It was time to get new tires for the wood hauler last night.  I got a great price at Sams and had some BFGs LT tires installed for $369.  There is a sale running right now on a couple different BFG tire lines if anybody else is in the market. 

So I start walking around the warehouse looking for neat things.

I came across some LED lights on a normal screw in light base.  It said it produced the light of a 45W incandesant and used 5W of electricity. 10,000 hours of life IIRC.  It was $12-14 I think.  This weekend I’ll climb the latter and give a report back on how well it works. 

They had other LED bulbs there also.  I saw packs of the small socket chandeleer lights and small, regular bulb lights.  Since LEDs are directional they are probably for can lights or something. 

I had seen the LED retrofits on the net, but never seen them in a store.

Matt

just looked at the package.  It’s rated for 30,000 hours. 

Matt

Been waiting for those to get cheap enough and bright enough. I use cfl bulbs all over the place, but there are several real shortcomings:

1) They don’t work well in the cold.
2) The lifespan is dramatically shortened if they’re installed in a recessed ceiling mount can.
3) They fail by gradually getting dimmer, so in many cases the useful life is much less than advertised.
4) They’re not dimmable.

I know that some designs address some of these issues to some degree, but cfl technology is not the answer for many applications at this point. I’m hoping that LED offers a solution. Let us know how they work for you.

Don’t forget that they are slow to put out full power, they need to warm up.

The instant on of the LEDs is what I like to hear about.

I got an LED mag-lite and I think it’s actually brighter than the standard krypton(?) bulb. Battery life is much much higher as well. Let us know how the LED bulb works out.

They don’t work well in a smoke filled environment.
If it is not going to be attached to your fire helmet then you can move along and ignore this.

I would imagine, with the white light being the same color as the smoke, not great. Fortunately, I don’t have any mag-lite duct taping projects with a helmet involved any time soon.

The light is going to shine down the back lawn onto the drying firewood.  Lets hope it keeps away from a smoke filled environment until it gets brought inside to the stove. 

Matt

This is a good thread. We all need to be constantly reminded of any ways to cut energy use. Thanks.

My company bought some $250 LED Wall packs to replace 400W Metal Halide ones.  The new LED wall packs aren’t great, although they are 50W.  I wouldn’t recommend them yet.  Not bright enough in that situation.

In my new kitchen i put up cree leds in the roof and i very satisfied whit them.
I can dimm them to

mbcijim - 15 April 2009 10:36 PM

My company bought some $250 LED Wall packs to replace 400W Metal Halide ones.  The new LED wall packs aren’t great, although they are 50W.  I wouldn’t recommend them yet.  Not bright enough in that situation.

What are wall packs?

The most common use would be installed on the exterior wall on a commercial building.  A lot of time they are used in a rear parking lot, or a small parking lot where a pole isn’t needed.

karri0n - 15 April 2009 12:37 PM

I got an LED mag-lite and I think it’s actually brighter than the standard krypton(?) bulb. Battery life is much much higher as well. Let us know how the LED bulb works out.

I hope they have improved the quality on these lights, I work out side at night year round so I have to have a good small (belt carried) light, I bought two of the minimag leds, they both failed the same way inside of 3 months, other mechanics I work with found the same problem. We all found the rayovac 3w led to be the best, right now I have a cabelas 3w led on my belt (6 months and going strong), I don’t want a flashlight that needs expensive batteries either, AA or AAA is stocked in our parts room.
with the new led technology maglite managed to get the minimag led to have dead spots in the contact points, the same as their large lights.
Walmart has led 40 and 20 watt bulbs, I am waiting until they are dimmable to try them out.

I agree about the mini mag lites. Never had much luck with them. the keychain ones are even worse. I do like the full size D cell ones, pretty reliable in my experience and the price is right.

Odd, I’ve had a minimag with the aftermarket LED conversion by nite-eyez for several years with no problems. I beat on this thing too. I do backpacking and wilderness canoeing (nevermind using it for nearly every home repair situation), its also my 6 year olds fav “lightsaber”, and have never had a problem with the LED’s. The original bulbs would stop working if you looked at them wrong (probably why they come with the spare).

I would be interested to hear about any app of LED’s with dimmers as well.

I also have an 8 LED flashlight (forget the brand) that takes those darn expensive special batteries that works like a champ and is quite useful for blinding yourself or others if used appropriatly. Hands down far superior to any incandescent bulb i have ever tried.