Replace Halogen Bulbs With LEDs?

[krw]

Malformed is that stupid.

[bob haller]

mike holmes says led bulbs do not attract insects, like mosquitoes.

this is a excellent reason to use led lamps outdoors, since the lamps are near the doors, in the summer insects get in.

[Malcom "Mal" Reynolds]

but there are plenty of people who prefer incandescent/halogen for the supposed benefit of the extra heat it provides in winter and ignoring the wonderful heat it provides in the summer

[gonjah]

Must have been a bad batch or brand cause I still have most of mine. I'm still waiting for them to fail so I can replace them with LEDs.

[westom]

No air flow over a heatsink that cools the LED means it overheats.

[Higgs Boson]

ECtric? Thread drifting, sorry...

We have a gas wall heater which (unfortunately) replaced floor furnaces aft er a house fire years ago. The floor furnaces radiated heat UPWARDS, thus h eating the rooms. The wall heater also radiates heat upward, thus heating the ceiling. Some heat eventually drifts back down to heat the room. Defl ectors at the wall heater help a little but the end result is still less ef fective and more wasteful than the old floor furnace.

Because of this inefficiency (and gas heaters sucking oxygen out of air!) w e use small electric space heaters for limited time in specific areas (brea kfast, computer,etc.) Elec does cost more, so we use elec heaters that have 'n'-hour auto shutoffs, in case we forget to shut off when leaving area.

Of course in places with cold winters, all the above goes out the windows ( unless properly sealed). Which raises the question how ventilate if openin gs sealed?

HB

HB

[Cindy Hamilton]

I can't speak for everybody in the North.

We wait for a relatively warm day (say, 30 F), turn off the furnace and crack a few windows open for a while. Once the house temperature drops about 10 degrees, we close 'em back up again and turn the furnace on.

We get some ventilation from our house being older and not all that tight, and of course some fresh air comes in when the doors are opened and when the kitchen or bathroom fans are running.

We've been thinking about installing a fresh air ventilation system that would pull outdoor air into the cold air return ducts and then through the furnace.

Cindy Hamilton

[recyclebinned]

[recyclebinned]

Any beam spread of more than 22 degrees is considered a flood light bulb. The smallest beam spread of the LEDs on the Costco website are 38 degrees which is considered a flood and not a spot light bulb.

[Gary]

A little additional information from the OP

Our house is in the Costa Rican mountains. Our climate is such that we need neither air conditioning nor heat. Our electric bill is $180/mo which covers lights and the pool pump. There are only two of us and only a few bulbs are on at a time. Cooking and hot water are propane. Ceilings are mostly 15 feet which makes changing bulbs inconvenient. Even with 85 halogen bulbs, the chandeliers, and the wall sconces the house is under lit. One advantage of changing to LEDs is we can go above the 50W equivalent and get a little more light.

Thanks, Gary

[clare]

My first CFLs I had the same problem. 3 or 4 different sources - same crap - different pile. Of the first 6 or 8 I don't think 2 lasted a full year. I have since had a couple last 4 years.

[Malcom "Mal" Reynolds]

sounds like more windows/skylights would be a good (partial) solution. as far as converting to LEDs you have to factor in the cost of the conversion to 12V (and how are you providing that 12V)

[clare]

Lots of self contained 120 volt LED "bulbs" - and nothing magic about 12 volts anyway -LEDs have forward drops in the 3 to 5 volt range depending on colour / chemistry.

[Todd]

Hi All,

To put my 2 cents in, I am an Electrical Engineer:

Halogen bulbs run very, very hot. I my opinion, they are a fire hazard and I would not have them in my house.

Compact fluorescents are cheaper to run, but their run time ratings as a crock of s--- (Home Depot, etc.). They don't last any longer than incandescents and they are way more expensive.

The only company I have found with long lived compact fluorescents are Satco (available from Amazon.com). I use these in my house. If using compact fluorescents, you are still going to be changing them a lot. I have seen special poles with grabber on the end for changing high ceiling lights. Plan on a few falling and breaking, spreading small amounts of mercury all over the place. (You are probably in more danger from the broken glass.)

LED lamps run cool to the touch. A good thing. Heat is the enemy of all things electronic. And LED's are the cheapest to run.

The dirty ugly secret about "white" LED lights (not the colored ones) is that you have to heat sink off heat or they will become regular diodes and loose their ability to create light. So, you can't put them in a hot environment without ventilation to bleed off the heat. How hot is your ceiling and does it have circulation.

LED's are also temperamental about having clean power. Your voltage needs to within parameter and no spikes. So, the run times advertised for LED's are only under the most ideal conditions.

So it is all about trade offs. Me personally, I'd ditch the halogens and go LED. And make sure I had a ceiling fan.

-T

[krw]

Halogen bulbs, in the same envelope, run no hotter than standard bulbs. I love the things. You can't get a better light to work by.

They also take an age to come up to full brightness. I'm usually in the room and out, before they'd come up to full brightness. They do have a place though (a generic replacement for incandescents isn't it).

1000bulbs.com carries Satco, too. Good prices.

If you buy the run-time specs.

That's true of all LEDs. The LEDs themselves are very small and do get extremely hot. That heat has to be moved somewhere else or they'll cook.

Not any more so than CFLs. It's the electronics that's the problem. They're fairly similar.

I wouldn't. Not yet. LEDs aren't ready for prime time yet and Halogen's light is perfect.

[gregz]

Your problem is surges. 12 volt wiring sounds good, except how the 12 volts is down converted is another problem. Any electronics is likely to be zapped. Resistors are inefficient. I would think you may want to go a room at a time to see what works in the long run. Separate emergency lights for each room is another Thought.

Greg

[Todd]

Hi Krw,

It is the white ones that go far sooner than the colored ones. I found this out the hard way running colored and white in several circuits I did not properly heat sink. All the white ones shorted out.

When I was talking about about heat, I did not mean the pin point light source. I meant your hand.

-T

[Todd]

If you don't mind burning your house down. The light is pretty though.

[krw]

Power is power. Abuse any of them and they'll fail. As you well know, semiconductors aren't forgiving.

??? Heat is heat.

[krw]

Utter nonsense. You snipped the part where I said that halogen lamps aren't any hotter than standard bulbs (cooler, actually), in the same envelope.

It is. I'll keep it.