LED Bulbs

[tmbrown97]

You guys definitely have more observant wives than I do... the only thing mine notices and complains about is the electric bill; we've been using CFL's exclusively for at least 10 years. I do hate the warmup, and I'd like dimming - currently we have 3 lights we dim so we have incandescent in those...

I'm definitely interested in the Cree's though... I think I'll look at some early next year.

One question - when you say they only dim to 30% - what happens then? Do they turn off or flash at 20%? Any risk of damaging them if someone turns the dimmer too low but leaves it on?

 

[ano]

Why aren't there cheap HID bulbs for residential use? So, if I can buy all this stuff for $30, why can't they make these cheap for indoor residential use?

You could use mercury vapor or low-pressure sodium lights in your kitchen, but I know for one, my wife would not like that. Their color rendition is horrible, to say the least, and they are really not much more energy efficient than CF.

You guys definitely have more observant wives than I do... the only thing mine notices and complains about is the electric bill; we've been using CFL's exclusively for at least 10 years. I do hate the warmup, and I'd like dimming - currently we have 3 lights we dim so we have incandescent in those...

I'm definitely interested in the Cree's though... I think I'll look at some early next year.

One question - when you say they only dim to 30% - what happens then? Do they turn off or flash at 20%? Any risk of damaging them if someone turns the dimmer too low but leaves it on?

At about 30% the bulbs start to flicker, and below that they just switch off. Most use some type of switching power supply that just doesn't operate at very low levels, but it won't damage them. If you really want 30% to zero, your best bet is to add a second set of low wattage incandescent lights or, just get a night-light.

 

[Neurorad]

Interesting Lutron publication which briefly reviews methods of LED dimming control.

Article from LEDs Magazine

It appears that Lutron is working hard to control LEDs, lots of info on their website.

 

[apostolakisl]

Cree LR6 is a perfect bulb in my opinion except for dimming (and price). Very bright, soft light, great color, nice diffusion angle, attractive fixture. If they can fix the dimming so it gets warmer with dimming and dim all the way to zero it will be perfect. Then they can work on getting the price down.

 

[SpeedDemon]

Hi all,

With regards to bulb life, I've heard regular & even CFL bulbs can have a much shorter life than their estimated life span if there's frequent on/off usage. Is it correct to assume that an LED light wouldn't have that issue?

Our family room (currently being built) has about a 22+ foot high ceiling, and both 6" and MR-16 based lights. While the 6" might be reachable with a ladder + one of those big poles w/ the suction cups.. No way you can remoted replace an MR16 with the pin connector, right? . So, I'd like to find an extremely long life MR16-style bulb that won't fail prematurely.

Does anyone have any experience with this LED MR16? They claim it's fully dimmable. 450 lumens cool (6k - probably getting into blue then ) and 350 lumens warm (3k). http://www.earthtechproducts.com/mr16-dimm...295_a_7cMR16PRO . There's also this one at 410 lumens using Cree LED's, but I'd have to find out if the color temp is too high. Our personal taste is for halogen-like lighting, we don't like yellow. http://ledlightingforless.com/store/dimmab...hite-p-213.html . Or alternatively, any other recommendations for a dependable dimmable LED MR16 especially since Cree doesn't make their own?

For the 6", it's Cree LR6C's I guess by default, until I hear there might be something better. From what folks say, I sure wish they'd dim down lower, though maybe with the high ceilings it will feel like less output. I broke my 6" ceiling lights into 2 separate circuits. It's 12 lights total (3 rows of 4 lights). 6 lights in the center are on 1 circuit, and 6 outer lights (3 on each side) are on the other. So for the lower light I can go with 6 dimmed to the minimum, and for bright light, all 12 max'ed. I wonder if I can buy Crees for 1 circuit (the most used) and not the other, that's gonna get really pricey buying 12 of 'em

What about this PAR30? It uses Cree LED's but claims to be dimmable to 5%. 910 lumens for the cool white. http://www.greenlightingled.com/Product-Ca...mable-par30-led

Thanks