CFL's in Recessed Fixtures

[mayhem]

I agree that CFL's are probably overall the best route to use in most fixtures. LED's will take another generation of development before the light color output looks right I think and the cost comes down enough to adopt them in the consumer market.

My facilities manager has been changing out always on fixtures in many of our offices with LED's that he buys in bulk, so the energy savings over CFLs as well as reduced maintenance over the long time frame from his department is a big factor. Don't know the ROI, but the LED's are using less than 10% of the equivalent CFL energy consumption, which were about 20-25% of the incandescent equivalent.

 

[velvetfoot]

Are the LED's putting out the same amount of lumens as the CFL's you're comparing to.

 

[mayhem]

Yes, they're in the same class...not identical lumens, but the "equivalent" size, per the manufacturer. The issue is the LED's are still a little too hot in the blue spectrum for my tastes.

 

[StackedLumber]

I'm a bit preferential to the "hot" blue they put out. Love the color of the puck lights in the kitchen that have that blueish color. Almost similar to the lighting in jewelry stores. (yes, the wife drags me in on occasion-everything I can do to hold on to my wallet!)

 

[RustyShackleford]

As an aside, LED bulbs are wonderful for car interiors. Brighter, and they use
so little current that it's really tough to run your battery down - esp nice if you
car camp and such.

 

[fbelec]

i've seen the cheaper led lights that are under 49 dollars. their life span is 30,000 hours. the good one's are 50,000 hours but they cost 100.00 dollars. i've seen the 50,000 hour led running on display at my supply house. it was set up 6 inches away from a br30 incandescent 65 watt bulb. not a halogen. my supply house guy told me to pick which one was the led. after a long going back and forth i picked the wrong one. same color and same brightness. the led reflector bulbs that i have seen take 15 watts for a 65 watt replacement. the replacement for a 60 watt incandescent a 19 type bulb is 15 watt. to me there is no savings on electric. 15 watts is 15 watts no matter how you look at it. the price has to come down more for the led's to be cost efficient. and there is no reason but gouging that they cost so much. when i went to school for electronics, leds cost pennys. i do think that the led light is the bulb of the future. if you have a hard to reach light that you wind up calling someone to replace the even at 100 dollars it's worth the money for the bulb. figure out how much it cost you to call a electrician out to change that hard to get bulb then and the cost of the bulb. depending on where you live 200.00 dollars give or take. now at 50,000 hours if you have a 10,000 hour cfl in that same socket, you would have to call the electrician 4 times to replace it ( take away the original installation the first cfl bulb) without any cost change that adds up to some money to put in the cfl or even worse a halogen or incandescent. also at 50,000 hours that's almost the life of you kitchen. just thought i'd throw in a thought.

 

[pyper]

i made a cfl fixture for my driveway. took a 150 watt high pressure sodium fixture and stripped the guts out. installed two 27 watt cfl bulbs in the fixture with a foil backer for a reflector. i burn just under 60 watts and get a light that is at least as bright if not brighter than the street light.(when the bulbs are new) they lose light power as they get older. these lights go on before dark and shut off a dawn. they are 6 almost 7 years old and still going.

I bet that costs less a month to run than the $9 my electric company charges for the pole lamp I have.

 

[RustyShackleford]

One advantage of LEDs, that I don't think I'e seen mentioned here, is
that they are dimmable. You don't need special ones (is my understanding).

The dimmable CFLs that I've tried don't work worth a crap. They have very
little range; and they seem to fail prematurely - unless you put them on a
regular (non-dimming) switch.

 

[RustyShackleford]

The website www.1000bulbs.com is a good source for all kinds of bulbs.
Although I've seen better customer service, and they tend to send a LOT
of "special deal" emails. But the selection is amazing (1000 probably
understates it).

 

[fbelec]

One advantage of LEDs, that I don't think I'e seen mentioned here, is
that they are dimmable. You don't need special ones (is my understanding).

The dimmable CFLs that I've tried don't work worth a crap. They have very
little range; and they seem to fail prematurely - unless you put them on a
regular (non-dimming) switch.

that is a definite down side of CFL. the other down side to any fluorescent is as they get older they lose lumins. (light output).

 

[fbelec]

i made a cfl fixture for my driveway. took a 150 watt high pressure sodium fixture and stripped the guts out. installed two 27 watt cfl bulbs in the fixture with a foil backer for a reflector. i burn just under 60 watts and get a light that is at least as bright if not brighter than the street light.(when the bulbs are new) they lose light power as they get older. these lights go on before dark and shut off a dawn. they are 6 almost 7 years old and still going.

I bet that costs less a month to run than the $9 my electric company charges for the pole lamp I have.

at 15 cents per kilowatt hour and 12 hour run time that is $3.24