Led lights

Re: Led lights

SteveK wrote: »

They were ~$25 last year and now they are just $7. Home Depot. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202188260/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

and

Only beef is that we paid $35 per for eight of them...3 weeks later they reduced the price to $25 per. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202240932/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Strange... Do prices vary that much across the country? When I pull those two bulbs up using your links, I get $9.97 and $39.97 respectively! (The second even has a big "new lower price" logo as well!)

Re: Led lights

Finally figured out where my KaW was hiding and measured the bulbs I have:

Philips 8W warm-white LED bulb - can't find a link on HD's website! They were still in the store last time I was there, but the 12W ones had been price-reduced to within a few dollars of it so maybe they dropped it?

120.6V
0.07A
7W
8VA
0.83PF

Philips 12W warm-white LED bulb -
http://www.homedepot.com/Philips/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ15b/R-202530170/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

120.9V
0.12A
11W
14VA
0.79PF - ick...

This is the bulb that takes a split-second to come on after flipping the switch.

I also have the Philips 2W candelabra-style, but it's on the front porch. Probably about the same...

Just for giggles, since it's sitting here, the nVision "60W equivalent" CFL that was in the portable lamp to begin with:

120.7V
0.18A
13W
22VA
0.60PF - lovely!

Strangely, that's lousy compared to the first CFLs I had - Commercial Electric - which performed considerably better in the PF area.

Re: Led lights

RandomJoe wrote: »

Strange... Do prices vary that much across the country? When I pull those two bulbs up using your links, I get $9.97 and $39.97 respectively! (The second even has a big "new lower price" logo as well!)

I'm not sure? When I open those links they are at 6.99 and 24.99 respectively. Sheesh, I could make some money here!...heh.

Re: Led lights

RandomJoe wrote: »

Cool, I'll have to try my X10 modules with them. With mine, when I tried CFLs they went off and on okay but the CFL would flash every few seconds when off! Not at all what I wanted in my bedside light...

I have the "firecracker" (think that's what they call it) serial port dongle to turn lights on/off by computer, and my primary issue is with range - some days it works fine all over the house, some days I can't get something in the next room to switch off!

I was looking at a "firecracker" gismo. Seems like most folks would just stick it on the back of their PC..

IMHO, the VHF (310mHz?) transmitter inside the dongle is not going to work very well, sitting 1" from a desktop PC's back-plate.

If the plug-in RF receiver/ translator unit wasn't in the same room,
I would use an RS232 M-F extension cord to lift that transmitter/dongle up into some open space.
Let it's little antenna work properly.. 8)

Re: Led lights

I actually got my initial stuff nearly free! Years ago (over 10 now?) X10 had some deal where they gave you a lamp module with receiver, the button pad, and firecracker as a promo deal. I then bought a couple of dimmer modules from Radio Shack, but they went flaky on me - press the bright/dim buttons, and they wouldn't stop at one step - just kept going to full bright or full off! Odd...

Someone wrote a program for Linux called 'bottlerocket' that I use with the firecracker to turn lights on and off via cron jobs (time-based scheduling).

I don't know if the current stuff uses something different, but I thought the wireless stuff I have was much lower in frequency. I know my firecracker isn't a proper transmitter in the strictest sense - it's just a coil of wire connected to the RTS/CTS lines on the serial port. The program toggles the control lines at the right rate which generates an RF field in the coil!

And yes, it works MUCH better to have it up high away from the computer. Even then, lately I've had the issues I mentioned. Mine may just be going bad after all these years, or perhaps the USB-serial adapter I now have to use isn't producing enough voltage on the control pins so the signal is much weaker. But - again - sometimes it'll work just fine for a few months!

Re: Led lights

SteveK wrote: »

I have measured the bulbs I listed above. They come out measuring the same wattage they are rated for. Very happy with these. I use some X10 circuits in our home. They will not work reliably with the CFL's (will not switch off) but the LED's work fine.

It is the 'Lamp' dimmable modules that have problem with the CFL. Because the CFL with simple rectifier-filter has a current pulse, at peak of cycle when the triac in the dimmer module is triggered to turn it on, there may be no load current at that moment to latch on the triac, so it stays off.

The 'appliance' modules have a latching mechanical relay contact on and off. (with an audible click) These work with anything (up to there 15 amp rating).

Re: Led lights

FYI I have a bunch of X10 NIB if you guys are interested. I will sell cheap + shipping.

Let me know and I will dig out what I have and list it.

Re: Led lights

Chuck46 wrote: »

I have been looking at info for LEDS and will sone begin to replace mr CFL's. If you google dimmable LED's I have found LED's @60 and 65 watts eq. for anywhere from $12.00 up to 24.95 each. To quote an old one "seek and ye shall find":D

Chuck

Right but I think what many want here is experience of how the lights look and work. They also want it from people they can relate to. A little different than rolling the dice on the internet!

Re: Led lights

Cariboocoot wrote: »

This thread caused me to look again at the display of Phillips LED bulbs in Home Depot yesterday. What I noticed:

1). Colour temperature seems cold. (This is largely a matter of taste.)
2). The selection is limited here. (They did not have the size for the lamp I wanted to replace.)
3). The price is outrageous. (I could by three packs of halogens for the price of a single LED.)
4). With our ultra-cheap BC Hydro rates the payback time is lengthy. (Probably an exaggeration to say the bulb would fail before paying for itself, but not by much.)

I expect that eventually BC, which led the way with LED Christmas lights, will eventually catch up with civilization in this department. But will I live that long?

Thanks Captain ! We went thru all this with CFL 10 years ago trying to get the color right. My wife looks at me with the "deer in headlight look" at going to LED too soon, again! They are great outside or in the man cave but the kitchen and living space must meet expectation!

I may get the Costco FEIT's as I can return them.

Re: Led lights

techntrek wrote: »

jagec - looks like you already have a dead LED, if you can open the module up you may want to see if its easily fixed, maybe a cracked solder joint. Thanks for the idea of a bilge pump, a friend has been going back-and-forth on how to keep his sump pumps going during an outage. One week he wants an inverter + battery, the next he wants a generator. Now I can really confuse him and suggest a bilge + battery. :-)

Yes, I noticed that...I guess you get what you pay for! At least they didn't wire the whole thing up in series like christmas lights.:p

The bilge pump works quite well for me, but there are caveats. Even in heavy rainstorms, the water entering my sump is no more than a steady trickle, and so I was able to justify the use of a much smaller rating on the backup than the main unit. My main pump is rated at > 2000 gph at 8' of head, the backup at a mere 400 gph...at 3.3' of head.

Due to this lower rating, the bilge discharges into the washing machine line to the sewer, which saves me about 6' of head. I justify this since it will only ever kick on in an EMERGENCY. Larger bilge pumps are certainly available, but this one draws a mere 1.2 A @ 12VDC...which allows me a full 100 hours of continuous runtime on a standard marine battery. Well in excess of my needs.

This system set me back around $160 total, battery included. It's completely automatic, no human input needed...if the power goes out when I'm not there, the sump will kick in automatically as needed, and once it comes back, the battery will start recharging. The parasitic load on the DC side is zilch, and the AC side just needs enough to keep the battery topped off.

If I'd decided to use an inverter to power my main sump, I'd need at least 1.2 kW of AC, and heaven knows how much inrush current. I'd have to leave it on 24/7 for it to be automatic, I wouldn't have any insurance against mechanical failure of the pump itself, and the runtime would be, shall we say, lower.;)
Those big AC pumps are just about the worst possible things to run off of a battery.

Some pictures if you're curious. My main sump has a cute little metal "shelf" above the float that I zip-tied the bilge pump to. Both floats operate smoothly, the pumps lift out as a unit, and the bilge won't kick on until the water is well above the set level for the main pump but still below the bottom of the drain pipes.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/3535/img2450s.jpg

The battery is a 125-Ah marine 12V, sitting on a float charger. It powers the bilge pump, and a 12V "emergency" outlet in the living room for the LED lamp and a small MSW inverter.

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/2089/img2449ni.jpg

Re: Led lights

Just wanted to let everyone know that the 40w equivalent LED's are on sale at lowes for $9.97 (yea the same price as home depot). However the lowes ones appear to be a little better made.

I bought 1 today to see how it compared to CFL's.... worried it would be like going from a standard bulb to CFL.... yea CFL's suck in my opinion and I didn't have high hopes for the LED..... I must say the 7.5watt LED is WAY brighter than the 13w CFL it replaced. In fact it is probably brighter than a 23watt CFL. I couldn't be happier!

My only grip is they are just too darn expensive.... I wonder if they will meet their life expectancy??? I have several CFL's burning out in less than 1 year with 2hrs a day max (less than 1,000 hours and most likely less than 500 hours).

Shane

Re: Led lights

Shane Jackson wrote: »

Just wanted to let everyone know that the 40w equivalent LED's are on sale at lowes for $9.97 (yea the same price as home depot). However the lowes ones appear to be a little better made.

I bought 1 today to see how it compared to CFL's.... worried it would be like going from a standard bulb to CFL.... yea CFL's suck in my opinion and I didn't have high hopes for the LED..... I must say the 7.5watt LED is WAY brighter than the 13w CFL it replaced. In fact it is probably brighter than a 23watt CFL. I couldn't be happier!

My only grip is they are just too darn expensive.... I wonder if they will meet their life expectancy??? I have several CFL's burning out in less than 1 year with 2hrs a day max (less than 1,000 hours and most likely less than 500 hours).

Shane

Got a part # for those Lowes LED's ???
I was just there (11-5-11) and the only 9.98 bulb was a 15w eq, candelabra base 75 lumen, 3K kelvin, 50K hour lifetime #0164600, has poor dispersion pattern from the 1 emitter. The 40w eq LED they have on sale is $12.98
ps - it's more decorative, and is going back, maybe I'll exchange it for the 40w eq on sale, with only 25K hour lifetime

Re: Led lights

With all the LED talk in this thread, I decided to stop by Home Depot today and see if anything caught my eye. I picked up the Philips AmbientLED 12.5W (60W equivalent) A19 bulb. It's certainly an odd-looking bulb, but it was "only" $25 and was one of the brighter LEDs available.

When I got it home, I tried it in a desk lamp and in a dimmable ceiling can. The color is impressive--it LOOKS incandescent. And it's bright...brighter than the 14W CFL that it replaced in the desk lamp. It turns on with about a half-second delay, which is noticeable but not really annoying, and comes on fully bright.
While it's not designed to be a floodlight, it performed adequately in the ceiling can, with light production similar to the 65W incandescent floods (side by side) and no annoying bright spots or glare. However, while it certainly dims better than dimmable CFLs (I'm still angry that I wasted my money on those abominations), it still didn't get nearly as dim as the incandescents, and the color goes from a reasonable warm white to a somewhat ghastly blue-tinged yellow.

Conclusion: They have finally developed an LED bulb that is bright enough to use in the house. I love saving power, but simply can't put up with dim light in order to do so. The color is great, there is no flickering, glare, retina-burning points of light, or patterning problems. Assuming 5 hrs/day of use, this bulb will "pay itself back" in energy savings after 2 years, and should last until my retirement.

But I'm still looking for ANYTHING that will perform as well as a generic incandescent floodlight. I've heard rumors of "intelligent" dimmable LEDs that actually shift their output to the red end of the spectrum when dimmed, but I haven't seen them, and most LED bulbs that I see are still woefully dim compared to what they're trying to replace.

Re: Led lights

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased 4 LED spotlights to replace the lights in my kitchen. Bought these at Home Depot, about $28 each. Unlike many LED lights I've looked at, these weren't the very white, almost blue lights. These are a very warm color.

I've had friends & family over to the house, and until I told them, they had no idea anything was different about the lighting. Good sign. There's no flicker, and no warm up time unlike many CFLs. There is a half second delay when turning on the switch before they turn on, but not an issue.











These are dimmable, but they are just connected to a switch.

These are 75W equivalent according to the packaging. I believe it, these are bright! So went from 4 bulbs at 75W each (300W total) to 4 bulbs at 14W each (56W total). I will be connecting this lighting circuit to alt-power before long...

I have other LED lighting that's only so/so. But these are great. If they last half as long as the rating, I'd be very happy. I'd certainly recommend giving these a try.