Poll: LED bulbs for use in home

[Bill Ferris]

Have found various issues with LED lights. Can lights in the ceiling seem to fail quickly. IDK if it is heat that is trapped. Various brands tried Incl. premium GE. Most don't make it 6 months.

10 yrs. going with my original installed Philips brand indoor floods white coated facial, in my living room`s ceiling open faced cans, even during cool/cold weather here, and remain on for days every winter, like now.
While in the recessed cans, the LED lights increase their operating temperature, making them more sensitive to internal to your home and external constant, and unnoticed surges/spikes that will pop those already thermally stressed LED lights, but probably a lot of folks here on A/K think that I don`t know what I`m talking about referencing this consideration, which doesn`t bother me as I keep on enjoying long life & trouble free house hold electrical/electronic devices for yrs., or decades !

 

[Dingman]

One of the contracts my last company had was replacing all the 4' fluorescent fixtures with 1/2 the amount of 4' Led fixtures in the hanger bays and vehicle decks of CVNs, LHDs, LPDs, CG's and DDG's.

1/2 the fixtures and more usable light.

Edit: and the power savings are crazy good!!! Like bringing another generator online good.

As I was managing large facilities, I had to pay attention to the LED lighting changouts. The original HVAC utilized the heat loss from incandescent and fluorescent ballasts.
When lighting was changed to LED, we lost that heat source and had to compensate.

 

[Bill Ferris]

It is a Generac 13KW natgas, and is properly sized for the load. it also receives regular maintenance, I just checked the brushes and slip rings this past fa

This Generac Natgas fueled claimed 13kw, is it truly 13kw when NG fueled, because Nat gas fueled gensets are considerably de-rated verses fresh gasoline, or LP, as indicated in my Generac genset`s manual for my 25kw for LP and 20kw when NG fueled !

Not doubting your choice, but bringing up what I believe their telling me from my understanding of the two different fuel`s BTU capability differences.

My over 24 yr. old Generac has/is 99% maintained by my partially paralyzed crippled ass, with occasional help, when needed from my next door B-I-L, still plugs along.

I modified my transfer switch housing to be able to flip 2 installed toggle switches by me to fool the genset into thinking the grid went down and to power up my house with no normal household electrical electrical use load reduction for full confidence with real time load testing, not just the programable weekly auto exercise for 20 minute running testing.
My model`s electrical output is monitored by HQ Simpson brand meters, including a frequency meter, all purchased and installed by me over 15 yrs. ago. to keep tabs on the genset`s electrical heath from inside the comfort of my house, and the output AC seems pretty clean to me.

 

[OBMG74]

Additional issues with garage door opener remote. When the LED lights are on it sometimes jams the garage remote and I can't open or close the garage.

Important to note this.

My newer Chamberlain opener's instruction manual stated that some LED bulbs when used in the opener will cause the opener not to work with the remote.
The manual does give a list of compatible bulbs.

Had a friend who put an LED bulb in an old Craftsman opener, same problem.

Seems to be bulb brand specific.

In an earlier post @Bill Ferris suggested that the switching power supply in some bulbs could be problematic, maybe that could be the issue with openers.

 

[Bill Ferris]

When the LED lights are on it sometimes jams the garage remote and I can't open

There are increased internal filtered versions available for garage door opener situations, though slightly higher priced to help address that RFI opener inference. As I discovered a few yrs. back !

For those folks interested.
EDIT: My garage door opener replacement low RFI LED bulb info: Genie brand.
Model # LEDB1-R, Part # 39438R.
3 yr. limited warranty.
60 watt equivalent/3000 K color temperature/800 Lumens/power consumption 10 watts.
25,000 hr. claimed life.
Rated to reliably operate to -30`C.

 

[init4fun]

Does the bulb interfere with the radio in the lamp?

Hi maxhifi, a very good question indeed, and I can happily report that the WIFI bulb does not interfere with the (AA5 tube) radio in the lamp. Other, older & cheaper LED bulbs that aren't "smart" did throw a bit of static (buzz would be a good description).

 

[Sansuiman]

@Bill Ferris, this unit is a true 13KW on natgas. Is uprated to 14KW on LP. It is usually pretty minimally loaded, typically well under 50%, when running. The only heavy hits it takes are starting the 2.5 ton central air, and the furnace blower motor. Heat, water heater, clothes dryer and stove are all nat gas.

The only other loads normally on it are one 21 cu ft refrigerator/freezer, a small deep freeze, lighting (mostly - but not all - LED now), ceiling fans and a computer setup. Plus whatever audio rig I may happen to be listening to at the time. needless to say, it isn't being taxed heavily. I have plenty of capacity to run the clothes washer or dryer, or pretty well anything else in the house while on generator without so much as a blip. I doubt I've ever exceeded 10KW max load, and that would've been unusual.

 

[Bill Ferris]

@Bill Ferris, this unit is a true 13KW on natgas. Is uprated to 14KW on LP. It is usually pretty minimally loaded, typically well under 50%, when running. The only heavy hits it takes are starting the 2.5 ton central air, and the furnace blower motor. Heat, water heater, clothes dryer and stove are all nat gas.

The only other loads normally on it are one 21 cu ft refrigerator/freezer, a small deep freeze, lighting (mostly - but not all - LED now), ceiling fans and a computer setup. Plus whatever audio rig I may happen to be listening to at the time. needless to say, it isn't being taxed heavily. I have plenty of capacity to run the clothes washer or dryer, or pretty well anything else in the house while on generator without so much as a blip. I doubt I've ever exceeded 10KW max load, and that would've been unusual.

Ok Bossman, very well then, my mistake.
Just checking, as the 2 different type of gaseous fuel BTU differences, are sometimes overlooked when folks are selecting a genset, and have surprised more than a few folks when their choice of using NG fuel, to find their sometimes undersized to try to save money (or too close) the selected genset`s kw output is less than desired, and they find themselves having to do house hold load management, that they didn`t expect to need to do.

With NG taking care of your WH, stove, and furnace needs, as these when electrically powered, like my house, with those very high wattage consumption devices, and the 3.5 ton HVAC heat pump, hence my selection/purchase of a liquid cooled 25kw LP fueled Generac in January 1999, being no NG pipe lines are anywhere near my neighborhood.

 

[Sansuiman]

Yes, I'm fortunate to have natgas utility readily available here. The St. Louis area in general is (and has long been) a heavily natgas powered city. I'm a plumber, and 90+ percent of the water heaters I replace here are natgas. In turn, an overwhelming majority of homes have gas heat (either furnace or boiler) and most other major appliances are tyopically natgas as well.

We see some electric only homes in outlying areas where NG infrastructure hasn't been laid in yet (and may never be, depending on longer term development/density trends) and there are pockets of homes in the fully built out suburbs that are all electric, owing to the "Medallion Home" marketing program that was popular in the 1960’s (I assume this wasn't unique to St. Louis) that pushed for all electric homes in exchange for incentives given to the builder. Of course, electric power was a lot cheaper then than now, and I'd not want an all electric home now. Natural gas is still a relative bargain cost wise for running heat, hot water, and stoves/ovens/cooktops. And for the generator as well, I'd add. It also is less prone to service outages than electric.

Interestingly, this line of Generac air cooled generators (circa 2008) was derated by only 1KW for nat gas versus LP fuel input. They were 9/10KW, 13/14KW, and 16/17KW respectively. I went with the middle unit, since it had a better engine (GT-990 v-twin), was plenty for my power needs, and wouldn't be burning as much NG at low load just to power a larger output genhead that wasn't really needed to begin with.

It does consume a LOT of gas (irrespective of whether NG or LP is being used) so I wanted to avoid specifying an unnecessarily large generator when I originally planned the installation. I've been quite satisfied with it, it has always been rock solid reliable when called on to power the house. The issue with LED bulb flicker is a minor annoyance, and a small price to pay for having the backup power available.

 

[newenglandj]

Most all the lamps in my house are LED now. I didn't like them at first, but once the manufactures started getting the color temperature right, i.e. looks like incandescent, I was all for them.

I'm still waiting for the auto makers to get there stuff together as far as LED headlights go, I can't stand having those blue-white lights in my mirrors at night, drives me crazy. Seems like it should be real easy to make a warmer looking headlight.

 

[Brent Justin]

The savings on our utility bill is nice, just not sure if it is enough to offset the purchase price of the bulbs.

I filled out some kind of sur4vey from my power company and was gifted a box of 8 LED bulbs. I installed them and threw out the incandescent bulbs and have calculated an average of an 8 dollar a month savings over the last 4 years. None have burned out as of yet.

 

[Bratwurst7s]

I started progressively installing LED lights in my apartment a number of years ago as I could find what I wanted at a good price. Now they have gotten very inexpensive over here and I've long since gone completely LED, every single lamp and bulb. I would not willingly go back. The only incandescent bulbs that I have now are for my dim-bulb-tester.

In my living room and bedrooms I recently switched to the Phillips Hue type lights, we like them a lot.

LOL, thanks to this thread I just solved a problem that I have been having with my CD player.
Normally when listening I have the living room pretty dimmed down. But when my friends come over for a listening session I turn more lamps on, and brighter. On those days I have been having crazy behavior from my CD player and the drawer just does not like to stay opened or closed, drives me nuts and until just now didn't even think about the lamps being potentially guilty.

I now just went and tested and sure enough, dim and few lamps = well behaved CDP.
Bright and more lamps = drawer problems.
Huh, the lamps are interfering with the IR remote functions. Just learned something.

Thanks for the help Peter!
James

 

[xXDEATH666Xx]

I started changing them out 8 years ago. I've only had 2 burn out so far. Also great for my grow shack

 

[Blowed Fuse]

My experience is they don’t last as long as advertised. The extra cost don’t help much either.

 

[DPotts245]

I used to work for a small construction/renovation company. Every time we turned on the power in one of our houses the power company would send a box of led bulbs. Over a few projects I replaced all my incandescent bulbs with leds. I still have the stash of incandescents so my dbt is good for the next century or so.

So far no issues with the leds.

 

[THEWEREWOLF]

i bought 120 60w incs before the Big Ban and still have a stash of 24 100w

hate led lighting
hated CFL

my brain needs fuzzy, yellow lighting apparently

I have a HUGE stash of incandescent bulbs collected before the total ban. I need real incandescent bulbs for my DIM Bulb tester. You can't use LED's on a dim bulb tester. For home illumination purposes I use Edison Bulbs. Most people hate Edison Bulbs now but I've always loved seeing light bulb inerds.

 

[Descartridge]

LEDs in the bathroom are not good, seems unflattering above a mirror.

 

[peterp1]

I've been "all LED" in the house for many years. The only ones I haven't loved were the chandelier "candle" bulbs, which at 2700k are a dead ringer for incandescents at higher brightness, but remain "2700k white" dimmed instead of yellowing like incandescents. It's a noticeable difference when dimmed for mood lighting, but with 10 40-watt bulbs at 400 watts for incandescent, vs about 60 watts LED for a light we use a lot, I've been living with the less preferable dimmed LED color temp.

That, however, has changed with Phillips introducing "warm glow dimming effect" LED bulbs. They are 2700k like incandescents when bright, but automatically transition to something like 2200k when dimmed, pretty much exactly mirroring incandescents. The difference in the room is night and day when the lights are dimmed. These cost a bit more and are not needed if you don't dim, or don't need a warm color when dimmed, but they are game changers anywhere where you want a warm dimmed vibe in the room. I'm using them in the foyer overhead lights, and the chandeliers.

Amazon.com

 

[peterp1]

LEDs in the bathroom are not good.

Why? I've not noticed that at all.

 

[GChief]

LEDs in the bathroom are not good.

Please explain. Have had nothing but in the bathrooms for about 10yrs with zero issues.