My adventures in LED home lighting

suprisingly no, they are distinctly cooler than the halogens they replaced. I got them from b and q (and paid the premium for it) I just wanted to know if the transformer would drive them and b and q would take them back if they wouldn’t work, I wouldn’t want them in the kitchen, vthe philips kill them in how close they are to halogens but for the landing they work well. I would recommend getting the newest philips masters gu10’s and sone holders, at the best price you can find, there are some good deals to be had on ebay if you hunt them out, I’m averaging £9/bulb and not being too carefull so far, just make sure they are the smaller (50 mm deep I think, rather than 80mm) ones to be sure they will fit, some of my housings I’m going to take back out and snip the cross piece to get a better fit buy otherwise they are good. I’m mainly looking forward to the electricity savings tbh, the install cost is high compared to halogens but should be recouped inside the first year of use, if they last as long as they are supposed too, they’ll outlast five or six halogen bulbs in the same fitting too, at that point they pay fir themselves.

The main thing was finding ones that put out as much light in the right tint with decent cri, id have tried the syvanias tp mentions above but they were about forty quid a pop………I can’t stretch that far, the Philips were within reach.

if you do go for mr16’s, make sure your transformers will run them, of the sixteen individuals in my house, none would run an led drop in, so I’d have had to buy the transformers too, I got 20 gu10 ceramic bulb holders for four quid, they didn’t need to be ceramic but that was what was available.

Good luck and give them a go, one thing I have noticed tonight, we always leave the kitchen doors and all the windows open, the house is usually full of moths and daddy long legs, tonight, I’ve not seen one, I guess that’s down to the zero uv emmission of the led emitters but I don’t know for sure, need to use them some more first.

It could be. I get that if I leave my daylight CFLs on, but they don’t seem to be attracted to low power halogen (5-10W). >.< Thanks, gords!

Looking at the prices of the Philips Master range is making me think about buying some cheap and replacing the LEDs though that could be costly too. :~

That’s Very Interesting!! Please tell us more? :expressionless:

Yes, almost all bugs ignore or are blind to white LEDs.

One other thing that I have noticed with the LED fixtures is an increase in cobwebs around/in them. The bulbs don’t get hot enough to fry the critters that make them and burn off their web stuff (halogen bulbs get to several hundred degrees C… hence the ceramic connectors). Cobwebs are actually a good thing… they help filter/trap gunk in the air.

I found and inordinate amount of frazzled wasp carcasses when changing my lights about……I guess there was a nest in there at some point. Hopefully some of the big assed house spiders I’m finding knocking about can move in now.

Chloe, go to b and q, the one near me had a huge display showing the various led bulbs they sell, also most electrical distributers have their wares powered up so you can see the tints.

just be prepared to put the salesperson right when they tell you you want cw in the kitchen because its brighter :Sp

if you insist :wink:

texaspyro,

A lot of information here! I'm looking to install 3 to 4 recessed can lights in my kitchen to replace my ugly dual 4' florescent fixture. I'm set on going LED, but I'm not sure which route to go. I was just going to use the Halo H7ICAT 6" housing (I have attic access) with the Cree 2700k BR30 bulbs. These will be on a dimmer switch. I have 6" cans in my lower level with R30 bulbs that are flush with the ceiling, but in the kitchen I would like them to be recessed up in the housing.

Do you recommend I go another route? Maybe using 5" or 4" housings with PAR20 bulbs? There are a LOT of LED bulbs to chose from, but so far I was only looking at Cree because it's something we are all familiar with.

Either would work. I have the Sylvania PAR20/10W/550 lumen/3000K/95 CRI bulbs in my kitchen… 14 of them. Also 6 Phillips 10W/490 lumen/85 CRI/3000K/MR16’s.

I really like the 95 CRI bulbs, particularly in the kitchen. The PAR30’s are available with more lumens than the PAR20’s (and can be had for less money). Also, the PAR30s should last longer than the PAR20s since they have a lot more surface area for cooling. Sylvania does make some 95CRI PAR30’s…

Where in WI are you? PKK Lighting in Middleton specializes in this sort of thing. My sales rep is Rusty and he’s very knowledgeable.

I have seen many retrofit kits that would work, but I cant direct you to where to buy them.

We have 5 150? 175? watt HPS fixtures and one 75 watt. When we bought the building it was basically abandoned, all the bulbs were bad, one of the starters, and one entire fixture. I replaced it all, and they’ve been used every night dusk to dawn for about a year, no failures yet. When they do fail I’m thinking seriously about the LED retrofits.

Sylvania (Sunset Effect), Philips (Dim Tone), and a few others are now making LED bulbs that shift their color temperature down as they dim. They mimic the behavior of incandescent bulbs very well. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have them in candleabra sized bulbs yet.

Tex, my intent was to replace to your thread and say how much I appreciated it, and I got sidetracked. So thanks!

What did you end up doing with your leftover Chinese bulbs? I might be interested in them.

As I posted in another thread, I have great experiences with them myself. I havent been looking for dimmability, and I havent been trying to match the overall light quality of halogens, just get a lot closer to it than the CFL PARs and CFL Rs they replaced.

I have some cheap Chinese bulbs ( the ones with 4 less in them) I purchased 4 to replace a light fitting but all but one has failed, they last about 10 hours and start to flicker. what is the weak point with these bulbs ? or is it just poor design ? can they be fixed or should i just bin them?

Charles

I bought 20 of these bulbs from Costco for about $8.50 each:

!!

I like the color (about 3200ºK) and light output (850 lumens) and they work with my dimmers… but, they are very omni-directional. While installing them, I found that the dome was not glued/welded very well on one of them, so I squeezed it at the seam and the dome popped off. Inside was a plastic funnel shaped reflector and about 24 leds. There were about 3 of the leds shining through the hole in the ‘funnel’, and the other 20 were hitting outside of the plastic funnel shaped reflector, this directed most of the light out the sides. I removed the plastic reflector and super glued the dome back on…now it’s perfect for a 4” (edison based) can light. I found a few others where the dome was easily removable, but I had to use a hack saw blade to score the seam to remove the dome on a few others.

Just RGB SMD?can you assemble a bulb ?I think the RGB bulb is so fun.

I currently have some input into an office installation for 4ft long 18W LED lights to replace the old lighting, CRI is listed >80 so not too great, a selection of 3000k, 3500k, 4000k and 5000k appears to be the options currently. I am wondering if anyone has experienced the light from a similar lighting fixture and what your preferences/suggestions/considerations are? I am leaning towards the 3000k, but as its going into an office I’m not certain if the color spectrum at about 80 CRI is reasonable in that range or if everything is going to look too yellow? Also there is a frosted vs clear lens selection, any advice on the impacts of this selection?

The frosted lens will even out the beam and cut down on glare. Output will be slightly reduced.
3000k will likely be pretty warm for an office but it also depends on the quality of the led fixture.

2700-3000 would be good for your living/sitting room, it’s a warm colour and 4000k for your kitchen for example. Natural daylight is up closer to 5500k.

Thanks for replying, do you use these LED replacements yourself? I have seen several reviews of similar lights saying the 4000K do not feel as warm as they should online with noticeable color shift, and was wondering what people have experienced personally if you use them.

PM sent

My .02

I replaced 12 fluorescent T8 bulbs in my basement with frosted Hyperikon 4000K 18W bulbs, which were single-ended direct wire. The existing bulbs I had were slightly over 80 CRI, 4100K, and at first I hated the tint of the 4000K LEDs. The color just seemed off in comparison, maybe a little too warm, maybe a little too yellow, I couldn’t tell. But after having them for a few days and not being able to compare them side-by-side, I think they look great. I actually should have maybe gone with the 5000k though, or at least bought one of each to try them out before buying a dozen.

One thing to look out for is claims of “instant-on”. The Hyperikons say “instant-on”, but there’s a solid 1 second delay. I’ve contacted them about this and they have given a complete BS response that after a while, once they adjust to the 110v, they will instantly turn on. I could push the issue further and ask Amazon to step in to make them correct the false advertising, but it’s not worth it. I’m already used to having to wait to run down the stairs when I flip the switch until they turn on.

Because of this, I can’t trust any of their CRI claims either. But overall for $120 I’m pretty happy.

Thanks for your detailed post! I gonna to replace my bulbs into LED bulbs. I have heard that LED products help to save energy.