not, the brighter of the 2 used half the watts! Further proof these modules SUCK.
LED bulb on left, module on right.
I got a pair of these a few weeks ago. At first I was a little disappointed in the output. It did not seem 9 times as bright as the 11w "100 watt equivalent" indoor bulbs I had. I have not tested either but these are quite a bit brighter. I got the warm white ones 2700K and it seems to be spot on it is quite a warm white, whereas the bulbs were bright white, which I find kind of obnoxious. But I reevaluated it after I got it hooked up to a proper cord and could move it around. It has two LED chips and the drivers are in the lower box. LEDs are stuck with gunk right onto the back of the case. The really nice thing is there is no flicker, between that and the nice color it is quite a civilized light.
…is that ‘about’ where LED bulb technology is at right now when considering a reasonable price range for multiple bulbs in a retrofitted fixture …1600 lumens/15 watts/5000K or so?
I ask due to a person armed with some fixture and/or socket pricing possibly being able to glean some kind of initial project direction from what has been offered up here to date.
(Obvious warning: Bypass the ballast when using many of these bulbs on certain applications)
This is the basic type of indoor fixture (or even more enclosed) that I’ve been looking at for these corncob bulb options.
The problem seems to be that any 10,000 lumen+ (usually 175 watt max. rated) converted LED fixture needs to be near ‘free’ or these bulbs don’t make sense (price-wise) even with a decent Kelvin rating.
….18,000+ lumen Chinese origin light in post #1 still going strong in near zero temps. and sub zero wind chills (price went up at least $10 or so on Amazon). Still looking for a better value out there down to 10,000 lumens(+) at 4000 Kelvin or less.
An outdoor rated light capable of illuminating half a football field (or more) shipped halfway around the world then (re)shipped/handled yet again from right here in the U.S. for less than $200…how does one compete with that?
Thought that I’d check back in after a few months of nightly use in fairly cold temps.
Still…‘wow’.
I saw a house out in the country today with a std. yard light mounted up on an old tower where a windmill used to be located.
Mine is tucked way back under a flying gable maybe 4 feet.
I can’t imagine it uninhibited by shielding or simply glaring down from on top of a high pole.
Wish that someone else used these to confirm that this light’s current performance isn’t indeed a fluke…
Thank you for taking the time to share.
