My adventures in LED home lighting

Texas, do you know if the $20-40 led bulbs at sams and costco are any good?

Im looking for something that can be used in a regular lamp stand. Those par20s look like theyre for recessed lighting.

the par38s from costco i have are OK. it has a tan/rose hue roughly around 4000k and is a fairly narrow flood like it says. it has limited applications because of its large size and spotlight

I don't shop at Sams/Costco, so I don't know what they sell.

Almost all the bulbs in my house are in recessed fixtures. I used a few globe type bulbs in some shower fixtures (but could have used PAR20's) because I had the bulbs and they worked well in those fixtures.

The best globe type bulb out there right now seems to be that funky looking Philips bulb (looks like an orange flying saucer on the end of a screw base. (http://www.usa.lighting.philips.com/lightcommunity/trends/enduraled/index.wpd)

You can get them (800 lumens) for around $25. They just released a new version (900 lumens, 93 CRI) that goes for $50, but has some heavy promotional deals available.

Hi jay, yeah i saw those too. But yes, too large.

Texas, thx for the link. That bulb seems to made with luxeons. Ill check them out...less than $25 on amazon.

I saw them at Lowes's or Home Depot (don't remember which) for around $28 the other day when I was on my quest for 18 gauge solid wire to redo some fluorescent fixtures to take LED bulbs.

I was thinking about using them in the attics and/or basement. But, I think I'll put those 5000 lumen LSG Pyramid fixtures that I got with a rediculous low-ball bid in the attics. Those'll make the critters scurry in a hurry.

I just blew two 13 year old air conditioner units last week ($6000 ea!). While deciding the cost effectiveness of high-efficencey replacements (hint, not very... the payback of a 14.5 SEER vs a 15 SEER 5-ton unit was over 25 years!) I analyzed my old electric bills (I have them archived back to 1999). It looks like my LED bulbs are saving $40-$60 a month in electricity alone. I was also spending over $250 a year on light bulbs (say at least $5 bulb every week) and about $200 a year on blown dimmers.

Figure around at least $1000/year savings all together. Even with my excessive learning curve spending and no tax/utility offsets the investment payback was less than 3 years. It could easily have been under a year if I only did the bulbs that were really used (who need LED bulbs in closets, showers, garage door openers, etc that are hardly ever used). Actually the garage door openers were well worth it... even special (and expensive) rough service bulbs lasted only a few months due to vibration killing the incandescent filaments.

I do like the brightness and tint of my PAR30 LED bulbs from Costco although one of them had one dead LED (out of six) after just one month. It is easy to get it exchanged for a new one there as Costco's exchange/return policy is excellent. I have heard them accepting returns after two years on various items.

Well, it looks like those bulbs are now available... suggested retail is only $229 ea, but you can get them for $105.03 Darn, once they get below $105.01 I'll bite Yeah, right...

Here is a simple lifetime cost calculator for upgrading to LED bulbs. It does not include the effects on your heating/cooling bill and equipment.

http://www.polar-ray.com/Savings-Calculator_ep_44.html

Well, it looks like I can bite! They quoted me a real price that actually makes sense. I ordered a box of 6 to start with... if nothing goes wrong will get 30 more.

I borrowed their distributor's sample bulb and it works VERY well. It puts out at least twice as much light as the Chinese 6 watt bulbs. It dims smoothly to almost full off (Lutron Diva dimmers). No funky shadows, fringes, twinges, ripples, or shades. And amazingly for a 10 watt bulb in a small form factor mounted in a semi-closed recessed fixture it only gets to 60 degrees C.

Two minor things that could stand to be improved are the 80 CRI spec (actually probably closer to 85 CRI, but those 95 CRIs I put in the kitchen spoil you) and if it was around 1/8" shorter the face of the bulb would sit flush to the front of the fixture. The Chinese bulbs are shorter and sit back about an inch in the fixture. That causes an annoying shadow around the edge of the beam.

I pulled the Sylvania 10 watt PAR16 bulb out of the ceiling fixture and mounted it in an open-air test socket where I could get the thermocouple mounted properly. The bulb does burn a lot hotter than my first measurement. Looks like 83C/185F... and that's not in a recessed can. That's warmer than my 15 watt/1300 lumen MR16 replacement fixtures that I built, but less than those Chinese 6 watt PAR20 bulbs. The black part of the bulb by the screw base is around 20C cooler.

Hmmm, I wonder what those 6 watt Chinese PAR16 bulbs burn at? Turns out to be 75C/170F, so I guess the Sylvania isn't doing too bad for a 10 watt bulb.

Both the Sylvania and the Chinese bulbs have a 0.80 power factor.

I bought a couple of those Philips 10 watt MR16 bulbs with the tiny fan in them ($25 from Home Depot). I thought it would be nasty, but is actually very nice. You have to stick it right up to your ear to hear it. The hottest part of the bulb is only 43C/110F! A good 6 watt bulb runs over 68C (halogens over 800C!). Hopefully Philips did their homework on the fan life... something tells me they probably did. Warranty is at least 3 years since they have Energy Star certification.

It cranks out well over 400 lumens in a nice pattern (they have an Endura model that pushes 500 lumens). It compares quite favorably to a 900 lumen 50 watt halogen. I would use them instead of building the rest of my custom 1200+ lumen/14 watt Bridgelux fixtures, except the recessed eyeball fixtures cannot swivel enough to place the top of the beam closer than 2.5 feet from the ceiling. Bummer.

I just ordered a 5m RGB 300 led 5050 smd roll with controller and power supply. Should be good illuminating my fish tanks. Blue should look good at night.

I’ve had a chance to play with those Sylvania PAR16 bulbs. Installed in the celing fixtures they run at up 87 degrees C (just about what they run open air). They use 4 Cree XMLs. They put out a LOT more light than the halogens or Chinese bulbs with a whole lot less beam artifacts. I tried putting one of those Chinese bulbs on a bulb extender so that it was not recessed in the fixture and still got the beam artifacts. Looks like I will probably be buying 30 more of the PAR16 bulbs.

I also bought 10 more of the Philips MR16 bulbs ($30 ea), but this time got the commercial grade Endura version (Home Depot sells the AmbientLED version for $25). Enduras puts out 20 more lumens and are supposed to be more better gooder.

They are REALLy nice bulbs. Very clean, even beam, more apparent light than the 50W/900 lumen halogens. They will dim to 0 (about half of them flicker at that setting). I tried hooking one up to a lab supply. I lights up with around 2 volts on it! Looks like I will be buying 20 more.

They are rated for 25,000 hour life, but the warranty is only a pro-rated 15,000 hour warranty. I wonder how they tell how long they ran? I suspect that the circuitry/microprocessor in the driver may have an hour counter stored in EEPROM?

I did mount the MR16 bulbs in my existing gimbal fixtures a bit differently than normal. The bulbs normally shine down on artwork at an angle like the PAR16 bulbs. Instead of clipping the bulbs into the back of the gimbal ring like a normal bulb, I mounted them to the front of the gimbal ring using a couple of pieces of magnet wire. This gets the front of the bulb out another inch or so and raises the top of the beam up a bit (the artwork in the kitchen is only six inches or so from the ceiling). The beam no longer strikes the trim in the fixture which caused some ripples in the beam. It also makes sure that the air vents around the edge of the bulbs are not blocked by the gimbal ring.

I have some candelabra style LED bulbs mounted in some wall sconces that have been running 24/7 for over two years (say 20,000 hours) (yeah, I’m guilty. I’m saving so much electricity with the LED bulbs that I do keep a few on 24/7 as night lights… using a timer would actually draw more power than leaving them on and switching them off defeats the purpose of having some night lights)

These were built out of 30 or so 5mm warm white LEDs mounted at all angles in a candle flame shaped bulb and are dimmable. Normally this type of bulb construction (like the infamous “shower head” style bulb) is known for very poor lifetime (like a few hundred hours).

I also have a different version of candelabra bulb mounted by some gates at the front porch of my house. These have a frosted envelope and a metal heatsink at the bottom. You can’t tell what’s inside the bulb. They are on a photocell circuit and run maybe 10-12 hours a day so say 10,000 hours on these.

For both types of bulbs, I bought a few spares. I paid around $8-$10 each for the LED bulbs. All the bulbs are still working just fine. I decided to see how much the light degraded after this extended period of use, so I compared the light output of the old bulbs with an unused one. In both cases the light output of the used bulbs was around 15-17% less than the new ones.

The lifetime of mainstream lighting LED bulbs are typically spec’d as how long until the bulb hits 70% of its original output and good ones are rated at 25,000-50,000 hours (you often see the 25,000 hour number because the requirements of the EPA Energy Star rating, they can’t spec a number less than that and get an Energy Star rating, or over that without valid long-term test data).

The candelabra style bulbs are usually rated at around 10,000 hours. So far mine have greatly exceeded this. Hopefully, all the other bulbs will too.

What brand/model or candelabra style LED bulbs do you recommend? I am planning to get a few to replace my dining room lights but I don’t know which ones to get. My preference here is a 3000K tint. Thanks.

I am using these in the indoor fixtures:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/E12-30-Dimmable-LED-Candelabra-Candle-Warm-WHITE-120v-crystal-chandelier-light-/190690504508?pt=US_Light_Bulbs&hash=item2c660a2f3c

The ones that I got have a clear bulb, not slightly frosty like the one in the photo. I have them in some wall sconces (single bulb) and a couple of chandeliers. They work well there since the multiple point sources of light play well with the crystals.

I have two more chandeliers that could use them, but I seldom turn those on and they have a lot of bulbs and are not the easiest to get to. I’ll probably do them in a while.

I have bought a lot of stuff from iggybabie without any problems. Their lumen specs are actually reasonable/believable. They supplied the Chinese PAR16 and PAR20 bulbs that I first used. They are OK bulbs, but no match for the Sylvanias which cost me 2-3 times as much. (Just noticed that their price has come down 5 bucks) I had one fail, which they replaced.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAR20-WARM-WHITE-CREE-LED-X-RE-470LM-BULBS-E27-DIMMABLE-45-degrees-Edison-Base-/160823222330?pt=US_Light_Bulbs&hash=item2571cfa03a#ht_3198wt_802

They no longer list the PAR16 model that I bought…

In your opinion, is it worth looking at the more expensive Sylvania’s from Lowe’s instead of the non-branded ones from ebay? I do like easy exchanges if they fail in the near future but I am not sure how long they will honor the exchanges though.

Most definitely. I had perfectly OK Chinese bulbs installed, but replaced them with $40 Sylvanias. There is just no comparison. The Sylvaina PAR20’s are 550 (real) lumens with a 95 CRI. Their heatsinks are heavy castings and the Chinese ones are light weight stampings. Plus, I really like the idea of having an accountable company to go after if things go wrong.

The best bulbs that I have seen are made by Sylvania (closely related to Lighting Science Group and Ecosmart) and Philips. Avoid Lights of America like the plague. I was rather unimpressed by Feit.

Over the last year, I have had two bulbs outright fail. One Sylvaina PAR38 popped an internal fuse and one of the Chinese bulbs died. An internal wire unsoldered itself. It looked like they nicked/pinched a wire when they built the bulb… that caused a short after a year of use. When I took apart the bulb, I was not impressed with how it was built (driver wrapped in tape, poor quality solder joints to the wires). The Sylvania drivers are potted in silicone.

Before LEDs, I was replacing at least one incandescent bulb a week and several dimmers every year. I’d say keep your receipts and the bar code panel from the box. I also mark my bulbs with the installation date. My Philips MR16 bulbs are rated for 25,000 hours but the warranty is pro-rated 15,000 hours (boo, hiss). You need your receipt and proof-of-purchase symbol from the box. The Sylvainas have a straight three year warranty.

I’ll be going over to visit the Lowes and Home Depots in my area to see what I can find. Sylvanias seems to have the better warranty here so I will check them out first. Then I will mark the bulbs with the installation dates as you suggested and see how long they last. Thanks for your advice.