LED Bulbs

[Dave X10]

Speaking of LED bulbs, does anyone know of any affordable under-cabinet LED lights? Every light bar that I've seen has been over $200 each and I find that a little steep. I bet they only cost 10 or 15% of that to manufacture.
Maybe I should just buy some high-intensity LED bulbs and wire up my own in some sort of aesthetically pleasing housing...

I bought an under cabinet LED at Menards. It is an 8 inch long bar, was only $20, uses about 4 watts of power, and is a bright white. It provides all the light we need in that area for the coffee pot in the morning. Across the kitchen OVER some other cabinets... my wife has placed some decorative items as well as a string of LED Christmas lights. [Those lights as well as another (small CFL) in an unrelated room are dusk/dawn (with a 5 hour shut-off in the middle).]

I live at the edge of where Menards has stores. The one store is this area is somewhat new. I was actually surprised at the stores LED selection.

 

[signal15]

Yesterday at Menards, I decided to but a bunch of PAR and BR30 CFL's to see if any of them were decent for recessed lighting. My wife walked into the kitchen, swore like a sailor, and told me to take those out immediately. :nutz: They looked BAD. Even the one with the 2700K color rating was kind of a weird bluish/greenish/yellowish color. Compared to my 2900K halogens, it looked both more yellow and more blue at the same time. It was a really sickly color. I gotta assume they are using filters to get it to 2700K, whereas with good LED bulbs, they use different colors of LED's to blend the light together rather than filtering.

When you modify the housing to fit the Cree unit, can you easily put it back to the way it was if it doesn't work out? I might buy one to test.

 

[gatchel]

Yesterday at Menards, I decided to but a bunch of PAR and BR30 CFL's to see if any of them were decent for recessed lighting. My wife walked into the kitchen, swore like a sailor, and told me to take those out immediately. They looked BAD. Even the one with the 2700K color rating was kind of a weird bluish/greenish/yellowish color. Compared to my 2900K halogens, it looked both more yellow and more blue at the same time. It was a really sickly color. I gotta assume they are using filters to get it to 2700K, whereas with good LED bulbs, they use different colors of LED's to blend the light together rather than filtering.

When you modify the housing to fit the Cree unit, can you easily put it back to the way it was if it doesn't work out? I might buy one to test.

Remove the wing nut, unsnap the socket from the plate, remove the plate. Screw the base onto the LED fixture by holding the socket and spinning the LED light, click out the taps on the LR6 to the first position, push into the housing and turn 1/4 turn or so.

It's simple. I actually saved my metal plates and they could go back to factory in a few minutes. Check the Cree website for your exact housing model and its compatibility.

http://www.creeledlighting.com/downloads/H...mpatibility.pdf

 

[ano]

Yesterday at Menards, I decided to but a bunch of PAR and BR30 CFL's to see if any of them were decent for recessed lighting. My wife walked into the kitchen, swore like a sailor, and told me to take those out immediately. They looked BAD. Even the one with the 2700K color rating was kind of a weird bluish/greenish/yellowish color. Compared to my 2900K halogens, it looked both more yellow and more blue at the same time. It was a really sickly color. I gotta assume they are using filters to get it to 2700K, whereas with good LED bulbs, they use different colors of LED's to blend the light together rather than filtering.

When you modify the housing to fit the Cree unit, can you easily put it back to the way it was if it doesn't work out? I might buy one to test.

I've replaced all the CAN lights in my kitchen and hallway with CREE LR6 2700K. I've showed them to many people and their tongue just falls out of their mouth when I tell them they are LED. There is no way they would know if I didn't tell them.

The CREE lights don't use any type of filters. They use LEDs of different colors and use a sensor to adjust the colors to spec. What's amazing is that, if they wanted to, they could adjust the color temp electronically so you could have a knob on the wall to adjust your colortemp.

 

[mdonovan]

The CREE lights don't use any type of filters. They use LEDs of different colors and use a sensor to adjust the colors to spec. What's amazing is that, if they wanted to, they could adjust the color temp electronically so you could have a knob on the wall to adjust your colortemp.

Now that would be cool.

 

[programmergeek]

Yea I don't know why they just don't put a little 5 position switch or something onthem to adjust from warm white to cool white to your taste and room instead of makeing different models.

 

[gatchel]

Yesterday at Menards, I decided to but a bunch of PAR and BR30 CFL's to see if any of them were decent for recessed lighting. My wife walked into the kitchen, swore like a sailor, and told me to take those out immediately. They looked BAD. Even the one with the 2700K color rating was kind of a weird bluish/greenish/yellowish color. Compared to my 2900K halogens, it looked both more yellow and more blue at the same time. It was a really sickly color. I gotta assume they are using filters to get it to 2700K, whereas with good LED bulbs, they use different colors of LED's to blend the light together rather than filtering.

When you modify the housing to fit the Cree unit, can you easily put it back to the way it was if it doesn't work out? I might buy one to test.

I've replaced all the CAN lights in my kitchen and hallway with CREE LR6 2700K. I've showed them to many people and their tongue just falls out of their mouth when I tell them they are LED. There is no way they would know if I didn't tell them.

The CREE lights don't use any type of filters. They use LEDs of different colors and use a sensor to adjust the colors to spec. What's amazing is that, if they wanted to, they could adjust the color temp electronically so you could have a knob on the wall to adjust your colortemp.

That's what colorkinetics are for.

http://www.colorkinetics.com/ls/

 

[ano]

Yeah, check out this video...

Cree LR6

 

[signal15]

If you wanted to change the color of the Cree, you could probably slide a lightly tinted photo gel over the sensor to fool it into thinking the light was more yellow than it really was.

 

[ano]

If you wanted to change the color of the Cree, you could probably slide a lightly tinted photo gel over the sensor to fool it into thinking the light was more yellow than it really was.

There was a YouTube video that seems to be gone now, but in it, someone fooled the sensor electronically, and you can get a pretty wide range of colors out of the thing.

 

[mdonovan]

I finally got my Cree light in. I went with the warm white light. The color of the light is slightly whiter than an incandescent, but not much. It's also a bit brighter than the 65 watt spot it replaced. Overall I'm pleased with the light. It was easy to install (took about 5 minutes). I think I'll get some more of these at some point.

Matt

 

[signal15]

If anyone comes across a color temp meter and lumen meter for a reasonable price, let me know. It would nice to do a comparison of these using real numbers.

 

[Neurorad]

Cree LR6 - only dimmable to 20%

I need to replace a couple can lights in the master Ba, was really hoping these would be the ticket.

We dim them down to ~5% at night, for a nightlight.

 

[programmergeek]

I would get a night light it will still draw less just because you are at 20% you are usally still buring 60% power. Get a 1w led off amazon for $10. and hook it up much better way to go.

 

[signal15]

I've though about getting a bunch of 1W white LED's and mounting them every 8 feet or so in the ceilings and chaining them all together. Then, if the power goes out, I can have a circuit that turns them on using battery power. So I'll still have light when the power is out. It would be dirt cheap to do, running the wire is the hard part.