R7s Halogen Replacement: LED or Fluorescent

[Makedonas]

Hello all...

I have two floodlights in my storefront with 118mm R7s fittings, and i'm looking to replace the Halogens with something more economical.

Initially i thought to just replace them with new LED floodlights, but then i noticed that there are both LED and Fluorescent lamps that will fit right in the ones I have now.

Anyone have any experience with these? Are the LED reliable? I'm thinking that the fluoarescent ones would give out more light, but i don't see too many of them offered on the market (in contrast with LEDs)

Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[SemiMan]

Hello all...

I have two floodlights in my storefront with 118mm R7s fittings, and i'm looking to replace the Halogens with something more economical.

Initially i thought to just replace them with new LED floodlights, but then i noticed that there are both LED and Fluorescent lamps that will fit right in the ones I have now.

Anyone have any experience with these? Are the LED reliable? I'm thinking that the fluoarescent ones would give out more light, but i don't see too many of them offered on the market (in contrast with LEDs)

Thanks in advance for any input!

Do not waste your time with either an LED or fluorescent replacement for this. The LED replacements are too low of power .... so are the fluorescent lights and neither works with the reflector at all!!


It is time to upgrade the fixtures. Don't worry, those halogens sucked a ton of power and the LED replacement will cover the cost in a few years without the hassle of burned out bulbs.

Semiman

 

[Anders Hoveland]

I have two floodlights in my storefront, and i'm looking to replace the Halogens with something more economical.
Anyone have any experience with these?Thanks in advance for any input!

I am not sure what type of store you have, but something to consider is that LED light is not the same as halogen light, it looks different. This might not matter to you at all if you just want light, but there are certain types of LED products designed to have better quality of light, though the prices on these are higher, and the options may be limited.

I have one of these "high CRI" LED floodlights. The light has a much warmer feeling than regular LED, and also makes wood colors and skin tones look better. This might be important if it is being used in a coffee shop or restaurant. It is still not quite the same as halogen light, but should be perfectly adequate for most commercial uses.

But if the inside of your store is already being lit by fluorescent lighting, I would not waste your money on better lighting. It really depends on what type of store. Perhaps I am a little eccentric, but I just love halogen lighting, and suspect the insides of all the department stores where I am are going to look more greyish and dead when they switch out all their halogen spotlights with LED replacements. But I understand how LED makes commercial sense, with the lights being on all the time, using less electricity, and not having to replaced so frequently. Half the customers will not even notice.

Anyone have any experience with these? Are the LED reliable? I'm thinking that the fluorescent ones would give out more light, but i don't see too many of them offered on the market (in contrast with LEDs)

Yes, the LED should be reliable, assuming it is from a reputable brand and not one of the very cheap ones. Again, we cannot really be entirely sure that all the LED products will really live up to their long claimed lifetimes because these LED products have only really become widely available in the last two years, so consumers have not had the time yet to see if they prematurely fade out or stop working.

i noticed that there are both LED and Fluorescent lamps that will fit right in the ones I have now.
I'm thinking that the fluorescent ones would give out more light, but i don't see too many of them offered on the market

With fluorescent, it is difficult to concentrate much light output into a small area. For spot lighting, fluorescent just does not make much sense compared to LED. I would imagine the fluorescent ones are quite a bit bigger and bulkier, either that or have much lower light output.

 

[Makedonas]

Do not waste your time with either an LED or fluorescent replacement for this. The LED replacements are too low of power .... so are the fluorescent lights and neither works with the reflector at all!!


It is time to upgrade the fixtures. Don't worry, those halogens sucked a ton of power and the LED replacement will cover the cost in a few years without the hassle of burned out bulbs.

Semiman

Thanks SemiMan..

I decided that it wasn't worth the trouble to look for bulbs and just changed the whole fixtures like you said. I started with one and the light it gave out was not bad (albeit different as Anders stated). I went 20w and i'm thinking that 30 would have been better, but with 3 in a row i think it won't look too bad.

I am not sure what type of store you have, but something to consider is that LED light is not the same as halogen light, it looks different. This might not matter to you at all if you just want light, but there are certain types of LED products designed to have better quality of light, though the prices on these are higher, and the options may be limited.

I have one of these "high CRI" LED floodlights. The light has a much warmer feeling than regular LED, and also makes wood colors and skin tones look better. This might be important if it is being used in a coffee shop or restaurant. It is still not quite the same as halogen light, but should be perfectly adequate for most commercial uses.

But if the inside of your store is already being lit by fluorescent lighting, I would not waste your money on better lighting. It really depends on what type of store. Perhaps I am a little eccentric, but I just love halogen lighting, and suspect the insides of all the department stores where I am are going to look more greyish and dead when they switch out all their halogen spotlights with LED replacements. But I understand how LED makes commercial sense, with the lights being on all the time, using less electricity, and not having to replaced so frequently. Half the customers will not even notice.



Yes, the LED should be reliable, assuming it is from a reputable brand and not one of the very cheap ones. Again, we cannot really be entirely sure that all the LED products will really live up to their long claimed lifetimes because these LED products have only really become widely available in the last two years, so consumers have not had the time yet to see if they prematurely fade out or stop working.

Anders,

Thank you for your comments! I'm not very fond of the cool lighting provided by LED as it reminds me of a hospital. And i don't really trust warm LED's as a friend of mine got a very green effect in his restaurant.

The store is something like a traditional mini market, selling fresh bread and breakfast to go, as well as packaged foods and drink. I have two tones of melamine on all the shelves and tables... one light wood and one dark wood. When we rented the place the lighting was divided into fluorescant tubes as hidden lighting (strech ceiling) as well as 29 halogen spots. So there was a mix of cold and warm lighting that i didn't really like.

A friend of mine replaced my spots with 4w LED's, at 6400k and I have to admit that I am not very satisfied with the light either + some of the bulbs have already started to flicker and die after less than 6 months!! but i'm not upto changing this now because i need to better light the outside of the store.

Since I already have cool lighting inside, I thought i might as well keep the same tone on the outside. The purpose of the outside lights are to light up my sign and store windows at night (lights stay on all night), and secondarily provide some extra light to the sidewalk.

I know that the second part is very difficult with LED floodlights which are very directional. For that reason I also plan on adding about 4 meters of led strip close to the edge of the sidewalk (behind some plants) so that there will be light from both sides of people passing by, hopefully giving a well lit sidewalk.

Maybe some pictures would help?