More LED bulb options

[mdesmarais]

Picture frame type- I just happened to see these a couple of days ago-

http://www.superbrightleds.com/cat/led-tube/

the "rotatable" style might do what you want...

 

[kwilcox]

Wow! score! I saw those but couldn't find a place to actually order them!

Here's some of the latest MR16 (12V) bulbs:
LEDnovation EnhanceLite MR16 3000K 550 lumens (real close here...)
LSG Definity HO MR16 3000K 520 lumens. Less expensive.

edit: what the heck, I've always liked Lighting Science Group so I pulled the trigger on one of their MR16 lamps. We never run the tracklights at full output anyway so 520 lumens might do it. I'll post more once I've had a chance to check it out.

 

[kwilcox]

The LSG light arrived today and I installed it. Really impressive; it is pretty much identical to a halogen in both brightness and color temp. Exact size replacement too. I removed the UV glass on the front of the fixture to assist with ventalation since I don't believe these lights emit any UV radiation.

 

[signal15]

Lumens don't tell the whole story with brightness. I would really like to see luminosity ratings (candela) at a standard distance also.

 

[rsw686]

So after the whole analysis and testing we had a winner. It was the Philips 12W Vision LED from Home Depot. I was (and still am) a bit hesitant as it appears the Vision LED may be a Home Depot exclusive product. Philips makes a very similar 13W bulb under their Ambient LED label.

I ended up with these same bulbs in the 2700k variety. I was fed up with dimmable CFLs not being able to dim below 30% and when dimmed interfering with the IR receiver on the DVR. I would have to turn the lights to 100% for the remote to work. This was the only bulb that was available at a local store, looked like a normal bulb, had good reviews, and was reasonably priced. Only issue I have is when dimmed every minute or so they will go slightly brighter than back to normal. I can't figure out what is causing this, but I only have two of them on the same dimmer. Do any of yours exhibit this behavior?

 

[Steve]

Only issue I have is when dimmed every minute or so they will go slightly brighter than back to normal. I can't figure out what is causing this, but I only have two of them on the same dimmer. Do any of yours exhibit this behavior?

Yea, I think I know what you are talking about but to me its more of a flicker. I am 99% sure what I am seeing at least is a flicker or change of brightness with UPB traffic on the powerline. I only seem to notice it when there is increased activity - like a scene, etc.

 

[kwilcox]

When dimmed, my EcoSmart (LSG) 40W equivalent bulbs flicker when UPB signals are being sent too. I think its the switch causing it though. I have older SAI US11-30 switches

 

[kwilcox]

Just a heads-up on the MR16 Definity LEDs. My tracklights have magnetic transformers that now put out a lot of RF around 300MHZ when dimmed. With 5 LEDs running, the RF noise was enough to interfere with my wireless X10 installation rendering it pretty much useless when the tracklights were on. I had to re-position the antenna for my W800RF32 then add a few X10 transceivers to correct the issue. For sure its the transformers and not the lamps themselves because I was able to correct the situation by wrapping the transformer part of the fixtures in tinfoil. Obviously not a permanent solution....

 

[signal15]

I just went to Costco, and they have some LED retrofits similar to those Cree ones at Home Depot.  They are made by a company called Luminus, and the model is C-UPR63M.  Google doesn't turn up much:
https://www.google.com/search?q=c-upr63m&oq=c-upr63m&aqs=chrome.0.57.3231&sugexp=chrome,mod=17&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
 
However, the box says 3000K, 1200 lumens, 18 Watts...  and it's only $24.97.  So I picked one up to test.
 
I measured the lux output on my countertop in the kitchen below the light and on the floor radiating out from the light.  
 
Cree: 121 lux on the counter directly under the light, roughly 68-75 lux out to about 4 feet on the floor
Luminus: 238 lux on the counter directly under the light, roughly 112-121 lux out to about 4 feet on the floor
 
I'm pretty impressed by these.  Before I even measured the lux output, it was obviously about twice as bright.  The color is great, and the spread of the light is much greater as the Luminus illuminates the top of my cabinets, something that the Cree doesn't do.  A side effect of this is that there is definitely more glare from the lights, even when you're on the other side of the room.  The color is 3000K, and is a bit crisper than the Cree, but not too much so.  I actually prefer the color of the light.  No CRI is listed on the box though, I assume it's somewhere between 80-85 like most other LED's, the Cree is 92 which is very high.  I'm terribly colorblind, but I can still tell how well things render color.  Pinks and reds looked more saturated under the Cree.  I wouldn't say they were washed out under the Luminus, but they were definitely more muted.  The light doesn't have the weird greenish hue that some of the LED's I've tested have put out.
 
One of the nice things about the Cree is the light sensor and multiple colors of LEDs in it.  This allows the light to constantly adjust the color of the lamp to put out a specific temperature color as it ages, or between different bins of LEDs.  I doubt the Luminus has this, but I was too anxious to get it in and didn't take it apart.  
 
Ooo!  Another thing, it works with my Z-wave dimmers...  by itself.  I unscrewed an incandescent on a dimmer and screwed the base/adapter thing for the LED into it.  It dims, without other incandescents on the circuit.  It appears to dim down to about 25%, but I didn't spend a ton of time with it or measure the light output.
 
I'll use it for a couple of days, and if I have no complaints, I'm probably going to pick up several more of them.

 

[gatchel]

One of the nice things about the Cree is the light sensor and multiple colors of LEDs in it.  This allows the light to constantly adjust the color of the lamp to put out a specific temperature color as it ages, or between different bins of LEDs.  I doubt the Luminus has this, but I was too anxious to get it in and didn't take it apart.

I thought that was only available in the LR6 and other higher end models. I'd be interested to see if there is one in the lower models. Wanna take one apart for the CT community?

 

[George M]

I just went to Costco, and they have some LED retrofits similar to those Cree ones at Home Depot.  They are made by a company called Luminus, and the model is C-UPR63M.  Google doesn't turn up much:
https://www.google.com/search?q=c-upr63m&oq=c-upr63m&aqs=chrome.0.57.3231&sugexp=chrome,mod=17&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
 
However, the box says 3000K, 1200 lumens, 18 Watts...  and it's only $24.97.  So I picked one up to test.
 
I measured the lux output on my countertop in the kitchen below the light and on the floor radiating out from the light.  
 
Cree: 121 lux on the counter directly under the light, roughly 68-75 lux out to about 4 feet on the floor
Luminus: 238 lux on the counter directly under the light, roughly 112-121 lux out to about 4 feet on the floor
 
I'm pretty impressed by these.  Before I even measured the lux output, it was obviously about twice as bright.  The color is great, and the spread of the light is much greater as the Luminus illuminates the top of my cabinets, something that the Cree doesn't do.  A side effect of this is that there is definitely more glare from the lights, even when you're on the other side of the room.  The color is 3000K, and is a bit crisper than the Cree, but not too much so.  I actually prefer the color of the light.  No CRI is listed on the box though, I assume it's somewhere between 80-85 like most other LED's, the Cree is 92 which is very high.  I'm terribly colorblind, but I can still tell how well things render color.  Pinks and reds looked more saturated under the Cree.  I wouldn't say they were washed out under the Luminus, but they were definitely more muted.  The light doesn't have the weird greenish hue that some of the LED's I've tested have put out.
 
One of the nice things about the Cree is the light sensor and multiple colors of LEDs in it.  This allows the light to constantly adjust the color of the lamp to put out a specific temperature color as it ages, or between different bins of LEDs.  I doubt the Luminus has this, but I was too anxious to get it in and didn't take it apart.  
 
Ooo!  Another thing, it works with my Z-wave dimmers...  by itself.  I unscrewed an incandescent on a dimmer and screwed the base/adapter thing for the LED into it.  It dims, without other incandescents on the circuit.  It appears to dim down to about 25%, but I didn't spend a ton of time with it or measure the light output.
 
I'll use it for a couple of days, and if I have no complaints, I'm probably going to pick up several more of them.

When I saw what you said about working with Zwave dimmer I had to try them. I built my sons house 5 years ago and put in what was at the time the best LED cans on the market. They were the Progress Lighting P8058-30. Still today they are being sold for $142 each.
Anyway I also installed all Leviton Zwave dimmers. The cans did dim, but they flickered terribly when dimmed. In fact in one hall I only had three cans on the circuit and they flickered even on full on. 
 
So I have now replaced 18 of the Progress can lights with these from Costco. Huge difference. No Flicker. Very bright. Works great with Leviton Zwave (like you said will only dim to about 25% but we can live with that), and work fine with Elk and CQC automation.
 
Thanks for the alert

 

[apostolakisl]

I thought that was only available in the LR6 and other higher end models. I'd be interested to see if there is one in the lower models. Wanna take one apart for the CT community?

 
I have a ton of cr6 lights.  Like 50 or 60 of them between my house and office.  I tested a single LR6 a long time ago.  Besides costing a lot more, I didn't see that anything about the LR6 was better.  In fact, I kind of like the CR6 fixure appearance better.
 
I also just bought 3 new CR6's and put them next to some 3 year old CR6's.  The light color is identical.  So, I don't know if they are doing compensating or not, but at least after 3 years of use there is no difference.  These cans are in my kitchen also so they have been on a lot.
 
I buy a boat load of stuff at Costco.  But, every light bulb I ever got there stunk.  They sell lots of those Feit brand which have generally been POS every time I have tried one.  These LED's sound enticing, and they aren't made by Feit.  I don't know abou the 3000K though.  I really think that is too white for residential stuff.  But personal preference is what it is.

 

[signal15]

I thought the CR6 had this sensor also.  I took apart one of those Ecosmart ones when I got them, and it looked like it had a sensor in it.
 
When I posted the review above of these new lights from Costco, I wasn't sure if the wife would like them.  She was already in bed.  The next day, she gave me the go ahead to replace all of our cans with them.
 
I emailed the manufacturer, which is actually some company called Comglom or something like that.  I asked if there was a light sensor in them, but they never answered.  Luminus is the LED maker, and they DO have LED modules with sensors in them.  I'm just not sure if these have it.  I'll try to get one apart without breaking it and take some photos when I go pick up more.

 

[gatchel]

I might have been mistaken. The Cree website say "Active Color Management" for the CR6:

http://www.cree.com/cr6

I think this is the term Cree uses for the "Light Sensor".

It would be interesting to see if it is similar to the LR6...

 

[apostolakisl]

I might have been mistaken. The Cree website say "Active Color Management" for the CR6:

http://www.cree.com/cr6

I think this is the term Cree uses for the "Light Sensor".

It would be interesting to see if it is similar to the LR6...

 
To call it "active color management" must mean that it monitors the color, otherwise it would not be "active".  But whatever it does or doesn't do, the lights in my house have stayed true to color for years based on 3 year old lights sitting next to brand new lights looking exactly the same.