Household Bulbs - Is LED Really Better?

[giantpotato]

The new CFLs are all instant on, so that isn't true anymore.

They turn on instantly, but they still take a few seconds to reach max brightness.

http://blog.1000bulbs.com/cfl-warm-up-times/

[thejohnnyq]

I moved to LED about 4 years ago. We are now using a total of 425 watts of lighting via LED max, where in CFL we were at over 800 (not using all the sockets). I saw a quick cost cutting on our electric bill and since i bought almost all our bulbs at Costco, if they ever give us any issue, we get a free replacement. Got some of newest generation that are whiter and brighter and they are great. We cut the watts in our kitchen down by 45% and increased the brightness, even our contractor now pushed LED units like the ones that we have.

[Haggis Veteran]

the big question is: for the price LED bulbs cost, is it worth the savings (cost)?

In my case it was

I was spending ?36 a year roughly on Bulbs

and have spent ?18 in the last 3 years due to the LEDS which on bulbs would have been roughly ?108

[cooky560 Veteran]

I've seen LED bulbs before, and disliked the type of light they put out, however they do save money, and if they are in a place where color reproduction isn't essential (for example for reading a book at night) and are compatible with your existing fittings then the cost savings might be worth it. Having said that if the saving is ?1.44 per year, perhaps not.

[Axel]

Try the Philips LED gu10's - more attractive and you get 5w = 50w. Also u can get dim able ones.

[HawkMan]

Want a laugh about lights and bulbs?

I just bought my new place and it was specced up with GU10 downlighters throughout, rather than hanging pendant lights. Great.

When you buy a place, a survey is done and a report telling you it's energy efficiency - which allows space for any suggestions. Seeing as my place is new-build, it's REALLY efficient, but the jobsworth filling the form felt he had to put something in the "Recommendations" section. He recommended that swapping out all my downlighters for hanging pendants with low-energy bulbs could save me...

12p per month!

Wow. What an awesome suggestion. Don't get me wrong, 12p per month over a year would be ?1.44! Nice savings. But wait...

I'd have to buy the bulbs, which would cost me over that. And the pendant fittings. Oh wait, I'd have to have the downlighters stripped out, my ceiling re-skimmed, looking at about a grand or so there...

What a tosser!

What you forget is that halogen has about 2000 hours of use on a good day. LED will have a lifetime of 20-25k. more on better brands, and even then, LED's never die, their lifetime is the time untill they reach 80% so they will still last long after this, before they hit 70 and 60%.

Also you shouldn't need to strip anythign usually, there is LED replacements for most any of the Halogen fittings today, both the 12V and 230V variants.

As for the OP. instead of those LED's I would suggest getting one of those with 3 LED's for for the 35 watt equivalents and 5-6 for the 50 Watt equivalents. Also don't get the cheapest brand LED. they have much shorter lifetimes. their light falloff and light color might not be what you expect and they might not even e uniform across the lights. The cheap ones also often have noticeable flicker in them while the more expensive like Philips don't have flicker and will all have uniform color and excellent lifetimes, they also give warranties on them.

Also something to remember about FCL spots. They are far more bulky and will stick out more, and they don't project the light forward like a LED and a good Halogen. so they won't be as good a spotlight.

[neufuse Veteran]

1 pound per bulb? ha... I'm currently putting Halo LED recessed lighting in my basement, the bulb and reflector/trim are separate pieces... the bulb costs up to $70 and the trim pieces (special ones jus for it ... just because that's how they make money....) cost another $30 per bulb... but these bulbs are dimmable to 5% of their output, and look exactly like the incandescent equivalents... no startup pause like some... you'd never know they where LED unless you took the recessed light apart and read the labels

just put about $1,700 into them so far...

[Mainer82]

Not all LEDs are directional. I bought these for exterior lighting on my house and they work very well, they actually don't attract as many bugs as my prior CFLs:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/Search?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&keyword=cree+led&Ns=None&Ntpr=1&Ntpc=1&selectedCatgry=Search+All

Cree LED

[Dick Montage]

So how much did this genius get paid to save you all of that money?

It was part of the survey, which was necessary, so such a point is moot.

[neufuse Veteran]

Not all LEDs are directional. I bought these for exterior lighting on my house and they work very well, they actually don't attract as many bugs as my prior CFLs:

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/catalog/servlet/Search?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&keyword=cree+led&Ns=None&Ntpr=1&Ntpc=1&selectedCatgry=Search+All

Cree LED

Cree LED's are nice, very bright, better then most of the cheap Chinese lets just throw 100 cheap SMD LED's on a board and call it a LED light ones.... usually 1 Cree LED can replace tons of single SMD LED's that are cheap bulb quality.... my exterior house lighting is all Cree, a single 3 Watt chip can put out the equivalent of a outdoor quality halogen bulb

these omnidirectional ones though of course need more then one LED chip to get all the angles... but still Cree chips are some of the best LED's out there for brightness, efficiency and wattage to Lumens

[Slugsie]

Most of the LED lighting I've seem seems a bit directional (i.e. will light up things below it, but not much else). If you have a large-ish room, LEDs might not be suitable.

Buy one and try it first?

I have some LED bulbs similar to the ones in the OP, and they are anything but directional. They have a wide 120degree beam, and produce a night bright clear white light. They replaced some halogen bulbs, and the results are so much better.

[HawkMan]

Cree LED's are nice, very bright, better then most of the cheap Chinese lets just throw 100 cheap SMD LED's on a board and call it a LED light ones.... usually 1 Cree LED can replace tons of single SMD LED's that are cheap bulb quality.... my exterior house lighting is all Cree, a single 3 Watt chip can put out the equivalent of a outdoor quality halogen bulb

these omnidirectional ones though of course need more then one LED chip to get all the angles... but still Cree chips are some of the best LED's out there for brightness, efficiency and wattage to Lumens

if it's a 30-35W Halogen yes ;)

[Roger H. Veteran]

Since my earlier post I've been checking out stuff on Amazon for replacements for my 50W Hallogens (4 of them) in the kitchen which are GU10 based. I bought the Phillips GU10 ones which are supposed to replace 50W but the beam wasn't as wide and not as bright. I bought a few and didn't like them either:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008OCASQW/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That one isn't dimmable - does this pop thing too :p Kinda funny I saw it at first because I have a Lutron electronic dimmer in the kitchen. :p it was bright but probably because of the amount of small LEDs it just seemed "dull" or unfocused (not that I want laser lights) - dunno... had a weird look to it.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007V1VO06/ref=oh_details_o00_s01_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

That one looked awesome (when looking at it in the ceiling) excepting it just wasn't bright enough. I knew they were 35w replacements but figured i'd give it a shot. If they had 7watt versions (sold out) those would probably perfect since they have nice fading dim to it also.

I'm thinking of checking these out because they seem bright enough and 3 bulbs vs 1 might work better for width of the beam (still says 60 degree)

http://www.amazon.com/Ledcreelight-Dimmable-White-Light-110v-265v/dp/B0089L43TQ/ref=pd_ys_sf_s_228013_a1_1_p

http://www.amazon.com/Dimmable-White-Rotundity-Light-110v-265v/dp/B006HB2PJU/ref=pd_ybh_5

I generally go for "Bright White" bulbs instead of the standard "yellow" ones (hate that!) - Bright White is 3000K - not the "Daylight" ones which are 6000K+. :p

Maybe some of you guys that bought can show actual pictures of what they look like against a wall or skintone and the floor space to get a real idea of the color

and beam they cast.

[Jub]

Perhaps a more relevant discussion is the energy you can save, because frankly, the money doesn't make it worth it. I personally try to adapt low-power habits with my purchases, including home cinema products, computers, light bulbs, washing machines and so on ? It might be a feeble thought, but hopefully the more people do it, the less strain on the planet.

[neufuse Veteran]

if it's a 30-35W Halogen yes ;)

most exterior halogens are in that range of wattage

[HawkMan]

Maybe some of you guys that bought can show actual pictures of what they look like against a wall or skintone and the floor space to get a real idea of the color

and beam they cast.

unfortunately that won't work either, skin tone varies as does "white", and the color of the light outside as well as other lights in the room and the camera will affect the actual tone you see, not to mention your badly calibrated monitor :)

[exotoxic]

I have one of these:

http://www.thelightbulbshop.co.uk/Shop/Item/Product/32410/MLED12WA60B2227/MASTERGlow12WLEDBulb.aspx

While expensive, CFL's kept blowing and the slow warm up was annoying. The LED is pretty much exactly the same as an ordinary incandescent bulb and lasts much longer.

[HawkMan]

most exterior halogens are in that range of wattage

Seems to be mostly 50 here. depends on whether it's decoration or light for light.

[HawkMan]

Perhaps a more relevant discussion is the energy you can save, because frankly, the money doesn't make it worth it. I personally try to adapt low-power habits with my purchases, including home cinema products, computers, light bulbs, washing machines and so on ? It might be a feeble thought, but hopefully the more people do it, the less strain on the planet.

Quality Halogen: 2 000h lifetime, average half that at best. costs anywhere from 3 to 10 dollars (roughly calculated, and this is for quality bulbs, prices varies wildly between the different sockets to for some reason)

Quality LED: 25 000h lifetime, far beyond that unless it actually breaks, costs from 10-20 for the 35Watt equ.

so for a Halogen to last as long as a LED on average you'd have to take that cheapest 3 dollar prices and multiply by 25. then it's 75 Dollars, as opposed to the 10-20. without even considering the savings on power, which I honestly don't care about. we have cheap power.

[neufuse Veteran]

Seems to be mostly 50 here. depends on whether it's decoration or light for light.

I'm talking about exterior accent lighting, or as most around here call them "landscape lights"

[spikey_richie]

I have one of these over my head, retailed at ?40 each.

I have 4 of these in the kitchen:

And then 1 of these in the bedroom:

The screw cap bulbs are dimmable, and have a nice colour tone & brightness.

If I paid full price for all of them, it'd take a LONG time for them to pay for themselves. The GU10's are very bright and have good coverage, I found the B&Q LED bulbs had a bad colour temp (very cold) and were very directional.

[Roger H. Veteran]

Got a model number for those GU10s? I need 4 for my kitchen still.

Maybe (based on the file name of the picture?) MV-8-50W-CRI90 :ermm:

[Axel]

These give a good light!

[metallithrax]

In my case it was

I was spending ?36 a year roughly on Bulbs

and have spent ?18 in the last 3 years due to the LEDS which on bulbs would have been roughly ?108

Seriously? I don't think i've spent that amount on bulbs in my whole life and i'm 45. Can't remember the last time I bought any bulbs, but they were Phillips low power and I got 3 (or 5) for ?1.

[Roger H. Veteran]

snipped

These give a good light!

This is the one I bought at Home Depot (29.99) and I didn't like the light unless I have a bad one. Getting ready to return it this weekend but maybe i'll try it in there again and see if I warm up to it more.