LED Bulbs

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  • Jim Frye
    Veteran Member
    • Dec 2002
    • 1051
    • Maumee, OH, USA.
    • Ryobi BT3000 & BT3100

    #16
    Well, the cheap LED bulbs I bought when we replaced the fixed LED fixture in the laundry room burned out today. That was 2 of 4 bulbs and they lasted all of a year. I replaced the bulbs with some GE Bright Sticks I had on hand and we'll see how long they last.
    Jim Frye
    The Nut in the Cellar.
    ”Sawdust Is Man Glitter”

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    • capncarl
      Veteran Member
      • Jan 2007
      • 3564
      • Leesburg Georgia USA
      • SawStop CTS

      #17
      Sams club sold the GE bright sticks 5? Or so years ago. Of any of those bulbs that I purchased then, all are still operating. I wish that I could say that of the store brand led bulbs I purchase at Lowe’s

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      • Injuneer
        Forum Newbie
        • Jan 2019
        • 19
        • Triangle area, NC
        • Ryobi BT3000

        #18
        One thing that nobody ever talks about, and also seemingly very few people care or even know about is the fact that CFLs and to a greater extent, LEDs emit gobs of RF interference.
        As an amateur radio operator, this is a major problem. My "hamshack" is in the loft above the garage. I had put LED recessed lighting in when I finished it, and discovered I can't run those while operating in the high-frequency (shortwave) band. Also, there is a set of three downward facing flood light Edison base LEDs in a fixture above the pool table which I cannot use while operating HF. The only light I can have on when using the radio is an incandescent. If my neighbor has his front porch light on, it causes all sorts of wideband trash on the lower HF bands. I usually wait until he turns it off or just call him and ask him to turn it off. I haven't a clue why the FCC hasn't cracked down on all of this yet - it can tear up the AM band as well.
        The environmentalists have really put a strain on things... lighting is literally one of the smallest energy "eaters" that there is, yet they decided to attack the incandescent enemy first.
        Don't even get me started on what the LED streetlights have done to kill my amateur astronomy / astrophotography hobby.... Suffice it to say that for some of us, light pollution is a far greater kind of pollution than air pollution ever was.

        Comment


        • Slik Geek
          Slik Geek commented
          Editing a comment
          My neighbor installed conventional T8 fluorescent fixtures in his standalone workshop. The ballasts were dirt cheap imports. Then he discovered that his FM radio (and obviously AM radio) in the shop was not even usable due to EMI from the ballasts. I don't get why the FCC hasn't stopped these electrically noisy ballasts.
      • cwsmith
        Veteran Member
        • Dec 2005
        • 2737
        • NY Southern Tier, USA.
        • BT3100-1

        #19
        I couldn't agree more! Two years ago the city replaced their older yellowish looking lights with LEDs. The light is harsh and glaring, so much so that when it snows or rains you can't see the fall, unless you go upstairs so you are above the fixture. The glare is penetrating and I've noticed a lot more animal activity at night. Obviously there is NO concern for nocturnal creatures are are being disrupted all over the country. I recently read an article (can't remember where, that these LED's are causing problems with animals. I know they're causing problems for me, as the glare is substantially difficult, causing eye strain and giving me a headach. I installed an LED shop light in my office area, and had to remount it so as get the actual tubes further into the ceiling so I can't see the actual bulbs.

        CWS
        Think it Through Before You Do!

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        • leehljp
          Just me
          • Dec 2002
          • 8429
          • Tunica, MS
          • BT3000/3100

          #20
          CWS, I guess if it is on the internet, it must be true! I said that because I did a search a couple of months ago on Which color headlights is most effective in seeing down the road. I found one "technical" writing (and could not find it two weeks later) and in the article, the distinction between LED light, halogen lights and one other were mentioned. First it said that 5000-6000k offered the most effective viewing by the driver. The next part kinda floored me. The article discussed the wave length and something else about each kind of light. It said that LED headlights were less invasive or less blinding than the others, as the others do something different to the eye, with the light blindness by the others (Other than LED) causing longer adjustment back to normal sight after being blinded. I know that in the house with incandescent bulbs, I like plenty of light. 100W everywhere - until we changed to fluorescent bulbs in 2005 and LEDs in 2017,. If I look directly at an incandescent 100W bulb, I will see spots for longer than if I look at the 100W equivalent LED. That is why I thought the previously mentioned article had some legitimacy.

          I personally had noticed that to some degree on vehicles, that an "on bright" yellowish light (on coming traffic) takes me longer to adjust afterwards than a bright white light of LED. But that is for me. I got into this after we purchased a 2017 RAV4 new and the headlights were way too high and Toyota said they could not be adjusted and me arguing that they SHOULD be able to be adjusted. I finally found out how to do that and it was simple. When aimed too high, I had no problems on divided highways or even 4 lanes, but two lane roads, every car flashed their lights for me to dim mine and they were already on dim. I want to put LEDs on my 2009 Camry but haven't done that yet.

          As to my shop, I changed everything out to LEDs 5000k. When making pens, 5000K shows up the color and hue correctly. I love bright so that I can see!
          Last edited by leehljp; 04-25-2019, 01:41 PM.
          Hank Lee

          Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted!

          Comment


          • cwsmith
            cwsmith commented
            Editing a comment
            I would agree on the light temperature that "daylight" 5,000 K bulbs are the best, but the brighter 6500 K really do hurt my eyes. I have a couple of LED shop lights here in my basement office (once my shop). I put them in last year to replace some noisy flickering old T8 bulbs. I hung the LED's on the old hangers and that seemed alright when I was working with wood. But, I am now down here working on my 35mm slide digitizing project and the light behind me was giving a glare into my laptop screen. The tubes didn't bother my eyes, but the glare reflection on the screen was giving me headaches and causing eye strain. I'd try to keep the screen at an angle to avoid the reflection, but after a couple of weeks, I just moved the light fixture further up into the ceiling area.

            I don't drive much at night anymore, but the few times I do, the LED lights on some cars I find almost blinding, especially when the ill-mannered have their lights on high-beam, or I get one of those big pickups that have raised their suspensions.... I really think the State DMV needs to better regulate such things

            I'm all for any technology that makes the planet better, but I think that energy conservation needs to be looked at with wider parameters to take collateral effects into consideration.

            CWS
        • Carlos
          Veteran Member
          • Jan 2004
          • 1893
          • Phoenix, AZ, USA.

          #21
          Watch out for swap-in LED replacement "bulbs" if you do your other car. They are usually a disaster. I did aftermarket full LED headlights on my Jeep, and the improvement is simply stunning. I hate that I waited as long as I did. On my motorcycle, I went through three junky "bulb" replacements that scattered light everywhere before I got one that makes a huge improvement.

          Comment

          • Injuneer
            Forum Newbie
            • Jan 2019
            • 19
            • Triangle area, NC
            • Ryobi BT3000

            #22
            The #1 issue with replacing halogen bulbs in automotive use is that fools will swap in an HID or LED bulb and not swap out the headlight reflector / lens assembly. The halogen headlight assemblies are constructed and formed for use with a halogen filament bulb of a specific length and located at a specific point. With the HID and LED replacements, that specific length and point is in a different spot. What one ends up with as a result is light spilling directly from the bulb and light being scattered all over the place instead of tightly controlled. LED and HID bulbs / assemblies from the factory will have shutters or aiming elements and sharp cutoff shutters which cut the light off in a very sharp, specific pattern. They will also typically have a sensor which tells the system how loaded the vehicle is, and will adjust the headlight accordingly. All of this is done so that a minimal amount of light; most likely far less than even a halogen headlamp is spilled into oncoming eyeballs. Fools don't care if they're blinding others, and yearly state safety inspection stations don't check for this like they're supposed to.
            As far as "saving the planet"... I can imagine that if saving perhaps 10 ounces of fuel per automobile per year constitutes "planet saving", then yeah, they "save the planet", but I wonder about at what cost to life from people who are blinded from fools and have a fatal collision as a result, as well as the increased production costs, energy costs, and toxic chemicals required for construction of those "planet savers". It's pretty doggone simple, quick, and "environmentally friendly" to make a coil of metal inside a quartz envelope.

            Comment

            • tjoosk
              Banned
              • Aug 2019
              • 10

              #23
              I've had good and bad luck with LED screw in units. Our front porch light is a can fixture and incandescent floods lasted less than 3 months. After the first 9 months, I switched to an LED flood and it's been in there for the last 2 years and 3 months. I'd call that good. We had an LED fixture in the laundry room that lasted two years before one of the four segments went bonkers.

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