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LED Bulbs

Soapy Sam said:
Any of these on multiple bulb light fittings? I'm curious to know if failures are higher on the kind of fitting with several bulbs.
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Just a single data point, but I put an LED bulb in a two bulb fixture with an incandescent, and it failed withing a few weeks. I suspect that it was just in too hot an environment.
 
Possum Pie's point about cold weather performance of CFL's is pertinent. In my largely unheated shop, they are almost worthless unless I turn them on an hour or so in advance, which kind of defeats their purpose if I only have to do 15 minutes of work. I now have a couple of halogen work lights operating off a remote control, and a couple of strategically placed incandescents on the main switch, so that I can see my way around until the fluorescents warm up.

I'm waiting for LED's of large size to become affordable. I have LED bulbs in the outside house lights, because they do come on in the cold.
 
PossumPie said:
CFLs are worthless in a cold area. I was forced to replace incandescent bulbs in my garage by "big brother" and now in the winter I bang around and stumble for 4 or 5 min. waiting for them to warm up.
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We have 2 cfl's in our garage. I leave them on all the time.
 
When I got my first post-divorce apartment in 2008, I bought 12 LED bulbs and installed them in every light socket. When I moved to my second apartment in 2011, I brought all 12 bulbs with me and added three more. Only one malfunctioned because it broke. The others all continue to work just fine. Six years and counting.

Michael
 
CORed said:
Just a single data point, but I put an LED bulb in a two bulb fixture with an incandescent, and it failed withing a few weeks. I suspect that it was just in too hot an environment.
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The ones that failed on my ceiling light are at the far end from the remaining halogen bulb- between 0.8 and 1.0 metre. If heat from the halogen was the problem, I'd expect the bulb closest to it to fail. In fact, the only two LEDs to survive are the two nearest the halogen. It's a well vented fitting. I had a third fail about 8 weeks ago. I'm sure it's a quality control issue. I never had a reply to my emails or letter from Sylvania, which I feel is damn poor. I will be avoiding their products in future.
The (cheaper and lower powered) replacement LEDs are so far trouble free.
 
bruto said:
Possum Pie's point about cold weather performance of CFL's is pertinent. In my largely unheated shop, they are almost worthless unless I turn them on {snip}
I'm waiting for LED's of large size to become affordable. I have LED bulbs in the outside house lights, because they do come on in the cold.
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Large flood fixtures are now plentiful on ebay from 10-100w. If you're handy and can fabricate a heatsink, you can buy the chip and driver for $9-20 in 10-100w sizes. I'm making some crude-but-effective shop lights that use existing metal structures to augment the heat sinking.

I understand the frustration with lesser CFLs in the cold; that's just the physics of the materials used. LEDs are sliding down the price/quality curve at present, and newer generations are taking lessons learned from very cold environments, such as runway lighting with heat sinking designed to keep the lens ice-free with the reduced heat of an LED.
 
Sadly, Switch Lighting Company with their liquid cooled lamp have gone out of business. Apparently due to really terrible management. Fortunately I scored enough of them at fire sale prices to last me for years.
 
I think OLED panels may supercede LEDs for lighting.

We light our work benches with 3 watt LEDs from IKEA and they generally stay on 24/7 - have had them for several years and I also use them for accent lighting for paintings etc.
It provides indirect light in the house to get around at night at minimal power.

We've lost a couple of power supplies but none of the lights. $12 each -
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/20169658/

Because there is no light scatter and sometimes we put two in a work area the available light goes only where needed - better on the eyes.
 
I do wonder how many LED users simply never turn them off, on the basis that they "hardly use any power."
Next step is not to bother installing switches at all. Think of the savings.
 
Soapy Sam said:
I do wonder how many LED users simply never turn them off, on the basis that they "hardly use any power."
Next step is not to bother installing switches at all. Think of the savings.
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It does seem a little silly not to turn them off, even though at approximately a quarter the power consumption of an incandescent, one could, theoretically, come out ahead. But after you've gone and bought the saving, why throw it away again?
 
Soapy Sam said:
I do wonder how many LED users simply never turn them off, on the basis that they "hardly use any power."
Next step is not to bother installing switches at all. Think of the savings.
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Very few. Habits don't go away that quickly, and money doesn't grow on trees!


The places where that does happen for safety like stairwells and etc really benefit, however.
 
It does seem a little silly not to turn them off, even though at approximately a quarter the power consumption of an incandescent
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A QUARTER the power !!!!????- how about 5% of the power. Our task lights are 3 watts....against a typical incandescent of 60 watts PLUS the heat of incandescent hits the A/C load.
 
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I put a cfl in the porch light and did the math to show mrs gnomon how much it would cost to leave it on day and night all year around. I'll put an LED in there when I find the one I want on sale. No real reason to leave it on in the day other than making sure it's on without poking at it myself, and nobody else in the house will bother. Then they complain when they trip over shoes or a rake (they) left in the way.

I'm seeing more makes and models of LED lites at Home Depot at a decreasing range of prices but they still haven't made their way into my grocery store.
 
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