LEDs For A Home

naicidrac

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Dec 19, 2007
Messages
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I know this might now be the correct forum, but there are about ten times as many people viewing this forum. I want some LED bulbs for my house, the screw in kind for recessed lighting. I wanted to see which ones you guys recommend? Thanks
 
Yep... wrong forum. Will be moved in 3, 2, 1....

[Short short answer to your question... LED screw in lights for the house aren't really there yet, technologically. Avoid them for a few years until they improve. Of course I'm generalizing here, but that's the basic gist.]
 
I know this might now be the correct forum, but there are about ten times as many people viewing this forum. I want some LED bulbs for my house, the screw in kind for recessed lighting. I wanted to see which ones you guys recommend? Thanks
Lots of short answers here!

My short answer is that there are some very good looking led lights that I saw at two of my friends houses and I'll try to find what brand they are. If I recall correctly they were running somewhere in the $30-$40 range.

What got my interest right away was that I thought they were incandescent bulbs until I asked about them.
 
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Evolux bulbs are about the only popular retrofits you can trust right now to hit their lumen and longevity claims.

I've seen other PAR form factor bulbs that look interesting and seem to have adequate heat-sinking, but I don't trust them unless there's confirmation about their durability.
 
What kind (globe A-xx, reflector R-xx, reflector PAR-xx etc.) of bulbs and what incandescent wattage are you using right now?

How many recessed fixtures in what size room?

What is the size of the fixtures? 4", 6", other?

What is your budget?
 
I just had an addition built and did some remodeling, putting all recessed lighting in, a total of 25 lights. I went with the Cree LR6C. The LR6 does a great imitation of incandescent light, but the only thing I find good about the red-yellow incandescent light is that we're used to it. I and my wife really like the somewhat cooler (about 3400 degree color temperature) LR6C.

The lights screw right into standard recessed fixtures. I used Halo, and highly recommend them for ease of installation. You can get the LR6 and LR6C and fixtures with the two-pin base, also, if your local code requires it. I believe California, for example, now requires lights in new construction to have the different base so incandescents can't be retrofitted. That's not a requirement here, so I went with the standard screw-in (Edison) base.

We love the color and the brightness. They're spec'ed at 12 watts, but typically measure more like 10, and they're at least as bright as 65 watt incandescents. I've got them spaced roughly 5 feet, and it's bright -- I measure 250 - 300 lux at waist level. Conventional dimmers (some, anyway) will dim them to about 25% intensity. They don't change color as they're dimmed. And of course they come on immediately at full intensity -- there's no warm up period like a compact fluorescent.

The thing that sold me about the Cree is the way they control the color. The light has a number of white and red LEDs, and a color sensing element. The sensor automatically adjusts the relative outputs of the white and red LEDs to keep the color constant. Without this constant feedback control, a lot of lights using this scheme will change color over time as the LEDs age differently. And I can't perceive the slightest difference in color from one light to another.

Love 'em, and highly recommend 'em.

c_c
 
You wanna be the guinea pig?
No specs on the link but the other product on the site says 3W. 3W without the word CREE means 3*42W max LED lumens. Those little yellow domes to redirect light sideways probably absorb a lot of light. I expect 50-75 OTF lumens from them. (A 60W bulb is ~840 lumens).
I bought a 'warm white' LED bulb once which turned out to be a cool white with yellow filter. I got a yellow light - like a cooler CCT bug light.
No UL listing. Not even CE.
I'm not going to be the guinea pig for this one.

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What is your budget?
You obviously have a BIG budget.
The LR6 (or LR4 for the smaller 4" cans) are among the more expensive LED bulbs out there.
Though the cost is not really that much compared to the rest of the project - installing the recessed lights.
And they WILL last 50,000 hours.
~6 years running 24/7,
~22 years running 6 hours/day - 4 hours in the evening, 2 hours in the morning.
 
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I've got a couple bulbs coming from Japan in a couple weeks that I'm pretty excited about. One of them is supposed to be your choice of warm/cool, with built-in dimming via remote!
 
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