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-   -   Anyone using/used LEDs? (https://ecorenovator.org/forum/showthread.php?t=78)

diyEthic 06-17-12 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exalta-STA (Post 22218)
Hi there, in my experience, LEDs are way more efficient and brighter than CFLs
Since I'm assuming you're from Europe..Tu parles français? Sprechen sie Deutsche?

----
Oh by the way, how do you compute the cost of the LEDs vs the consumption? Im planning to make a project proposal to the woman of the house to have her relatives replace their incandescent/CFL bulbs with LEDs...and to be more convincing I must have a cost/consumption/benefit comparison...

LED ROI Payback Calculator - Patmullins.com

diyEthic 06-18-12 12:58 AM

I'm testing low wattage LEDs for my driveway and outdoor landscape since they're the bulbs that are on for the most hours of the day. They're on a "on at dusk, off at dawn" circuit and have been performing solid for 21 months. 5 watts total draw, with 4 bulbs each using 1.2 watts. They put out the light of a 25 watt incandescent, so I have 5 watts replacing 100 watts.

The leds I use are about $8 with tax, and are advertised to last 10 years (This is what I'm testing them for) and I think the 25 watt bulbs they replace are about a buck. Payback time is less than a year according to the above-mentioned LED ROI Payback Calculator at Patmullins.com.

Wal*Mart and Menards carry the Feit Electric brand bulbs I'm testing, labeled as "accent" bulbs. Feit has since come out with 2 watt bulbs (about double the wattage and brightness) which I'm now using a few indoors.

These lights have a nice 3000 kelvin color temperature. Other than being a little on the weak side for many purposes, I have not had a single issue with these bulbs. I've never had any die, dim, or discolor. They are also advertised to resist shock and vibration.

S-F 06-18-12 06:26 PM

Until they make ones that can dim from 0 - 100% slowly and smoothly I'll be sticking to incandescent bulbs. I just don't turn them on much. I sleep at night so I don't need lights much in the summer.

Exalta-STA 06-22-12 02:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diyEthic (Post 22449)
LED ROI Payback Calculator - Patmullins.com

Thanks for the link! Based on the computation, it says that my ROI is in 0.86 years! not bad, not bad at all.

Annual Savings=835.90
Monthly Savings=69.65

randen 06-22-12 05:18 AM

My ROI was just adjusted
 
I've had my relatively expensive LEDs for about a year now and As I had posted earlier

".Running the calculations it will take 20 years for the lights ROI. But that is at todays dollar. The next time we have an increase in the cost of energy that ROI time will shorten. Just hope they will stand the test of time."

We have just had a cost increase of 13% to electricity. I'm down to an ROI of about 17.4 yrs.:D I wonder how our Investments in the Stockmarkets are doing.:eek:

Randen

MN Renovator 06-23-12 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exalta-STA (Post 22546)
Thanks for the link! Based on the computation, it says that my ROI is in 0.86 years! not bad, not bad at all.

Annual Savings=835.90
Monthly Savings=69.65

How could you save that much? My yearly electric usage costs are under a third of what your predicted annual savings are, this is including computer, refrigerator, a/c, etc, everything! Do you have an extremely high electric rate and leave every light on in the house for every waking hour?

Exalta-STA 06-26-12 11:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MN Renovator (Post 22575)
How could you save that much? My yearly electric usage costs are under a third of what your predicted annual savings are, this is including computer, refrigerator, a/c, etc, everything! Do you have an extremely high electric rate and leave every light on in the house for every waking hour?

Oh I'm sorry, I forgot to put in that the computation was done in Philippine pesos and $1=Php 42.50 and the kWh rate here is Php 6.35..that is compared to 0.10 in the US

roflwaffle 06-29-12 01:14 AM

I have a couple $25 75W PAR38 LEDs that are nice IMO, but also a bit irritating because the drivers get really noisy as I dim them. I also have some ~15W equivalent LEDs that I use at night, one on a switch and the other on a light sensor. Everything else is CFL because they provide much warmer light at roughly the same cost and are much less expensive initially.

MarkM66 07-01-12 07:30 AM

I have two light fixtures in my house that use 6 x GU10 bulbs. The halogen bulbs in there now emit a lot of heat.

I'm looking at some LED's on ebay that are about $6 each.

Anyone have experience with these bulbs?

diyEthic 07-02-12 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkM66 (Post 22742)
I have two light fixtures in my house that use 6 x GU10 bulbs. The halogen bulbs in there now emit a lot of heat.

I'm looking at some LED's on ebay that are about $6 each.

Anyone have experience with these bulbs?

What brand and wattage are you looking at on Ebay? and what level of brightness do you need? Do you need dimmable?

AC_Hacker 07-02-12 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarkM66 (Post 22742)
Anyone have experience with these bulbs?

There are several sellers of LED bulbs on ebay, each selling more than one kind of LED bulb.

Providing a link would be helpful.

-AC

MarkM66 07-02-12 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by diyEthic (Post 22753)
What brand and wattage are you looking at on Ebay? and what level of brightness do you need? Do you need dimmable?

I don't need dimmable. The brighter the better.

There's a ton on ebay, just looking for a bulb with good results. As in, not burning out to soon, etc.

MarkM66 07-02-12 08:43 AM

Something like this;

New GU10 20 LED 110V Prue White Light Bulb Lamp Flood Dimmable | eBay

diyEthic 07-02-12 10:33 AM

That example would not be very bright - 80 lumens is about the brightness of a 10 or 15 watt halogen. The other thing to watch for is color temperature. the one you linked, for example, would have a very bluish cool color to it: undesirable for most.

munter 07-02-12 09:36 PM

My experience with eBay LEDs has been pretty poor. I have had two 4W GU10 bulbs melt their lenses and fall apart. The other two bulbs from the same order switched on intermittently and then just stopped working.
On the other hand, I have also used dedicated LED fittings from Brightgreen and Thinkwise with good results. I use downlights from both in our house and I am very happy with them. No failures and good colour tone. Expectations were pretty high for these two given that they are considerably more expensive than the unbranded products from ebay.

I have also used LED strip for under cabinet lighting. Just regular $20/5m strip off ebay has proven to be perfectly acceptable for regular kitchen use.

The range of LED options out there these days is really quite amazing. It makes selecting products quite a challenge.

AC_Hacker 07-13-12 07:41 PM

ebay Chinese LED bulbs
 
I bought about a dozen LED bulbs from several different suppliers and they all shipped from China.

They all worked when I got them. I did have some minor problems like a decorative ring fell off of one, but that was very easy to fix.

The 'infant mortality' rate of these "50,000 hour" bulbs has been around 15 to 20%... If they had been purchased locally I would have returned the dead bulbs to the store. As it is, I can't ship them back to China for what I paid for them.

But, for $3 or $4 or $5 per bulb I'm still doing OK.

Also, the 'warm white' bulbs I got look a bit yellowish when compared side to side with warm white LED bulbs that I purchased here. But if I'm not doing a side by side comparison, it doesn't matter so much.

So all in all, I'm not getting as good a deal as I thought I would get. But I would buy more, only I'd allow for maybe 20% more bulbs than I need to compensate for infant mortality.

-AC

Xringer 07-13-12 08:27 PM

Utilitech LEDs not ready for prime time..
 
I found what seemed like some nice LED blubs at Lowes..
Shop Utilitech 40-Watt Equivalent Indoor Warm White LED Light Bulb at Lowes.com

But, I've already had to return (for free replacement) four (4) of these
new Utilitech 40-Watt Equivalent LED blubs. (out of about a dozen).

Not very long lasting.. I do get a bit of high line voltage at times. Right now, it's 124.3 vac.
My TED recorded a peak of 140.5 vac at 9:30AM this morning..
If the line is really getting that high, when the LEDs are on, I can see
how that could cause damage to the PS in the base of the blubs..

I do have a couple of the Philips 12-Watt (60W) LEDs,
12-Watt (60W) LED A19 Soft White (2700K) Light Bulb (E)*-423343 at The Home Depot

and so far they seem to be lasting a while..

celblazer 07-19-12 04:46 PM

I just picked up 5 of the Utilitech 40-Watt Equivalent LED bulbs to replace some of the heavier used lights in the house and the ones my roommates kid keeps forgetting to turn off. LOL. Thanks for the heads up. They look great and should pay for themselves fairly quickly. I hope they last.

Xringer 07-19-12 06:14 PM

Forgetting to turn them off isn't the same as forgetting to turn off a 40 watt load..
You would have to leave about five of them on to use the same amount of power.
The light fixture above our kitchen table uses five.. (37.5 watts total)..
Green slot :: LEds video by Xringer - Photobucket

we have that kitchen lamp on about 2 to 3 hours a day..
One of our 60w eq LEDs in the den is on 5 or 6 hours each night.
We are leaving the rarely used CFLs in place for now..

One the side of the Utilitech box, it says, Return to store for replacement.
Good for 2 years anyways. Now that I have a new receipt, I'm good for 2 more years!!

celblazer 07-19-12 11:23 PM

Yea I replaced 3 in the Kitchen fixture that were 40w each and 2 60w that he keeps leaving on at night, so just those 2 will save me 105w for at least the 10 hours or more when they are left on which is most nights. So just a tad over a kilowatt per day saved on just the 2 or as much as $57 a year at my current electric rate.

And even though they are only 40w equivalent they put plenty of light out, I was actually surprised.

Xringer 07-20-12 12:10 AM

I was pleased with the light output too. Those 40W LEDs are brighter than many 60W CFLs..
The funny looking Home depot 60w leds seem like a real incandescent 65w.. :)

RobbMeeX 07-21-12 05:11 PM

I am renting a place with a three bulb (60Wx3) fixture at the mirror and a 75W bulb in the overhead. 255W of midnight "stop" power. I cannabalized a ceetain energy drinks display sign to find a strip of like 20 leds and sticky on the back. I stuck it under our mirror cabinet for a total power waste of only 5W with plenty of light!
I am diggin it.
PS> I had to loosen the middle bulb in the 3bulb fixture. Too much (heat)
Edit: Good news is the string only runs at 2W, unfortunately my KAW seems to have developed a 2-3w base load...

nexsuperne 07-22-12 12:56 PM

I have just picked up 10no gu10 230 volt led downlights for £35.99 delivered. 29 leds in each which are the 5050SMD version. 520 lumen at 7.5 watts. I went for the warm white, as the light colour is closer to halogen.

The price has come down so much in just a couple of years, and the lumen output is fantastic.

As a side note, I also have 4no 27 watt 12 volt 9led spotlights on the roof of my Land Rover Discovery, which put out a total of 8,600 lumen! These are good because at 9 amps total drain, they can be left on for 6 hours on a standard car battery and still start the engine.

Exalta-STA 07-29-12 03:23 AM

Just replaced a 50w halogen pin light with a 2W yellow LED..

it's a big help since the painting the halogen pin light was pointed at doesn't feel hot anymore and I use it as an accent/ambient night light...you won't feel guilty waking up late with a 2w light turned on a few hours more than a 50w one

http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e3...Picture271.jpg

Oh and there are quite a large number of dimmable LEDs available now compared to a year ago. It's good that this is catching on.

Planning to use LED strips on the garage for use when Im working on cars at night.

opiesche 07-31-12 07:09 PM

I've used strings of 10 LED modules with 4 LEDs each (about 1.1W per module or so) for ceiling lights in my office. Mounted them on a painted 1/8" piece of plywood with a piece of acrylic (coated with Krylon frosted glass spray) on 1" distancers, and screwed directly to the ceiling. Looks great, is easy to install, and at about 20W gives me the same light as about 50W of CFLs.
I plan on transitioning most of the lighting in our house to LEDs. The modules I used are available for about 22 bucks for a string of 20 of them!

opiesche 07-31-12 07:11 PM

Dimming LEDs
 
Also, if you plan on dimming LEDs, make sure to use a PWM dimmer. Simply reducing the voltage (with a regular dimmer) will dim the LED, but will significantly reduce its life span.

classradiance 09-24-12 01:29 PM

Hi
I hunted around for weeks and found many Great videos and products on utube & Ebay etc ..

I purchased a couple of them and they blew my mind.
10W/15W @ 12V exteriors or Interior.

The quality and Strength of light at such low power has forced me to dump tubes.
Cheap light systems are now here. How much will you save ?

- Super flux -

AC_Hacker 09-26-12 11:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classradiance (Post 24466)
Cheap light systems are now here. How much will you save ?

Why don't you do a break-even analysis? ... (LINK HERE)

-AC

nexsuperne 09-27-12 01:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AC_Hacker (Post 24490)
Why don't you do a break-even analysis? ... (LINK HERE)

-AC

Bit of a no brainer really, I pay £2 for a 50 watt halogen bulb, which emits 320 lumen and costs 0.5p an hour to run. I then pay £3 for a 7.5 watt 520 lumen led bulb, which costs 0.075p an hour to run. Every hour I save 0.425p by using the led.
In 236 hours, the extra £1 I paid for the bulb will be repaid in running cost savings. Typically, with the lights on for 5 hours a night, this is just just short of 7 weeks.
Leds should last 30,000 hours, so if that was the case would save 12,750p (£127.50) on each bulb.
In my case, I have 20 of these, so would save £2550! Compared to 50w halogen.

classradiance 09-27-12 03:12 AM

So are the low voltage appliances also cheaper to run ?
or have the manufacturers just changed the Power Supply Unit spec to fit demand in a Lower Voltage Market ?

Xringer 09-27-12 09:58 AM

1 Attachment(s)
Quote:

Originally Posted by classradiance (Post 24501)
So are the low voltage appliances also cheaper to run ?
or have the manufacturers just changed the Power Supply Unit spec to fit demand in a Lower Voltage Market ?

If you had a house fire, and your insurance company saw you had a DC power
system installed, they would look for the goverment approval stamp.
A DIY system might mean your fire insurance might not be paid.

Anyways, if you didn't have a solar powered battery bank, you would need
a power supply unit with low heat losses to connect up your LEDs.
A transformer supply, like a wall wart can be low loss. Those that don't heat up are the best.
An inverter type (like a phone charger) that doesn't heat up would be my choice for using DC LEDs.
I use a small 12V car battery (solar charged) for the LED reading lamp in our master bedroom.

For lamps used every night around the house, we use all 120 Vac LEDs.

Right now my go-to LED comes from Home Depot.
Philips, 12.5- Watts (60W) LED A19 Soft White (2700K) Light Bulb (E*), 422154 at The Home Depot - Mobile
The 60w Philips I recommended before (posted above) is no longer listed.
So this $12.97 blub is what I plan to buy when I upgrade my next CFL lamps.
I've just about given up on trying to find good dimmers for LEDs, so most of mine are running full power. Which isn't much.

Pay-back? Break-even? This stuff is my hobby.. Besides, I'll be 67 years old in a few months.
My outlook for a long life isn't the best, so I'm not going to worry about a few dollars. :p

But, I do like the idea of being able to run good lighting in my house
during grid failures, using a small back-up (solar charged 120vac) system.
And, LED lighting is cool! :D

classradiance 09-27-12 10:59 AM

That is interesting about insurance .... (sicko the movie comes to mind)
I shall look at that ... Thank you

I have worked in the Philips, Cambridge a few times here in the UK.
They are very nice people and I too have always looked at them and what they design with admiration .

Break even is a new one on me, its to do with selling I think.
But saving money is real important now more than ever as the cost is through the roof,
which ironically is where the all the panels are going.

strider3700 09-28-12 10:33 AM

I picked up two packs of 2 Luminous EXTLED at costco yesterday. $22.99 a pack. Specs are 470 lumens 58 lumens/watt 8 watt 25000 life, 3000K

The reason I grabbed all 4 was I needed 3 in my dining room chandelier and 1 in my basement. Dimmers were in use in both places and I didn't see the point of saving a couple of bucks to get dimmable CFL's which were about $8 each last time I managed to find them.

Last night I replaced the downstairs one which had just been a regular 13W CFL and I had to run the dimmer on full. The light coming from the bulb is much whiter then the CFL it replaced and really makes the one remaining dimmable cfl on the circuit look quite yellow. I prefer the new light.

This morning I did the dinning room chandelier. The 3 bulbs replaced three candelabra 60 watt bulbs. First thing is the bulbs are way brighter then the 3 replaced. Light is a bit whiter. There is however an issue. The dimmer appears to be a special one to allow dimming of CFL's. I seem to remember reading that on the box. Anyway At full power it makes the LED's flicker. At lower power they flicker then go live.

Right now I'm thinking I'll switch the dimmer with the basement dimmer. Then I can take that bulb in the basement and put it in the last remaining spot with IC beside the bed. I can then use the fancy switch with CFL's in the basement where it doesn't matter.

Overall I like the lights but think they're still pretty pricey. I'm however not impressed that they don't handle the funky switch.

classradiance 09-28-12 12:06 PM

I am not sure, but are they now being called superflux?

classradiance 12-15-12 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xringer (Post 24507)

I use a small 12V car battery (solar charged) for the LED reading lamp in our master bedroom.
:D

If you short out your 12v Battery (which should be fused)and burn down your home, would your insurance be null and void ?
Does your car have a relevant approval?

Just a thought !!;)

Ironic that a Solar advert which keeps you tied to a system which sucks you dry of money is above and below our discussion at random.

Xringer 12-15-12 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by classradiance (Post 26479)
If you short out your 12v Battery (which should be fused)and burn down your home, would your insurance be null and void ?
Does your car have a relevant approval?

Just a thought !!;)

Ironic that a Solar advert which keeps you tied to a system which sucks you dry of money is above and below our discussion at random.

Insurance companies write their policies, so they always have an 'out'. (We call it the fine print).
They don't have to pay off on much of anything. But, they do pay a lot of claims,
because they would get too much bad PR and not have any customers.

My guess is, anyone who has a TV antenna that got hit by lightning is covered. But, if it's a Ham radio antenna.. Maybe not.

No, wait a second.. They might have "an act of God" in the fine print..

I do have a 3A fuse on the battery clip, but the battery is located underneath my Ham radio desk! :eek:
So, regardless of the actual cause of the fire, chances of being covered aren't so good.

The battery charger on my car is UL listed, and I did install a fuse at the battery connection. (There was none with the charger, IIRC).
Chances of being paid, if it sets the garage on fire? 50:50..:(



Insurance companies aren't really 'nice' people that want to help others.
They want your money. They don't want to give you money.

If you think of it that way, you will be more likely to be careful and use
safety devices where possible. Hopefully, you will reduce the likelihood of a fire or other accident.

If you own a tester or VOM, you might want to test new appliances,
to make sure they have been wired correctly. Sometimes, they make mistakes at the factory.

AC_Hacker 12-31-12 12:53 AM

Turning the Best Attribute of Each Type of Light to Your Benefit
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Alister91 (Post 26854)
I'm just wondering if you guys have found any good LED bulbs. Having recently read up on them and shopped around it looks like ATM they are #1 very expensive and #2 can't put out as much light as a CFL.

LED lighting expensive, but if you get them straight from China via ebay, they're more reasonable. I did that, and although the infant mortality rate was fairly high (15% within a month), it was still cheaper and the variety of lighting was far greater than where I live (USA). Trying to return bad bulbs to China is a losing game.

Yes, you are right, the total light output of LEDs is lower than CFL, but the light is usually focused by built-in plastic lenses, so the level of useful light is quite acceptable.

In my opinion, the best bet is to use compact fluorescent for indirect and fill lighting, and LEDs for task lighting. That way you are turning the best attribute of each type of light to your benefit.

Best,

-AC

classradiance 12-31-12 01:16 PM

Happy new year

Jonathan Tim 08-06-13 10:00 PM

yes i using LED in many things at home, for reading and lighting. Using LED can help me save money and saving energy.

stevehull 08-07-13 10:48 AM

Let's be careful with the mercury issue in CFLs. When people tell me that they don't use CFL's "because of the mercury", I ask them if they eat canned tuna fish . . .

Turns out that the amount of mercury in a can of tuna is just about the same as that in a CFL. And, what is worst, is that the tuna has methylated mercury which is highly bioabsorbed. The CFL mercury is mostly in the elemental form and largely inert.

Fact, liquid mercury was used for decades in medical imaging for gut GI issues. Yup, swallow it down and lie for the x-ray. I don't advocate this, but the metallic liquid mercury is not as dangerous as is postulated.

A year ago, a local Mom dropped a small old style mercury thermometer and it broke. She called 911 and the fire department responded. The fire department called out the state DEQ (Division of Environmental Quality) that advised the Mom and Dad to call a private biosecurity/remediation company. About $20,000 later, the house was deemed "safe" and they could move back in. About 100 mg of mercury was recovered . . .

The recent paranoia about mercury, especially in the liquid form is highly misplaced. What is an issue is the methylated or volatile mercury. "Mad as a hatter" was a true statement as methylated mercury was used to felt beaver skins (for hats).

I suggest putting in LEDs over CFLs where it is difficult and/or dangerous to replace. High ceilings immediately come to mind. I also prefer LEDs in the kitchen as I do not want any broken CFL debris (mostly glass) in a food preparation area. The blue LEDs are also excellent as night lights and I have replaced all my old style tiny incandescent night lights with LED types. Turns out, the old 2-5 watt incandescent added a lot ot phantom load, were hot and only lasted 2000 hours.

Good discussion!

Steve


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