LED Lights Questions and Answers

Wow... that teardown of the Phiips LED bulb certainly shows how $40 for it is cheap! Good golly, if this were 1981 that would be a $2,000 computer in there! I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the idea of buying a light bulb & having the clerk ask "Would you like the extended warranty on that?"

We have a bunch of LED traffic lights and street lights. A friend of mine is the public works director of Bangor (the big city). The only things I've heard him say are "On occasion the LED traffic lights will have segments that do not light, but a day or so later they come back on & are OK", and, "The streetlights were bought with federal money. They have a 10 year life and a 17 year payback". Honest!

And when you figure that the cost of electricity is most likely going to go up long term, and that some areas are far higher than $0.11 per KWH, the savings in favor of the LED bulbs really add up. Only 10 of these LED light bulbs replacing 10 standard incandescent bulbs should save you about $1,000 (at $0.11 per KWH) to $2,000 (at $0.22 per KWH) over their lifetimes. I haven't counted, but I'm willing to guess that my house has 30 or more light bulbs in it. That's a potential $3,000 in savings at the current electrical rate around here, and greater than that as the electrical rate goes up.

The only serious problem is committing $1,200 now (the cost of 30 LED bulbs) in order to save $3,000 (which is above and beyond the cost of the bulbs, since the electrical savings are in the range of $4,200, or likely well more than that if rates continue to go up) down the road about 5-10 years or so. But if they are found to last far less than 25,000 hours under real life conditions, the potential savings could vanish or even go negative. Don't knock over that lamp!

That might explain the new streetlights in China, in National Goegraphic there was a story on China's green movement & they had their street lights with solar panels for power, so it would just be straight DC. Good unless your in an area that could get snow but the southern states would be OK.

Yanche wrote:Here's a link with "tear downs" of LED lamps.
http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/40512-Remote_ ... art_II.php

A few years back I sent the computer from my son's car to be rebuilt. Now, I'm going to have to send my light bulbs out to be rebuilt....

rberq wrote:

Yanche wrote:Here's a link with "tear downs" of LED lamps.
http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/40512-Remote_ ... art_II.php

A few years back I sent the computer from my son's car to be rebuilt. Now, I'm going to have to send my light bulbs out to be rebuilt....

Don't laugh it may happen to be common practice for light bulbs too. At least for the modules within the LED fixtures of the future. Much like in the HVAC industry where you can buy re-built aquastats and other common controls.

Freddy, I'll send you one!

PM me your address.

We actually have a price war going on with the LED bulb manufacturers. The most interesting part of the story is that they are developing new features to entice customers to upgrade. The problem with LED's is that they will last longer resulting in less sales.

http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?f ... d=17493828

I think the market for new LED bulbs is currently so huge, that repeat sales are a low consideration at this point.

Rob R. wrote:Sorry Freddy, but I don't think I'm ready for the LED craze just yet. I'm converting my 4' shop lights to cold-start electronic ballasts and T8 bulbs, but otherwise it is business as usual. The bulk of my electricity consumption is air conditioning, pool pump, and the clothes dryer.

You and me both. I HATE and I mean HATE that regular bulbs are now "illegal" and refuse to buy LED bulbs that are $40 for one.

Rob R. wrote:
I just bought 6 "Cree" brand LED's for $50 shipped on ebay. They work nice and put out light that isn't harsh. I put them in our dining room fixture, which up until know had 5 60 watt bulbs in it. 300 watts down to 50 watts, I should break even in about one year.

I did put some LED light in my 2013 F-150 because the standard bulbs looked terrible. The LED ones light up the interior of the truck nicely. But I got 12 bulbs for like $12 bucks but I had seen where they were going for $100 or more. I won't be putting LED bulbs in my house until they become cheaper.

When they make regular real bulbs impossible to get this is what I'll be doing.





Ignore the ad at the end of that video.

Replaced the 65 watt halogen downlights in the cans...
With LED equivalent...
.22\kwh her so the payback is quick in the winter...
Lights on all the time, up at 5am down at 11pm...
20 lights kitchen and living rooms...
Got a good price $7 each...
Paid off in 2.5 months this winter...
Need to get the price down on the 90\120 watt lamps for the great room...

Replaced a crapped-out dual head motion sensor flood light in the back yard with a photocell dusk-to-dawn dual head LED fixture a few weeks ago; amazed how much light we get from 20 watts, spreads much further than the 180 watts of halogen flood did. Will see how electric use compares, 180w intermittent use is likely lower overall than 20w overnight. But I hope it is roughly a wash. Living in the city I like the yard lit overnight. The light was not cheap, about $127 from home depot.

Are LED lights damaged by moderate vibration? I couldn't keep a standard light bulb in my garage door opener, because the vibration seemed to kill them in a couple weeks. I put in a CFL and it has survived many months now, but it is dim and takes a long time to reach full brightness especially in the cold months (in Maine that is all months except July).

These Cree are on sale right now 60w 800lumens. $5. Big display down the entire aisle at HD. I was very surprised the color and brightness was better than the cfls I have now in both the living room and bathroom. They also have 40w for the same price. Other 75w ,100w and 5000k colors were more but also on sale. I picked up 7 and will get more this saturday.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-60W-Equivalent-So ... bc&cj=true