Most efficient and/or brightest housing lighting (LED)

[SmurfTacular]

I went to my moms house for the first time in a while. She told me that she needed some light bulbs replaced. After an inspection I realized about 20% of all the house lights are dead. I told her about LED lighting, and how efficient they are, and how much money she could save. I was to quick to react and went down to LOWE'S and spent $200 on four 490 lumen flood lamps. And at 12 watts, it only outputs 40 lm/w :thumbsdow. And its supposably "super efficient":whistle:. Also I was dissapointed at the color temperature as it was "warm white", probably somewhere in the 3000K range. I'm returning them tomorrow.

Is there a good website anyone can recommend that sells high efficient LED home lighting?

 

[LEDninja]

Just because your LED flashlight is brighter than a 2D incan from the dollar store does not mean an LED household bulb is brighter than an incan household bulb. A 100W incan bulb is a lot brighter than a 2D flashlight (1400 lumens vs 10 lumens).

LED light bulbs are not any more efficient than CFLs. Get CFLs instead.
100 watt incan - 1400 lumens - 23/27W CFL. No production LED available.
60 watt incan - 840 lumens - 13/15W CFL. No production LED available.
40 watt incan - 500 lumens - 9/11 watt CFL. Cree LR6, Earthled Evolux***.
25 watt incan - 300 lumens - 7 watt CFL. Some Cree based bulbs***.

*** Many LED bulb manufacturers use 'LED lumens' instead of out the front lumens. Just like the '900 lumens' flashlights that turn out to measure ~400 lumens in a calibrated integrating sphere.
My Philips 7W LED bulb is rated 155 lumens. Other people claim 350-520 lumens for their 7W bulb. Sorry but Cree LEDs in those bulbs are not that more efficient than the Rebel in the Philips.
The Earthled Evolux used to be rated 1050 lumens. Last time I was on the website the rating is 650 lumens. Guess someone sent one to a lab to be tested.

Unless you are replacing 15 watt incan bulbs, going the production LED bulb route is a waste of time and money.

Stock LED bulbs are useful for low level specific task lighting.
I use a 2W Cree in my hallway. All I want is enough light not to walk into walls and doors nor trip over the furniture. A night light in a standard fixture.
My desk lamp is a 3W Cree LED PAR bulb. A keyboard light.
Another 3W Cree LED PAR bulb is on my headboard. For reading in bed.

For everything else I use CFLs.
2*13W in the bedroom. 1600 lumens.
2*13W in the bathroom. 1600 lumens. I find 2*9W (1000 lumens) strains my eyes.
2*23W in the kitchen. 3000 lumens.

 

[Ken_McE]

The LED home lighting market is still a little rough. Suggest you try some of those compact fluorescent bulbs instead. If you want to put a little more work into it, I'm partial to the 4' flourescent tubes for lighting.

 

[blasterman]

I was to quick to react and went down to LOWE'S and spent $200 on four 490 lumen flood lamps.

It looks like you bought a 'Feit 12-watt PAR 30'.

I'm also curious how Feit gets '12watts' from 5 emitters. They're either under driving cheap 3watt Chinese emitters, or over-driving cheap 1watt Chinese emitters. :crackup:

Either way, I'm real skeptical about 490 lumens, especially if its 'warm-white' lumens. Slightly off topic but the PAR 38 version of this bulb uses a common housing that's quite popular with custom LED out-fitters. I've seen 21-watt versions of it using Crees (Nanotuners) that would probably light LEDNinja's straw horse on fire.

The only LED retrofit that seems to be getting decent initial press is the $20 Eco-Smart sold at Home Depot. At 429 *stated* lumens it's the only 'big box' store bulb worth trying right now.

The 100watt incan LEDNinja keeps referring to is 1500 lumens or so measured in a sphere. The LED bulb only has to be 400 lumens at around 120 degrees to match the spot brightness of the 100watt incan (or CFL equivelant). It's just simple math. So, it really depends on if you want to put lamp shade over it for mom (bad application for LED bulbs), or use it in recessed lighting / directional. If you're putting a lamp shade over it then CFLs are the way to go.

 

[m3rb]

I just made my first little foray into home LED lighting. I had converted the entire interior of the house to CFLs and tube fluorescents long ago, but had 5 clear 60W incans in lantern-style fixtures outside in front, and a glass wall fixture over the deck, plus a small deck rail fixture.

The latter takes a candelabra-base bulb, with very little clearance to the top. I found a $10 warm white multi-5mm bulb at Ace Hardware, and broke off the glass to make it fit. I am very happy with this solution, both brightness and color. It is brighter than the incan that was in there before.

For the lantern fixtures, which require a clear bulb to look right, I couldn't find anything suitable on the market, at least not at a price I was willing to pay. So, I bought some Nanolux's on closeout, with an eye to modifying them. This was successful, more on that later...

 

[deadrx7conv]

All the LED bulbs that I've used around the house tend to run way too hot when in any enclosed housing/fixture.
Your best bet is CFL even though I don't like the warm-up time, flickering, mercury......and the fact they don't last as long as claimed.

When fixtures/housing are purposely made(big heatsink and airflow) for LED/LVD, then the movement to those bulbs would be great.

My induction(LVD) bulbs also run hot. Don't mind them hanging freely or in open fixtures just like my LED bulbs. Afraid to put them in 'enclosed or tight' location as these bulbs could become a fire hazard.

Her electric bill will go up with new bulbs. Even the most efficient LED bulb uses more power than a burnt out incan bulb:D

Ebay has plenty of LED bulb choices. I haven't seen anything at Lowes/Homedepot that were even close to the power/brightness of what can be found at ebay. Even the overpriced Ccrane Geobulb and EarthLED Zetalux/Evolux can be found cheaper as a generics.

 

[zeramant86]

The Earthled Evolux used to be rated 1050 lumens. Last time I was on the website the rating is 650 lumens. Guess someone sent one to a lab to be tested.

Update, they are listed as 900 lumens. It doesn't specify if the specs. are for warm or cool white though.

http://www.earthtechproducts.com/led-bulb.html



I've looked at the evolux bulbs because they actually have active cooling, but most of my fixtures won't house them. I'm a little hesitant because of the price, and mixed reviews on the usable output/efficiancy of led bulbs in general. I'm currently looking for E27's for a tracklight housing, any suggestions.

 

[LEDninja]

It does not matter what the numbers are at different websites but how bright the bulb really is.
There is a flashlight listed at 900 lumens on DX and 400 lumens at battery junction. Guess who estimated how bright the flashlight is and who actually sent a sample out to be tested.
There is a thread in which Toshiba claimed 800+ lumens in Japan but only 350 lumens in the US for essentially the same bulb.
I would tend to use the lower number for comparison with incandescent and CFL bulbs.
I would use the higher number to compare with other guesstimates of LED bulbs from small manufacturers. Websites just reprint what the manufacturers claim.
EarthLED still have Luminous Flux: 650(Cool White), 500 (Warm White).
http://www.earthled.com/evolux-led-light-bulb.html
(Earthtech probably have not been sued by a disgruntled customer for false advertising yet. Someone probably had sued Earthled or complained to the proper authorities.)
I would be skeptical of lumen numbers I see on sales websites.

zeramant86
What size and type (globe, reflector) of bulb are you looking for?
What beam angle?
What bulbs were you using before?

 

[funnyvideosbgd]

Most efficient and/or brightest housing lighting LED

I dont know the dimensions of a 29 gal tank, but I would recommend high output t5 lighting. look for a fixture with individual parabolic reflectors and an integrated cooling system. they wont be the cheapest of the t5 fixtures, but they will give you the most light this side of metal halides. Im by no means a lighting expert, but I use an ATI fixture that I am very happy with.
bill

 

[AaronM]

Re: Most efficient and/or brightest housing lighting LED

When I was in Japan last year, I bought two of the 8.7W E-core Toshiba bulbs:

http://en.item.rakuten.com/uatshopping/4974550386999/

They are VERY bright. Haven't found it on any shelves where I live though.

 

[hank]

Home Depot has a new one that's well spoken of, tho' I haven't tried them:

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

I've had good results at home with Axiom products (NZ supplier but shipping from USA), tho' shipping cost is high per box; I wait and buy a batch at a time

We use Axiom's amber 'turtle safe" LEDs for all our nighttime lighting
http://store.axiomled.com/Amber_LED_Sea_Turtle_Light_p/ap12ledamber.htm
(bright but don't interfere with sleep as white does for very young and older people)).

Axiom has a warm white LED closeout for $25:
http://store.axiomled.com/Warm_White_LED_PAR38_Light_Bulb_p/ap12wd27.htm

Also, replacing fluorescents: http://www.aoturoaled.com/

 

[LEDninja]

I have recovered the following data from Google's cache manually.
Please post any errors and corrections in a new post below.
-
The format is:
Date, time, old postcount#, poster;
post data
-
I will try to fix the CPF links in the next 2 weeks or until I give up in frustration. Can not do that and verify with CPF down.

-----

11-20-2010 02:44 PM #12 liteheaded

The Home Depot bulb is great as a night light or mood light. However, it generates light equal to a 40-watt bulb.

It emits 429 lumens. A typical 40-watt puts out 500 lumens. The typical 75-watt incandescent bulb puts out a whopping 1,200 lumens. And a 100-watter puts out 1,700.

I think the design problem is dissipating all the heat that bright LED's release.

Bottom line: the Home Depot bulbs are pretty dim. And, as I discovered, just as breakable as any of Mr. Edison's creations.