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LED Bulbs

wobs

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wobs
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Oct 7, 2011
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LED lights look they may finally become cheaper:
“At the moment, a 48-watt LED lightbulb, made from GaN on sapphire LEDs, costs about £15,” Humphreys said. “That’s a cost that you make back several times, because the bulbs last for so long, but it is too much to convince most customers to buy them. The research we have already performed on GaN on silicon LEDs, plus that which we will carry out in this new reactor, will mean that soon people will be able to buy an LED bulb for just £3 instead.” - See more at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/...rgy-and-improving-health#sthash.iY5Pde2c.dpuf
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http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/low-cost-leds-for-saving-energy-and-improving-health

Having been looking into getting LEDs to replace some halagons, but being dissapointed with what is on the market, this is promising stuff.
 
The discount chain Aldi had some LED bulbs on sale about a year back. They are equivalent in light output to 60W and 75W incandescents, draw about 10W to 15W and don't get hot (just warm to the touch). They cost 10 Euros.

The only problem so far is that they haven't had those high output LED bulbs on sale again, yet. And back in the day, I had to hunt them down in three local stores to get two 60W equivalents and one 75W equivalent, and both were the last each store had. I would have bought at least five more, if they had that many. Other than that, those things are awesome, and I firmly believe they're the future.
 
I suffer from the same effect as in the article -- I can't convince myself that I can afford to save the money when I see LED lights on the shelf.

If they made them in the "appliance bulb" size I'd buy a pair to replace the infrared heat globes inside my fridge, though.
 
We replaced our kitchen recessed lights with LED drop-ins that were quite expensive about a year ago. The lights are on the most often in our house and we seemed to be replacing them all the time. Since the big change, they just work. And they are brighter.

Yes, they cost a lot, but changing bad bulbs, or living with bad bulbs until enough went out to justify changing them, was just tiresome.

I'll be happy when they come down in price and we can install more of them.
 
How does a LED compare to a normal lightbulb insofar as brightness and colour temperature? I'm considering getting some.
 
ApolloGnomon said:
I suffer from the same effect as in the article -- I can't convince myself that I can afford to save the money when I see LED lights on the shelf.
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People like you are the reason I keep finding dirt cheap LED bulbs in bargain bins that no one seems to want to buy. I now have quite a collection. With the estimated lifespan of a LED bulb of 25 years, I don't have to be in the dark for another 400 years.

tuxcat said:
How does a LED compare to a normal lightbulb insofar as brightness and colour temperature?
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I wondered that too a while ago, but for another reason. I had already replaced all my old compact fluorescent bulbs with LED bulbs, and noticed a huge improvement in light quality. But I kept hearing that incandescents were still nicer. I hadn't actually seen incandescent light in my home for 2 decades, so I didn't know whether this could be true. So I performed a little experiment with a few cheap incandescent lights that were gathering dust as "spares" and a few of my LED bulbs.

LED bulbs rated 250 lumen easily outshone cheap incandescent lights rated 720 lumens. They definitely seemed brighter. "Flame" LEDs also seemed to have warmer light. The incandescent bulbs seemed to have muddy light, which induced memories from the seventies in me. "Yes" I thought, "that's how light used to be. And it wasn't good."

To my eyes, LEDs are superior in every way. Just try them out, they're really not expensive. Even the super cheap ones (3 euro or so) can easily look amazing.
 
elgarak said:
The discount chain Aldi had some LED bulbs on sale about a year back. They are equivalent in light output to 60W and 75W incandescents, draw about 10W to 15W and don't get hot (just warm to the touch).
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I'm surprised their energy usage is that high. That's about the same as CFLs. I thought LEDs were another leap in efficiency--or is their advantage just longevity?
 
I was looking at appliances, and happened to open the door on a modern refrigerator with LED interior lighting. Whoa! I almost bought it on the spot, even though I don't need a new fridge. Sort of like what those brilliant lights reported in near death experiences must be like. Very cool.
 
JoeTheJuggler said:
I'm surprised their energy usage is that high. That's about the same as CFLs. I thought LEDs were another leap in efficiency--or is their advantage just longevity?
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I've read differing reports. Eg, in my Collins DIY book, it rates both CFLs and LEDs at about the same in terms of W/lumen.
 
If LED bulbs come down in price then so will so many other things like TVs. So do not buy your TV now, buy it in two years when this technology is in the TV. Ditto for the bulbs.
 
Earthborn said:
People like you are the reason I keep finding dirt cheap LED bulbs in bargain bins that no one seems to want to buy. I now have quite a collection. With the estimated lifespan of a LED bulb of 25 years, I don't have to be in the dark for another 400 years.
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I'm thinking you shop in a different economy than I do. I haven't seen LED lights on sale yet. About 15 years ago I bought a partial case of CFL bulbs on clearance at Home Depot, and they turned out to be a crummy early technology that came up to brightness very slowly. I've put them in the kitchen fixture over the sink and in the bedside lamp where "it's not a bug, it's a feature." When I need a drink at 2am I really enjoy the initial dimness. Neither of them have burned out yet (but I've lost a few of the ones I've bought since) so I guess I have a lifetime supply of "slow CFL" lamps.

Anyway. I'd love to see LED lights on clearance, or even see them at full cost in a suitable form factor to replace the "appliance" bulbs, normally with a small A envelope and medium Edison base. So far, no joy in my local market for that combination.
 
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tuxcat said:
How does a LED compare to a normal lightbulb insofar as brightness and colour temperature? I'm considering getting some.
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I have another question. The reason we have stuck with incandescents rather than CF is that we use dimmers extensively. CFs don't dim very well at all. Do LEDs dim?
 
It depends. Right now, some dim, and some don't.
On the ones that do, a lot of effort has been put into making them dim even more linearly than incandescents.
 
arthwollipot said:
I have another question. The reason we have stuck with incandescents rather than CF is that we use dimmers extensively. CFs don't dim very well at all. Do LEDs dim?
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Yes. But they don't work with timers.

Also, they don't dim as low as incandescents. At the lowest setting, in my fixtures at least, they're brighter than the standard bulbs were.

Eta: just saw TjW's reply. I didn't know some don't. I have Philips LEDs and haven't had a problem with dimming.
 
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TjW said:
It depends. Right now, some dim, and some don't.
On the ones that do, a lot of effort has been put into making them dim even more linearly than incandescents.
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kajata said:
Yes. But they don't work with timers.

Also, they don't dim as low as incandescents. At the lowest setting, in my fixtures at least, they're brighter than the standard bulbs were.

Eta: just saw TjW's reply. I didn't know some don't. I have Philips LEDs and haven't had a problem with dimming.
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OK, thanks both.
 
You'll need to buy dimmers designed for LED/CF bulbs. Otherwise, I imagine you'll get the same effect as my friend does & wonder why his CFs act like spastic strobe-lights.

Regarding the efficiency questions. 11W is still pretty good, considering the amount of light that's produced. Remember that these aren't simple little filaments that light up when current runs through them, they are sophisticated little circuits. Quite a bit of heat (wattage) is still lost during the rectifying phases before the energy reaches the LEDs.
 
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