CREE LED Sale at Home Depot

[elhigh]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

I don't see the CFLs burning out regularly. I think I've lost one or two over the years, and I have a couple that date back to maybe the mid-90s, before the twisty shape became standard.

Same result. I moved into my current place in 1999, and the first thing I did was replace the bulbs in the dining room fixture. Dreadful, TVA-designed "all-new, all-electric!" house with glaring fixtures directly overhead. One lamp burned out about a month later and I didn't care. The other two lamps are still there, and that's the dining room - quite a lot of hours there. It gets about 2.5 hours per day, more in winter. Those CFs will actually deliver on their promised 20,000 hours, unlike lots of others I've seen.

[sheepdog 44]

To those who have them, is the quality of light better than incandescent or CFL?

[PAFirefighter11]

Originally Posted by sheepdog 44

To those who have them, is the quality of light better than incandescent or CFL?

I took a side by side photo and can't find it now. Our front porch lights are identical and I wanted to see the difference. Color, of the 2700K ones at least, was identical. Output was identical, but I don't recall what wattage bulb was in there. I can try to source a bulb and snap another side by side shot at night if I get a free moment.

The output of the CREE "60 watt equivalent" LED clusters that we're using has been on par with the 60 watt bulbs that they have replaced. Outdoors we have 4 floods. 1250 lumens, halogen, on all 4. I replaced them with the "65 watt equivalent" floods. The color is better (soft, relaxing) but the output obviously isn't the same in this case. If the floods are being used inside in a recessed lighting situation, I'd say go for it. If you are going for optimal power outdoors, look for another LED that'll most likely be 5 times as expensive or more. Or, just wait a little bit 'til CREE comes up with something better. They have the right technology. I just want to see some better output on their floods.

Outside I prefer the LED or Halogen 100% over the CFL's, especially in winter. It's cold here in PA in fall, winter and early spring. The CFL's take forever warm up to full lumens output, typically when I need light right away and it's cold out.

[elhigh]

I have several mounted in several places in the homeless shelter; I'm pretty cognizant of quality of light and can tell you this: a good LED looks like a halogen lamp. They're bright and very white and kind of piercing, you don't want to look right at them. I've seen the emulator versions that try to replicate the color temperature of incandescent. It looks like it's trying too hard and actually hitting closer to being a sodium vapor emulator. Bleah.

The bright white ones are very nice in my opinion. I have a few that have been in the peak of the chapel, 35' off the ground, for a couple of years now. Already they've avoided about $800 in lift rental, so we're already saving money for having switched to LEDs for certain applications.

[jeff88]

How much did you get the flood lights for?

I've got like 18 flood lights in my new-to-me house and want to change to LED, but I'm looking for like $10 rather than 20 or 30 or 40 (for obvious reasons, that's a lot of fixtures!). I've been checking whenever I make a trip to HD, so I'm glad to see this. The only ones I can find are ebay bulbs and most of them are no-name, so there is a quality assurance issue.

[PAFirefighter11]

Originally Posted by jeff88

How much did you get the flood lights for?

I've got like 18 flood lights in my new-to-me house and want to change to LED, but I'm looking for like $10 rather than 20 or 30 or 40 (for obvious reasons, that's a lot of fixtures!). I've been checking whenever I make a trip to HD, so I'm glad to see this. The only ones I can find are ebay bulbs and most of them are no-name, so there is a quality assurance issue.

The floods are still relatively expensive (though not compared to costs even 5 years ago). They're just around $20 each. That's why we only purchased 4 this past trip, though need 7 total for the house.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by sheepdog 44

To those who have them, is the quality of light better than incandescent or CFL?

Quality is a pretty subjective thing - witness all the naysayers who complain about CFLs because they're "bluer" than incandescents, and hence closer to natural daylight. (Honestly, I think some of these folks would be happiest with kerosene lanterns :-)) But to my taste, the daylight CREE LEDs are close to real sunlight. If you mount one next to a CFL, the CFL looks almost dirty by comparison.

[darcane]

Originally Posted by jeff88

How much did you get the flood lights for?

I've got like 18 flood lights in my new-to-me house and want to change to LED, but I'm looking for like $10 rather than 20 or 30 or 40 (for obvious reasons, that's a lot of fixtures!). I've been checking whenever I make a trip to HD, so I'm glad to see this. The only ones I can find are ebay bulbs and most of them are no-name, so there is a quality assurance issue.

Do you have Costco down there?

A few months back they had a big discount on 3 packs of LED bulbs. Our local electric company also provides subsidies for consumer purchased, high efficiency light bulbs. Combine the two and I picked up two 3-packs for about $20 IIRC.

I won't spend $10 for a bulb, so my one dimmable light fixture still had incandescents (CFLs everywhere else in the house), but once I saw this I pulled the trigger on some LEDs. They work pretty well, but don't dim as nicely as the old bulbs did. I also have one in my drop light in the garage since CFLs can't take an impact very well.

[gone-ot]

Can't speak for others, but ALL of our CFL failures have been in locations (fans, overhead lamps, etc.) where the CFL's were mounted bulb-down (base up).

All of our failures were characterized first by heat discolorization of the base material, then (sometimes) strange smells, followed finally by complete failure. After experiencing the same results with different brands (FEIT, Ikea, GE, N:Vision), I switched to LED's for these locations.

[jeff88]

I. Love. Costco! If it wasn't for Costco, I probably wouldn't drink milk (for some reason, all other milk tastes sour). And their meat (especially Kinders)... OK, I have to stop, I'm eating as I type and I'm getting hungry!

$3 a bulb would be amazing! I only accepted $10, because it was half of the next best price. I'll look for them next time I do a Costco run. Maybe Black Friday, they'll be on sale, but I don't know if it would be worth it. I've heard of power companies doing incentives, especially in the PNW, but I'll have to check if PG&E does it for bulbs.

Luckily, I think only one room has dimmers, so we should be fine, although I thought LEDs were supposed to be good at dimming?

Thanks for the heads-up!