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LED Light Bulbs

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This page will explore some of the benefits (or not) of using LED light bulbs around the house for general lighting applications.

Walmart carries the Lights of America brand LED lighting in addition to a few selected samples of what GE has to offer.

Starting in 2011, both Home Depot and Lowe's started carrying LED lights, ranging from a simple 40 incandescent light bulb replacement (around 10 bucks) to some really high powered dual outside floodlight replacements ($100+).

LOA is getting a pretty bad rap on user groups because of their crappy reliability, and I have to agree with them!

One problem with any of the incandescent replacements so far, is that they all some sort of electronics to support them, CFL's and LED's alike.... even the simple under the cabinet lights have a diode and a couple of resistors, and maybe a capacitor, introducing more parts to fail, and with 24 LED's, even more to fail.  So, have we made any real advancements in technology?  At least the LED "bulbs" don't have any hazardous materials in them like CFL's do.

Our government has already dictated that the common 150 watt floodlights go the way of the dinosaur (maybe 2000 or so), don't know why, guess they figured they used to much electricity (so manufacturers came out with the pencil type light bulbs to replace them so we know have 300 and 500w behemoths, saving nothing).  Now they are doing the same with 100 and 75 watt regular incandescent bulbs (delayed, but the end is coming).   They should be doing the same with CFL's since they use mercury, AND don't last as long as they brag (my 2 cents :-).

Don't get me wrong, as I love electronics and have been playing with it since I was old enough to breath, but there are just some places where they have no advantage, like my Sears cordless drill with a lithium battery in it... I hate the thing cause of the frickin uP in it!  Another pet peeve, are the electronic steering cars going to be failsafe and reliable?  Just leave the mechanical steering box alone ya'll, we're not driving a 747!  At least the electronic gas pedal in my Avalanche hasn't taken a dump on me..... yet.....  well, back on track.....

One of the biggest problems with LED lighting so far, is the relatively low light output compared to other technologies, like the traditional incandescent light bulb, and there newer replacements, the CFL lamp.  Another problem with LED lamps, is that LED's are directional in their light output, as opposed to the other two technologies which emit light in ALL directions.  So an 11W LED lamp may be as bright as a 14W CFL, but only in one direction!!!  This is very important to remember when selecting LED lamps, for they can't really be used to replace a standard 60 watt incandescent lamp, and get the same brightness out of it, yet.

The chief advantage of LED lights over CFL's, is that they contain no mercury, which makes CFL's a bitch to dispose of properly... remember what one school system did last year in 2009 when one kid brought in some mercury from a thermometer?... they shut the whole school down for a day and brought in the hazmat team to sterilize the school.  And to think I used to play with that crap as a kid, I'm surprised I'm not dead yet!!! :-)  So, are CFL lamps any better for the environment??  Toddo thinks not, just like hybrid cars that use up a whole SUV worths of energy and pollutants just to make the batteries.  Are we stupid as consumers or what???  And don't get me started on the corn gas (ethanol), that costs more than gas to produce, and doesn't have the latent power in it, so you're going to use more of it to go somewhere than if you had just used regular old gas.

So, on with some particulars.....

LOA 11W Power LED Flood

This was LOA's offering as of 2011, and they run $20 at Walmart.  They seem to be comparable to the CREE unit below, at a much cheaper price... we'll see how they do.  This one looks promising if the LED's they made it out of turn out to be reliable.  This floodlight uses the chip style LED's, which put out a little over a watt apiece.  The massive aluminum housing is used to vent off the heat these little guys produce.  This lamp can also be used outside.

  On and off pix, and the box

LOA 5W LED Floodlight

This floodlight was bought at Walmart about mid 2009, and within 4 months, half of the bulb went dead.... and it's not like the thing got used a whole lot, maybe once a month for 10-20 minutes a shot..... Also, cause it's under the eve, it's not really exposed to the elements, but it is to the temps.  It uses 90 regular style T 1-3/4 LED's, and notice they are not well matched for color temp.  I do have a question tho, how can this one AND it's smaller 3/5 watt brother both be replacements for a 45 watt regular lamp?????  Hummmmmmm.  The 5 watt bulb was $20, and the 3.5w version was $15.

DO NOT BUY THESE IF YOU SEE THEM!!!   In my opinion, they are a waste of money.

LOA Under the Cabinet Lights

These things were pretty neat when they came out, and I bought a bunch of them, a big bunch.  Sorry I did!  After a couple of months of intermittent use, they dimmed to about 50% output, and many failed outright due to an LED failing, easy to trace down if you're technically adept, but you can't do anything about the lowered output, it's the aging process, as the LED's LOA used are crap.  After 6 months or so of use in my basement, 10 out of 12 are dark, and again, I don't spend a whole lot of time down there, so these things MIGHT have 20 hours or so on them!  Walmart has stopped selling them.  They were 20 bucks for the three.

DO NOT BUY THESE IF YOU SEE THEM!!!   They are also a waste of money.

 GE 6W spotlight

This seems like a well built unit, but even at Walmart, is fairly expensive at $35.  I've been using it to light up my flag outside, and has so far survived the rain, the heat, the cold and the snow.  I was going to use it inside somewhere, but it's output lights up such a small area, and not very brightly at that, so I stuck it outside in it's current life lighting up the flag.  It could be used to light up a picture on the wall from an overhead tracklight, but since it is a spotlight, you would need one or two for each picture.  After about 2 years, it finally pooped out and only one of the three LED's is still lit, altho rather dimly.

CREE LR6C

This LED lamp is a 12 watt unit.  It has a good even output - no hotspots, and can be had in warm and cool white for around $85 from several websites.  My company is replacing the fluorescent lighting with these units at an accelerated pace, probably because they get a break from the FEDs in some sort of tax break program... that's OK until they need to be replaced sooner than expected, cause they will be subject to failure because of the electronics required to feed the LED's.   My boss had complained that it is darker in his office after they replaced the fluorescent lights, even with 6 of them in his ceiling.  They are designed to be mounted in a standard 6" metal ceiling light can.  Time will tell whether they are worth the money they cost.

More to come.....

     more ceiling lights light like the CREE unit from Home Depot for $40.....

     the new outside LED floodlight.....

     and, finally, decent LED incandescent replacement bubs!!!!!

please check back again.....

NEW 12/19/2010
Last changed: 09 May 2012