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

[bennelson]

DCWP, is THIS



the bulb you bought? (Or one really similar to it?)

I agree that they are not as bright, but take an amazingly small amount of energy.

Mostly, when people talk about "harsh shadows" it refers to a light source being a very small point. this makes the edges of shadows very sharply defined.

If you build your own LED arrays, you can actually lightly sand the tips of the LEDs to frost them, and diffuse the light.

If you purchase an LED array bulb, a simple diffuser can be made from a small piece of parchment paper or similar material that will defuse light and still be fire resistant (even though LEDs put out very little heat, you still want to be safe!)

[gascort]

I recently purchased a few on Ebay; some are bad in color and others are not. I got some that were screw-type spotlights, but they're the size of the mini bulbs. 48 LEDs in each, and not very bright, and blueish in color. 1.8W is the reading on my Watts Up? (Kill-a-watt) meter, equivalent to 6 cents per month of 24/7 use. I killed one already on a dimmer by cooking a resistor on the circuit board.

I also got some 80-LED screw-type ones that were advertised as super bright and white, and the color is much better. Looks home-made, but high quality and nice color light. Came from NY. I haven't checked with the meter what these use yet, but I'd bet around 4-5W. Light output equal to a 40W incandescent.

I think in 5 years these will be the new CFLs. In '03 I bought like 25 of a variety of CFLs and many broke (burned out). Of the ones that lived or were replaced, none have gone in at least a year. Give it time.

I'm excited to try to make some of the 12v ones into dusk/dawn headlights for my car. I don't need lights on my commute (daybreak) but people expect you to have them on since it's still dim outside.

Oh, and this isn't surprising since Lowes and Walmart are the same company, but they now sell them at some Lowes locations. (my students have told me this, but I don't have them at the one by my home)

[pugmanic]

Hi, I have looked into LED bulbs in the past because they sound like they offer the ultimate solution. A massive saving in electricity, comparable light and vast lifespan - Brilliant! Or is it? The simple truth is no.

LEDs do not offer a comparable light source to conventional bulbs. They have a lower luminosity and are also a very focused light, meaning that they are only really good for spots, or torches and the like.

The lifespan is also an unfortunate fallacy. The LEDs themselves have a reasonably long life span, however the electronics that control them in bulbs do not.

I hope that as with many things the quality and quantity of the bulbs is increased giving better reliability and a realistic cost saving. The latter is also never guaranteed as someone has to make a profit somewhere along the line.

[Christ]

Originally Posted by pugmanic

Hi, I have looked into LED bulbs in the past because they sound like they offer the ultimate solution. A massive saving in electricity, comparable light and vast lifespan - Brilliant! Or is it? The simple truth is no.

LEDs do not offer a comparable light source to conventional bulbs. They have a lower luminosity and are also a very focused light, meaning that they are only really good for spots, or torches and the like.

The lifespan is also an unfortunate fallacy. The LEDs themselves have a reasonably long life span, however the electronics that control them in bulbs do not.

I hope that as with many things the quality and quantity of the bulbs is increased giving better reliability and a realistic cost saving. The latter is also never guaranteed as someone has to make a profit somewhere along the line.

Yes, LED's are normally uni-directional. The easy fix to this if you're making your own bulbs is to flatten the round tops of the LED, so that they disperse light, rather than pointing it.

If you really have an issue with filing your LED's, and you're building your own light array, consider the area that you're trying to illuminate, and build the array accordingly. Don't place all the LED's in the same orientation if you're not looking for a spot light, instead try placing them in a "bulbous" array... which might make the light pattern appear closer to a typical incandescent bulb.

Given the proper control electronics and quality of manufacturing, an LED bulb could provide more light watt for watt than a typical incandescent bulb.

[trikkonceptz]

As far as automotive LED's and some home and industrial stuff, I normally frequent Oznium, LEDs - underbody kits, cathodes, flexible LED strips, dome lights

I find them to be fairly inexpensive on the automotive side of LEDS and they make replacements for just about all bulb types.

I too am waiting for the home bulbs to come down in price before switching from my CFL's, in the meantime though I may use some strip lighting LED's along my floors in place of actually turning on the overhead lighting.

[Christ]

I actually planned on making my own LED light panels for my car, whenever I got around to doing it... now, I found LED tails for my Caravan, so that won't be necessary. At least for that one.

Whatever EV project I end up doing, I will probably have all LED lights on, even if it's fast enough to make it onto the highway, because it will be just that - a project. Everything on it will have to be inspected before it can be titled anyway, so if the inspection station checks the lights for output and range, and they pass them, then It will be all good from there.

That, of course, will be in years to come.

[crexcrex]

LED's are in use in Canada on trucks cars and various types of street lighting, get with the program i have used them since 2003 without a hitch nor glitch a straight plug n play with a electronic flasher, forget about resistors and caving due to punching in too much juice................led tailights, dash etc are affordable................try buying led headlights.
LED'S light emitting diodes.............

[dcwp]

Hey Bennelson,

I finally got home (travelling all the time these days) and checked my packaging. In fact it looks like I managed to buy one of the GE bulbs. That gives me hope that it will last a reasonable amount of time.

As for the shadows, they really aren't severe enough for me to worry about changing them now. Upthread I was mostly documenting my observations, but in sum I think I'm thrilled with the LED light. Could be better in some ways, but 98% energy reduction is just too much for me to quibble. As far as I'm concerned right now, the only outstanding issue is how long the bulb will last.

[bennelson]

A while back, somebody suggested to me to mark down when a bulb was installed.

Use a marker to write the date right on it, or mark it directly on the fixture with a pencil.

That way you don't have to remember when you put the bulb in or misplace the information somewhere else.

[dcwp]

Yep, that's the main reason I posted here. When it finally goes out I'll check back to this thread for the details and let other folks know so we can start building a knowledgebase of lifespan for these bulbs. If only I were always this organized!