Poll: LED bulbs for use in home

[NWT]

I am in the minority who "hate" LED bulbs, so let me explain my perspective: 1) The vast majority of lights in my house are controlled by a Lutron system that cannot dim LED bulbs (without replacing a lot of switches), and 2) reading by LED light is no fun at all. As I understand it, throughout the US (so probably federal law, not just a bunch of state laws) incandescent bulbs are now illegal to produce or import, with some exceptions for "specialty" bulbs, but no exception applies to the common E26 base bulbs.

 

[Bill Ferris]

LEDs in the bathroom are not good.

Pray tell why ?
Both of my 2 bathrooms (3 in the hallway one above the mirror, and 8 above the master bathroom`s mirror) have been day light LED lamped for over 15 yrs. without any issues, with the exception of occasionally replacing one of the original 8 in the master bathroom.
Of course, these bathroom`s light bar fixtures are open and so the bulbs are not enclosed, so no built up LED bulb SMPS powered destroying heat if that is your point/issue experience with LED bulbs in the bathroom!

 

[Descartridge]

Pray tell why ?
Both of my 2 bathrooms (3 in the hallway one above the mirror, and 8 above the master bathroom`s mirror) have been day light LED lamped for over 15 yrs. without any issues, with the exception of occasionally replacing one of the original 8 in the master bathroom.
Of course, these bathroom`s light bar fixtures are open and so the bulbs are not enclosed, so no built up LED bulb SMPS powered destroying heat if that is your point/issue experience with LED bulbs in the bathroom!

Seems like the light from above the mirror is not flattering.

 

[OBMG74]

LED’s here wherever possible.
Great electricity savings and a few color temperatures to choose from.

I just switched from 2700K to 3500K above the bathroom mirror.
2700K had a bit of yellowish cast.

I’m there to shave and brush my teeth-not worried about flattering…not much of a base to work from…

 

[peterp1]

I am in the minority who "hate" LED bulbs, so let me explain my perspective: 1) The vast majority of lights in my house are controlled by a Lutron system that cannot dim LED bulbs (without replacing a lot of switches), and 2) reading by LED light is no fun at all. As I understand it, throughout the US (so probably federal law, not just a bunch of state laws) incandescent bulbs are now illegal to produce or import, with some exceptions for "specialty" bulbs, but no exception applies to the common E26 base bulbs.

The dimming issue with older dimmers is definitely "a thing" -- not really the fault of LED's, it's just that the old dimmers were designed for an incandescent environment that has about 8 times the current draw, so the dimmers are very confused with the infinitesimal (basically) current draw when LED's are at low lighting levels.

I had a workaround for that in my theater room, where I used one incandescent bulb on the overhead light that's over the projector to create a reasonable current draw, and LED's for the other 5 bulbs. It dimmed fine then, though the incandescent dimmed a bit faster than the others (which actually by turned out to be an advantage over the projector). I've since replaced that dimmer and have all LED's now.

For reading, what color temp bulbs are you using? I've not noticed that issue (nor heard of it since I've converted a LOT of people to LED), but everybody is different.

 

[Bill Ferris]

Seems like the light from above the mirror is not flattering.

When I desire light in the use of either bathroom, or any room`s illumination, I want good strong daylight color temperature even light dispersion, and form will always takes a backseat to function.

Of course, my house`s setup and daily operation is, and has not ever been influenced by a wife`s personal desired visual requirement`s needs.

 

[mfenberg]

With rare exception, my entire house uses LED lighting! The bulbs are much better now and once you understand Kelvin ratings, aka Color Temperature, it's easy to choose the proper lighting for each room. And, they use so much less electricity, which is a real bonus!

 

[orsen]

main floor is all led, unfinished bsmnt is florescent, they will be replaced this yr.

 

[jqp]

Had a strange audio issue with an LED bulb in the 1/2 bath during a family get together that my wife figured out.

Occasionally there was a random loud pop coming out of my restored Marantz HD77 speakers and I am like what the heck?? Switched from cd's to cassete thinking it was the cd player...nope, still random pops! Could it be my freshly restored Sansui 2000a? Hope not!

Turns out everytime somebody used the bathroom and turned off the lights, there would be a pop. Removed the LED lamps in the bathroom lighting fixture and that solved the problem. My nephew had figured it out earlier and was turning the lights on and off just to make the popping noise.

 

[Bill Ferris]

Had a strange audio issue with an LED bulb in the 1/2 bath during a family get together that my wife figured out.

Occasionally there was a random loud pop coming out of my restored Marantz HD77 speakers and I am like what the heck?? Switched from cd's to cassete thinking it was the cd player...nope, still random pops! Could it be my freshly restored Sansui 2000a? Hope not!

Turns out evertime somebody used the bathroom and turned off the lights, there would be a pop. Removed the LED lamps and that solved the problem. My nephew had figured it out earlier and was turning the lights on and off just to make the popping noise.

Is your house, a many decades older house with non grounded outlets ?

Just curious, as I 24/7/365 powered up and operating 4 different stereos in 4 different rooms playing my WAV. ripped music hard wired fed from my living room`s master A/V source/selection rack all day, every day, and my house is fully LED lamped for over 15 yrs. and I`ve never heard any pops or noise from any of the lights or appliances switching on or off, including a cycling 3.5 ton HVAC heat pump.
But to be fair, every one of my house`s 7 room`s audio systems power are fed via quality surge/spike/filters plugged into grounded outlets, so that might be helpful in preventing electrical noise getting into their audio.

 

[Dingman]

In the commercial world (K12 district), we had to make sure we replaced the wall switches when we upgraded to LED. That whole capacitive effect of old switches was annoying but we also wanted to take advantage of the dimming function of the LED panels we were installing.
As a side note, teachers for years have been trying to get good dimming control in the classrooms and as I was working with energy management, I fully supported this.
Think about it - even with LED's running at full power same as the fluorescent's that they were replacing, payback was about 3 years. Then add in the fact the teachers can actually dim the LED lights rather than TAPING CLOTH OVER THE CEILING LIGHTS is a HUGE WIN. Payback was found to be 1-2 years.
And
And
Teachers loved it.
EDIT: I don't mean to make it sound like it was all super good and worked great all the time. For one thing, in the early days the electronics would fail due to a few reasons so we were having lights fail way way too often. And sometimes they'd install lights that we couldn't change the color on and they were awful for a classroom.

 

[jqp]

Is your house, a many decades older house with non grounded outlets ?

Just curious, as I 24/7/365 powered up and operating 4 different stereos in 4 different rooms playing my WAV. ripped music hard wired fed from my living room`s master A/V source/selection rack all day, every day, and my house is fully LED lamped for over 15 yrs. and I`ve never heard any pops or noise from any of the lights or appliances switching on or off, including a cycling 3.5 ton HVAC heat pump.
But to be fair, every one of my house`s 7 room`s audio systems power are fed via quality surge/spike/filters plugged into grounded outlets, so that might be helpful in preventing electrical noise getting into their audio.

It was built in the 80's with grounded outlets. There was just one specific LED bulb that was causing the problem.

I also get a hum in my phono pre-amp when the ceiling fan light is on. It has 3 led bulbs. No problem with other LED lamps in the room, just the ceiling fan.

Also had an Ikea led lamp with a flexible head on it for lighting my turntable. Was quiet in the first few inches of the record but the hum got progressively louder as the cartridge got nearer the led lamp at the inner grooves. Moved the lamp, hum gone.

 

[Bill Ferris]

It was built in the 80's with grounded outlets. There was just one specific LED bulb that was causing the problem.

I also get a hum in my phono pre-amp when the ceiling fan light is on. It has 3 led bulbs. No problem with other LED lamps in the room, just the ceiling fan.

Also had an Ikea led lamp with a flexible head on it for lighting my turntable. Was quiet in the first few inches of the record but the hum got progressively louder as the cartridge got nearer the led lamp at the inner grooves. Moved the lamp, hum gone.

I wonder if the bathroom socket might be attached (shared by) to the same circuit as your stereo.

FWIW, my house (second owner) was also built in the eighties (this summer 40 yrs. ago), and before I moved in, and I via outlet checker checked all it`s outlets and rewired them all for proper wiring, by changed all of them to wire wrapping around the the tightened outlet screws instead of the labor saving, but, IMO/E questionable long term reliability wire stabbed commonly done by developer house wiring subcontracting lowest bidding electricians !

Also checked the tightness of all the wires in the breaker panel, with the exception of the main breaker.

This was done for safety and best performance for all my electrical/electronic devices up front and any future added devices !

And later I had dedicated over gage (10 instead of 12) wired 20 amp breaker protected circuits installed into 4 selected rooms of my house where I intended to install very powerful HQ stereo systems.
120 v powered LED lighting`s usually SM power supplies can create amazing amounts of ANNOYING interference, both fed back into the circuits their powered by and EMI radiated into nearby sensitive A/V electronics.

 

[peterp1]

One thing I should mention on LED bulbs is that the absolute "home run" LED upgrade is in refrigerator bulbs. The standard bulbs in many older refrigerators are small (A15) 25-watt incandescent bulbs. The downsides of these bulbs is they are fairly dim, run very very hot (working directly against the refrigerator's cooling with 3 hot bulbs), and the color temp is 2700k (which is great in normal lighting, but is not the best color for refrigerator illumination).

The 60-watt equivalent and even 100-watt equivalent LED bulbs are much, much brighter, run cool so they don't work against the cooling, and the "daylight" color makes even old refrigerators look new.

It is transformational in lighting quality, color, and efficiency (double benefit -- uses 1/4th the energy of the incandescents, and doesn't heat the refrigerator).

Your wife will thank you, and/or you'll thank yourself, after the upgrade.

60-watt eq: https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmar...t-Bulb-Bright-White-3-Pack-FG-03220/308706275
100-watt eq: https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmar...Light-Bulb-Daylight-3-Pack-FG-04208/316021875

 

[Bill Ferris]

One thing I should mention on LED bulbs is that the absolute "home run" LED upgrade is in refrigerator bulbs. The standard bulbs in many older refrigerators are small (A15) 25-watt incandescent bulbs. The downsides of these bulbs is they are fairly dim, run very very hot (working directly against the refrigerator's cooling with 3 hot bulbs), and the color temp is 2700k (which is great in normal lighting, but is not the best color for refrigerator illumination).

The 60-watt equivalent and even 100-watt equivalent LED bulbs are much, much brighter, run cool so they don't work against the cooling, and the "daylight" color makes even old refrigerators look new.

It is transformational in lighting quality, color, and efficiency (double benefit -- uses 1/4th the energy of the incandescents, and doesn't heat the refrigerator).

Your wife will thank you, and/or you'll thank yourself, after the upgrade.

60-watt eq: https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmar...t-Bulb-Bright-White-3-Pack-FG-03220/308706275
100-watt eq: https://www.homedepot.com/p/EcoSmar...Light-Bulb-Daylight-3-Pack-FG-04208/316021875

View attachment 3470626

I`ve been converted over to daylight LED bulbs in my replacement fridge, plus the freezer`s door`s ice/water dispenser`s 24/7/365 operating LED candelabra bulb right after purchase and installation for over 10 yrs.

Good suggestion for those folks to consider, peterp1.

 

[sound hound]

I guess I am a creature of habit. Maybe over 15 years ago, I stopped using a light bulb in the refrigerator altogether. I was sick and tired of their burning out all the time, then having to buy the special bulb size to replace it. So, last time, I didn't replace it. Haven't really missed it much. Every once and a while, I think it would be nice to be able to see better in the frig when looking for something, but for the most part, I don't really miss it.

Now LED bulbs are something I really like. I started buying them when they first came out on the shelves at Home Depot and have never looked back. I am spoiled. To not feel guilty about leaving a light on when leaving a room--something I probably learned as a child. Going back and forth in the house, turning lights on and off, it's probably hard on the switches. The power savings shows in the utility bills. And I think it has been over a decade since I have had to buy a light bulb. They seem to last forever. I can only recall once that one burned out, and I think that was when the lamp got knocked over.

Thanks, Nick, and thanks General Electric.

 

[pac1085]

I love the convenience of my Philip's Hue bulbs, but miss the warmth of incandescents. I don't miss fluorescents one bit.

I also don't care for the RF / electrical noise created by the LED light power supplies down in my shop. I may actually switch back to incandescents down here if I can find some good fixtures.

I do want to try some high CRI LED bulbs, like the ones from "Waveform Lighting", but they are expensive.

 

[whoaru99]

...

 

[twiiii]

I think I have only had to replace one R20 lamp in the kitchen and 1 R50 outside. I haven't replaced any R 30's yet. We switched to LEDs at the end of the 90's or early 2000's. as I remember. The very first LED we bought is still going strong.

 

[spicer]

I think I have only had to replace one R20 lamp in the kitchen and 1 R50 outside. I haven't replaced any R 30's yet. We switched to LEDs at the end of the 90's or early 2000's. as I remember. The very first LED we bought is still going strong.

I switched when they came out with the incandescent looking ones, the temperature, what ever it is.