Upgrading to LED in S&B

[8Muddypaws]

I replaced most of ours with LEDs when we got solar panels.  The flood lights were the most expensive.  I put regular LED bulbs in the recessed cans.  I used to go through about 1 flood a month but so far I haven't had to replace a single LED.

Fry's occasionally sells a box of 10 'Swiss Made' bulbs for around 10 bucks but you have  to sign up for their daily newsletter to know when.  Other than that Costco has probably the best quality & prices.  Wish they sold automotive LEDs!

 

[Memtb]

  Also, from a energy saving point... leaving the ballast is counter-productive. As I understand it....The ballast was/is the highest user of energy in the fluorescent system.

 

[link30240]

My experience with LEDs in my house is the light is great but the fail way short of the life expectancy on the box. 1-2 years max is what im getting out of several different brands with claimed 10year life expectancy.

My suggestion would be to keep the boxes and receipts so you can return/exchange when they fail.

 

[Joezeppy]

My suggestion would be to keep the boxes and receipts so you can return/exchange when they fail.

I agree. I did have one fail this summer (a single incandescent-shaped bulb) and Lowe's exchanged it with my receipt, no problem.

 

[blw2]

I think LED's still have a rather high infant mortality failure rate, so even though the life span should be high.... a high number will fail abnormally soon.  Also, my "gut feel" tells me that it's often the driver that fails and not necessarily the LED

The places I've had the most trouble are the ones hanging inverted..... with the socket above bulb hanging down.  The Edison based led bulbs have the driver in the base, between the bulb and the threaded connector.  My theory is it's something to do with heat dissipation.  These type of bulbs are likely intended for upright applications such as a normal old fashioned table lamp.  Flipping them over in hanging pendant lights or ceiling can lights changes things.

 

[Ernie n Tara]

So far I have installed over 40 LED's (two MH's) and I have yet to have one fail, infant or otherwise, in a total of about nine years full time.

Ernie

Note: All were regulated bought from the place that used to advertise above.

 

[SCVJeff]

To the post above thinking this is another way to get people to spend money, you really need to look at the big picture and get out of the 60's. CFL and now LEDs draw 75% less energy than tungsten lamps. It's taken us 30+ years to get here and in the meantime there are hundreds of millions of PC's, cellphone chargers, server farms, and more electronics than any of us can name in the new world that have easily sucked up the overhead that these lighting technologies have created. It's no secret that the introduction of these LED technology's are what's keeping 50+ YO generating plants able to supply enough power without being completely rebuilt.

Anyway, every light in the house is LED, mostly 100W LEDs and most are on automated dimmers that are never close to full bright, but with one button on the cellphone the entire house comes on full bright. What's great is I can run any light in the house from 10-100% bright and the color temp never moves. That's worth every penny by itself.

Also converted everything coach once they figured out the correct color temp dyes to exactly match incandesents. I love LED projects

 

[SCVJeff]

And FYI for those doing this..  I swapped out 5 75w recessed lamps in the family room and noticed over the next few days that the bedroom fan remote wouldn't work, as well as the garage remote being flakey. The neighbor had also complained his garage remote also didn't work at the same time.

I have the test equipment to chase this stuff down and found that the name brand CREE LED replacements were generating so much trash (just like with some of the RV LEDs) that they were jamming everything for darn near 150' in all directions. It took several conversations with CREE engineering and a threat to call the FCC to get their attention to fix the problem. So if anyone starts having issues with garage remotes, fan remotes, and the like, look at your LED lights

 

[AZgl1800]

I admit to also buying into the CFL hype years ago but I lost my taste for them after a few years and would actually replace them with incandescent bulbs as they failed.

CFL bulbs are a money waster, their only purpose was to suck the $$$$ out of our wallets.
They only last about 3 or 4 months if you faithfully turn them on/off every time you go through the door.

In my garage, they have been burning for about 3 years, as they are never turned off.
Those are the only two that have not been replaced with LEDs.... even my patio and driveway spotlights are now LED.

The improvement in Daylight brightness has to be seen to be believed, and the new sensors are far better than those of yesteryear.

Every bulb in our house is now LED, my light bills dropped a very noticeable percentage.... we are retired, 3 of us here and up all hours of the night..... so lights are burning somewhere here, every hour of the day.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

Converted every light in our S&B with LED including all the 48"  fluorescents.

Discovered that the Dollar store now carries them for, guess what, a $1. I've experimented with the $1 ones and they work fine. I'm now on a project at our Elks lodge and will replace all the bulbs with the Dollar store variety.  Nobody ever turns the lights out there!!!