LED lighting goes mainstream! It's at Wal-Mart!

[MazdaMatt]

I work with LED's. Expensive ones used in pro sports score boards. They are expected to last a LONG time when people are paying that sort of money for them. When we want to dim them, we PWM them. Depending on the circuitry though, you can send different current through them for different brightness. I'd say you will likely get good resuilts from a standard dimmer on a 12V lighting system. Maybe not on a 120V system... For 6 bucks... TRY IT!

[dcwp]

Sounds like an interesting experiment. If I can figure out where the Wal-Mart is around here I'll give it a try!

[pugmanic]

LEDs themselves last a very long time. Most of the size of the bulb it taken up with heat sinks and controlling electronics. Unfortunatly its the associated electronics in the light bulbs that fail.

Jewllers use LED bulbs in their shop windows because of the brightness and colour of the lights, and because it saves them a fortune in leccy bills. They usually et given the bulbs free by the Jewellry manufacturers who want their goods sold inthe best light. The more bling the more items sold.

[bennelson]

I have also noticed LED lighting lately in gas station soft-drink display cases.

The full-wall coolers have vertical LED strip lights in rows between the doors. These lights run cool (so the fridge doesn't have to work harder) and the sodas look extra bright and sparkley!

[eco_generator]

Originally Posted by bennelson

Mine was a LIGHTS OF AMERICA brand, 5 watt spot/floodlight marked "bright white light" as the color.

It was $20.

My experience with Lights of America is that they are, how do I put this lightly... Ummm... they are crap. More than likely chinese made.

And with LED's you typically get what you pay for. Nicer stuff typically has waaay fewer (but much higher quality) LED's with better optics. I noticed for some bike headlights, that some use only 1 LED!

I compared a 1 LED medium quality bike light with the $5 Autozone mini LED flashlight with like 10 LED's. The 1 LED massively outshone the 10 very crappy LED's. Definitely pay more if you actually want quality and longevity out of your LED light source.

[bennelson]

The Lights of America LED that REPLACED the one that went bad over my sink is now ALSO going bad!

Never any problems with my C.Crane bulb though!


Looks like it is one of those "get what you pay for" things.

[dcwp]

I know it's been a while since this thread was active, but I finally got around to trying out one of the relatively cheap Wal-Mart LED spotlights. $13 per bulb is kind of pricey for me, but I bought one for a self Christmas present and may go to more if it works out.

What I bought is a 1Watt multi-LED spotlight with the two-prong connection that you see in standard mini-halogens. I put it in a four-bulb fixture in my bedroom that is attached to a dimmer.

The first thing I notice with the LED bulb is that it is not nearly as bright as the others. This will probably be fine since there is another fixture in the room and this one is mostly to help me find clothes in the closet, but it looks like it will be just barely bright enough to do that job. I wouldn't mind about 50% more candlepower to be really satisfied.

Next the color of the LED is way different than the mini-halogens (or whatever they are) that I replaced. I actually prefer the slightly blue light of the LED over the yellow of the old one, but for now it's a misfit since there are still three old-style bulbs.

Third, the dimmer does not work with the LEDs. It wasn't supposed to, and previous posters had warned about this, but now I can confirm that the LED bulbs are either on or off, no dimming. Not a big problem, especially since it's already a dim light, but my wife loves this dimmer. Actually if the colors matched, this might be an ideal solution since two bulbs point into the closet and need to be bright, but two point into the room and sometimes need to be dim.

Finally, and possibly most imoprtantly, the label on this bulb lists it as 1 watt and the old one said 50 watt. Assuming those are both accurate consumption numbers (i don't really know how that works), I have just reduced the consumption of that bulb by 98% and the overall fixture by nearly 25%. Cool!

Now the remaining question is lifespan. If the bulb lasts long enough I would consider switching all of the spotlights in the house over. But there are a total of 11 of this type of bulb in my house. That would cost $143 so I can't do it right away, but at 98% energy savings it could be worthwhile.

That's all for now. Hopefully I don't have the reliability issues that others are reporting here.

[Christ]

Part of the reason that LED bulb "isn't bright enough" for you, is because you're used to seeing everything in a much brighter light. Once you change the rest of those lights to the LED bulbs, give it about a week, and then put the Halo's back in. You'll immediately notice that the light output from the Halo's is TOO bright, and you won't be able to focus properly.

The fact that your eyes are adaptable is what pushes the movement for lower-powered bulbs.. in a closed space, given time to adjust, you can see just as clearly with a 40 watt bulb as you can with a 60 watt bulb. The fact that people don't notice immediately what will happen in a week or so, is what stops us all from getting lower-powered bulbs.

If you don't trust the watt rating of the LED bulbs, get a kill-a-watt and put the bulb in a lamp that you plug into a wall somewhere.

PS - I know you've been told for years not to put bulbs in a lamp that wasn't rated for them, but that only applies to bulbs that are rated HIGHER than your lamp is. Less wattage isn't a problem at all.

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by Christ

PS - I know you've been told for years not to put bulbs in a lamp that wasn't rated for them, but that only applies to bulbs that are rated HIGHER than your lamp is. Less wattage isn't a problem at all.

I did actually find an exception to use of lower watt bulbs. There are some outdoor landscaping 12V lights that require a certain load for the ballast to work right, but thats the only odd-one out.

Last time I stopped in at a Wal-Mart, I DID specifically go down the lighting isle just to see what they had.

There was a GE brand LED floodlight, something around a 7 watt or so rating. I was tempted to buy one just because it was a name brand. I did check, and it was still a "made in China" item.

It seems there is wildly varying quality of LED bulbs out there. Well built ones will last a VERY long time.

Poor quality ones only turn people off from the technology.

[dcwp]

I take your point about the brightness being something I can adapt to. In fact, the reason this fixture is on a dimmer is because it is brighter than the sun at full power and I often get up before my wife so I can use the dimmer to find my clothes without waking her up.

So in general I think these bulbs will be bright enough, the biggest draw back is going to be that the light is both less bright and more directional. We have two closets side by side and four bulbs on the fixture so we have aimed one bulb into each closet and the other two back into the room. The LED pointing into my side of the closet casts more and darker shadows than the halo. If I'm not mistaken, the LED tends to be directional, which is why they are most commonly sold as spotlights. It's the combination of that and the lower candle power that could cause problems.

BUT I have been using the LED for a week now without any fashion disasters and I'm sure I'll adjust to the shadows just as quickly as the color and brightness. If it becomes a real problem, I can just aim all four bulbs into the closet. I am a little more concerned about the kitchen where we also currently have four mini-halo spotlights strategically aimed to light all the nooks and crannies. It may be more difficult to get around the shadows when working in corners, under cabinets, etc. I'll be happy to cross that bridge when I come to it.

On a slightly different note... if I'm not mistaken, most of the CFLs that are available in the US are also made in China regardless of brand name. It is my understanding that you are still getting a better product by buying GE or other name brand because they start with higher quality electronic components. I could easily be wrong, but a side-by-side test of the off-brand and GE LED would be very interesting.