The GOOD LED Light Bulb thread

They do have a Wifi controlled LED lights by Philips, with iPhone app that you can program to change the color or timing.
 
I was in Costco yesterday and they had the equivalent of 60 watt LED bulbs with an instant rebate from the local utility company. Each bulb cost 4.49. I bought one to try and the light was brighter than the CFL bulbs I was using. So, I'm going back today to buy a few more for the rooms where I want the most light.
 
After being burned by CFL claims that fell far, far short of package claims on bulb life, I'm skeptical of dropping relatively big bucks on LED bulbs. I'm at least waiting for Consumer Reports to tell me which LED's really did survive their torture tests.
 
As I mentioned, the electrolytic capacitor is the prime failure point in the LED light bulb. The power supply with these capacitors is right next to the LED and can reach high temperatures which lowers the life of the cap (and the power supply).

Cheap caps (and face it, the bulbs coming from China probably are not using NASA grade caps) might have a life of 2,000 to 10,000 hours. This means it doesn't mean squat that the LED can last 50,000 hours.

I guess it is a trade off. Pay $4 for a Chinese made bulb that will last a year or two or pay $10 for a better bulb that might last 5 or 6 years.

This article does a great job discussing the problem:

Capacitor selection helps achieve long lifetimes for LED lights | EDN
 
sengsational said:
After being burned by CFL claims that fell far, far short of package claims on bulb life, I'm skeptical of dropping relatively big bucks on LED bulbs. I'm at least waiting for Consumer Reports to tell me which LED's really did survive their torture tests.
Click to expand...

+1

My experience is that CFL bulbs fail for some reason well before it's estimated life. They probably still pay for themselves since they are significantly cheaper today than 5 years ago. I assume the same will be true for LED bulbs in the future. I am still looking for a 100W equivalent LED bulb.
 
Fermion said:
As I mentioned, the electrolytic capacitor is the prime failure point in the LED light bulb. The power supply with these capacitors is right next to the LED and can reach high temperatures which lowers the life of the cap (and the power supply).

Cheap caps (and face it, the bulbs coming from China probably are not using NASA grade caps) might have a life of 2,000 to 10,000 hours. This means it doesn't mean squat that the LED can last 50,000 hours. ...
Click to expand...

It would be nice if they could standardize and make the LED section a plug in to the power supply. Probably not feasible at these costs and the construction of these might be too integrated for that, but if someone wants to push for environmental reasons, it could make sense.

-ERD50
 
ERD50 said:
It would be nice if they could standardize and make the LED section a plug in to the power supply. Probably not feasible at these costs and the construction of these might be too integrated for that, but if someone wants to push for environmental reasons, it could make sense.

-ERD50
Click to expand...

I've been thinking for some time, that our 110V house wiring is obsolete. We should have 12V DC supply everywhere alongside the 110V. In our living room, bedroom & office/dens - there really is no need for 110V any more.
 
walkinwood said:
I've been thinking for some time, that our 110V house wiring is obsolete. We should have 12V DC supply everywhere alongside the 110V. In our living room, bedroom & office/dens - there really is no need for 110V any more.
Click to expand...

That thought occurred to me too. It could make sense to have one power supply for all the LEDs. But...

LEDs are current driven. You can't just supply 12V, for efficiency there needs to be a switching circuit with a reactive device to supply the correct current to the devices. In low power circuits, a series resistor is fine, but that's wasteful with bright LEDs. So you can't just supply a current from a main source, it would need to vary with the loads, and you would get 'current hogging' (one device would grab more than its 'share' of the available current) w/o some added feedback mechanisms.

So I think you end up with a circuit in every LED either way. A low voltage circuit might be cheaper or more reliable though. So other than RVs, which are already wired for 12V, I don't think this will catch on. But hey, times are a-changin', we just might see some changes in these old Edison-era standards.

-ERD50
 
walkinwood said:
I've been thinking for some time, that our 110V house wiring is obsolete. We should have 12V DC supply everywhere alongside the 110V. In our living room, bedroom & office/dens - there really is no need for 110V any more.
Click to expand...
There are still things that draw a considerable amount of power (TVs, appliances in the kitchen, portable heaters, electric blankets, etc). To run these off 12VDC would require much thicker copper wires. For example (according to this site) a 12 gauge wire (the typical size of conductor we have in our home wiring) can carry 23 amps (max) at 110VAC, for a total of 2530 watts. The same wire at 12 VDC can carry 60 amps, for a total of just 720 watts. Stated another way, the wires in our homes wouldn't be big enough to run a hair dryer (typically 1000 watts) if we were using 12VDC.
In a related note, wires become less efficient (waste more electrical power, which becomes heat) at lower voltages. So, unless we went to much bigger wires we'd be wasting a lot of energy.
Finally, IIRC, AC is a lot safer to work with than DC. I think muscles tend to tighten up and not let go with DC (bad if you are holding a wire), whereas there's more of an opportunity to move after getting bit by AC. I know there's a lot of difference in switches and electrical contacts: a switch that is fine for 120 VAC may not hold up when used for much lower DC voltages.
Since (for efficiency) the electricity needs to be shipped to the house at higher voltage, the question becomes whether to "step it down" to 12VDC somewhere at the panel and then run separate 12VD wires to all the rooms, or to do the conversion at the individual device. For reasons ERD mentioned (and for more flexibility on where we can use things in our homes) , it makes more sense to do it at the device.
 
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samclem said:
..........
In a related note, wires become less efficient (waste more electrical power, which becomes heat) at lower voltages.........
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This is true. I actually heard about a British guy that had every outlet in his house wired at 220 volts. :eek:
 
travelover said:
This is true. I actually heard about a British guy that had every outlet in his house wired at 220 volts. :eek:
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Isn't that the British standard? Or is this a Brit living elsewhere?

MRG
 
travelover said:
This is true. I actually heard about a British guy that had every outlet in his house wired at 220 volts. :eek:
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Crazy! I heard about that guy--the receptacles he had to use were giant! A 6-outlet power strip is about 70 CM long (which I think is about 5 feet). What really herz is that he could only get the power to run at 50 cycles per second instead of the proper 60 cycles.
 

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target2019 said:
$54.97 at the homedepot?

OMG!!! :(
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At my Home Depot, that is the price for a two-pack. Still expensive, but not as bad as you think.
 
An electric shock at 110V is nothing compared to 220V!

Been there, done that...
 
walkinwood said:
I've been thinking for some time, that our 110V house wiring is obsolete. We should have 12V DC supply everywhere alongside the 110V. In our living room, bedroom & office/dens - there really is no need for 110V any more.
Click to expand...

All you have to do is wire your house with outdoor Malibu lights. The systems exist at least. I think some track lights also use a remote 12v supply.
 
The detailed knowledge available on this forum on just about any topic always amazes me.
 
I do not know about this DC thing. It's far better to keep the AC, even at 110V instead of going to 220V. Other countries use a higher voltage to reduce copper wiring cost. We are rich, we don't care!

However, going from 60Hz to 400Hz like aircraft power makes sense, don't you think?

Transformers are smaller, and motors run better, although more motors are now are of the brushless DC types.

Even power supplies inside modern electronics get better with smaller capacitors, which also applies to the power supplies for the brushless motors already mentioned.
 
NW-Bound said:
........However, going from 60Hz to 400Hz like aircraft power makes sense, don't you think? ........
Click to expand...
If we went to 400 Hz, I don't know if this old wiring could keep up that pace. :confused:
 
walkinwood said:
The detailed knowledge available on this forum on just about any topic always amazes me.
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After following this thread, I went to HD and bought a few LED bulbs. They had a $5 off sale.

Then I got to thinking... my house is all electric, and an incandescent bulb produces 95% heat, so I might as well use up those cheaper incandescent bulbs in the winter months. I'll save the LED for the summer.

If and when I get to an age when I start considering not buying green bananas, I think a 20 year LED bulb will be a hard sell. :)
 
Well the good thing is LEDs are so much more power efficient.

Four of them for a moderate sized room uses less than 40 watts (even less with a dimmer) and is as bright as a couple of 75 watt incandescents, maybe brighter.
 
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