LED A19 bulbs for your home

[troyboy162]

Researching cheapo light bars I found a post on new Cree LED A19 (standard house size) bulbs. Cree stepped up and have come out with some pretty good offerings. Notable is the 60 watt replacement with a super high color rendition rating at 9.5 watts for ~$20 and a "daylight" version (cooler temp then normal wire bulbs) at 9 watts for ~$12. The color rendition one is more for art museums and other special applications, but at $20 its not too expensive to exclude it. Supposedly they are also assembled in the USA. These compete with the Philips L prize bulb that was pretty much a failure to launch since it sold for ~$35.

The life span is questionable since a few of them have had the globe come loose and a capacitor on the internal board is not rated for much higher temps then what they see in every day use. This makes the cap the most likely point of failure. So far the reviews are good and a google search for failures is pretty sparse.

http://ledsmagazine.com/features/10/4/1
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?360936-Cree-quot-60W-quot-800lm-A-shaped-LED-light-bulb-teardown
http://cdn3.sbnation.com/entry_photo_images/7807203/2013-03-05_00-57-40-1020_large_verge_medium_landscape.jpg

[4x4mike]

I've got 7 of the Cree models in my house. For the most part they replaced CFL's in ceiling fans where the bulb is exposed. They give great light, color and no warm up time. I purchased them the week they were released and they came in 6 and 9 watt versions. I've got a mix and I believe it's around 3000k, basically a warm incandescent color.

As the season is changing with less daylight hours, lights are on for longer in the house. We don't use a ton of light but a majority are these crees and the crees I build into my cabinets. The under cabinet lights are on a timer and are on when we are home. They have a lot of spill and are usually the only lights on after the kids go to sleep and the Missus and I are watching TV.

I have some of the ecosmart Home Depot branded ones as well. They are also great color but have more of an upward facing emitter which is good for up light in some lamps we have. The nice thing is that they are dimmable too.



https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-FVf5xj0E79w/TVYRbIdNCdI/AAAAAAAAkHg/QSUCjP4X5r4/s640/DSC08256.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Ybn_tS_9QUA/TVYRcgSlqfI/AAAAAAAAkH4/OJNQZVRxZ78/s640/DSC08259.JPG

[troyboy162]

Awesome mike! Thanks for the first hand review. Im gonna pick some up when im home for sure now.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk

[Seanz0rz]

We have a bunch of the Philips LED bulbs in the house (I don't they are the L prize bulbs though) We picked them up nearly a year ago for $25 at home depot. They are VERY nice, and we have them in the lights that spend the most time on. It has made a noticeable difference on the electric bill. We use the warm color inside, and the more "white" color in our patio fixture. SO much better than those trash CFLs!

I will have to say, we had one that was almost DOA. It ran for about 30 minutes, then died. I had already thrown the packaging away by the time it had died, but home depot was super cool about the return and gave me the money back on the CC.

[paddlenbike]

There isn't an incandescent bulb in my entire house. I converted most of my home's down lighting to sealed recessed 6 inch trim cans specifically so I could use the Cree CR6 down lights. These things are wonderful, no one can tell they are anything but a standard 65 watt incandescent, while these use only 9.5 watts each. I have two dozen Cree 40 and 60 watt bulbs in everything else including my ceiling fans, chandeliers and even my garage door opener and shop light since vibration doesn't affect them. I'm sold on Led.

[troyboy162]

looks like I'm behind the times lol. Thanks for the info you guys!

[4x4mike]

I'm not sure if you're still over in the sand box but this is going down at my local Home Depot. The price is lowered by my local utility so YMMV. I bought a few just because. Problem is most everything is already LED so these are in the cabinet.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MMBknRUJEP0/Uop7Detqq_I/AAAAAAAA784/V_XO_i0jpnY/s640/20131117_155543.jpg

[paddlenbike]

That's a good price. The return on investment compared to a 60W lightbulb is probably a couple of months now.

[4x4mike]

I shudder at the thought of a 60W bulb and it's energy consumption

[Seanz0rz]

Here they are 10 for the 60w and 8 for the 40w. We bought 2 and are very happy.

We will be buying more.

I also put up some of the recessed lighting retrofit LEDs. The existing trim rings were yellowed (above the stove and sink, and they were low quality to begin with), the new LEDs are awesome, totally worth the $35 (a bit steep, but worth it, especially coming from CFLs).

[troyboy162]

Sweet. Man at 5 bucks thats awesome. My electric bill is already low, but i love the idea of a super long life bulb. And hey it makes up for the carbon footprint of the 4runner right? Lol

[4x4mike]

Definitely. Other than the cost savings of use the LED bulbs have other benefits over CFL. I've got Cree LEDs in the eaves of my house so I don't use my porch lights any more. When I did they were not happy in the winter. I doesn't get crazy cold here but the CFL output was decreased and their warm up time considerably increased.

Before buying a home I lived in a few rental homes with roommates. Most of the fixtures had CFLs and the homes had older wiring (one had 4 glass type fuses in the supply panel). The CFL's never lived long, maybe a year, for some reason. When those things went out they went out. Most of the time they would blacken at the base with definite signs of high heat. I was always concerned with fire and was glad to get them out of my current house.

[paddlenbike]

When those things went out they went out. Most of the time they would blacken at the base with definite signs of high heat. I was always concerned with fire and was glad to get them out of my current house.

I nearly had a CFL fire at my house. I was out in the garage with a neighbor when we heard the smoke alarms get triggered. My home is newer so the smoke alarms are all linked; when one goes off, they all go off. We ran in the house and could smell smoke but since all of the smoke alarms were going off, it didn't help us narrow down which room had the issue. Then I noticed one of the rooms was dim and discovered that the ballast at the base of a CFL in a ceiling fan had burned. It got hot enough to blacken the inside of the light housing. It very easily could have caused a house fire, and CFLs have done it many times. I threw them all out.

With the exception of the fluorescent shop lights in the garage and one halogen outdoor security light, my house is full LED. I converted the kitchen, bathrooms and hallways to Cree CR6 can lights.
http://www.cree.com/~/media/Images/Cree/Lighting/Indoor/Downlights/CR%20Series/LTGCRSeriesDownlights_CR6FD_angle.jpg
I can't say enough good things about these. They look more modern than a can light as they lack that huge gap between the bulb and the trim ring (no cobwebs either!), the light looks just like incandescent, and they use 9.5W each instead of 65W, each! (For the six lights in my kitchen, I'm using 57 watts total rather than 390 watts.) They produce virtually no heat.
My chandeliers and ceiling fans have Cree LED A19 bulbs. Same story there, very natural looking light. I can't stand blue-ish LEDs, so none of that here.

None of my lighting pulls enough energy to even show up on my house's digital watt-finder. The lighting is almost free to use; if there is a downside to these lights other than initial cost, I haven't found it.

[Seanz0rz]

That is exactly what I purchased Ken. The next time we paint, they will get sealed to the drywall with paintable caulk.