40W LED bulbs 2 for $7 at Staples

Bought a couple of "Brighton Professional" LED bulbs A19 shape/E26 base from Staples yesterday and so far, so good. Color temp appears pretty close to a normal incandescent (box sames "warm white") and it fits in all the places a normal incandescent can go.

The warranty is only for one year and to fulfill it you have to call

1-800-425-0049 to get an RMA and ship the bulbs somewhere (apparently) and not return them to the store, or so it seems. If mine do fail within a year, I certainly WILL take them to the store first and raise a ruckus about paying to ship them to some unknown dead bulb depot.

The package alleges 500 lumens and a 13.6 year life running 3 hours a day. The bulbs are pretty warm around the conical metal shield at the base. I wouldn't expect them to last that long in normal use because of the heat. They do appear to consume only 6 watts (5 according to my Kill-o-Watt meter) so I think I'll test one running it 24 by 7 to see if it does fail within the rather skimpy 1 year warranty period. If 3 hrs a day = 13.6 years then

24 hours a day should be 1/8 of that predicted life span or less. At constant use it should last 1.7 years if my math is correct (seldom is, though).

Non dimmable (confirmed!) but glass dome runs cool to the touch. I will be replacing a number of 13W CFLs around the house as those become dim and slow to start up (my big complaint with the nVision bulbs HomeDepot sells as well as other CFL's I've bought - especially the 23W - 100W equivalent ones). I might use them in some ceiling fixtures I've adapted with Y socket splitters providing the total heat output of four bulbs isn't too much for passively cooled glass overhead fixtures.

Says they are suitable for damp locations but not "totally" enclosed fixtures. Bright enough to read the very tiny print on the package, FWIW. I think I'll go back and get a couple of extra packs tomorrow because I have yet to see LED bulbs anywhere as low as $3.50 each. Would prefer something brighter but there are plenty of places around where a 40W equivalent will do, especially if they don't lose a full F-stop worth of light after a few months of operation the way some CFLs do. )-:

The ETL logo on the bottom of the package says Intertek 4008636 and the UPC code is 718103205528, FWIW.

It's hard to believe that much light comes out of a bulb that uses the same amount of electricity as one of those tiny nightlight incandescent bulbs. Maybe those blue LED inventors *did* deserve the Nobel.

Reply to
Robert Green
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The mfg knows damn well few people would be foolish enough to waste their time, gas and money for postage to return the bulb to the factory.

The store is under NO obligation to replace a defective bulb but to maintain good customer relations MIGHT do so.

Though I may be frugal, I'd be way too embarrassed to try to get the store to replace a bulb that just cost $3.50...I'd save my fights for the big things.

That said, those CFL's are pretty reliable and chances are it will stay working for a few years.

Reply to
philo 

CFLs are not reliable at all. In their earlier days even less so. I returned LOTS to the stores for a quick, no questions asked replacement - since they were so failure prone the stores had buckets of duds that were returned for replacement.

This LED sounds pretty junky - shorter life than most, and they admit as much with a one year warranty.

Reply to
Pico Rico

I really just can't see the current enthusiasm over LED. I thought even less of fluorescent. I've got enough incandescents to last for years, which I bought dirt cheap at HD because most people seem to think it's illegal to use them and therefore won't buy them even when they're on the store shelf!

Perhaps I'm paying $.50-1.00 more per month for electricity. I doubt it's even that much.

Reply to
Mayayana

A couple of months ago, Home Depot had 40W equivalent 3000K dimmables on sale 4 for $5.05. Didn't think I'd ever find 'em that cheap again, so I replaced all but two fixtures with 'em. Only have two CFL left waiting on 100W equivalent LED at affordable price. So far, so good. Nice not to have that split-second waiting for the CFL to come on. I couldn't get over that "oh crap the light is dead" feeling.

Reply to
mike

Funny you should mention that. My most recent LED bulbs have a split-second delay. I'm not sure why but it isn't really a problem. They are in rooms I don't use very often and I get that "feeling" every time I go in there.

Reply to
Pat

LED's made a huge difference here. Our condo association had 13 pole lights on the property with 3 candelabra bulbs each that are on from disk to dawn. Each bulb used 25 or 40 watts. The worse part, though, was having to walk around the property once per week replacing bad bulbs. That was a pleasant walk in the spring and fall, but bad in the snow of winter or the mosquito's of summer. Six years ago, I changed all the bulbs to LEDs ($16.99 each at the time for a total of about $700.00). Our electric bill (which covers only lighting and water pumps) was cut in half. The savings paid for the LED bulbs over the first 2 years of operation. The best part, however, is we haven't had to replace a single bulb.

Reply to
Pat

I'm changing over to LED Why? I like the idea of saving even though it may be minimal. What I really like is the quality of light. We've chose to change the bathrooms and the outside lights to the Daylight color and wow, very nice and bright.

What I also like is the long life. I don't have to change the light over the door in the middle of January or the ones over the garage in so I can see to better snow blow in February. Now that I mention it, they were just change a few weeks ago so snow clearing with the brighter light on the snow should be great. Yeah, they weren't cheap, but as you get older you become more willing to pay to not have to get out a step ladder.

As for cost, the family room light is on 16 hours a day. It went from

100 watts to 13 watts. That is 1392 watt hours or 1.39 KW per day at 17¢ saves 23 cents a day. Or $86 a year.

So, go right ahead and enjoy your dingy incans while we enjoy our bright LED.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

HD had some Cree brand 60W for $5 a while back. They are OK, but the light temperature was too low for my taste. I've been using Osram daylight and really like them, but they are more expensive. I think they were $10 or a little over.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

How far is the store at $3 a gallon for gas to take the time to return a $3.50 bulb eleven months from now? I'd burn a half gallon.

A month from now they will no longer carry that brand of bulb to give you a replacement but they may give you your money back just to shut you up.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

At church, I've found up to 150 watt filament bulbs in the ceiling can lights. Change with CFL. The paid guys did put in some LED bulbs, which have been just fine. Replace flood lights.

- . Christopher A. Young Learn about Jesus

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Reply to
Stormin Mormon

That was my experience with early CFLs - the ones that cost $10 or more each. They got more reliable as time passed but the ones that are 3 years old are now showing some serious time lag before coming on to full (not really) brightness. The floodlight (enclosed) models take a ridiculously long time to reach full brightness. The spiral tubes have all darkened appreciably after a few years of medium duty use. Hopefully the LED bulbs will not darken or take a noticeable time to come to full brightness.

At $3.50 each, the price is worth the risk. The days of my paying more than that for an effing light bulb are long since over. (-: One's already running in a test mode in the stairwell all the time. We'll see if it even makes it to the end of the brief warranty period.

Reply to
Robert Green

I noticed the drop in my bill when I switched to CFL's and that's likely to drop in half again with LEDs. The light looks just about the same as with an incandescent and I have a dark house that needs a lot of electrical lighting, especially in the winter. YMMV but unless you're living like a monk with a single bulb hanging over the kitchen table, CFLs/LEDs will make more than a 50 cent dent in your bill.

Reply to
Robert Green

When the energy saving "halo-shaped" fluorescent lights came out (years ago) they were absolutely horrible and worked six months or less... but I've never yet lost a CFL.

However, since the connection tip is not solder, the socket has to be in good shape or they will flicker.

Reply to
philo 

CFL's are working fine here... what I hated the most about them originally was the warm-up time.

Now it's the feature I like best. No more getting blinded first thing in the morning.

Reply to
philo 

It's clear that savings will be proportional to the amount of lighting. I know that CFL have really reduced the amount of bulb-changing around here and have significantly cut our electric bill. We use a lot of lights, though, and someone who doesn't might not notice the savings that you and I have.

I have deliberately "waited out" LEDs until the price dropped enough so that I wouldn't mind if like the early CFLs, the lifespan/performance claims were wildly overestimated. I'll bet you would have been much happier to pay $3.50 per bulb rather than $16.99. (-: The payback would have occurred a lot sooner!

I looked at other bulb sizes on the shelf in Staples and they were still pretty high - too high for me to justify switching away from CFLs, at least until my supplies are exhausted. I am just happy that the LEDs from Staples don't exhibit the garish blue tint that I saw in a lot of early LEDs.

Reply to
Robert Green

Wow, THAT'S a deal! I thought I was doing OK with $3.50 a bulb. Dimmable, too! Sometimes, though, your local electric company adds a fee to your bill to underwrite such low prices. They hide it very thoroughly.

I replaced a lot of 100W incans with 23W CFLs about 3 years ago and the time lag before they come to full brightness is now painfully noticeable. They may last a lot longer than incans, but a lot of that life is in the "barely usable" range. )-;

Reply to
Robert Green

The store's right by my MD's office so it's a done deal. No extra gas burned because I am there often enough to drop by and return them if they fail.

Makes no difference to me whether it's cash or merchandise.

I just finished eating a tasty "shut you up" free combo from Wendies for serving a take out Frosty with a big hole in the lid. It pays to complain. It's just part of the feedback system that guarantees continuous improvement. Just got a very nice free camping flashlight from Eveready for the old Ratshack lamp their leaky batteries ruined. About to dash off another complaint email to a sandwich shop whose logistics are pretty poor - all sandwiches come in the same brown bags without any indication of what's what. When ordering for a staff meeting, it's pretty lame to have to open them all up and play "who's got the salami?" (-: The second time it happened, the sandwichista handed us a magic marker to ID the six sandwiches (already in the plain brown bags). I said "I didn't make the sandwiches, YOU did! You should be the one marking the contents." Got the blank stare of the typical fast food worker.

Reply to
Robert Green

LED bulbs have only been out for 2 or 3 years now. Their design is still changing and their price is still dropping. They're still in a state of transition as both the theoretical science and practical technology behind producing them are refined.

I've still got 13 watt (60 watt equivalent) Compact Fluorescent bulbs in the hallways of my building, but I fully expect to stock up on LED bulbs once I start seeing them going on sale, which may not be for another few years yet.

But, the bottom line is that even if the bulbs cost more than CFL's, it's still worth a lot to me to not have to be changing light bulbs in my hallways all the time. I used to buy 5000 hour incandescent bulbs. My CFL bulbs are rated at 12,000 hours, and LED's are advertised at

100,000 hours. That means with 21 hallways lights, I'm looking at changing one LED bulb every 6 or 7 months.

Also, re: the Nobel Prize: Our technology involves not only making scientific discoveries that lead to new technologies, but by marrying different technologies together to come up with ways of doing things we couldn't do before or doing things more efficiently or accurately or inexpensively than before, and that in turn ends up making that technology more practical and available to the masses. When computers cost millions of dollars, only large businesses and governments could afford them. Now that you can buy a refurbished computer for $100, everyone can afford them. The development of LED technology to the point where a single LED can be used to provide the light source for a powerful flashlight is certainly going to change our world. LED based lasers are already in our supermarkets reading the barcodes of what we buy. I have no idea what these much more powerful LEDs will be used for, but I expect that using them in lasers or with fiber optic communications cables will result in all kinds of new technologies. The idea of satellites orbiting our Earth using powerful LED's in laser beams to communicate with each other comes to mind, but how that will improve our lives on Earth is unpredictable, as the future always is. More powerful LED's may allow fiber optic computing, which promises very much faster computing and communications is another area of promise. A single fiber optic cable can carry thousands of different telephone calls each at a different light frequency on the fiber optic cable. Compare that to a single telephone call using a copper wire. How that will change our world is unpredictable, but as always, it will be for the better.

Reply to
nestork

"Mayayana" wrote in news:m2qklt$n08$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Do the math. It's costing you a *lot* more than a dollar a month to use a house-full of incandescents.

Consider just *one* 60W incandescent that's used an average of 4 hours per day. That's

120 hours per month, times 60 watts, equals 7200 watt-hours or 7.2 KwH per month.

Replace it with a CFL that uses 13 watts, and your usage drops from 7.2 KwH to 1.56 KwH, a difference of 5.64 Kwh per month.

Multiply by fifteen cents per KwH, giving 85 cents. There's your "$.50-1.00 more per month". FOR EVERY BULB IN YOUR HOUSE.

My electricity bill dropped by $25 a month when I replaced all the incandescents with CFLs nine or ten years ago.

Reply to
Doug Miller

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