More on LED bulbs...

[Daniel Meyer]

For those of us interested in the efficiency...but that have fixtures that the bulbs are visible in...they are getting interesting...here's an LED filament bulb...

http://blog.1000bulbs.com/led-light-bul ... -filament/

[Texas_Ranger]

THe thing I don't like about LEDs is that the actual light colour is still so unpredictable - buy three LED bulbs from the same manufacturer and each will look noticeably different. I was lucky with one that I actually couldn't distinguish from an incandescent bulb but the other two... one is pinkish and the other greenish. At least they've gotten much cheaper now. The old 21 W IKEA compact fluorescent in the hall is gone for good, bye-bye to the days of waiting over a minute for the hall light to gain full brightness! The 16.4 W LED is also brighter than the old CFL.

Still I'm glad I bought hundreds of incandescent bulbs before the ban.

[Daniel Meyer]

That's actually why I buy from that company (1000bulbs). They carry better brands than you can get at the big box store, and cheaper, even with shipping if you buy a few.

We have a lot of CFL's...they went in as the incandescents burned out...and have all been the same color...now, as we use up the CFL's, we are changing over to LED...just got 5 big round vanity bulbs for the same fixture and they are all the same color....

Disclaimer...I've not tried the "filament led" bulb above yet.

[jharkin]

I've been buying all Philips LEDs and they have been great. Better light than CFL by far. Expensive but you get what you pay for....

[Gothichome]

How much heat do these produce? LED flash lights and electronic indicator lights put out very little heat but they are running very low voltage. And how would you think they would look in my cranberry oil lamps as compared to the incandescent chandelier bulbs I have now? Is the colour of the light softer or yellower ?

[Texas_Ranger]

They don't dissipate much heat but the top section with the electronics does get blazing hot so you don't want them to be close to combustible surfaces and I strongly suspect if you run them without any ventilation you'll fry the electronics pretty quickly.

One major different is that the LEDs - like CFLs - have a rather chunky base that blocks any light. Incandescent bulbs also cast a lot of light up towards the ceiling and if you have transparent lamp shades the difference is quite noticeable.

Light colour still seems to be a bit hit or miss. I only buy "warm white" but the results vary quite a bit even for the same model and also depending on paint colours, lamp shades etc. Most tend to be a bit bluish/greenish while some are decidedly pink. I tried an 11 W Ledare LED from IKEA (dirt cheap, I think 4 Euros) in three different rooms and the difference was astonishing. In a room with a slightly greenish frosted glass shade and blue walls I honestly couldn't tell any difference between the LED and an incandescent bulb (and I'm SUPER picky!), in a room with beige walls and a yellow parchment lamp shade there was a visible difference but you get used to the LED and in a third room with yellow walls and a Tiffany lamp shade the same lamp looked horribly green, bad enough to have me remove it after a few seconds.

But yes, they're bright. For a long time most LEDs were hardly more than night lights but current 11 and 16 W ones rival 60 and 100 W incandescent bulbs. I replaced a 21 W CFL with a 16.4 W LED and it feels a lot brighter! That's probably due to the fact that the CFL was already a few years old though, they lose brightness fairly quickly (and are officially considered useless once they emit less than 80% of the original light level, which usually happens MUCH earlier than after the advertised 15000 hours). Anyway, not having to wait for the light come on is an incredible improvement and the light is much better! Given the choice between CFL and LED I'd immediately jump for the latter but if I can take an incandescent bulb I probably will (although I'm considering LED for my desk lamp to make the room less hot in summer).

[SkipW]

Daniel, thanks for posting that! For those of us that love Edison bulbs, it's been a bad transition to LED. Also thanks for the link to 1000bulbs too. I think I'll give one a shot just to see how it looks. I doubt it will look like a true Edison but who knows? If it's horrible, it will go in a lamp where you can't see the bulb...

[Daniel Meyer]

Daniel, thanks for posting that! For those of us that love Edison bulbs, it's been a bad transition to LED. Also thanks for the link to 1000bulbs too. I think I'll give one a shot just to see how it looks. I doubt it will look like a true Edison but who knows? If it's horrible, it will go in a lamp where you can't see the bulb...

Heh, I like 'em...but if you're not ready for LED's yet...that same company also carries all the antique filament style Edison bulbs...some really, really, cool ones too!

[Daniel Meyer]

More on the LED's...a tease really...I am trying out a couple of the LED filament bulbs...the folks over at 1000bulbs.com hooked me up...basically looking for some interesting bulbs for open fixtures in the Old Vic...where the bulb is clearly visible and part of the style.

Short version...I LIKE 'em. I will do a more extensive write up with more pics later...

Short of it is:
--One tenth the power consumption and fifteen times the life of an incandescent. Same brightness.
--The center bulb is 2700k color...indistinguishable from a standard incandescent
--The edison style tipped bulb (second from left) is a warmer bulb like an edison bulb would be.
--Instant start...no dim/warmup like a CFL. No cold issues.
--Even more efficient than CFL (about 1/3rd the power).
--No hum or electrical noise like the CFL's can do.


I got 4 of the standard bulb shape (center bulb) for a fixture in the living room where the bulbs are visible...will post pics when I install them there.

For the tipped Edison style, I broke out my (as my wife calls it) "Early Victorian Bondage Dungeon Style" lamp for a quick pic...with flash so the bulb appears dimmer...


There are more styles of these coming out quite soon...

[Gothichome]

Hey, I like that bulb. To every one else though it's just a plain old gothic revival style lamp.