[lasseter]

Some here are complaining about their led lights failing after a short time. I guess they are talking about mains voltage led lights. I have been using 12 vold led systems for some years now and have had no dramas to speak of and I wonder if it is the leds themselves that are failing or the electronic circuits that convert the mains voltage to what the leds need to operate.

Probably doesn't matter to most readers since they are grid dependent and have no choice but to buy the type they do.

[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('KaiserJeep', '.')..

[KaiserJeep]

The globe fixture above has plenty of glass to conduct heat away, and enough air inside to have convection inside the globe.

Convection, conduction, and radiation are the ways heat is dissipated. You can use any of them, the important thing is to keep the electronics cool for reliability.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'P')icked up two 75W/1100 lumen equivalent bulbs yesterday for overnight (security) lighting now that we are getting into the dark season of the year. These are Utilitech Pro brand rated at 3000K color frequency for 25,000 hours of useful life. They were the new brand on sale at Lowes and are shaped to fit a standard incandescent socket fixture/cover.

They consume 16 Watts of power in use and give off a bright white light, somewhat harsher than I would prefer. Hopefully they will stand up to harsh outside weather as well as the Sylvania LED spotlights I purchased last fall that they are supplementing to light up my back yard for security reasons.

[Loki]

I just tested an LED 1141 bulb for a 12V RV-type light.

With a brand new 1141 incandescent bulb, the lamp drew 1.47 amps. These are plenty bright to read by if they're positioned directly overhead.

With this LED, it drew 0.13 amps. Light was a lot whiter and not quite as bright, but still fine to read by.

Huge difference in power draw, obviously. I'm vaguely considering getting a 7 ah alarm battery to run this LED light. If run down to 50% one of these batteries should run this light for ~27 hours.

[Graeme]

I converted my home to 100% LED lighting and you should too

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')ne of the goals I had in my recent house renovation was to change every light bulb in the house to LEDs. I was dividing the house into two apartments and had to pull all the halogen spotlights out of the ceiling that was now a fire separation, and was finishing what was the basement, so new lighting was needed throughout. Most of the house was lit with compact fluorescents, and I never liked them very much.

But the main reason I could do this is the fact that in the last year, the cost of changing to LEDs has dropped like a stone. There is a wide range of bulbs now available for under ten bucks, and if you are willing to spend a bit more there are some very exciting things happening in the LED world.

[Graeme]

2014 Nobel Prize in Physics: Invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to Isamu Akasaki, of Meijo University in Nagoya and Nagoya University, Japan; Hiroshi Amano, of Nagoya University, Japan; and Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA "for the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources."

[Newfie]

On boats you are off grid and pretty sensitive to battery usage. We have converted both boats to LED lighting, interior and nav, and are so far happy.

Living in and maintains an old house/ apt building I had a different issue. The three story hallway wiring is pretty darn old. I wanted to convert it to 12VDC LED to decrease the fire threat as well as reduce power consumption. Existing wiring is running behind plaster and lath walls, replacement cost is HUGE.

I found 12vdc lamps using a standard base. But city inspector gave me some heartache about emergency lights I won't go into here. Finally figured a way to make it all work legally (if stupid) and now have it all working for a few weeks.

Very high quality light, better than before. Set us back about $3,300 for 8 lights when all said and done with me doing a good bit myself, all the thinking for sure. The building inspectors interpretation caused maybe $2,500 of that.

This financially only makes sense as a way to avoid rewireing the hallway (NOT required by the inspector but a worry for fire anyway) but we are happy with the outcome.

[jedrider]

One of my recent projects has been to replace EVERY incandescent/CFL/Florescent with an LED light bulb.
The prices are so low now, that this probably actually makes a lot of sense as well as cents.

The down lights were easy to replace at $35.00 each. I found a 3000K, CRI 93 from Lithonia that I really like. Although I switched vendors from room to room, as I wasn't going to return all the bulbs that I didn't like 100% when I found a slightly better one. The price sounds high, but it includes the trim case and lens assembly and really looks sharp, too.

The rest of the bulbs ranged from $5.00 to $15.00 and it was hard to be satisfied with just one bulb type, so I would buy a few and when I was happy with the results, I would buy a few more or change bulbs when I found a more appropriate light for a specific location.

All-in-all, it is easy to spend a thousand on light bulbs, but in two years they would probably pay for themselves, and the lighting is actually BETTER.

Next are the T8 tubes, but I will wait till one burns out before going ahead. One chandelier needs replacing because the new LED's are 1/4" taller and I need to find a chandelier with glass shades that will cover the entire bulb.

[ennui2]

CFL is now dead-man-walking.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/01/say-good ... picks=true

This is just the newest case of rapid adoption of more efficient technology once it is perfected and scales out enough.

A minor footnote, perhaps, but still good news.

[Tanada]

I never had much luck with CFL's but I absolutely love my LED bulbs. They are durable, reliable, work in all weather indoors or out and very energy efficient.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'I') never had much luck with CFL's but I absolutely love my LED bulbs. They are durable, reliable, work in all weather indoors or out and very energy efficient.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jedrider', 'O')ne of my recent projects has been to replace EVERY incandescent/CFL/Florescent with an LED light bulb.
The prices are so low now, that this probably actually makes a lot of sense as well as cents.

The down lights were easy to replace at $35.00 each.

The rest of the bulbs ranged from $5.00 to $15.00 and it was hard to be satisfied with just one bulb type, so I would buy a few and when I was happy with the results, I would buy a few more or change bulbs when I found a more appropriate light for a specific location.

All-in-all, it is easy to spend a thousand on light bulbs, but in two years they would probably pay for themselves, and the lighting is actually BETTER.

[Shaved Monkey]

I bought mine on ebay directly from China, free shipping, dirt cheap.
They have been going for a few years no problems so far.

[jedrider]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', '
')So what is your electric bill such that a small part of that (lighting) will PAY FOR ITSELF in two years? I likely spend well under $10 a month for lighting, and I'm not prone to running around turning off every light possible, and run various lights on a timer to make the house look occupied at night. I run CFL's, currently. (Cool, cheap, and VERY low energy consumption compared to what they replaced).

You remind me of the shopoholic who loads up the credit card because things are "on sale".

What do you do with the old bulbs? Throw them out?

I'm always amused at the first world idea of frugality by spending lots of money.

[Newfie]

Up thread on Oct 7, 2014 I reported on my hallway lighting experiment. Now, 15 months later I've had no issues.

I did learn something interesting though. I had bought 300W equivalent pool lights. They were specified for 12V so good. But I wanted to try using a 100 W equivalent. So I ordered one. Didn't work. Called company and they sent me a second one. Didnt work.

Long story short, these are POOL lamps and are intended to work on 12VAC, not DC. The site just said "12V Pool Lamp". I just assumed 12VDC. The 300w equivalent worked fine, but (for whatever reason the factory could not explaine) the 100W unites wanted something more to work. Something between about 12.3VDC and 13.3VDc, the two voltages I could reproduce here at the house. The 300W unit works down to below 11.7, maybe 10.5 with no qualms.

But anyway, the origional lights work fine, things are plenty bright. All is good.

[ennui2]

BTW, I had been following LED illumination for years and the biggest technological hurdles were to a) make them bright enough and B) make a pure enough white. LEDs in general are not a new technology (not unlike, um, batteries???) and it would be easy to assume when the first wave of LED lighting came out (and they were so underwhelming) that they had simply reached a point of diminishing returns. I mean, gee, they go back to at least the 70s, right??? Well, it turns out progress wasn't "done" yet.

Moral of the story is that game-changing progress, even in relatively mature technologies, can still happen.

[kublikhan]

We had mixed results with our CFLs and LED bulbs. Some lights worked fine for years others had bulbs die every few months. We decided to replace the problem lights with LED fixtures, no bulbs to change. I'm hoping these will last longer. If not, I may have to try these:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ere’s a great way to lower your electric bills, and still have all the ultra-bright light bulbs you want operating 24 hours a day! Innovative new light bulbs called P-Bulbs give out bright, steady light – yet use no electricity. P-Bulbs look like compact fluorescent light bulbs, but instead of using electricity to make the gas glow inside, they use depleted plutonium from an atomic power plant. That means with P-Bulbs, not only do you get all the light you want for free, but you’ll be helping the atomic energy industry dispose of its used fuel! How green can you get? P-Bulbs come in 100, 200, 400, 1,000 and 5,000-watt sizes – choose the brightness that’s right for you. You can have as many P-Bulbs as you want operating all night and all day long! That’s because they can’t be turned off – the plutonium is always active. Imagine never having to remember to turn the light off when you leave a room. Imagine having all the light you ever wanted, with no dark rooms – even your attic and basement can be brilliantly lit at all times. Imagine the amazing holiday displays you can create for your home and yard, because there’s no need to run electric cords anywhere! Remember to position your P-Bulbs as far from your family as possible, as the plutonium is radioactive and has a half-life of 10,000 years. If for any reason you want to get rid of your P-Bulbs, simply apply to the Atomic Energy Commission for a special disposal permit and concrete container. P-Bulbs will change the way you live your life forever!

[kirbydaniels]

I have started using LED as the Brightness is equal to or greater than existing lighting technologies and its efficiency is as good as or better than fluorescent lighting.

[Shaved Monkey]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', '
') But city inspector gave me some heartache about emergency lights I won't go into here.