Do we need to ban incandescent bulbs?

[Ashful]

Have you checked out the "filament style" LED bulbs? From ~6ft away they look no different than a clear incandescent bulb. No ugly base and no weird beam spread pattern either. They make them in all shapes including the pointy candelabra style.

Yeah. I've bought them a few times, maybe a total 20 bulbs over the last 10 years. But those that looked good enough to actually leave in the fixtures long-term have all have died faster than incandescents. Some as soon as maybe 3 months. Very disappointing, as I really wanted to like them, and they weren't the cheapest option.

 

[gthomas785]

Yeah. I've bought them a few times, maybe a total 20 bulbs over the last 10 years. But those that looked good enough to actually leave in the fixtures long-term have all have died faster than incandescents. Some as soon as maybe 3 months. Very disappointing, as I really wanted to like them, and they weren't the cheapest option.

Yeah now I'm recalling you talked about this in another thread. What was the failure mode, did they just go completely dark? The few times I've had an LED bulb fail, it was always gradual either turning to a weird blue color or fading light intensity over a month or so.

Of course then there's the obnoxious flashing which is really a power supply problem and not due to the LEDs themselves (the filament style typically don't have electronic power supplies)

 

[tlc1976]

In regards to heating efficiency, incandescent bulbs are actually 100% efficient, like electric resistance heaters. A bulb is essential a resistance heater that gets hot enough to glow. Definitely not the ideal way to heat anything, but an interesting footnote

True. At least for me, electric is the most expensive way to make heat. If I can slash my operating cost for lighting and apply the difference to pellets, my money goes farther.

But out in the barn in the winter, my 300W halogen work light is so nice. Nice to be able to get next to it and warm up my cold cramped hands with it pointed at my work. Hopefully those bulbs will continue.

Another plus of LEDs (or even CFLs) is getting more light for an available wattage. Like in my barn, there are 7 fixtures that had 100 watt bulbs, and the lighting was still pretty crappy. There’s only a 20A circuit running out there, so I wanted to leave enough to do actual work too. I didn’t want to add more load to the fixtures or wiring, or rewire things. So to get more light for the same wattage and fixtures, more efficient bulbs was the answer. Back around 2016 I replaced the 4 bulbs in the main work area with 300 watt equivalent CFLs which ran at 100 watts. (At the time, the CFLs were $17 each, while the LEDs were $70 each which I couldn’t afford.) Huge difference in light. I could finally see well to work. Nowadays I can get the same thing in LED for about $20 each, but in my case it’s not cost effective to change out working bulbs. When they burn out, I will go LED.

 

[tlc1976]

Yeah. I've bought them a few times, maybe a total 20 bulbs over the last 10 years. But those that looked good enough to actually leave in the fixtures long-term have all have died faster than incandescents. Some as soon as maybe 3 months. Very disappointing, as I really wanted to like them, and they weren't the cheapest option.

I use those in my bathroom fixture. 4 of them. It’s been a couple years and never burned one out.

 

[sloeffle]

Have you checked out the "filament style" LED bulbs? From ~6ft away they look no different than a clear incandescent bulb. No ugly base and no weird beam spread pattern either. They make them in all shapes including the pointy candelabra style.

I have some of those around the house, and I really like them. I believe they are marketed as "edison LED bulbs" also. Most of my fixtures are not enclosed though.

 

[begreen]

Okay begreen, you've gotten me curious again. We have twenty 45W (370 lum) recessed BR30 2600K incandescent floods lighting our great room and kitchen, which my wife and kids are forever leaving on. I must turn them off five times per evening, only to come back thru and find all 20 of them on again, with no one anywhere near. If you're saying I can get good CRI out of a 2700K R30 flood, and also not have to drag the 10' stepladder into the house to change them anymore, I'm game.

Do note that I've tried several LED R/BR/PAR30's and 38's in the past, and they all looked pretty horrendous, but it has been 5 years (April 2018) since I did any experimentation with this. Maybe they've gotten better, in the time since then. The bulbs I was using at the time were all 2700k to 3000k and CRI 90+, which is apparently not high enough.

One issue I'll run into is that damn near every bulb in this house is on a dimmer, most 3-way or 4-way, so I'm going to be upgrading dimmers. But I'd be willing to try at least one of these four circuits comprising 20 bulbs, as a starting point. Might be interesting to tackle one room, leave half the lights as incandescent and make the other half LED, to see how they compare. I'm sitting on an inventory of 25 of those bulbs in incandescent right now, as 20 installed + 5 on the shelf.

These 6-pak kits come in 75w or 120w equivalents. Individually they sell for around $14, so the 6-pak is definitely a saving, but just get one if you want to try them out.
Amazon product ASIN B07Z5MYKW5
Here is their high CRI model.
Amazon product ASIN B07CKD6V3V

 

[Ashful]

Yeah now I'm recalling you talked about this in another thread. What was the failure mode, did they just go completely dark?

I tried filament LED's in a few different fixtures, but the only ones that didn't look bad were the tall bent tip 25W candelabra base bulbs in my lamp posts. 3 bulbs per post, in a glass and brass fixture, so you really need to stop and look at them to even notice when one goes out, and to be honest I never noticed any of them mid-failure. They'd be on one week, and then another week I'd notice one bulb out.

These 6-pak kits come in 75w or 120w equivalents. Individually they sell for around $14, so the 6-pak is definitely a saving, but just get one if you want to try them out.
Amazon product ASIN B07Z5MYKW5
Here is their high CRI model.
Amazon product ASIN B07CKD6V3V

Thanks. Those would actually work in our kitchen ceiling, which is flat and old beadboard planking. I'm probably going to need to find some actual R30 bulbs for the great room though, since those are recessed into fixtures set into a steeply vaulted ceiling. Not something I'd want to convert to flush surrounds.

I guess the other option would be something more like the link below, other than woodgeek already told me the "90+ CRI" of the one I'm linking is not going to be good enough, based on our past experiments.

Nora Lighting NLRS-612L1TWB Sloped LED Black / White Recessed Retrofit Baffle

This Recessed Retrofit Baffle from the Sloped collection by Nora Lighting will enhance your home with a perfect mix of form and function. The features include a Black / White finish applied by experts. This item qualifies for free shipping!

lightingnewyork.com

 

[begreen]

I guess the other option would be something more like the link below, other than woodgeek already told me the "90+ CRI" of the one I'm linking is not going to be good enough, based on our past experiments.

That's too expensive. Just replace them with good quality R30 bulbs that have a high CRI.
Amazon product ASIN B079PKLK9Q

 

[begreen]

Another solution might be to have some lamp lighting so that the family doesn't feel like they are navigating in the dark to cross the room. We have a couple of table lamps on timers that serve this function. In the kitchen, we have a single, hanging lamp over the kitchen counter which serves this purpose. It has a 15w LED (100w equiv) bulb which is plenty of light for quick tasks like getting a glass of water or making coffee. LEDs are generally brighter due to producing more visible light compared to incandescents. When the knives come out, the main lights are turned on.

 

[EbS-P]

4 pages on lighting……. Anyone else hot and bored and waiting for fall/ winter to get here?

 

[begreen]

Yes, such a hot topic. Closing thread.