Hi everyone,
I need to replace ten halogen floodlights that are from 100-300W, and I would love to use LED, but I don’t want to break the bank. Does anyone have any ideas as to how this could work? I apologize if this is the wrong forum, Led light bulbs looked like the right place to post.
We replaced each of our 500w halogens with 3 LED bulbs and we’re very happy with the results. I believe we used the Feit 75w replacement bulbs from costco.
I don't think that's reasonable unless cost is not a factor. 300W halogen is a LOT of lumens. Anyhow, that should be putting out about 6000 lumens. That makes this a problem I've looked at recently. A quick guesstimate showed little difference in cost between using a 12V power supply to achieve 6000 lumens with either MT-G2 or XM-L2. This power supply should provide suitable output when running a pair of MT-G2's in series in direct drive...no driver. You'll need a sizable heat sink and some cooling. Splicing in a 12V CPU fan in parallel on top of a CPU cooler would probably be the way to go. I forget if that should produce 6000 or 8000 lumens, but I think it was the latter. In my case, I decided buying a pair of the 3700 lumen LED shop lights from Costco was a better way to go since output and cost would be close, and I wouldn't have to fiddle around with making an appropriate fixture that wasn't a very high risk fire hazard if I bought the Costco light.
If you want to replace a 300W- 500W halogen bulb, I think 50W LED floodlight is fine. I use a 50W LED floodlight for my backyard illumination.
Whoah…nice!
http://www.amazon.com/Spotlight-Flood-Light-Power-Outdoor/dp/B007CEVJKW
Definitely going to be looking into these for high power flood lighting…maybe not that brand…but will be looking around
At least the high number of horrible reviews accurately reflects how crappy these are. As with all chinese floodlights (10 watts or greater), the emitters dim or die very quickly with any use. Thats why there are always so many bad reviews, especially on Amazon where people don’t tend to falsify their reviews like we see happening on most chinese resale sites. Many chinese floodlights advertise bridgelux emitters, but I have yet to ever see one with a genuine bridgelux. Buyer beware…
Keep in mind that you need to make sure to avoid “watt equivalent” issues. In other words, a 300 Watt LED is not gonna be 300 actual Watts, but a Watt-equivalent (i.e. 45ish actual watts). Try to look for Lumen values.
Even with power LEDs, your results will be disappointing unless you match lumens. Halogens can crank out a ton of lumens in minimal space. You wont get that with LEDs, so expect to add several LED-based lights for every 1 halogen you replace.
If your lights are tied to a motion sensor, just leave it alone. You wont save any money. If they are on all the time, then yeah…consider LED… or the rare Florescent(sic) fixture.
Oh absolutely…I just found that one on a quick Google search (and didn’t look at the reviews), but the fact that you can get 250~ Watt halogen bulb output equivalent from a 50W LED is quite a “whoah” moment…I am sure with a bit of modding or whatever that the dimming or dying of the emitter might be able to be controlled or even eliminated (my bet is they have horribly poor thermal management) and I completely agree on the Chinese Lumens and whatnot, way overblown and sold to people that just don’t know any better, thanks for the warning…definitely need to “shop around”
Perhaps I should remove the link to that offering…yuck…right off the bat the very first review complely destroys the “replacement for” inquiry
Not buyer beware FlashPilot, buyer run the hell away
I wonder if it’s the driver that is the culprit [using cheap ass electronics to save a few hundreds of a penny on production] (with the strobe effect) or the actual emitter
Thanks for the heads up!
Most importantly Legolas Jr. I apologize for providing a link to such a shoddy product without investigating further, I pretty much pulled up the 1st link on Google and posted the link…I should have known better…sorry
This is the best deal I found: Your Choice: Warm White/Cool White 100 Watt, lots of light
You might want to look into these
Its not just the poor thermal management and cheap unreliable PSU’s that come with these floodlights. The emitters themselves are pure junk and simply dont last if they are used for long periods of time. Even when new, the emitters and PSU’s are both inefficient and highly overrated (think grossly exaggerated chinese lumens with sickening low CRI) which greatly detracts from the original intent of saving money on your electric bill.
I got lucky and found several 97 CRI 100 watt Bridgelux RS emitters capable of +7100 lumens @100W, but only have one in use to light up my bedroom at the moment. As you might imagine, its a bit too bright but I love the tint and 97 CRI. I have enough Meanwell 150 watt psu’s (CLG-150-36A) to power all 13 emitters and thought about modifying my 10 watt Chinese spotlights with computer CPU heat sinks and fans to cool them. As of now, its just another project on the shelf.
Thread about setting up my meanwell PSU’s for the bridgelux 100 watt emitters: How do I set up a Meanwell CV/CC driver for my Bridgelux array?
For the price, the housings are decent and could be modified with fan cooled CPU heat sinks to accommodate much larger name brand emitters and high efficiency external CC PSU’s. It would take a lot of cutting and modification, but it could be done. Id actually like to thank you for your comments. It brought these lights more to the attention of those who might have otherwise wasted their money.
Edit: In reading over my reply, I hope I didnt come off as making you seem incompetent, etc. My apologizes if it read that way and that certainly wasnt my intent. You’re one of many fine members that contribute enormously to this forum and you certainly have my respect. 
No problem, WarHawk, I looked up the reviews first thing and saw very quickly that it was problematic. No harm done. Thanks for taking the time to help!
Normally modding is no problem for me, Flashpilot, but in this case I have 8 fixtures (I think) that need to be replaced and I can’t spend a lot of time or money. I guess I’ll have to keep looking. Thanks for the idea, though!
Are your housings similar to these?
Are they indoor or outdoor?
Continuous use (on all night) or intermittent (how long)?
Are some lights grouped in a location where a single large high powered emitter might provide the same amount of coverage?
Give us any details that you can on what youre trying to accomplish and illuminate and we might be able to offer some better ideas. Its nice that you can mod and fab. Ive spent a good amount of time researching different reflectors, mounting brackets, power supplies and cooling options. Maybe we can help.
no no no….better I NOT send someone looking at junk man, you set me straight and prevented someone making a financial blunder
Yes, the fixtures are more or less like that. They are outdoor, used maybe an hour or two an evening, rarely all night; they are distributed far enough apart that I really couldn’t combine any. I would like potential led replacements to have approximately the same output as a 300w halogen (for four of them) and 100w halogen (for the other six). Thanks for the willingness to help, this is one of the main reasons I love BLF!
I’m sorry I can’t give you any more specific info right now, but I will discuss it with my dad tomorrow and get back with you. (His house, I’m just the adolescent lighting fanatic in residence )
Wanna bet?
Hiya TP. Since they are limited use outdoor, I was thinking about some quality PAR38 or larger outdoor LED spot arrays (not the Fiet Electric or similar junk typically sold at costco) Im not an expert in these screw in types but you have dozens of them. Can you please offer some advice and sales links? Maybe he could mount them in pairs or triple socket holders.