On Fri, 13 Dec 2013 10:18:24 -0500, wrote:

On Thu, 12 Dec 2013 20:53:45 -0800, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Thu, 12 Dec 2013 16:59:37 -0600, Jon Elson
wrote:

wrote:

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. But the LEDs finally look great to me.
I built my own LED light a year ago for our laundry room/pantry,
which had a single recessed bulb that poorly lit the room.
I put 10 1 W LEDs on a piece of copper-clad PC board (as a heat sink)
and built a DC-DC converter power supply from a National Semi
reference circuit for one of their chips. it worked VERY well,
and is blazingly bright. It IS a bit harsh-blue, but is fine for
that room. Might not be optimum for the living room or
kitchen, though.

I bought the parts to do a 20-LED string for a tube fluorescent
retrofit, but haven't gotten around to it, yet.

I picked up a 1 meter long string of LEDs in plastic strip from eBay,
including a power supply with 2-prong 120v plug for $7.89 (delivered)
a while back. It uses 3528 LEDs. They work well and are cool and
inexpensive to run. Love 'em.

I'm really sold on LED tech. If the Chinese would get better power
supplies in their products, the Europeans and American's would likely
-never- sell another one of their extremely high-priced products.
At best, some of them are 50x overpriced. It's ridiculous.
" If you want first quality oats you need to be willing to pay first
quality prices. If you are willing to settle for oats that have
already been through the horse, they come a little cheaper".

I first found that saying when I was a QA inspector for a manpack
radio firm. I still love it.


With the Chinese stuff, the oats have already been through the horse
at least once. Failure rate on the chinese LEDs I've purchaced has
been something north of 25% within 6 months.

Luckily, I've had much better luck with Chiwanese electrics. I've had
bad luck with Feit CFLs made here in the States: 80% failure rate
within 3 months. None of the replacements (sent gratis from Feit,
postpaid) died in the first several years, but I still won't purchase
a Feit product again. So far, only one LED power supply has died on
me. Quite a few of the CFL p/ses have died, though.

--
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