In terms of CFL technology, 2005 is almost pre-historic. Most new bulbs are quite nice. I hated and refused to use them years ago but like the bright white of some now.
Probably true that a lot has changed since 2005. But most of the CFLs I've bought have been Sylvania, and they haven't lasted particularly long. Perhaps that's a Sylvania thing: I had some Sylvania incandescents that popped as soon as I switched on and at least on more out of the same pack that lasted only a couple of days.
I have just bought some "Lights of America" brand 45-watt-equivalent LED bulbs (power consumption only 3.5W) intended for use in accent lights: a nice white light and no warm-up delay.
consumers reports, are more up to date. I use HD with a 7 yr warranty and color is tops. Try HD Invision brand they last in commercial use. Soft White is like incandesant
Where did you buy those LED lights? Do they screw into a standard socket? I have horses in a barn and have a 10watt CFL (equal to 40W) security light which is on all the time (so the horses can see). I guess 240W per day is not too bad on the electric bill, but the CFLs get very dim in cold weather, and when our recent cold spell dropped to MINUS 39F, it was so dim I could only see a dull glow, and then it burned out. I replaced it, and it was so dim I could not see anything. I finally replaced it with a smaller incandescent.
I'd like to cut down power usage, as well as eliminating this dimming problem in the cold. Besides that, I was told NOT to use a light sensor to shut off the power during the day (on a CFL), because when they turn on and off, they are not putting out full power for a minute or two (like a dimmer), and that will destroy a CFL quickly. I'm sure a LED would not be affected by that, so I can save even more power.
Using 10W CFLs 24/7 for one year is 87,600 watts. If those LEDs use 3.5 W and I could put on a sensor, so it would only be on about 12 hours per day (average), that would only be 15,330 watts per year. Quite a savings.
I really cannot see how you could justify the bulb change based on cost. At $0.15/kWh the 87600 watt hours you use in a year only costs about $13.00. Changing to the LED's would lower this to about $2.30. Hardly worth a trip to the store.
Based entirely on cost of energy, you are right, even though all these things do add up. But based on the poor performance in cold weather, it's definately worth changing. Plus, right now, I am using an incandescent bulb and that is costing more. It's just too cold to get any light out of the CFL. Also, I have had to replace this bulb about once a year. I know they are only $5 or less, but if a LED costs $10 or even $20, I know they last almost forever. Actually, I bought a string of white LED Christmas lights after christmas for less than half price. I was wondering how much light that would produce. It's not handy, but I think that has about 30 LEDs and said it used about 3 watts. I have not yet tried it, it's been too cold to piss around outdoors. I figured I'd find some use for it, for the couple bucks it cost.
Lights of America products are typically poorly engineered junk. Also beware of cheap LED lights. They will fade within a few hundred hours of use. These are the type made from clusters of those 5mm indicatoer style LEDs. The bulbs are usually under $25. The only good LED bulbs are expensive and use high power LEDs, like the Cree XR-E emitter.
I picked up a pack of those LED lamps to fiddle with. Some notes:
- The light is not "nice white", it is notably bluish like most "white" LEDs.
- The color temp is not consistent between lamps, particularly if they have had different run times.
- LEDs produce less lumens per Watt than CFLs, so they are less efficient. Being directional they can allow a lower Wattage to be used for task lighting however.
- Those particular lamps don't go off when you turn them off, they continue to produce very low level light for several minutes.
I did a comparison in a wall wash type application between those LED lamps, a 14W CFL and a 50W encapsulated halogen and the CFL won for best overall results. The LED lamps are still interesting to fiddle with.
lets see I have a CFL in my pole lamp controlled by a lamp sensor and timer. its off from midnite to 6AM on any other time its dark enough, occasionally tripsa on in mid day during a storm.
this CFL dies on average once a year, wierdly when I used incandescent bulbs they died more often but were a lot cheaper.
but CFL failure doesnt appear to take out the light sensor:) they are expensive.
so the CFL is affordable, by saving bucks on energy and lamp sensors.
bought a LED night light, way too blue, its nifty but not ready for prime time:(
I have done some experimenting with LED lighting and found they are most useful for when they reall only have to be seen instead of illuminating any particular area. I am using some for stairwell lights and they work great for that. I was very disapponted in the counter top lamps I installed. The counter top lamps do make decent night lights so I kept them and added some flourescent work lights beneath the kitchen cabinets. A florescent fixture that also contains some LEDs may be interesting.
Yes, I know the white ones are a bluish tint. I got some of those headlamps and flashlights.
One thing I always wonder, I noticed that most of the Christmas LEDs have a colored shell. I know a LED can create red, for example, because I have seen clear shells that are red, or green, or whatever. But I wonder if these colored ones with colored shells are not just white and the shell makes the color?
Yes, I have considered a timer rather than a sensor. I'd have to change the settings regularly. Not that big of a deal, but at the same time I know timer motors consume energy too, so it might not be worth it.
Good suggestion, and I also wonder if using one of those shrouded CFLs designed to be used in a canister or hi-hat application would last longer as opposed to the ones that have the tubes exposed.
Colored LEDs usually last a good long time, if they are blue, blue-green, green, yellow, orange or red. The often-stated 100,000 hours has a high rate of "turning out true" for those.
White ones have a phosphor that is subject to fading - better low power ones have "half-life" maybe 10,000 hours, merely fair ones a few thousand hours, and well-engineered major brand (such as Lumileds) heatsinkable high power ones achieve 50,000 hours with only 30% fading supposedly (or as a projection, latest "flagship" ones have existed less than 50,000 hours), provided they are operated "reasonably conservatively" in amount of current and in terms of temperature - as in chip/"junction" temperature maybe 30 degrees C cooler than "absolute maximum" or 85 degrees C (whichever is hotter). Pink and purple ones also have phosphor. Violet ones (which is distinguished from purple by being a spectral color) usually have another life-shortening issue - nearly-UV wavelength and nearby UV also emited degrade most plastic chip-encapsulating materials at close range, and "half-life" is all-too-often a few hundred to optimistically a couple thousand hours. (Thankfully, most purple LED "holiday lights" use white LEDs within purple shells - and glow with a color a bit more like "lavendar" than like "deep violet").
My experience with Lights of America (though mostly not buying much from them since 2002 due to disappointments) is early failure.
White low power LEDs have low usage as indicator lights, and they are likely to run into fading issues there unless seriously underpowered. Keep in mind that most modern white LEDs are plenty bright enough for use as indicator lights at 3-4 milliamps, 15-20% of the 20 milliamps that most "low power" LEDs have their specified performance dependent on. Keep in mind how glaringly bright most modern white low power LEDs are at 20 mA
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