Advice from an early adopter January 25, 2009
Posted by ledguy in Replacement bulbs, Where to buy.Tags: consumer reviews, LED, led lights, Products, Replacement bulbs
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Warren S, a self-professed early adopter who has converted all the lighting in his house to LED, left a comment on my post “LEDs above the road”. I was intrigued by his story and so I conducted an email interview about his experiences in this transition. Read on for his insights, tips, and wisdom.
LED Lights at Home (LLAH): First tell us a little about yourself and your interest in LEDs.
Warren S: I am always into new technology. I am 70 years old so I figure I can’t sit around waiting for the technology to catch up to me.
LLAH: LOL! You mentioned that you have converted all the lighting in your house to LEDs. Can you tell how much money and energy you are saving?
Warren S: There is a definite improvement but it is hard to quantify. I was all fluorescent prior to doing this so it isn’t as dramatic as if I started with incandescent. Computers, TVs, appliances, and the heating system are bigger users of electricity.
LLAH: So how is the quality of the light?
Warren S: The light is very direct and will throw shadows. That is why multiple lights coming from different angles works best. On my scooter I got some SMD (surface mount device) ones which have no magnifying tips on the little LED’s. This spreads the light better but finding them for the house has been difficult.
LLAH: What about dimming? The lack of dimmable CFLs or the extra expense of them have been a drawback for that technology.
Warren S: LED manufacturer Super Bright warns against using dimmers but I have used a rheostat type dimmer with no problems. I got an electronic dimmer and burned out the dimmer. I would say use at your own risk or avoid using dimmers.
LLAH: If someone were to want to start converting to LED, but not convert every light the way you have, where should they start?
Warren S. That is a good question. Everything I have done was experimental. I have seen some at Ace Hardware for about $10. They are made by Lights of America. They are equivalent to a 40 watt and come in different styles and bright white or soft white which has a yellowish tint. It would be best to choose a spot where you use the light a lot. Some places I had to use more than one bulb to get enough light.
LLAH: What has been your approach to getting LED’s? What sources have you used?
Warren S: For the most part I lucked out and got them cheap. I usually buy one to see how it works before I buy more. You also need to be aware that it is hard to compare them to each other because the amount of LEDs in them doesn’t always tell you how much light they put out. (LLAH comment: check packaging for the number of lumens the bulb produces. Note that a 60 watt incandescent produces about 800 lumens).
LLAH: LED lights are still a rarity in stores. What is the hold up?
Warren S: There should be more and better lights in the future and cheaper, too. Right now the push is for CFLs. Everybody is selling them. Once the saturation point is reached they will start pushing LEDs.LLAH: Thanks for stopping by and thanks for sharing your experiences.
I stumbled upon some desk lamps at Menards. They had 36 large LEDs and they were only $17 later they were marked down to $10. I found that if you point them up at the ceiling it gives you diffused light. Then I stopped in American Science and they had a screw in bulb with 60 LEDs for $20. I bought one and it died after about 2 weeks. I went back to get another one and they had a sign saying they had a manufacturing defect that led to early failure. They were marked down to $2. I thought the problem might be lack of ventilation so I drilled holes in the side. The failures stopped. I took all they had. (LLAH comment: The moral of the story appears to be that at this early stage, you need to be resourceful, experimental and unafraid to improvise!)
I am looking to replace all the lights in my workplace with LED’s. However I have heard there can be a problem with colour temperature variations even within a batch, and also that the ambient temperature of the lamps location can shorten their lifespan. I am mainly looking into MR16 lamps. Have you heard/seen either of these effects and can you offer any assistance.
Many thanks
Sherry,
Your question is a good one. There are a lot of myths surrounding LEDs. New regulations have just been released (Aug 31 09) and this won’t be a problem any more. We’d love to help you out with your retrofit. We do nothing but LED lights. Call or email me if interested. We are based near Las Vegas, NV. 1-866-413-4045 ext 102 or aj@luminosityled.com. You can also order online @ http://www.luminosityled.com. AJ Rounds
Dear LLAH (and Warren),
Thank you so much for this very helpful interview.
For a better online option to buy LED lights at lower prices and better selection, try one of the online stores like http://www.Eaglelight.com.
Eaglelights sells one of the best LED replacement lights, the Pharox, for the lowest price out there, and sells the 36 LEDs VIVID bulb for only $9.99.
The Pharox is the best 40 watt replacement bulb I’ve seen and it’s got a frosted globe which gives off a warm glow, so Warren, you’ll find that it perfectly solves the problem you described of the light being very direct and throwing shadows. That doesn’t happen with the Pharox from Eaglelight.
I also like the PAR20, PAR30 and PAR38 LED bulbs that Eaglelight sells. Those LEDs substitute very well for the 60watt, 75 watt and 100 watt incandescents.
I hope others will post where they get their LEDs and which ones work best for them. The prices and quality has gotten a lot better and I have seen a big reduction in my electric bill.
Sherry:
I haven’t heard of the color temperature variations you mention; sounds like an issue of quality control, possibly for smaller brands. I just noticed LED MR16 bulbs at Home Depot from Philips and I would be more confident in their quality control
I understand heat control can be an issue with LEDs and higher temperature can decrease life. Recessed fixtures are more likely to have a problem than track lights, for example. What kind of fixtures do you have?
Mark, I have one of those 36 LED bulbs. I never pay more than $20 for a bulb.
Here is an update. I checked my electric bill for the last 6 months. My usage was 15% lower than the previous year during the same period. I just now replaced the bulbs in my refrigerator with LEDs. Although the lights aren’t on for very long at a time, they were 2 40 watts which was more than the rest of the house combined. Also they put out a lot of heat which the refrigerator has to compensate for.
Here are some of my favorite bulbs. I purchased them at
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=MR16
E27-x24-White, Wide. This is a little bulb that can. It looks like an ice cream cone. The tips of the LEDs are flat. They charge $3 extra for white.
E27-x36-G. They charge $6 extra for white.
E12-W32 Candelabra base bulb. This bulb uses surface mount technology. The LEDs don’t have the little bubbles on them and they have them mounted in 6 rows of 5 around the center and 2 on the tip. This makes the light much less directional. I got clear but frosted would probably be better.
Warren S: thanks for the link and the recommendations. Do you know the lumen output of these bulbs? Was it on the packaging, for example? The site doesn’t consistently list the lumens but where they do they are 300 or lower. That’s pretty dim — equivalent to a 40 watt bulb or less
Frankly no, that information is not always available. I looked at the Feit site. They make a lot of bulbs of all kinds. Under LEDs they show a lot of night lights but only one that is called “household bulb”. It looks like an ordinary incandescent but gives no specs whatsoever. I would like to find one in a store to try out. I find that if one bulb doesn’t put out enough light I use 2. I have those adapters that screw in a socket and allow you to use 2 bulbs. Not too elegant but it works. Don’t forget I happened to find a source of bulbs for $2 each. I have 16 or17 of those. They are what I call mushroom style. They have 60 LEDs and have that dome style defuser. The surface mount bulbs were a little disappointing. I expected more light since I had used surface mount bulbs on my scooters. The vehicle bulbs had little ceramic looking chips arranged in rows around a center core but they had 3 LEDs per chip so a 13 chip light had 39 LEDs. When I saw those I could see the future of LED home lighting.
Hi Warren,
Thanks for the tip. I will change the lights in my fridge to LEDs too (since the LEDs stay cool, that should save doubly).
The 36 Vivid C.Crane LED I bought at Eaglelight was under $10, so it should fit your under $20 requirements perfectly.
I like some other LEDs more, but they do cost over $20.
I just bought some more LEDs from Eaglelight.com and I really have to give them a shout-out beacuse they have a 100% money back guarantee and they have very helpful customer service, not to mention lightning fast fulfillment. Rare in this world.
Thanks for your great blog. Mark
First this isn’t my blog. I just felt I had some experience to offer.
I have one of those 36 vivid lights that I bought from Superbright. They charged $6 extra for white. I like it but the ones I got at American Science were a similar design except they have 60 leds and are about 3″ in diameter. At $2 each I got about 20 of them. I prefer to buy locally in a store.
At Ace Hardware I have bought a few Lights of America bulbs. They say they are 40 watt equivalent and use 1.5 watts. They come in different styles, round or candelabra shape, bright white or warm white. The candelabra ones also come with 2 different bases, standard or candelabra. They look similar to the one I called ice cream cone and have a clear plastic enclosure in both shapes. They sell for $10 and seem to sell out as fast as they get them in.
I saw a GE Para 20 bulb at WalMart. It was $35 so I passed.