Looking into converting the whole house over to LED light bulbs. Any input?

[Sheepdog Gear]

Things I'm looking for in my search....

- Color temperature. I don't know what range is best for home use. Something close to sunlight?

- Price. Since I'm buying a bunch, I don't want to go broke.

- Durability. Are the run of the mill Chinese cheapo ones durable, or should I look elsewhere?

Hoping some of you went through this already and have some good input. Thanks guys!

 

[OutdoorDad]

1000bulbs.com

start there to see what's available.
Make a small sample order. You'll get tons of discount coupons via email.

 

[GLOCKMAN23C]

1000bulbs.com

start there to see what's available.
Make a small sample order. You'll get tons of discount coupons via email.

This.


I prefer a cool white as opposed to a warm white. The cool white bulbs seem to run more money for some reason.

 

[Brandon]

We have bought many led bulbs from higher priced bulbs with Samsung chips to the cheaper utilitech bulbs at Lowes for like 2.50 a piece.
We have lost 2 of the higher dollar bulbs and 0 of the cheaper Lowes bulbs.

The higher priced ones are white and the Lowes are more standard yellowish (like a 60w incandescent).

We have switched every light except for a couple of track light fixtures and a couple of out door flood lights that are still CFL's.


One more thing to keep in mind, make sure the bulb you are looking at gives light off in the direction you want the light to go. Some only let the light out at the top while some light all around like a normal bulb. Most have a picture on the side of the box that show how the light is going to shine.

 

[hoosierdoc]

I love LeDs but they do weird things in some outlets. They blink in our range hood I think because they're not dimmable and it's a dimmer switch. Another blinks in my son's closet at time. They are way brighter than CFL so you may want to step down in watt equivalence

 

[churchmouse]

Are there actual advantages with the LED's

 

[tmschuller]

Look for a UL listing and how many LED's are in the bulb. Some will cast shadows.
The bulbs are getting cheaper and better. The color/Kelvin rating is important. Higher the # brighter it is. Depends on your eyes.

 

[ArmedNerds]

Are there actual advantages with the LED's

LED's run with far less wattage, don't waste quite as energy to heat, and run damned near forever, at least compared to incandescent and CFL's. I have a few in the house but the first place I always replace to them is in cars. Everything but the headlights, and the bulbs will likely outlast the car.

 

[eldirector]

DO NOT get "cheap" ones. They will likely last only a year or two. If on a dimmer, get dimmable lights (or they will not last). Speaking from experience. Tend to like the real CREE lamps.

I have some in the 3500K range (nice warm, nearly incandescent color), and some in the 6-7000K range (very white).

The higher wattage ones will get hot. Nearly as hot as an old filament bulb.

I like them because:
- WAY cheaper to run than incandescent and even CFL
- Lots of color temp options
- dimmable is easy to find, compared to CFL
- instant-on, much like incandescent (and unlike CFL)

They are more expensive, though. The ROI is with fixtures that are on a lot, not things like closet lights. They are also much better in directional lights (spots/floods), rather than "bulbs". The actual LED is directional. To make a bulb, they use a bunch in a circle/sphere (more expense, more to fail).

I still have a bunch of CFL and filament bulbs, that will likely get LED as they fail. Already have LED can lights in the kitchen and family room, where they are on several hours a day. My total wattage in the kitchen fell from 35W x 7 (halogen floods) to 7W x 7. Better lighting for 1/5 the cost.

 

[Sheepdog Gear]

Thanks for all the replies guys. Once more big concern that I forgot to mention in the OP.... I HATE the buzzing sound that comes from dimmable bulbs. The lower you dim, the louder the buzz. Do LED's do this?

Also, there's a couple places where my wife wants those Edison style bulbs. I know they make them in LED as well. Anybody have experience with those?

 

[Leo]

I do a lot of reading, I have yet to experience an LED bulb that does not induce early eye strain as compared to a standard 40 watt bulb. I really do not care for most CFL light either. I have an OTT lamp that uses full spectrum bulbs, that is very color neutral. The bad part is the bulbs are about $35.00.

I have not experienced really long life on CFL's or LED's. I bought this house in 2012, and there are very few CFL bulbs that not needed replacement. Only one of the three LED bulbs are still running. I bought them from Menards, I do not know how they stack up quality wise to the rest of the market.

Has anyone really calculated the initial cost vs operating cost? Say you get electricity for 20 cents per Kilowatt hour, how many additional hours would the bulb have to last to break even?

 

[ArmedNerds]

Also, there's a couple places where my wife wants those Edison style bulbs. I know they make them in LED as well. Anybody have experience with those?

I think SuperBrightLED's has those. Great company and fast shipping.

 

[Sheepdog Gear]

I think SuperBrightLED's has those. Great company and fast shipping.

Have you seen them in person? Do they look as nice as the filament style Edison?

 

[ArmedNerds]

Have you seen them in person? Do they look as nice as the filament style Edison?

I have not. If the quality of those is the same of their car bulbs, I'd say they're pretty good. The site has images and videos of most of their bulbs, and they've got a 30 day return policy.

 

[femurphy77]

One thing I've noticed since converting over to LED in our house; in one bedroom they wired the outlet and the ceiling light from the same breaker. No the outlet isn't switched, they are fed from the same circuit. What I've noticed is that in that one room if the light is on and you turn on the vacuum plugged into that room the LED goes out momentarily, not dim, out. Only room in the house that does it but it's also the only room in the house wired that way.

The other half of this observation is that we have exterior lights on the house and barn that come on at dusk at a low level and go to a higher output via a motion detector. With the old incandescents there was a distinct change in light output between the low and high settings, with the LED's it's a very minor difference. Without doing a lot of research on it I've decided that their voltage sensitivity isn't comparable to the incandescent bulbs and they are able to maintain almost full light output at the lower setting. I'm actually thinking about changing the one on the barn back to incandescent so it doesn't light up the whole backyard.

 

[KittySlayer]

Has anyone really calculated the initial cost vs operating cost? Say you get electricity for 20 cents per Kilowatt hour, how many additional hours would the bulb have to last to break even?

We had a hundred can type CFL lights in our office building. One of the owners is a tree hugger and just had to have LEDs throughout the building. This required an electrician and modification of all the fixtures. Electricity is cheap so the payback period on this little pipe dream is 20+ years. We'll still be a lose leader when I retire.

The tree hugger tried to convince their partners of the cost savings and no matter how you calculated it the change did not make economic sense.

 

[MrPeabody]

Have you seen them in person? Do they look as nice as the filament style Edison?

I have several of the Edison bulbs in LED ,but you do need to be carful what you buy. We have several antique lights that I us them in and they are pretty nice.

 

[femurphy77]

We had a hundred can type CFL lights in our office building. One of the owners is a tree hugger and just had to have LEDs throughout the building. This required an electrician and modification of all the fixtures. Electricity is cheap so the payback period on this little pipe dream is 20+ years. We'll still be a lose leader when I retire.

The tree hugger tried to convince their partners of the cost savings and no matter how you calculated it the change did not make economic sense.

We've had this conversation at work ourselves many times. We maintain one million sq ft of floor space and every so often a new director or administrator will come in with warm fuzzy feelings about LED lighting. It's a ***** slap to their face when the "uneducated janitors" throw down the ROI on THAT investment!!!

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Good LEDs should last 20 years mean, some more, some less. If they're using cheaper elements, they probably push them harder to get the light, and that will reduce the life. Your payback time will depend on use patterns; one that gets a lot of on time will pay back far sooner than the one in the closet, if that one ever does. If you drop it on the floor, you won't get the insignificant bit of mercury that freaks out the nannies, and you don't have to go into hazmat emergency cleanup mode. I also haven't heard of them catching fire on failure like some of the CFLs have done, but I'd have to verify that.

They do come in different color ratings. I like the 3500°K for most things; the whiter ones just put that fluorescent mojo on me. The light patterns are also improving. Some of them are almost like the incandescents now. There should be no buzz with LEDs; that's an artifact of the ballast of the CFL. You'll often notice that with the big tube fixtures as well. The LEDs are instant on, but they're instant off as well, and if you're sensitive to the flashing, you could indeed get a headache if you're using it to read. There I'd go with an incandescent. It's easier to dim LEDs, though they won't necessarily have the same response curve as an incandescent. Even the dimmable CFLs suck at that, and one of my dimmers burned out when I was trying one out. I don't know if that was the cause, but I'm suspicious. I do also have a few 3-way LEDs, which are nice.

I find the investment in good LEDs to be worth the cost; they can pay back in a matter of months. I despise CFLs, and I'm getting out of them as they die, which has invariably been sooner than promised. I haven't had an LED die yet, myself. There are still uses that are best served with incandescents, and I have enough of those put back to last me for life.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Heh, yeah for a factory or warehouse or something you definitely want the mercury vapor or high pressure sodium. Both very efficient, each fixture costs more but you need a lot fewer of them.