I have seen LED “bulbs”, with screw bases (that screw in to a 120 V AC socket. They are expensive now, but I expect tha price will drop rapidly. They use far less power, and should last indefinitely. For those of you who are “early adopters”-do you like them? Some people say the light is not “warm”-it has too much blue in it. What is your experience?
I did try a GU10 halogen replacement and it was completely hopeless.
Very blue and very little light from it.
I replaced a 24 hr security light w a 4 watt bulb which I got from W-mart for about 6 dollars. It doesn’t show during the day but in the dark it’s bright enough to see where to put the key in the car and keep the things that go bump at bay. It would be better if the LEDs pointed down or out instead of up but the price was right. the best thing is that the light is white with almost no blue tinge.
I’ve got some candelabra replacement bulbs in my entry hall. They are not very bright, and in fact dim, but it was what I was looking for there. They give off a very small amount of light even when off, which is a bit strange. They were not expensive. They are growing on me a bit because I do not think I will every have to replace these very difficult to reach bulbs again.
I have a spot light replacement one in an upstairs hallway. Again, not very bright. The color is wrong. This one is a loser.
I have tested them. They are very different. The color is different. The illumination angle is different. The price is certainly different. I do not think they are a direct replacement but they already have their uses. A small store window where halogens were used was getting too hot and LED lights were a far superior choice. But they would not work in your average lamp which needs to give light in all directions.
As a general advice I would say wait. When prices come down and you’ve had a chance to see them in other places then you can buy some and test yourself.
I replaced an incandescent night light rated at 7 watts with a LED version rated at .5 watts (and there were .3 watt versions on the shelf). That’s a drastic savings in running costs, and the LED claims to last 15 years; the older bulb usually lasted 1-2 years. Both old and new units cost about the same initially, and have a light sensor so they will be on about the same number of hours per year.
However, the LED is a very blueish light and not diffused as much as the incandescent. It’s in the bathroom and really too bright to look directly at at night in a dark room. I with they had used a better diffuser and I’d really prefer a electroluminescent panel, but I don’t see those available locally.
Odd…electroluminescence was touted in the 1960’s as the next great light source for everything; walls were supposed to be covered with light panels in “The Future”. I guess we’ll have to wait for tomorrow for the future.
:::sigh:::
:::Looks around at OP, notices it’s ralph124c, winces, moves thread:::
Since the OP is really asking for opinions, NOT asking a General Question, let’s move this to IMHO.
samclem Moderator, General Questions
I have a few around my apt building, in areas where it’s hard to replace the bulb. I got some 25watt equivilant, which means they are not all the bright. In the long term, they will pay for themselves, of course.
I got the 25w equiv for around $8 each (on line, eBay, in a lot of 3). The 60watt equiv runs 3X that!
I suggest LEDs for areas where they will burn 24 hours, you don’t need super bright, and the bulb is a little hard to get to. If it wasn’t for the recent abrupt reducion in CF bulbs, I’d likely be using more. But CF are running like a buck each now.
My back of the envelope calculation has a 7 watt bulb running 50% of the time costing maybe $3.00/year. So the savings might be drastic, but it’s probably not significant.