More advice from an early adopter October 15, 2009
Posted by ledguy in Products, Replacement bulbs, Review, Where to buy.Tags: consumer reviews, LED, led lights, Replacement bulbs
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A while back, Warren provided his experience with early LED replacement bulbs. He submitted the following comment on a recent post, but this is such encouraging news that I thought it deserved to be highlighted:
I have found a 60 watt replacement that is reasonably priced at $19.95. It is a 5.5 watt tube light and is so bright you can’t look at it. I got it from Super Bright. http://superbrightleds.com/edison_globe.html part #E27-W35HF-T. If that isn’t bright enough for you, there is a 100 watt equivalent that I purchased from Luminosity, http://luminosityled.com/products/index.php/led-household-lightbulbs.html for $36.79. It is 8.2 watts. These will really light up a room.
Thanks, Warren! I’ll be sure to check them out.
For those of you inclined to the numbers, let’s say you replace a bulb that is lit 4 hours per day with the above bulbs:
- The 60-watt equivalent will save 79.6 kilowatt hours, or almost $12 at electricity rate of $.15 per kwh. Here in Massachusetts, rates are closer to $.20 so I would save almost $15.
- The 100 watt equivalent will save 134 kwh, $20 at $.15 per kwh and nearly $27 for me.
Another way to put it is each of these bulbs will pay back the initial cost in under 2 years, but since they are likely to last at least 7 years (10,000 hours) they will save a lot of money over the lifetime.
Now that cfl’s have come down to the sub $10 range (and I often see them in the sub $5 range) I don’t think these prices are mass market yet. But they are close enough that early adopters will buy them, starting the feedback look that will increase volume and lower costs, prove the market, attract more competition, further lower prices, spur more demand, etc.
Perhaps the L-Prize , with its more modest goal of replacing a 60-watt bulb with a 10-watt LED, won’t be the primary kickstart to the market.
This sounds encouraging, but the output numbers still don’t seem to quite compare. The page listing the E27-W35HF-T light claims to approximate a 35-40 W incandescent, and the output numbers (275-295 lumens) support that. The “100 W” replacement from LuminosityLED lists its output at 600 lumens, which is still short of the 1700 lumens listed on the Wikipedia page of the incandescent light bulb (assuming the table on the Wikipedia page is accurate).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb
Also, CRI of 80 is a bit of a disappointment, but I guess we can’t have everything!
I placed an incandescent 60 watt next to that LED and they sure looked comparable. I purchased 3 so far and have 3 more on order. A lot depends on your application or fixture. I tried it in a table lamp and the shade tended to contain the light. The LED light seems to travel in a straight line.
I just stumbled upon another vendor of LED lights. I haven’t tried them yet as I am set right now but they have a interesting variety of bulbs.
http://www.ledlight.com/led-lightbulbs.aspx
I purchased 2 18 SMT(3 chip) Standard bulb from LEDLight.com. This claims to be a 60 watt equivalent. It compares favorably to the other ones that I bought but there are differences. These don’t have the individual magnifying bubbles over the LEDs. This seems to have the effect of radiating the light rather than emitting it. Incandescents and fluorescents radiate light so this makes it closer to the lights we are used to. The bulb has a glass envelope which protects the LEDs and looks more like what we were used to. The other ones seem whiter in color.
Beware of LEDLight.com. Three of the bulb types they sell have high failure rates. One type (47856) had 100% failure rate (12 out of 12 failed). This company is selling products that they know are defective. No support for failed LED bulbs. These bulbs are very expensive ($20 – $105) and in some cases last only two or three weeks. They refuse to replace defective bulbs. LEDLight.com is selling known defective products and has bad customer service.
Please help me buy a really good flashlight with the best bulb to see by and end the this subject with a big climax. I need a good light because I have a handicap and when lights go out I must find the emergency controls on some medical equip. Thanks and
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!
I bought a little battery powered hi-ouput led spotlight. It is not a flashlight as such but it is advertised as having the brightest single bulb led. It can be mounted with screws or velcro and the head swivels and tilts. It can also just sit on a surface or be hand held. I have used it for finding small parts that I have dropped because it is so bright.
As a follow up on the first bulbs I purchased, out of 8 that I bought I had 2 failures. I guess that is the price of being a pioneer.
I am a big fan of LED lighting. Choose a bulb that fits the application (lumens and color) and you will be happy. Unfortunatly many manufacturers and vendors overstate (I’m being kind here) their products specifications.
I have purchased 45 LED bulbs and have had mixed reliability.
The good news – some are very reliable. I have five LED bulbs outside that have run dusk to dawn for two years with no problems.
The bad news – some bulbs are VERY unreliable. VERY high failure rates.
I purchased 12 of one type LED bulb and 12 out of 12 have failed (8.5W product 47856 from LEDLight.com). To make matters worse they are refusing to replace them now.
Beware of LEDLight.com. This company is selling products that they know are defective. No support for failed LED bulbs. These bulbs are very expensive ($20 – $105) and in some cases last only two or three weeks. They refuse to replace defective bulbs. LEDLight.com is selling known defective products and has bad customer service.
ledlight.com, LED, problem, fail, failure, burnout, quit, reliability, unreliable, review
I had failures of 3 out of 8 I purchased from Super Bright. I called and they said to return with a copy of the receipt and a note what is wrong. No return authorization was needed. They replaced or repaired them no problem. I am happy with the service I got from them.