LED or CFL?

[Dr Evil]

I recently bought a house that has 6 flush mount lights in the kitchen. The size appears to be PAR 30. I'd like to replace them with LED or CFL bulbs. What would you suggest? The output doesn't have to be real high since there are 6 lights.

I'm also thinking about installing a motion detector light near the garage. I've read that CFLs are a bad choice for something like this. Is there a good LED solution?

 

[ddawg16]

The kitchen sounds like a perfect application for a CFL PAR lamp....my garage has 16 of them.

There is a broad range of wattage and colors available....I would suggest trying them out in the store first....see what color you like....

As for outside....and LED 'might' be a better choice....some CFL's need a minute or so to come to full brightness. If you have an motion detector that has a dimmer mode, a standard CFL is not going to work. But I have also heard that not all LED lights dim well.

As for On/Off action being bad for CFL's....I would suspect that most of the wear and tear would be on the support electronics. I have CFL's in my garage door opener....on and off all the time....they are lasting longer than the incandescent bulbs did.

 

[kingofwylietx]

I have outdoor led motion/security lights that we really like. You can check my posts to read about them.

For indoors, I would go with CFL today. There are dedicated led fixtures, but they are pricey. If you don't mind the cost of led, then the cool factor is definitely there. They are not outrageous, I think around $150-200 per fixture. However, putting cfl's in there is much cheaper and comparable in efficiency.

 

[Bright+]

I recently bought a house that has 6 flush mount lights in the kitchen. The size appears to be PAR 30. I'd like to replace them with LED or CFL bulbs. What would you suggest? The output doesn't have to be real high since there are 6 lights.

I'm also thinking about installing a motion detector light near the garage. I've read that CFLs are a bad choice for something like this. Is there a good LED solution?

Use a high wattage halogen lamp if the "on time" is not significant. Halogen comes up to full output instantly and life is virtually unaffected by on/off.

CFLs takes about a minute or two to come up to full brightness, or on a motion detector it would be off by that time.

For kitchen, unless you want to splurge on the expensive CREE, go with CFLs by all means. Most LED screw-ins suck. They're inferior to CFLs in efficacy and output. Get a Philips EL/A R40 DIM ($12 at HD) if you need to dim. This is a real Philips lamp made in Poland, not contract manufactured or custom labeled for them in China.

 

[Dr Evil]

I assume the CREE lights Bright+ is talking aboutare these:

http://www.creeledlighting.com/products/Downlights/6inchdownlights/LR6.aspx

If they are, I might buy one to see if I like it first. Those Philips CFLs look nice too. I'm not sure if I want dimmable lighing in the kitchen so it might not be worth the extra cost.

As for the motion sensing lights, I'm not 100% sure I'll install them yet. I've used halogen bulbs before. I'm not sure what roams around the neighborhood though. I wouldn't want cats, deer or anything else setting them off and running up my bill like crazy. There was a house near where I lived in Germany. Their lights would turn on everytime a car drove by. The house was pretty close to the road though.

King, I'll take a look around at your posts too.

 

[Bright+]

I assume the CREE lights Bright+ is talking aboutare these:

http://www.creeledlighting.com/products/Downlights/6inchdownlights/LR6.aspx

If they are, I might buy one to see if I like it first. Those Philips CFLs look nice too. I'm not sure if I want dimmable lighing in the kitchen so it might not be worth the extra cost.

As for the motion sensing lights, I'm not 100% sure I'll install them yet. I've used halogen bulbs before. I'm not sure what roams around the neighborhood though. I wouldn't want cats, deer or anything else setting them off and running up my bill like crazy. There was a house near where I lived in Germany. Their lights would turn on everytime a car drove by. The house was pretty close to the road though.

King, I'll take a look around at your posts too.

Even if it turns on all the time, if the total on-time in hours/day is not significant, your bill wouldn't be significant. If you expect constant activation, set the on-time per detection to be short.

 

[hank]

Remember (from Wikipedia):

"The life of a CFL is significantly shorter if it is turned on and off frequently. In the case of a 5-minute on/off cycle the lifespan of a CFL can be reduced to "close to that of incandescent light bulbs".[15] The US Energy Star program suggests that fluorescent lamps be left on when leaving a room for less than 15 minutes to mitigate this problem."

A motion detector would likely cause that problem.