Light Bulb Rant!

[rnatalli]

I see normal LED bulbs all the time in stores. I've only actually bought them once as none have needed replacing given their long life. Particularly appreciate the outdoor flood ones as those are a pain to replace so LED is a welcome replacement.

 

[Swerd]

I absolutely love LED bulbs, soft light throughout the living area and daylight in garage / work areas. An incredible reduction in my monthly electric bill. Started the conversion a few years back, have yet to replace a bulb, given their price I hope that trend continues

I couldn't agree more.

A few years ago, I stopped buying any other type of light bulb, and started slowly switching to LED bulbs. I became aware of a program offered by my local electric power company to provide about 20 LED bulbs free of charge. I had them come to my house and put them in. I first did my kitchen (six 65 watt BR-30 reflector bulbs) and my bathroom (eight 40 watt globe bulbs). Those old incandescent bulbs consumed a lot of power, and those two locations got frequent use. I was surprised at what a big difference that made in my monthly electricity bill. Since then, there's been no holding back. I'd say at least 75 to 80% of my lights are now LED. Indoors, they seem to last for quite a long time. Once I've changed out everything, I probably won't have to keep a handy supply of light bulbs, like I always had to in the past.

Every LED or compact fluorescent light bulb for sale includes on the packaging, something to indicate the color light it produces. It shows the color temperature in degrees Kelvin (below) and indicates the color of the bulb(s) in the package:

I strongly prefer warm colors, in the 2700 to 3000 K range. Other people seem to prefer something much further to white or daylight, on the right side of the scale. Learn what you like, and always check the label before you buy any new light bulb.

For what it's worth, after I had cataract surgery on one eye while waiting to get the other eye done, I realized how much cataracts had changed my vision. Everything had been blurred, darker, and significantly more yellow. I think people with aged eye lenses see everything more yellowish without realizing it. They seem to prefer the white or daylight light bulbs. YMMV

 

[Hobbit]

I really like the color of the light from halogen bulbs and that's the reason I didn't jump on LED until I could find some that I like. I hate yellow light, blue light is worse and the color doesn't always match the description (warm white, bright white and cool white). I finally replaced the rest of the CFL bulbs and never liked them, but few of the ones I had were used for more than a few minutes at any time. If it was on for long, it was going to be something I could tolerate. Nice that the cost/bulb has come down, too.

The GE HD Reveal bulbs are very nice color wise, not warm, but not blue either. HD is their name for a real thing, CRI/Color Rendering Index. Which means they deliver greater color contrast and boldness than an average light bulb.

They're kind of on the pricey side, but are great for the kitchen and office. I find you need to go up a level from what you think you need as they're slightly dimmer than their counterparts. IOW, the 60W eq is slightly dimmer than most other 60W LED bulbs - you can see this on the lumen's listed too.

I like 2.7-2.8k for most my other living spaces.

The only thing I really didn't like with the CFL's was the warmup time. Like LED bulbs, I think they just put on guestamatemperature. The original ones were crap, however. They had a green tint and took a looong time to warm up. The later models warmed up fast and had very good light quality.

I found I would change CFL's because they got dimmer over time. I'm wonder how this will play out with LED bulbs?

 

[lovinthehd]

LEDs have come a long way. Been fiddling with them for years in bike lights, they got better and better quickly with brightness as well as choice of color....what's available today is killer compared to not all that long ago both there and for home lighting. I've switched over much of mine, haven't had any go bad yet.

 

[Verdinut]

LEDs have come a long way. Been fiddling with them for years in bike lights, they got better and better quickly with brightness as well as choice of color....what's available today is killer compared to not all that long ago both there and for home lighting. I've switched over much of mine, haven't had any go bad yet.

I've had bad experience with the small socket spherical bulbs imported from China for replacement of the 40 watt incandescent ones in my bathroom. Two of them lasted less than one year. I went back to the incandescent bulbs for the time being, until we can get some distributed by a reliable brand name company.

 

[lovinthehd]

I've had bad experience with the small socket spherical bulbs imported from China for replacement of the 40 watt incandescent ones in my bathroom. Two of them lasted less than one year. I went back to the incandescent bulbs for the time being, until we can get some distributed by a reliable brand name company.

I've only used standard size/threading ones in the home so far. I'm leery of anything but standard sockets/size bulbs in fixtures if I can help it. I've been eyeing my bathroom fixture as it uses special large sized bulbs (but regular socket) as its part of it's "design"....when any of those bulbs go it'll probably be hard to find an led version but who knows...

 

[Mr._Clark]

The LEDs don't/can't really burn out, but the electronics that control them is not as robust as the LEDs themselves.

Light-emitting diode - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This annoys the living sh*t out of me. It's not so bad when you just have to replace a bulb, but I bought some under cabinet lights (overpriced Kichler Krap)(hereinafter "Krapler") that quit working a couple years after I bought them. It appears to me that the capacitors failed due to the heat. It also appears to me that Krapler could have used capacitors with a much longer life for about .25 more for the entire circuit board.

This is not exactly a great engineering mystery (see e.g. https://www.edn.com/capacitor-selection-helps-achieve-long-lifetimes-for-led-lights/) which leads me to believe Krapler was aware of this, but didn't care so long as the light survives past the warranty period.

Going forward I'm using LED tape strips and separate transformers. It's slightly more hassle to set up initially, but at least you don't have to replace the entire piece of Krap fixture (or the capacitors if you're so inclined).

I feel so much better after that rant.

 

[Mikado463]

I feel so much better after that rant.
[/QUOTE]

now go make yourself a nice cocktail and you'll feel even better !

 

[ryanosaur]

now go make yourself a nice cocktail and you'll feel even better !

A-fcuking-men.

 

[mazersteven]

And you guys call yourselves Audioholics. If you had the right audio gear you wouldn't have to worry about light bulbs. SMH

 

[davidscott]

And you guys call yourselves Audioholics. If you had the right audio gear you wouldn't have to worry about light bulbs. SMH
View attachment 42246

Yours?

 

[mazersteven]

Yours?

I'M AN AUDIOHOLIC!!!




























No not mine

 

[davidscott]

My mom bless her dear departed heart only wanted incandescent bulbs with the ability to switch the brightness at the lamp. So now I own some of these bulbs enough that I won't ever need to buy another. Obviously I do prefer the LED or florescent bulbs especially for my aquariums and overhead lights.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I absolutely love LED bulbs, soft light throughout the living area and daylight in garage / work areas. An incredible reduction in my monthly electric bill. Started the conversion a few years back, have yet to replace a bulb, given their price I hope that trend continues

And. one can also convert fluorescent tubes to LED tubes. Now I can use just one 4ft tube in a number of places, even more savings.

 

[mtrycrafts]

....
Regardless, I have replaced maybe 5 LEDs in the last 6-7 years, which is still miles ahead of the other obsolete options.
...

Out of how many total.
I have one flickering in the laundry room after a short time, free replacement from company. perhaps another one or two, but then I have a whole bunch in the house.
The entry posts into my development has post lights I used to change with fluorescent bulbs. Didn't last very long at all, at max a year. Replaced with LEDs, now a number of years ago, still going strong.

 

[highfigh]

This annoys the living sh*t out of me. It's not so bad when you just have to replace a bulb, but I bought some under cabinet lights (overpriced Kichler Krap)(hereinafter "Krapler") that quit working a couple years after I bought them. It appears to me that the capacitors failed due to the heat. It also appears to me that Krapler could have used capacitors with a much longer life for about .25 more for the entire circuit board.

This is not exactly a great engineering mystery (see e.g. https://www.edn.com/capacitor-selection-helps-achieve-long-lifetimes-for-led-lights/) which leads me to believe Krapler was aware of this, but didn't care so long as the light survives past the warranty period.

Going forward I'm using LED tape strips and separate transformers. It's slightly more hassle to set up initially, but at least you don't have to replace the entire piece of Krap fixture (or the capacitors if you're so inclined).

I feel so much better after that rant.

If you have a need and the power is 12VDC, look at Pico from Lumitec.

 

[highfigh]

And. one can also convert fluorescent tubes to LED tubes. Now I can use just one 4ft tube in a number of places, even more savings.

I tried using those- the paper said it would work with/without a ballast, but mine didn't, possibly because the fixtures were cheap. I bought a 4' LED fixture, just to try it in the laundry room and it's great. I bought six more for the garage and another that I hung in my cargo van, to be powered by my inverter. The light is white, not blue or yellow, bright and I replaced six dual-bulb florescent fixtures with four LED- it's brighter and three of them cover a whole bay, with another at the front of where I park my van, so I can see into the engine compartment. For the times when I need portable light, I can use one of the spares or take the one out of the van. I'm going to put magnetic hooks on the ends of the chains, so I can stick it to metal.

 

[highfigh]

And you guys call yourselves Audioholics. If you had the right audio gear you wouldn't have to worry about light bulbs. SMH
View attachment 42246

Or heat.

 

[mtrycrafts]

To keep track of longevity I have been writing the date of installation on each bulb. Enlightening how long it can last and don't have to remember, only to write it on the bulb.

 

[mtrycrafts]

I tried using those- the paper said it would work with/without a ballast, but mine didn't, possibly because the fixtures were cheap. I bought a 4' LED fixture, just to try it in the laundry room and it's great. I bought six more for the garage and another that I hung in my cargo van, to be powered by my inverter. The light is white, not blue or yellow, bright and I replaced six dual-bulb florescent fixtures with four LED- it's brighter and three of them cover a whole bay, with another at the front of where I park my van, so I can see into the engine compartment. For the times when I need portable light, I can use one of the spares or take the one out of the van. I'm going to put magnetic hooks on the ends of the chains, so I can stick it to metal.

There are electronic ballasts or the old ballast that weighs a pound or more. If it works in one fixture it must have the electronic ballast to work.
I had to replace all my older ballasts.

If you pop out that central cover between multi tube fixtures, you'll see the ballast.