On Thu, 12 Dec 2013 09:47:54 -0800, wrote:

I bought some LED PAR replacement bulbs and installed them in the
porch overhang. Instant on! At 19 degrees F. And the light color is
far superior to the old fluorescent bulbs I had in there. And no

What color temp are they?

mercury. I'm dubious about the 22 year lifespan but if they last 5
years I'll be happy. I have 3 8 foot fixtures in the shop with bad
ballasts. I'm just gonna pitch the damn fixtures and install LEDs. New
ballasts are more expensive and they are a bitch to replace 16 feet
inn the air. Just as much work to install new fixtures for new style
bulbs. So I'll just put in LEDs and be done with it. I have never
been happy with other than incandescent lighting, the color of the
light has always been best.

I've always despised the yellow light from typical incandescents and
preferred the light from 4100k or higher fluors and now LEDs. In
CFLs, I prefer the 5000 to the 6500k. The 6500k seem to have a bluish
tone to them. 4100k is the lowest temp I like in fluor.


But the LEDs finally look great to me.

I buy 5000k to 6500k LEDs and love the whiter color. The ones I'm
experimenting with now in E27 bases use 5050 LED components. The 15W
power supply died a couple months into the test, maybe 120 hours! eBay
got my money back from them. The 20W from another supplier has been
working for about 6 months now. It's the equivalent of a good 100W
incan (23W fluor) but is 6500k color. NICE and white. Chinese
import, cost $12.34.

A little 4W E27 screw-in uses 3W of power and 24 of the 5050 chips.
It works well for reading in an articulated fixture. It cost $2.76.

The little spots I got for the emergency lighting use 3x3 Epistar
drivers. They're MR16 bases and draw 7W, despite being rated 9W. They
downgrade the power to give a longer life, I believe. $2.13 each.

I accidentally bought a dozen E27-based 6W bulbs which use 3528 LED
chips. I didn't pay enough attention so I got -220v- bulbs. They're
about 1/3 the brightness at 120v. I'll sell all twelve of them to any
of the resident Canucks for $30 plus actual shipping. Ping me
offline.

I'm waiting for American mfgrs to come down to a sane price before
buying one. Chrikey, $65-238 PER BULB? Get real! Anything under $50
in the USA right now is a 40 or 60W equivalent and most are 2700k,
very yellow to me. Ick!

I have a few CFLs, dimmables from China, which are lasting 5+ years.
Unfortunately, they're about 3000k and are too yellow for my tastes.

--
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud
was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
-- Anaïs Nin