Indoor floorlights

[brakedancer]

anybody have any experience replacing indoor floods? Mine are going out and are looking at new ones..the old 65 watt aren't available anymore..so I'm looking at fluorescent and led..any recomendations? some have different color available..bright,cool,warm ..need help deciding ..thanks

[CAMAN]

CFL's are on the way out, and IMO complete trash anyway, I would go with LED's, that is if you can afford the higher upfront cost right now.

Unless you want your home to feel like an operating room, get warm colored lighting, it will feel the same or similar to incandescent or halogen. Cooler colors are for use in areas where you need high intensity lighting and no need for an "ambiance" to make the colors of your home richer.

[delcecchi]

I have dimmers on mine, and a dimmable CFL that I put in doesn't work very well. It may be because there is still an incandescent on the same dimmer.

65 watt incandescents are still available. I saw them at target and walmart within the last two days.

I think I will just buy some.

[brakedancer]

well part of my thinking is that I have 6 floods that are tough to change..they are in a high ceiling..requiring a ladder..and I was going to put in some longer lasting bulbs in there if I can find a suitable replacement..they are in an open kitchen ceiling...

[Tom7227]

.so I'm looking at fluorescent and led..any recomendations?

Was just at at a lighting store on Friday and I think they said that the LED screw in units are now down to about $17 each, much better than the 45 they were last summer when I looked at them. The bulbs are also dimmable. Muska on Grand had them. They should last a long long time and the color of the light was the same as the old fashioned screw in - sort of a warm yellow or whatever it's called. Definitely not the bright bluish white you see on some LEDs

[CAMAN]

CFL's are on the way out, and IMO complete trash anyway, I would go with LED's, that is if you can afford the higher upfront cost right now.

Unless you want your home to feel like an operating room, get warm colored lighting, it will feel the same or similar to incandescent or halogen. Cooler colors are for use in areas where you need high intensity lighting and no need for an "ambiance" to make the colors of your home richer.

Just re-read my post above and realize I wasn't totally clear or could get someone confused. LED 's are rated in a couple different ways depending on how the manufacturer wants to represent their product. One way is by giving you a temperature on how the bulb looks to the eye (Warm, neutral, cool, etc.) warm would look more like an incandescent/halogen, cool would look like a standard fluorescent bulb.

Another way is by giving you the measure of color in Degrees Kelvin. It doesn't mean the bulb burns any hotter or anything, it is showing you where the light falls in relation to the white light color spectrum. Only white bulbs are rated in this way. For most normal home situations you would want a bulb that falls in the 2500-3000 range. They will give a warm yellowish/orange hue. The higher the number the "bluer" the hue coming from the bulb.

[delcecchi]

well part of my thinking is that I have 6 floods that are tough to change..they are in a high ceiling..requiring a ladder..and I was going to put in some longer lasting bulbs in there if I can find a suitable replacement..they are in an open kitchen ceiling...

If they run a fair amount of time when you turn them on, and you aren't turning them on and off frequently and they aren't on a dimmer, then CFL works fine. Also check how the fixtures are ventilated. CFL has a bunch of electronics and doesn't like too much heat.

I don't know much about how well LED lights stand up over time, and what conditions hurt them.

[CAMAN]

I don't know much about how well LED lights stand up over time, and what conditions hurt them.

They routinely are rated at 25,000 - 50,000 hours and up. A normal incandescent will last about 1,000 hours and use about 10x more electricity. They are solid state, so nothing really hurts them, unless they get bashed around, or exposed to intense heat.

I had an LED flashlight that I dropped 25 feet to an asphalt driveway, besides the case being banged up it worked like the day I bought it, except I couldn't change the batteries. Try that with any incandescent, halogen, or CFL.

[CJH]

Not a huge fan of the CFL's, but they do seem to work fairly well in rooms where the lights are left on for long periods of time. EX: We have cans in our kitchen over an island that are on for hours at a time. The ones we have also have more of a yellowish hue than the white/blue versions, so they are relatively pleasing to the eye. (I still like halogens the best in terms of light quality, but that's just my preference). Don't use the CFL's on dimmers or if you have mostion switches, they still just don't work well in those situations.

I have looked at the LED replacements, and I am going to wait until they come down in price more. With most incandescent bulbs being outlawed as of Jan 1st (some exceptions), you should see the LED bulbs come down in price as production ramps up/economies of scale increase. I think there will be a spike in price due to demand right away, then it will balance out and drop.

[delcecchi]

They routinely are rated at 25,000 - 50,000 hours and up. A normal incandescent will last about 1,000 hours and use about 10x more electricity. They are solid state, so nothing really hurts them, unless they get bashed around, or exposed to intense heat.

I had an LED flashlight that I dropped 25 feet to an asphalt driveway, besides the case being banged up it worked like the day I bought it, except I couldn't change the batteries. Try that with any incandescent, halogen, or CFL.

I like LED flashlights too. But when it comes to bulbs, remember that CFL had some very long projected life that doesn't seem to exist if they are on/off cycled a lot. That is why I was hoping for some real world feedback. But I guess they are too new to get much.

[CAMAN]

I like LED flashlights too. But when it comes to bulbs, remember that CFL had some very long projected life that doesn't seem to exist if they are on/off cycled a lot. That is why I was hoping for some real world feedback. But I guess they are too new to get much.

That LED flashlight, if it has a single high brightness bulb, is the exact same type used in the home bulbs, just arranged differently.

CFL's are rated around 10,000 hours. They were/are just a fad. Lighting manufacturers needed something to fall to when consumers were pounding down their doors begging for lighting that uses less power. They knew fluorescent was easy on electricity so they shrunk it down, bent it into a corkscrew or other shape, and gave it a fancy name. What they didn't advertise was that it contained mercury and wasn't as reliable as a standard filament bulb.

But LED's aren't new, they've been around for years(invented in the early 60's). They've just finally figured out the technology enough to get high brightness pure whites in the past 5 or so years and be able to control it. LED's have been used in fiber optics since the 60's. And some of the very first production LED's made in the 70's are still in use today. Remember those old calculators with the bright red or green numbered displays, those were LED's!

Like I said, CFL's are on the way out because of their fragility, mercury content, and being very temperamental in cool temps. LED's are most definitely the future and it will be a long time before anything replaces it as a go-to light source once it takes hold in the market and people don't think of it as just a 'fad' or new technology. The possibilities of it are endless and it is absolutely incredible what a tiny little bulb the size of a pencil eraser or smaller can do. If you look around you everyday there are a ton of fixtures that have already been changed over to LED. Stoplights, emergency vehicle lights, scrolling signs, vehicle taillights, even stage/DJ lighting companies are now almost strictly manufacturing with LED's.

That enough "real world feedback"?

[CAMAN]

With most incandescent bulbs being outlawed as of Jan 1st (some exceptions),

It has been delayed until atleast October 1st now, and it will start with 100 watt and higher and step down each year.

[delcecchi]

I know about LEDs. I was working with them in the late 60's. But there is a long ways between a LED in a calculator or in a flashlight and a LED lightbulb with a fancy switching power supply in the base to make the low voltage high current DC from the 110 VAC that is in your house.

CFLs have an "electronic ballast" that produces high frequency AC from the line voltage to power the lamps. That ballast has a rectifier and a couple of transistors in addition to various passive components, all stuffed into that lump in the base of the lamp.

Stuff it in a light fixture and thermal cycle it a thousand times and it is likely to die.

So before I start paying a double sawbuck for a light bulb I would like to see some real world experience.

As a sage once said, "don't try to teach grandma how to suck eggs"

[brakedancer]

wow..I sure like this when a guy gets a truly knowledgeable answer..I think I will be heading to the store and checking out the LED bulbs..thanks

[delcecchi]

wow..I sure like this when a guy gets a truly knowledgeable answer..I think I will be heading to the store and checking out the LED bulbs..thanks

Let us know how they hold up. I am really interested.