Does anyone use this in there house? What are your thoughts? I'm having a hard time finding a LED light for a gu10 base that isn't too white.

7/21/2011 9:05:13 PM

Racist

7/21/2011 9:26:09 PM

Very helpful.

7/21/2011 9:58:17 PM

better to post this in the housing woes thread, or even in chitchat.

7/22/2011 12:59:03 AM

it's still a relatively "new" technology in terms of wide spread application so your options may be limited. It's also pricey in relation. What are you needing it for?

7/22/2011 12:52:38 PM

as a spectrum targeted grow light for my banana plant and some orchids... yep...

7/22/2011 1:45:43 PM

^^My kitchen came with Halogens that make it so hot in there.

7/22/2011 2:53:18 PM

i just noticed that HT stocked led bulbs when i was there yesterday. so i was looking at one of the boxes and it has the usual stuff you'd expect, "lasts 15 years", "saves $96 in energy over incandescents", blah blah blah. so, i did an off the cuff cost analysis with the cfl next to it since the math was easy

the led had a 25000 hour lifespan and used 6W of power. so if power is $0.1/kwh, the total energy cost would be $15 over the life of the bulb. the bulb was $25. total cost $40

the comparable cfl had a 12000 hour life and used 8W of power, so total energy costs would be ~$20. you need two cfl's @ $3/each to get about the same lifespan of the led. total cost $26

obviously you can get led bulbs for less than $25, but you can also get cfls for less than $3, and i doubt you're going to find a decent led bulb for the $10 it would have to be to come out cheaper.

[Edited on July 22, 2011 at 3:41 PM. Reason : tl;dr led bulbs suck]

7/22/2011 3:37:08 PM

and the life spans of LEDs hasn't been fully tested and proven yet. The technology still has some figuring out to do. Thus not every mnfr. is jumping on the LED bandwagon.

7/22/2011 4:29:21 PM

LEDs have instant-on and dim far better, so there's that. But they're like $50 apiece (for the recessed ones). Way, way too much.

7/23/2011 8:18:32 AM

Home Depot sells a 40 Watt equivalent LED Blub for $17 with a 46 year claimed lifespan.



[Edited on July 23, 2011 at 9:55 PM. Reason : sd]

7/23/2011 9:53:22 PM

To high of a color temperature at HD

7/24/2011 7:52:57 AM

The deal is LEDs last forever... the dc power supply that is required to run them is a different story. I think of it this way, usually when my desktop computers die its either the graphics card or the power supply.


LED lights require a power supply similar to those found in a computer.
The diodes may last 46 years but the ballast/powersupply will be lucky to last more than a hand full of years.

This also goes for CFL lights, the fluorescent light rarely ever dies in them, the ballasts do all the time.

[Edited on July 25, 2011 at 7:54 AM. Reason : .]

7/25/2011 7:52:09 AM

LED is nice, but it baffles me how expensive some of the finished products using LED's as lights are since the actual diodes are cheap as hell to produce... for the last 10-15 years.

7/25/2011 3:30:07 PM

if the LED lights use the cheap diodes you see at radio shack, then it's a garbage light.

7/25/2011 10:26:05 PM

^!

if they're not using a good name brand LED with at-least 1 watt per diode... its crap.

Its like harbor freight gives away led flashlights for free, but one with a Cree 3 watt LED will never ever ever be found free.

I payed 5 bucks for one that's only because it has a "fatal flaw". The spring that makes contact with the batteries isn't strong enough to hold up the batteries so it works awesome pointed in any direction except the sky.


[Edited on July 26, 2011 at 3:01 PM. Reason : .]

7/26/2011 2:58:43 PM

Is there a good lighting store in Raleigh that might have a good selection? I can't find what I need at Lowes/Home Depot/ etc.

7/31/2011 7:51:53 AM

^

8/2/2011 7:45:27 PM

Its mostly commercial lighting right now.

1 because most quality led fixtures are ugly
and
2 most quality led fixtures cost a crap ton of money.

think about $2 per watt minimum

8/8/2011 12:39:10 PM

thank you, environmental nut-jobs, for pushing this on us! woohoo!

8/9/2011 5:11:01 PM

Quote :

"IN THERE HOUSE"

9/6/2011 11:10:01 PM

Quote :

"To high of a color temperature at HD"

The CREE CR6 or HD branded EcoSmart GU24 6" recessed light is a great light.

Actual Color Temperature (K) : 2700 K

best consumer level LED light on the market.



[Edited on September 10, 2011 at 7:54 PM. Reason : .]

9/10/2011 7:54:15 PM

Now have to find a g4 base bulb. Not easy at all.

10/17/2011 7:47:38 AM

we have it in our cabinets, its kinda cool

dimmer switch though, too bright for me at night

10/19/2011 11:22:01 PM

I replaced almost every light in our house with 40w equivalents last year.

They were 1/2 off for Earth day, though apparently now are the same price. $9.98 a bulb is worth it for me, they pay for themselves in 4 years.

Search lowes.com for "Utilitech 40-Watt Equivalent Indoor Warm White LED Light Bulb"

They are actually even brighter than the 60w incandescent bulbs they replaced, because the light is still slightly directional. Color is pretty close to incandescent, just a slight bit more blue tinted (so still a little yellow, but much closer to "white").

Color temp is 3000k. I have 10 of these bulbs indoors and 2 outdoors. Not a single failure yet (and even if they do, Lowe's will replace em no questions asked).

Dimmable, and they fit in a standard socket. We have lots of globe light fixtures and most of the led bulbs are too weird of form factors to fit in them.



[Edited on October 20, 2011 at 10:20 PM. Reason : /]

10/20/2011 10:19:15 PM

^THIS

I just installed one of these on my porch. It's very warm in color; and just bright enough for the stairway at night (of course it's paired up with a photo cell.) It's also a very omnidirectional light - I was pissed with my first few runs at LED because they had horrible bright spots.

I also picked up a few LED spot lamps from Lowes. These things really impressed me. They're now in use in the living room (instead of overhead lights - pointed up at the ceiling from coffee table), reading lamp before bedtime, and on the desk. They only pull about 5 watts. They're also very warm - the first time I flipped it on I couldn't tell it wasn't incandescent and I was hooked - I've always hated the blue/green spectrum of LED's, particulaly for reading. This thing is amazing.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_352588-86988-H0015A_0__?catalogId=10051&productId=3421524&UserSearch=h0015a&Ntt=h0015a&N=0&langId=-1&storeId=10151&rpp=24

H0015A if those links are crap

12/14/2011 11:33:53 PM

^^I'll third those. They are awesome.

12/20/2011 8:51:57 PM

$150 for 10 sets of lights in a kitchen under the cabinets.
http://inspiredled.com/

Judge results for yourself at night:





For normal lightbulbs, Lowes at one point in time had LED bulbs on clearance for $10, and, had a $10 off $50 voucher inside most of the boxes. (And we were building our house at the time, so, $50 was easy to do in a one of many trips made to Lowes). If you are patient, similar deals will come along.

2/9/2012 11:25:18 PM

any recommendations for lightbulbs for my two overhead fan/lights..they take those stupid little Candelabra base lights...so i know that limits me a bit.

2/10/2012 8:19:06 AM

Also, wtf is the difference here? Specs look the same.
http://www.lowes.com/SearchCatalogDisplay?Ntt=utilitech+60-watt+equivalent+indoor+warm+white+led+light+bulb&storeId=10151&N=0&langId=-1&catalogId=10051&rpp=32

2/17/2012 2:54:29 PM