LED home lighting; not quite ready or ready for prime-time?

[JoeWras]

I just installed my first LED integrated vanity bath bar. So far, so good! This bathroom gets hot (upper floor of 1 1/2 story). Hopefully it will keep things cooler.

I'll say this. In the 2 years I've been goofing around with LED home lighting, the improvements being made are significant. Literally month by month, the products improve in size, color, design, etc. And now there are more and more integrated fixtures which continue to improve.

 

[NgineER]

I like the LED light disks, recessed lights without the can. Just mount it to a regular ceiling junction box and you have a recessed light. Works great since installed a couple of weeks ago.


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[RobbieB]

I installed the "dusk to dawn" fixture I bought from Amazon.

I used to have a 35 watt HPS fixture there that I got tired of repairing. It wasn't just changing bulbs, it was replacing photo-eyes too. This doesn't use a bulb, there are 24 surface mounted LED's on a board. Very well made product and works well

It's 5000K, so a little on the "blue" side, but still way better than the yellow light of HPS. As you can see also very bright and uses a whole 25 watts.

 

[JoeWras]

That's a nice find and I may consider this same product.

My current light's photo-eye has gone to "always on."

 

[gerntz]

The idea of dying without needing to replace bulbs before then was appealing, so we've installed LED's.

 

[RobbieB]

I did the math on the porchlight.

At 12 hours a day, 365 days a year, it should last 10 years.

 

[Sunset]

Here's an interesting tidbit. I have a light fixture over the sink with 3 GE LED Bright Stik 5000k bulbs. For a while our tv with antenna for local channels would lose the signal in the late afternoon for a couple hours. My DW just figured out that is when she is in the kitchen preparing/cleaning and has this light on. So I just replaced them with 3 different LED bulbs.
Apparently these GE Bright Stiks are putting out an interference, probably the lights and tv are on the circuit.

Very Possible, as I noticed when DW used our paper shredder at the other end of the house, the tv signal (digital OTA HD) made the screen go all blocky.

Looks like our electric motor in the shredder puts out a lot of interference.

 

[JoeWras]

I did the math on the porchlight.

At 12 hours a day, 365 days a year, it should last 10 years.

Not good enough for gerntz. He/she wants to die first.

 

[ERD50]

I did the math on the porchlight.

At 12 hours a day, 365 days a year, it should last 10 years.

Don't count on it. Those 50,000 hour rating are the LD-70 ratings, an extrapolated number that estimates when the bulb will dim to 70% of its initial value. It has nothing to do with the bulb/circuitry just up and dying.

From what I've read, the capacitors in the circuits are not rated for anything near 50,000 hours at the heat they will be subjected to (heat from the LEDs and circuitry, all in a confined space).

-ERD50

 

[pjigar]

I lost 2 LED bulbs (actual burned LEDs) in less than 3 years. Usage 12 hours a day. I am not impressed.

 

[Which Roger]

I just installed my first LED integrated vanity bath bar. So far, so good! This bathroom gets hot (upper floor of 1 1/2 story). Hopefully it will keep things cooler.

We have a recessed spotlight over the kitchen sink. We used to sweat while working at the sink. Replaced it with an LED spotlight and no more sweating!

 

[easysurfer]

I lost 2 LED bulbs (actual burned LEDs) in less than 3 years. Usage 12 hours a day. I am not impressed.

I think the brand definitely matters. I have some early generation GE LEDs for my bathroom vanity area. Bulbs must be about 6 years old and all going strong (knock on wood).

Not sure what brand you have, but for me, I'd avoid no name types from China. Was shopping a few months back at Home Depot (HD) and I had several CREE bulbs in my cart. Those actually are described as okay for enclosed fixtures. A worker stopped me and tried to say these other brands (ones made for Home Depot) were cheaper and would also work in enclosed fixtures. They may have, but I didn't want to take the gamble as there was nothing on the wrapping that said okay for enclosed fixtures with the HD bulbs.

 

[target2019]

I installed the "dusk to dawn" fixture I bought from Amazon.

I used to have a 35 watt HPS fixture there that I got tired of repairing. It wasn't just changing bulbs, it was replacing photo-eyes too. This doesn't use a bulb, there are 24 surface mounted LED's on a board. Very well made product and works well

It's 5000K, so a little on the "blue" side, but still way better than the yellow light of HPS. As you can see also very bright and uses a whole 25 watts.

If this could be adapted for "bug lite color" I would order two. It is very bright, but does not cause a problem at my location. Bugs are a big issue.

 

[RobbieB]

Haven't noticed it attracting bugs.

 

[Sunset]

I lost 2 LED bulbs (actual burned LEDs) in less than 3 years. Usage 12 hours a day. I am not impressed.

3 years would be 13,140 hrs.
About 13 old fashioned bulbs, so you saved the effort of changing the bulbs 12 times.
Plus you saved money;
I can buy LED's for $2.00 on sale, so that is still cheaper than 13 tungsten bulbs by a long shot, and you used a lot less electricity.

 

[Zathras]

3 years would be 13,140 hrs.
About 13 old fashioned bulbs, so you saved the effort of changing the bulbs 12 times.
Plus you saved money;
I can buy LED's for $2.00 on sale, so that is still cheaper than 13 tungsten bulbs by a long shot, and you used a lot less electricity.

The three years is likely an outlier.
I'd actually check to see if the manufacturer will replace them.
Your point is also excellent though.

As for electricity, if they replaced 60W bulbs, each bulb saved about $60 over a regular incandescent bulb in those three years.

 

[folivier]

When I bought the majority of mine one of the requirements was at least a 5 year replacement warranty. Also bought the 5 year warranty from Earthled.com which was about $5 for the entire order. So if any go kaput and if Earthled.com is still around I should get new ones.

 

[Blueskies123]

Haven't noticed it attracting bugs.

LED light does not attract bugs like light regular bulbs. I was reading somewhere that LED light has a frequency that bugs do not see. No need for ugly yellow lights. One more reason to switch to LED bulbs.

 

[TrvlBug]

We replaced 7 outside lights Oct 2012 with LEDs and all are going strong. 3 are dusk to dawn and were previously replaced 3x/yr. The other 4 are dusk to 11:30pm and were replaced 2x/yr. No more hunting for dropped screws or wobbly ladders due to slope at two of the lights. At the time, LEDs were very expensive, but worth every $ in convenience.

 

[ERD50]

LED light does not attract bugs like light regular bulbs. I was reading somewhere that LED light has a frequency that bugs do not see. No need for ugly yellow lights. One more reason to switch to LED bulbs.

I was wondering about that, since a 'white' LED is typically an Ultraviolet LED that lights up a white phosphor (similar to a tube style fluorescent). So white light has a range of frequenies.

This seems like a good source:

Do LED Lights Attract Bugs? — 1000Bulbs.com Lighting Blog

So, why do some people claim that LEDs repel bugs and insects? For the same reason that bug lights do not attract insects. LED lights, specifically the bulbs typically used in residential lighting, emit very little light in the UV spectrum. LEDs also emit little heat from their light source, further reducing their attractiveness to bugs. But, it isn’t just UV that bugs are attracted to. Many types of insect see equally well in the blue-range (shorter than 500 nm) of the light spectrum. As you can see from the chart, typical LED bulbs light up quite nicely in that range, because it’s the range of “daylight” that we can see and enjoy. So, while an LED light bulb should attract fewer insects than a typical incandescent light, it can still attract quite a few bugs. Buying a warmer color temperature (which is what you should use for landscape lighting anyway) will also help, since a 2700K bulb contains less of the blue wavelength of light than a 3500K LED bulb would.

However, using an LED light bulb is still not as good as using an actual bug light. LED bug lights are different from LED light bulbs (they’re simple to identify since they will both say “bug light” and typically feature a yellow color to the bulb, similar to incandescent bug lights. However, LEDS work far better than incandescent bug lights because if two bulbs are emitting the same wavelength of light, then the bulb with the lower heat emission will attract fewer bugs.

-ERD50

 

[JoeWras]

Then on the other side, they are producing LEDs specifically to grow plants. I like to grow my own annuals from seed, starting in February. I've switched to LED focused spectrum lights. They do wonders for the plants!

However, to my eye, they are, well, disturbing. I swear if you used these lights in an interrogation room, your prisoner would crack. The light is not dangerous, but feels bad to my eye. Plants love it though.

I have something similar to this product. The color is purplish:
https://www.amazon.com/Industrial-Grade-LED-Grow-Light/dp/B01CLPVIF2