LED Lamps to Replace Incandescent Bulbs - But When?

[j_garcia]

The final product shouldn't be any more hazardous than any other electronic device, such as your cell phone.

 

[avnetguy]

That's good to know there is no special "handling" required if one breaks. I checked out the local prices and I think I'll wait a bit longer ...

Steve

 

[bikdav]

That's good to know there is no special "handling" required if one breaks. I checked out the local prices and I think I'll wait a bit longer ...

Steve

That's true. I bought a couple to try partly because they were at a reduced price. So far, the ones that I bought I like.

 

[basspig]

Okay, here's my LED lighting story...

over the past 20 years, I'd made a transition from incandescent to CFL, where possible. I was always left wanting with the CFLs.. too dim at turn on, yucky colors, not dimmable, or at least not smoothly.

Costco broke the first price barrier with a LED lamp for under $20 (after $54 in state rebates) and I bought several after trying one out and being blown away by the halogen-like light quality. I did my dining room ceiling with those last year.

Here and there, I bought other types of LED E27 bulbs for other lamps in the house.

Then as my roof renovation neared completion, I decided I needed to have a 'lasts forever' lamp compliment on the soffets that would no longer be accessible once the scaffolding is removed. So I bought these Commercial Electric 65W equivalent for 11.5W of power used, LED lamp fixtures. They're sealed, so they stay clean inside. And they dim beautifully.. not even a tungsten filament could dim any better or smoother, all the way to 10% brightness.

For the yard lighting, I put in 1800 lumen daylight balanced motion sensing lights from Defiant. A single fixture lights up the yard as bright as my 175W merc vapour lamp when it's fully warmed up. And they only use 38W a fixture. And they're instant on at full brightness.

In the livingroom, I replaced ten 75W PAR floods in eyeball fixtures with EcoSmart 75W equivalent LED lamps that use 14W of power. They are brighter, and the light quality looks the same as the incandescent. None of that blue/green hue.

I also stopped using my fluorescent troffer lights in my studio/theater and use a few LED bulbs now to illuminate the room. My electric bill has consistently decreased by about $130/month since the change. Comparing month to month with last year's bills for the same months. Lighting was using many kilowatt hours a day Now for a hundred watts, I light the whole house.

LED lights have improved immensely, but you have to audition the light before you buy a particular brand. Some have better quality color rendering than others. Look for a CRI of 80 or better.

 

[mtrycrafts]

Just noticed a small spelling error
Just below the bare bulb- warm white 900 lumens, daylight 950 watts

Not sure when our traffic lights were changed over, but one of the red one has almost totally failed, just one or two rows left

 

[psbfan9]

Induction lighting

Then there's induction lighting. A town 10 miles south of where I live, and a few other communities, are switching to this technology.
For now, it seems to be used in more industrial type applications and not meant for home use.

Solutions | American Green Technology


Long lifespan due to the lack of electrodes — between 65,000 and 100,000 hours depending on the lamp model;
Very high energy conversion efficiency of between 62 and 90 Lumens/watt [higher wattage lamps are more energy efficient];
High power factor due to the low loss in high frequency electronic ballasts which are between 95% and 98% efficient;
Minimal Lumen depreciation (declining light output with age) compared to other lamp types as filament evaporation and depletion is absent;
“Instant-on” and hot re-strike, unlike most conventional lamps used in commercial/industrial lighting applications (Sodium vapor and Metal Halides);
Environmentally friendly as induction lamps use less energy, and generally use less mercury per hour of operation than conventional lighting due to their long lifespan. The mercury is in a solid form and can be easily recovered if the lamp is broken, or for recycling at end-of-life

 

[majorloser]

We just switched my whole plant site at work to induction lighting (federal grant money). I do like how the light is very close to daylight color and the lights start right up, no warmup.

We'll just have to wait and see how they last. The big thing at my plant is the amount of power surges and brownouts we see on a regular basis. Hopefully the induction lights will survive.

 

[basspig]

Induction lighting has one big disadvantage: interferes with radio communications over a larger area. Because the plasma is excited with radio frequency waves (Nikola Tesla first demonstrated induction lighting in the 1890s), it is essentially a powerful radio transmitter with a waveguide to focus most of the energy on the glass envelope. However, I said MOST of the energy. Even if a thousandth of that energy escapes it is equivalent to a strong local radio transmitter with an inefficient antenna. Just 40mW can mess things up for a ten block radius over open terrain.

 

[Adam]

Taking the reverse of that, it seems like my plan to light my house using energy from local radio stations just isn't going to pan out.

 

[majorloser]

Might explain the huge interference we've been having around 900 to 915 Mhz.

 

[basspig]

There is a 50,000-watt AM/FM station just down the road from me. A while back, I thought perhaps I could get electric power from the station. All I could achieve was lighting a neon lamp by connecting it to the coax of a 175 mile range log periodic FM antenna. There wasn't enough current to do anything more than that.

 

[psbfan9]

Induction lighting has one big disadvantage: interferes with radio communications over a larger area. Because the plasma is excited with radio frequency waves (Nikola Tesla first demonstrated induction lighting in the 1890s), it is essentially a powerful radio transmitter with a waveguide to focus most of the energy on the glass envelope. However, I said MOST of the energy. Even if a thousandth of that energy escapes it is equivalent to a strong local radio transmitter with an inefficient antenna. Just 40mW can mess things up for a ten block radius over open terrain.

Maybe I misunderstand what you're saying... They're putting these magnetic induction lighting bulbs into to traffic signals and street lights. Are you saying that could possibly cause interference with emergency radios?

 

[Rickster71]

I remember some early versions of inductive lamps producing RFI. Now, almost all modern inductive units are under FCC rules.
You wouldn't experience anymore RFI than from a microwave oven or a PC.

 

[majorloser]

I remember some early versions of inductive lamps producing RFI. Now, almost all modern inductive units are under FCC rules.
You wouldn't experience anymore RFI than from a microwave oven or a PC.

I'm so relieved. The FCC is on the job.

 

[j_garcia]

I have an old lamp that needed some new bulbs. LEDs were on sale, so I picked up two 40W bright white LEDs and they are considerably brighter than the previous 60W soft white CFLs. The bright white 40W CFLs only came in single packs and were only $2 each less than the LEDs, so the cost difference wasn't terribly different in reality.

 

[basspig]

I remember some early versions of inductive lamps producing RFI. Now, almost all modern inductive units are under FCC rules.
You wouldn't experience anymore RFI than from a microwave oven or a PC.

That's what they said about BPL (Broadband over Power Line). Yet in every city where it was tested, the interference to the 2-80 meter bands was widespread and made communications impossible.
They can shield a lamp, so perhaps it is possible the manufacturer solved the RFI problem, but the very technology is RF noisy to begin with.

 

[Rickster71]

I had heard some problems with the old style ballasts.
I've only installed them in industrial / commercial locations where RFI wasn't really an issue.
The LED's are aimed mostly at residential customers. All the government funding is going toward LED's, which makes me wonder about the fate of Induction.

 

[j_garcia]

Under $5 LED is now on the market. Low on lumens though, so not exactly ready to light the whole home.

http://gizmodo.com/5885653/the-first-5-led-bulb-comes-with-a-catch