I've finally reached the end of my incandescent bulbs and CFL and am
starting to replace them with LED bulbs. I saw a 60W equivalent bulb
on sale for $5 made by Cree as part of some deal with the utility so I
picked one up. It is a warm light. It is OK, nothing to brag about.

Sunday, I wanted to replace two more bulbs so I picked up two more,
but these were Osram and were $10. I chose the daylight over the
warmer colors.

I put the two side by side in a vanity fixture.
Cree = kind of dingy
Osram = Wow, this is nice and bright

both are allegedly 800 lumens.

On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 6:02:29 AM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
I've finally reached the end of my incandescent bulbs and CFL and am

starting to replace them with LED bulbs. I saw a 60W equivalent bulb

on sale for $5 made by Cree as part of some deal with the utility so I

picked one up. It is a warm light. It is OK, nothing to brag about.



Sunday, I wanted to replace two more bulbs so I picked up two more,

but these were Osram and were $10. I chose the daylight over the

warmer colors.



I put the two side by side in a vanity fixture.

Cree = kind of dingy

Osram = Wow, this is nice and bright



both are allegedly 800 lumens.

Unfortunately, the same thing is happening with LED "bulbs" as happened with CFLs... some are really good and some are not.

I'm guessing you didn't like the Cree because it was "warm white" not because it's bad though. They're usually pretty well regarded, even if the CRI is only about 80ish or so. If you live in CA you should be able to get a "true white" version with a 90+ CRI.

The nice thing about CFL and LED is that you can pick color temperature which you can't do with incandescent - regular incans are all "warm white" halogens maybe a little cooler but you'll never see an incan of any type significantly higher than 3000K. That's easily achievable with LED (in fact high color temp LEDs are more common than "warm white" ones.)

If you want to fall down a rabbit hole, do some reading over at candlepowerforums...

Finally the BEST LED "bulbs" I've tried are the Philips L-Prize bulbs, but they've been off the shelves for quite some time now. They are warm white but they are a truly good replacement for a 60W incan. ~900 lumens IIRC.

nate

On 8/12/2014 7:19 AM, N8N wrote:
On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 6:02:29 AM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
I've finally reached the end of my incandescent bulbs and CFL and am

starting to replace them with LED bulbs. I saw a 60W equivalent bulb

on sale for $5 made by Cree as part of some deal with the utility so I

picked one up. It is a warm light. It is OK, nothing to brag about.



Sunday, I wanted to replace two more bulbs so I picked up two more,

but these were Osram and were $10. I chose the daylight over the

warmer colors.



I put the two side by side in a vanity fixture.

Cree = kind of dingy

Osram = Wow, this is nice and bright



both are allegedly 800 lumens.

Unfortunately, the same thing is happening with LED "bulbs" as happened with CFLs... some are really good and some are not.

I'm guessing you didn't like the Cree because it was "warm white" not because it's bad though. They're usually pretty well regarded, even if the CRI is only about 80ish or so. If you live in CA you should be able to get a "true white" version with a 90+ CRI.

The nice thing about CFL and LED is that you can pick color temperature which you can't do with incandescent - regular incans are all "warm white" halogens maybe a little cooler but you'll never see an incan of any type significantly higher than 3000K. That's easily achievable with LED (in fact high color temp LEDs are more common than "warm white" ones.)

If you want to fall down a rabbit hole, do some reading over at candlepowerforums...

Finally the BEST LED "bulbs" I've tried are the Philips L-Prize bulbs, but they've been off the shelves for quite some time now. They are warm white but they are a truly good replacement for a 60W incan. ~900 lumens IIRC.

nate


Energy savings of LED's over CFL's are not worth the extra cost. I'm
waiting for them to come down.

Spectral differences can be a PITA. I bought a couple of CFL's whose
white light made them annoying indoors and they now reside on the porch.

Also some of my CFL's are hummers and can be quite annoying. One in the
kitchen is so loud I can hear it in the den nearby. Wife says it goes
away with time. I've also heard of both type lights interfering with
the radio.

Looking forward to manufacturers removing this annoyance.

Ed Pawlowski wrote:
I've finally reached the end of my incandescent bulbs and CFL and am
starting to replace them with LED bulbs. I saw a 60W equivalent bulb
on sale for $5 made by Cree as part of some deal with the utility so I
picked one up. It is a warm light. It is OK, nothing to brag about.

Sunday, I wanted to replace two more bulbs so I picked up two more,
but these were Osram and were $10. I chose the daylight over the
warmer colors.

I put the two side by side in a vanity fixture.
Cree = kind of dingy
Osram = Wow, this is nice and bright

both are allegedly 800 lumens.

Hi,
We like Philips Daylight ones. Dimmable, works well with motion sensor
switch.

On 08/12/14 06:02 am, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

I've finally reached the end of my incandescent bulbs and CFL and am
starting to replace them with LED bulbs. I saw a 60W equivalent bulb
on sale for $5 made by Cree as part of some deal with the utility so I
picked one up. It is a warm light. It is OK, nothing to brag about.

Sunday, I wanted to replace two more bulbs so I picked up two more,
but these were Osram and were $10. I chose the daylight over the
warmer colors.

I put the two side by side in a vanity fixture.
Cree = kind of dingy
Osram = Wow, this is nice and bright

both are allegedly 800 lumens.

We just bought two "65-Watt equivalent" "Feit"-branded dimmable BR30 LED
bulbs (very cheap at Costco with an instant rebate from the utility co.)
to try in our dining room (we really need four altogether but bought two
to start). They are brighter than the 65W incandescents they replaced
and seemed to work fine with the dimmer. But because they are a little
too bright at full power we set the dimmer a little lower this morning
but then noticed that the brightness would jump up and down a little
from time to time -- very annoying. I have no idea whether the problem
is in the bulbs or in the dimmer.

Perce

Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
On 08/12/14 06:02 am, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

I've finally reached the end of my incandescent bulbs and CFL and am
starting to replace them with LED bulbs. I saw a 60W equivalent bulb
on sale for $5 made by Cree as part of some deal with the utility so I
picked one up. It is a warm light. It is OK, nothing to brag about.

Sunday, I wanted to replace two more bulbs so I picked up two more,
but these were Osram and were $10. I chose the daylight over the
warmer colors.

I put the two side by side in a vanity fixture.
Cree = kind of dingy
Osram = Wow, this is nice and bright

both are allegedly 800 lumens.

We just bought two "65-Watt equivalent" "Feit"-branded dimmable BR30 LED
bulbs (very cheap at Costco with an instant rebate from the utility co.)
to try in our dining room (we really need four altogether but bought two
to start). They are brighter than the 65W incandescents they replaced
and seemed to work fine with the dimmer. But because they are a little
too bright at full power we set the dimmer a little lower this morning
but then noticed that the brightness would jump up and down a little
from time to time -- very annoying. I have no idea whether the problem
is in the bulbs or in the dimmer.

Perce
Hi,
Did you mix them with other kind bulbs? It happened to me when two
different brand LEDs were mixed(GE, Philips).

My experience with FEIT CFLs is that they are short-lived. I hope their LEDs are much better quality.

On 08/12/14 09:41 am, Tony Hwang wrote:

We just bought two "65-Watt equivalent" "Feit"-branded dimmable BR30 LED
bulbs (very cheap at Costco with an instant rebate from the utility co.)
to try in our dining room (we really need four altogether but bought two
to start). They are brighter than the 65W incandescents they replaced
and seemed to work fine with the dimmer. But because they are a little
too bright at full power we set the dimmer a little lower this morning
but then noticed that the brightness would jump up and down a little
from time to time -- very annoying. I have no idea whether the problem
is in the bulbs or in the dimmer.

Did you mix them with other kind bulbs? It happened to me when two
different brand LEDs were mixed(GE, Philips).

Two of the LED bulbs, two of the original incandescents.

Perce

wrote in message
...
My experience with FEIT CFLs is that they are short-lived. I hope their
LEDs are much better quality.

in my experience that is true of all CFLs.

Does anyone know if all LED lights are dimmable?

My mother has a small chandelier above her dining room table. It has six 40 watt incandescent bulbs with candalabra bases. She has a cheap dimmer switch which both turns it on and off and varies the intensity of the light.

The problem is that on hot evenings, the heat coming off that chandalier can make the whole dining room uncomfortably warm.

My understanding is that I can't replace the bulbs with CFL's because CFL's aren't generally dimmable. I'd have to replace the dimmer with a special dimmer switch to use CFL bulbs.

I'm hoping someone makes 40 watt equivalent LED bulbs with candelabra bases so that I could replace those incandescent bulbs with LED's to eliminate the heat they produce, but still retain the dimmability of the chandelier with the existing dimmer switch.

On 08/12/14 10:54 am, nestork wrote:

Does anyone know if all LED lights are dimmable?

My mother has a small chandelier above her dining room table. It has
six 40 watt incandescent bulbs with candalabra bases. She has a cheap
dimmer switch which both turns it on and off and varies the intensity of
the light.

The problem is that on hot evenings, the heat coming off that chandalier
can make the whole dining room uncomfortably warm.

My understanding is that I can't replace the bulbs with CFL's because
CFL's aren't generally dimmable. I'd have to replace the dimmer with a
special dimmer switch to use CFL bulbs.

I'm hoping someone makes 40 watt equivalent LED bulbs with candelabra
bases so that I could replace those incandescent bulbs with LED's to
eliminate the heat they produce, but still retain the dimmability of the
chandelier with the existing dimmer switch.

I'm not sure that all LED bulbs are dimmable, but some are marked as
being dimmable.

Some dimmers are specifically marked as being compatible with CFLs and
LEDs, but I don't know what happens if you use an older dimmer with them.

I think I saw candelabra-base LED bulbs at Costco, but I didn't take
much notice because we have no light fittings with candelabra bases.

Perce

On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 9:54:22 AM UTC-5, nestork wrote:
Does anyone know if all LED lights are dimmable?

nestork

http://www.amazon.com/Dimmable-LED-C.../dp/B00ATZR6PS

CFLs can be dimmable, just look on the box to see if it says they are dimmable. You don't need a special dimmer for dimmable CFLs. They may flicker dimly on some dimmers, that is all.

On 8/12/2014 10:47 AM, Pico Rico wrote:
wrote in message
...
My experience with FEIT CFLs is that they are short-lived. I hope their
LEDs are much better quality.

in my experience that is true of all CFLs.



CFL's can work great but if you put them in places where they are
frequently turned on and off they can wear out fast. I no longer put
them in my bathrooms. Between taking several seconds to come up to full
power and short life, I prefer incandescents in bathrooms.
Powder room in my basement has original super bulbs put there by the
builder 35 years ago.

Frank wrote:

On 8/12/2014 7:19 AM, N8N wrote:
On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 6:02:29 AM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
I've finally reached the end of my incandescent bulbs and CFL and am

starting to replace them with LED bulbs. I saw a 60W equivalent bulb

on sale for $5 made by Cree as part of some deal with the utility so I

picked one up. It is a warm light. It is OK, nothing to brag about.



Sunday, I wanted to replace two more bulbs so I picked up two more,

but these were Osram and were $10. I chose the daylight over the

warmer colors.



I put the two side by side in a vanity fixture.

Cree = kind of dingy

Osram = Wow, this is nice and bright



both are allegedly 800 lumens.

Unfortunately, the same thing is happening with LED "bulbs" as happened with CFLs... some are really good and some are not.

I'm guessing you didn't like the Cree because it was "warm white" not because it's bad though. They're usually pretty well regarded, even if the CRI is only about 80ish or so. If you live in CA you should be able to get a "true white" version with a 90+ CRI.

The nice thing about CFL and LED is that you can pick color temperature which you can't do with incandescent - regular incans are all "warm white" halogens maybe a little cooler but you'll never see an incan of any type significantly higher than 3000K. That's easily achievable with LED (in fact high color temp LEDs are more common than "warm white" ones.)

If you want to fall down a rabbit hole, do some reading over at candlepowerforums...

Finally the BEST LED "bulbs" I've tried are the Philips L-Prize bulbs, but they've been off the shelves for quite some time now. They are warm white but they are a truly good replacement for a 60W incan. ~900 lumens IIRC.

nate


Energy savings of LED's over CFL's are not worth the extra cost. I'm
waiting for them to come down.

Spectral differences can be a PITA. I bought a couple of CFL's whose
white light made them annoying indoors and they now reside on the porch.

Also some of my CFL's are hummers and can be quite annoying. One in the
kitchen is so loud I can hear it in the den nearby. Wife says it goes
away with time. I've also heard of both type lights interfering with
the radio.

Looking forward to manufacturers removing this annoyance.

LEDs will give you a modest power savings over CFLs, but more
importantly they have a much longer service life and that is where more
significant savings come in with lower lamp cost over the service live
vs. CFL as well as less lamp replacement labor.

All of the lighting in a given room should be coordinated as to color
temp and CRI, this is nothing new, it applied just as well before LEDs
or even CFLs.

I've used both CFLs and LEDs for some time and have not run into noise
issues either acoustic or RFI. The one thing I have found in my various
tests is that *ALL* encapsulated CFLs suck. Open CFLs seem to have no
issues and I've not experiences short CFL life as some people report,
and that is with many brands of CFL and in several different physical
locations in different towns and states.

In article ,
Frank wrote:

Also some of my CFL's are hummers and can be quite annoying. One in the
kitchen is so loud I can hear it in the den nearby. Wife says it goes
away with time. I've also heard of both type lights interfering with
the radio.

I have not had any problems with CFL's interfering with the radio, but
they usually have an electronics failure long before the tube goes bad.

When I started using the LED bulbs, radio interference with Two Meter
Ham Radio became a serious problem. Dimmable bulbs seem to be much
worse than non-dimmable.

I installed a 60 Watt equivalent LED bulb in a staircase where it is
hard to access the fixture. That fixture's wiring happens to make a
good antenna, so I had to try several bulbs to find one that did not
interfere. That bulb is a Phillips non-dimmable. Another that had only
a slight amount of interference, was a cheap WalMart soft white
non-dimmable.

Fred

On 8/12/2014 10:12 AM, Pete C. wrote:


LEDs will give you a modest power savings over CFLs, but more
importantly they have a much longer service life and that is where more
significant savings come in with lower lamp cost over the service live
vs. CFL as well as less lamp replacement labor.

Jury is still out on that one.
I've had to replace several CFL's. It's always been the driver
electronics that smoked.
LED drivers have lower output voltages, but the input side has much
the same vulnerability.
25,000 hour LED life is meaningless if a power glitch can take out the
driver.
Time will tell.

On 8/12/2014 7:19 AM, N8N wrote:

I'm guessing you didn't like the Cree because it was "warm white" not because it's bad though. They're usually pretty well regarded, even if the CRI is only about 80ish or so. If you live in CA you should be able to get a "true white" version with a 90+ CRI.

The nice thing about CFL and LED is that you can pick color temperature which you can't do with incandescent - regular incans are all "warm white" halogens maybe a little cooler but you'll never see an incan of any type significantly higher than 3000K. That's easily achievable with LED (in fact high color temp LEDs are more common than "warm white" ones.)

The Osram bulb has a nice even glow over the entire globe. The Cree has
a bright spot under the globe and does not seem to disperse as well.
The color temperature seems lower than the incan too.

I happen to like the brighter colors but that is personal preference.

mike wrote:

On 8/12/2014 10:12 AM, Pete C. wrote:


LEDs will give you a modest power savings over CFLs, but more
importantly they have a much longer service life and that is where more
significant savings come in with lower lamp cost over the service live
vs. CFL as well as less lamp replacement labor.

Jury is still out on that one.
I've had to replace several CFL's. It's always been the driver
electronics that smoked.
LED drivers have lower output voltages, but the input side has much
the same vulnerability.
25,000 hour LED life is meaningless if a power glitch can take out the
driver.
Time will tell.

I've got about 2.5 years on the LEDs here in daily use and no failures
yet (LG 7.5W LED lamps). Plenty of thunderstorms and power hits in those
years as well.

mike wrote:
On 8/12/2014 10:12 AM, Pete C. wrote:


LEDs will give you a modest power savings over CFLs, but more
importantly they have a much longer service life and that is where more
significant savings come in with lower lamp cost over the service live
vs. CFL as well as less lamp replacement labor.

Jury is still out on that one.
I've had to replace several CFL's. It's always been the driver
electronics that smoked.
LED drivers have lower output voltages, but the input side has much
the same vulnerability.
25,000 hour LED life is meaningless if a power glitch can take out the
driver.
Time will tell.

Hi,
Heat is the enemy. When venting around fixture is poor CFL always fails
premature. Yes, electronics failure. So far none of LED bulbs failed in
my place going on almost a year. I expected ones on the GDO in the
garage would go first(vibration) but they are still working yet.

Well, I just found out that my local Home Depot sells LED bulbs with a candelabra base. They're only 25 watt equivalent (compared to the 40 Watt incandescent we have now), but they're dimmable. But, they cost $17 $Cdn each, and that's pretty pricey if I have to buy 6 of them.

The guy at Home Depot says that the package says "dimmable" on it, but that I may have to replace the dimmer switch anyhow because old dimmer switches might not work with the relatively new LED bulbs.

But, he also said that Home Depot here in Winnipeg has only been carrying LED bulbs for the past 4 months or so, and he's seen a steady decline in the price of LED bulbs over that time. Every month or two there's a drop in the price of the bulbs they're getting in of about $2 on a formerly $20 bulb.

He also said that 60 watt equivalent LED bulbs with the medium Edison base were down to $12 each now, and given their long life, it might make sense for me to replace the CFL bulbs in my hallways with LED bulbs. I wouldn't replace them all at once, I'll just start buying spare LED bulbs to replace the CFL bulbs I have now. He also said they have a 100 Watt equivalent LED bulb, but it costs $27, and that's still a bit too pricey for me.

On Wed, 13 Aug 2014 01:43:33 +0200, nestork
wrote:


Well, I just found out that my local Home Depot sells LED bulbs with a
candelabra base. They're only 25 watt equivalent (compared to the 40
Watt incandescent we have now), but they're dimmable. But, they cost
$17 $Cdn each, and that's pretty pricey if I have to buy 6 of them.

The guy at Home Depot says that the package says "dimmable" on it, but
that I may have to replace the dimmer switch anyhow because old dimmer
switches might not work with the relatively new LED bulbs.

But, he also said that Home Depot here in Winnipeg has only been
carrying LED bulbs for the past 4 months or so, and he's seen a steady
decline in the price of LED bulbs over that time. Every month or two
there's a drop in the price of the bulbs they're getting in of about $2
on a formerly $20 bulb.

He also said that 60 watt equivalent LED bulbs with the medium Edison
base were down to $12 each now, and given their long life, it might make
sense for me to replace the CFL bulbs in my hallways with LED bulbs. I
wouldn't replace them all at once, I'll just start buying spare LED
bulbs to replace the CFL bulbs I have now. He also said they have a 100
Watt equivalent LED bulb, but it costs $27, and that's still a bit too
pricey for me.
Consider yourself lucky you don't need 42 of them!!!
Just relamped a large chandelier at the office.I sold them for $9 each
and still made a small profit. Imported them myself from China..
Needing 42 I had to buy 50. Dim fine on a Lutron dimmer. (but only to
about half bright - the dimmer can't reduce the output any farther)

On 08/12/14 10:00 am, I wrote:

We just bought two "65-Watt equivalent" "Feit"-branded dimmable BR30 LED
bulbs (very cheap at Costco with an instant rebate from the utility co.)
to try in our dining room (we really need four altogether but bought two
to start). They are brighter than the 65W incandescents they replaced
and seemed to work fine with the dimmer. But because they are a little
too bright at full power we set the dimmer a little lower this morning
but then noticed that the brightness would jump up and down a little
from time to time -- very annoying. I have no idea whether the problem
is in the bulbs or in the dimmer.

Did you mix them with other kind bulbs? It happened to me when two
different brand LEDs were mixed(GE, Philips).

Two of the LED bulbs, two of the original incandescents.

We bought more of the Feit BR30 bulbs, so the dining room lights are now
a matched set. The dimmer is a fairly recent Lutron, but it is not
marked as CFL/LED compatible.

We've now replaced the 10-yr-old Sylvania CFL BR30s in the living room
by Feit LED BR30s as well -- *much* brighter. No dimmer on that circuit
yet, but I think we'll be buying the latest Lutron LED-compatible
dimmers for both rooms.

Perce

Can you post which Lutron dimmer you purchased and whether or not it worked properly with LED bulbs. If I'm going to have to replace a dimmer switch, I might as well get one that I know works.

I know the dimmer I bought for my mom's dining room chandelier barely fit in the electrical box. Are the new dimmers smaller and easier to install?

Also, if I replace ONE bulb in my mom's dining room chandelier with a LED bulb, and the dimmer works to dim that one LED bulb properly, is it reasonable to assume that if I replaced all 6 bulbs with LED bulbs, the dimmer would dim them all properly just as it dimmed the one bulb? I would assume so, but someone in here may know for sure.

On 08/13/14 09:16 am, nestork wrote:

No dimmer on that circuit yet, but I think we'll be buying the latest
Lutron LED-compatible dimmers for both rooms.

Can you post which Lutron dimmer you purchased and whether or not it
worked properly with LED bulbs. If I'm going to have to replace a
dimmer switch, I might as well get one that I know works.

I know the dimmer I bought for my mom's dining room chandelier barely
fit in the electrical box. Are the new dimmers smaller?

Haven't bought them yet because nobody keeps in stock the color I want
(Ivory must be out of fashion now, but that's what I want to match the
existing switches and outlets), but what I am looking at is the Lutron
Maestro C.L.* These are programmable for minimum and maximum light
level, fade-to-off delay, and... (I forget the other options). They are
large (I've seen other colors in the store) and would be a tight fit in
a single-gang box, but I assume that they must be NEC compliant. About
$30. The Diva models look similar and are a little cheaper, but I don't
think they are as programmable.

*MACL-153M-xx (where xx is the color code).

Perce

"Percival P. Cassidy" writes:
On 08/13/14 09:16 am, nestork wrote:

No dimmer on that circuit yet, but I think we'll be buying the latest
Lutron LED-compatible dimmers for both rooms.

Can you post which Lutron dimmer you purchased and whether or not it
worked properly with LED bulbs. If I'm going to have to replace a
dimmer switch, I might as well get one that I know works.

I know the dimmer I bought for my mom's dining room chandelier barely
fit in the electrical box. Are the new dimmers smaller?

Haven't bought them yet because nobody keeps in stock the color I want
(Ivory must be out of fashion now, but that's what I want to match the
existing switches and outlets), but what I am looking at is the Lutron
Maestro C.L.* These are programmable for minimum and maximum light
level, fade-to-off delay, and... (I forget the other options). They are
large (I've seen other colors in the store) and would be a tight fit in
a single-gang box, but I assume that they must be NEC compliant. About
$30. The Diva models look similar and are a little cheaper, but I don't
think they are as programmable.

*MACL-153M-xx (where xx is the color code).


I've had the Maestro's installed for over 10 years, and I'm currently
using one of them with all LED bulbs (PAR-30's, for the most part).

Works fine.

One should treat the switches gently, a soft tap is sufficient to
activate the switch. Hard taps can break internal plastic bits
that disable the main switch (fortunately, when this happened,
I called Lutron and they sent me two new units gratis).

They're available in 30 colors (including ivory) on amazon for $28.75 each.

On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 1:12:53 PM UTC-4, Pete C. wrote:
Frank wrote:



On 8/12/2014 7:19 AM, N8N wrote:

On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 6:02:29 AM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

I've finally reached the end of my incandescent bulbs and CFL and am



starting to replace them with LED bulbs. I saw a 60W equivalent bulb



on sale for $5 made by Cree as part of some deal with the utility so I



picked one up. It is a warm light. It is OK, nothing to brag about..







Sunday, I wanted to replace two more bulbs so I picked up two more,



but these were Osram and were $10. I chose the daylight over the



warmer colors.







I put the two side by side in a vanity fixture.



Cree = kind of dingy



Osram = Wow, this is nice and bright







both are allegedly 800 lumens.



Unfortunately, the same thing is happening with LED "bulbs" as happened with CFLs... some are really good and some are not.



I'm guessing you didn't like the Cree because it was "warm white" not because it's bad though. They're usually pretty well regarded, even if the CRI is only about 80ish or so. If you live in CA you should be able to get a "true white" version with a 90+ CRI.



The nice thing about CFL and LED is that you can pick color temperature which you can't do with incandescent - regular incans are all "warm white" halogens maybe a little cooler but you'll never see an incan of any type significantly higher than 3000K. That's easily achievable with LED (in fact high color temp LEDs are more common than "warm white" ones.)



If you want to fall down a rabbit hole, do some reading over at candlepowerforums...



Finally the BEST LED "bulbs" I've tried are the Philips L-Prize bulbs, but they've been off the shelves for quite some time now. They are warm white but they are a truly good replacement for a 60W incan. ~900 lumens IIRC.



nate





Energy savings of LED's over CFL's are not worth the extra cost. I'm

waiting for them to come down.



Spectral differences can be a PITA. I bought a couple of CFL's whose

white light made them annoying indoors and they now reside on the porch..



Also some of my CFL's are hummers and can be quite annoying. One in the

kitchen is so loud I can hear it in the den nearby. Wife says it goes

away with time. I've also heard of both type lights interfering with

the radio.



Looking forward to manufacturers removing this annoyance.



LEDs will give you a modest power savings over CFLs, but more

importantly they have a much longer service life and that is where more

significant savings come in with lower lamp cost over the service live

vs. CFL as well as less lamp replacement labor.



If they last long enough to recover the upfront $$$. From what I've seen
with the claims made on CFL versus how long they really last, and how fast
other crap consumer stuff fails these days, I'm not going to be the one
to find out.





All of the lighting in a given room should be coordinated as to color

temp and CRI, this is nothing new, it applied just as well before LEDs

or even CFLs.



I've used both CFLs and LEDs for some time and have not run into noise

issues either acoustic or RFI. The one thing I have found in my various

tests is that *ALL* encapsulated CFLs suck. Open CFLs seem to have no

issues and I've not experiences short CFL life as some people report,

and that is with many brands of CFL and in several different physical

locations in different towns and states.

On Wed, 13 Aug 2014 15:16:40 +0200, nestork
wrote:


Percival P. Cassidy;3271198 Wrote:

No dimmer on that circuit yet, but I think we'll be buying the latest
Lutron LED-compatible dimmers for both rooms.
Perce

Can you post which Lutron dimmer you purchased and whether or not it
worked properly with LED bulbs. If I'm going to have to replace a
dimmer switch, I might as well get one that I know works.

I know the dimmer I bought for my mom's dining room chandelier barely
fit in the electrical box. Are the new dimmers smaller?
The good lutrons are not. I have both Lutron Diva LP10P and 103P (3
way) units in use with LEDs They are incandescent/Halogen rated
preset dimmers.

On Tue, 12 Aug 2014 12:44:52 -0400, Frank
wrote:

On 8/12/2014 10:47 AM, Pico Rico wrote:
wrote in message
...
My experience with FEIT CFLs is that they are short-lived. I hope their
LEDs are much better quality.

in my experience that is true of all CFLs.



CFL's can work great but if you put them in places where they are
frequently turned on and off they can wear out fast. I no longer put
them in my bathrooms. Between taking several seconds to come up to full
power and short life, I prefer incandescents in bathrooms.
Powder room in my basement has original super bulbs put there by the
builder 35 years ago.

This^. I put them in places that are a PITA to get to or are enclosed
fixtures that build up heat where incandescent bulbs don't last.

On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 8:39:26 AM UTC-4, Frank wrote:
On 8/12/2014 7:19 AM, N8N wrote:

On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 6:02:29 AM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

I've finally reached the end of my incandescent bulbs and CFL and am



starting to replace them with LED bulbs. I saw a 60W equivalent bulb



on sale for $5 made by Cree as part of some deal with the utility so I



picked one up. It is a warm light. It is OK, nothing to brag about.







Sunday, I wanted to replace two more bulbs so I picked up two more,



but these were Osram and were $10. I chose the daylight over the



warmer colors.







I put the two side by side in a vanity fixture.



Cree = kind of dingy



Osram = Wow, this is nice and bright







both are allegedly 800 lumens.



Unfortunately, the same thing is happening with LED "bulbs" as happened with CFLs... some are really good and some are not.



I'm guessing you didn't like the Cree because it was "warm white" not because it's bad though. They're usually pretty well regarded, even if the CRI is only about 80ish or so. If you live in CA you should be able to get a "true white" version with a 90+ CRI.



The nice thing about CFL and LED is that you can pick color temperature which you can't do with incandescent - regular incans are all "warm white" halogens maybe a little cooler but you'll never see an incan of any type significantly higher than 3000K. That's easily achievable with LED (in fact high color temp LEDs are more common than "warm white" ones.)



If you want to fall down a rabbit hole, do some reading over at candlepowerforums...



Finally the BEST LED "bulbs" I've tried are the Philips L-Prize bulbs, but they've been off the shelves for quite some time now. They are warm white but they are a truly good replacement for a 60W incan. ~900 lumens IIRC.



nate





Energy savings of LED's over CFL's are not worth the extra cost. I'm

waiting for them to come down.



Spectral differences can be a PITA. I bought a couple of CFL's whose

white light made them annoying indoors and they now reside on the porch.



Also some of my CFL's are hummers and can be quite annoying. One in the

kitchen is so loud I can hear it in the den nearby. Wife says it goes

away with time. I've also heard of both type lights interfering with

the radio.



Looking forward to manufacturers removing this annoyance.

I don't have LEDs because of the power savings over CFLs, it is because they (at least good ones - most of mine are the now discontinued Philips L-Prizes that I scooped up when they were on sale at HD for $15 apiece) don't have many of the drawbacks of CFLs. The light is a nice warm white high CRI light, they are properly dimmable, and they are approximately as bright as a 60W incan unlike many "60W equivalent" CFLs.

nate

On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 12:20:02 PM UTC-4, wrote:
CFLs can be dimmable, just look on the box to see if it says they are dimmable. You don't need a special dimmer for dimmable CFLs. They may flicker dimly on some dimmers, that is all.

A few years ago - probably 5 or 6 now - I purchased one of just about every "dimmable" CFL I could find in local stores, and not one of them was acceptable. I returned all of them and just used 100W incans in the wall sconces in my living room as at the time there was nothing else available that would work.

The Philips LED bulbs dim nicely, with the one caveat that the color temp doesn't change to the warmer with diminishing brightness like incans do, nor do they dim smoothly all the way to zero brightness like an incan will. However they seem to be much closer to a functional energy-efficient incan replacement than any CFL I have seen.

nate

N8N wrote:
On Tuesday, August 12, 2014 12:20:02 PM UTC-4, wrote:
CFLs can be dimmable, just look on the box to see if it says they are
dimmable. You don't need a special dimmer for dimmable CFLs. They may
flicker dimly on some dimmers, that is all.

A few years ago - probably 5 or 6 now - I purchased one of just about
every "dimmable" CFL I could find in local stores, and not one of them
was acceptable. I returned all of them and just used 100W incans in the
wall sconces in my living room as at the time there was nothing else
available that would work.

The Philips LED bulbs dim nicely, with the one caveat that the color temp
doesn't change to the warmer with diminishing brightness like incans do,
nor do they dim smoothly all the way to zero brightness like an incan
will. However they seem to be much closer to a functional
energy-efficient incan replacement than any CFL I have seen.

nate

A few years ago, 15 ? , I bought a dimmable CFL, might have been walmart,
$20.
I installed it in one of those 500 watt halogen floor lamps. It worked well
and was a pleasant daylight color. There was a slight turn on threshold,
but didn't have a problem with that. One day in a move, I broke it. Never
got to retry another lamp after it sat outside under my porch weathering.

I had awful luck with feit dimmables. The only ones I have tried lately.

Greg

On 08/13/14 09:16 am, nestork wrote:
Percival P. Cassidy;3271198 Wrote:

No dimmer on that circuit yet, but I think we'll be buying the latest
Lutron LED-compatible dimmers for both rooms.

Can you post which Lutron dimmer you purchased and whether or not it
worked properly with LED bulbs. If I'm going to have to replace a
dimmer switch, I might as well get one that I know works.

I know the dimmer I bought for my mom's dining room chandelier barely
fit in the electrical box. Are the new dimmers smaller?

I now have Lutron Maestro dimmers installed for both the dining room
(four Feit BR30 LED bulbs) and the living room (eight Feit BR30 LED
bulbs). Haven't really had the living room ones on for more than a
minute or two, but one or more of the dining room ones -- one at a time
-- will change brightness from time to time. (These specific Feit bulbs
are listed as compatible with that Lutron dimmer on the Lutron Web site.)

Perce