# LED light bulbs: life? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 7, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024 "2014-11-07T22:29:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tommy\_Bahama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/278dde/32.png) [@Tommy\_Bahama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_Bahama)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/21 "2014-11-09T00:07:00Z")
Moved into a new house about 2 years ago that had halogen outdoor up lights. On average I replaced one a month at around $8 a pop. About a year ago I got tired of constantly replacing the bulbs and spent the $$ to replace them with led’s. since then not a single bulb has failed. I’m sold on the technology and I am currently replacing all the bulbs in my house with LEDs as the conventional ones burn out. Btw, the bulbs I bought had a two year warranty. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/22 "2014-11-09T19:36:05Z")
Just for another data point, we’ve got about a dozen ceiling can LEDs that have been going multiple times a day for 2 1/2 years with no issues. Let’s all check back to this thread in 2024 when we can have some real data about longetivity… ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/23 "2014-11-10T00:06:42Z")
> [@Tommy\_Bahama](#): > > Moved into a new house about 2 years ago that had halogen outdoor up lights. On average I replaced one a month at around $8 a pop. About a year ago I got tired of constantly replacing the bulbs and spent the $$ to replace them with led’s. since then not a single bulb has failed. I’m sold on the technology and I am currently replacing all the bulbs in my house with LEDs as the conventional ones burn out. > > Btw, the bulbs I bought had a two year warranty. $8 a ‘POP’ for halogen - AYFKM, Um not in any store I am aware of, more like $2, $8 A POP is about the price LED’s may drop to within a week or 2, till then you will need to pony up $10 for a LED replacement. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/24 "2014-11-10T02:11:04Z")
Thank you all for your input. Mrs R and I went shopping and now our living room, dining room, and kitchen all have LED lighting. Turn on the lights in the kitchen, it’s so bright it looks like an alien spaceship is landing in there! Crees weren’t available at the store we went to, so we bought some Sylvanias and some Utilitechs. We went for the “warm white” color, which is still noticeable whiter than our old incandescents. The LED spotlights in the kitchen are much more directional than the old incandescent spotlight bulbs were; there are pronounced dark areas now. Hmmmm. Maybe I’ll add more spots. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/25 "2014-11-10T02:24:21Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#): > > Crees weren’t available at the store we went to, so we bought some Sylvanias and some Utilitechs. Home Depot is the retail outlet for them. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/26 "2014-11-10T02:33:31Z")
> [@Rocketeer](#): > > Thank you all for your input. Mrs R and I went shopping and now our living room, dining room, and kitchen all have LED lighting. Turn on the lights in the kitchen, it’s so bright it looks like an alien spaceship is landing in there! … This is interesting as this has been my experience with CF lights. Add more ‘light’, much more, then the IC equivalent in lumens. To the point that that it appears like aircraft landing lights in your living room yet you still can’t see ---- (anything). Sorry to hear that LED’s have lived up to the same. I guess I will invest in heat bulbs. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/27 "2014-11-10T03:00:18Z")
with bulbs there are a number of factors. there is wattage or equivalent. the color or color temperature of the bulb. the light distribution (directional bulbs will seem brighter in the focused area). ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/28 "2014-11-10T04:18:39Z")
I have gotten into the habit of writing the date on bulbs when I replace them. I have only had one LED fail on me and that was about after 6 months so I guess it was faulty. The problem at our house is that we have several (6) light circuits on dimmers. I haven’t come across a dimmable LED bulb. I tried a dimmable CF but it wouldn’t go down particularly low without flickering and it died pretty quickly. If it was possible I would replace all remaining bulbs with LEDs. ---
**Author:** ![Mdcastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/958977/32.png) [@Mdcastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mdcastle)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/29 "2014-11-10T04:36:46Z")
Most of the name brand (Philips, Cree, etc) are listed for use with dimmers. The performance is a little less horrible than “dimmable” compact fluorescents. ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/30 "2014-11-10T04:45:08Z")
Cree has a list of dim-able bulbs. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/31 "2014-11-10T04:49:36Z")
> [@kanicbird](#): > > This is interesting as this has been my experience with CF lights. Add more ‘light’, much more, then the IC equivalent in lumens. To the point that that it appears like aircraft landing lights in your living room yet you still can’t see ---- (anything). > > Sorry to hear that LED’s have lived up to the same. > > I guess I will invest in heat bulbs. If you really think that this is true (it’s not, BTW), just buy a lower wattage-equivalent lamp. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/32 "2014-11-10T05:21:11Z")
I run LED rope lights for my primary lighting in my house, run around the top of the wall. they have a really nice soft warm glow without any glare or spots of brightness. Of course you sometimes need a brighter light for those times you need to really SEE things but I use those rope lights for 99% of my needs. ---
**Author:** ![duncs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@duncs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duncs)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2014, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024/33 "2014-11-10T10:01:44Z")
> [@Mdcastle](#): > > There’s Chinese products, and there’s Chinese crap. iPhones are made in China too. A company like Cree is going to implement quality control, something lacking in say those cheap corn-cob bulbs you can buy on eBay. Yes, those cheap LED bulbs from China on eBay can and do catch fire as I have found out. It lasted less than 6 months before it started flickering and then melting the plastic housing and catching fire. I was lucky I caught it early enough and not too much damage was done. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/led-light-bulbs-life/704024.md?page=1)