Difference between light bulbs; incandescent vs LED.

[gathermewool]

I honestly think they come from a chinese factory that makes bulbs for Philips.

at 10 cents each, they don't have to last very long anyway, but in 10 years I had 2 failures.

Where. are. you. buying. ten. cent. LED. bulbs!?

And do they look awful? I have a couple of cheap LED flashlights, as an example, and they look awful! Bluish light, terrible beam pattern, low lumens. Not worth the few bucks I paid for them. If you’re curious, the worst cheap LED flashlight I’ve ever purchased is the Amazon Commercial AAA lights that I got on sale for $2.58 each. They‘re so terrible that I won’t even keep them for emergency lights. Note: I have awful Walmart lights that I’ve kept, because the light is actually useful. They’re not nearly as good as my Fenix flashlight, but worth the low price.

 

[hank2]

I've had mixed lifespan results with LED bulbs. It almost seems that the bulbs that are lit the most hours per day, last the longest. I tend to buy decent ones, but not the costliest. I've never been crazy about the light from many LEDs, but some of the warmer spectrum ones available today aren't bad. Some of the old CFL lights were pretty nice. The globe type bath vanity LED bulbs have been my highest failure rate.

I have two outside door lamps, yellow hue, lit all night, every night of every year. I typically get a couple of years from LED. Previously I had 2 CFL yellow lights that are encapsulated and pretty pricey. Feit, I believe. One of them lasted about 6 years on that duty and its partner is now still living on another porch that's rarely lit.

I don't know if this is common in other areas, but my power company has a little known program to provide free bulbs. They do not promote it, but it exists. Likely paid for by one of the ancillary charges added to your bill. You're only eligible every 7 years, I believe. I just received a small shipment of 6 LED bulbs and a few LED nightlights. The last time that I took advantage of it, about 8 years ago, I got about 15 CFL's of all different wattages and a few LED nightlights.

 

[Jetronic]

Where. are. you. buying. ten. cent. LED. bulbs!?

And do they look awful? I have a couple of cheap LED flashlights, as an example, and they look awful! Bluish light, terrible beam pattern, low lumens. Not worth the few bucks I paid for them. If you’re curious, the worst cheap LED flashlight I’ve ever purchased is the Amazon Commercial AAA lights that I got on sale for $2.58 each. They‘re so terrible that I won’t even keep them for emergency lights. Note: I have awful Walmart lights that I’ve kept, because the light is actually useful. They’re not nearly as good as my Fenix flashlight, but worth the low price.

CFL bulbs i was talking about. They were on sale in a local supermaket, extra 50% off a blister of ten

 

[ctechbob]

The purple streetlighting is being caused by failing phosphors on the LED emitters. Phosphor is the same way that fluorescent tubes have worked since they were invented. A UV discharge lamp excites the phosphors and they glow white. In an LED it is a deep purple near-UV discharge that excites the white phosphors. So when those fall off, you get purple street lights. Sorta like being in an old-school Disney Dark ride.

From what I understand, the failing lights were all made by one manufacturer that has an issue with their production method.

 

[bbhero]

Man, I consider myself knowledgeable, if not actually very bright. Lol. You’re smart AND bright, from what I’ve read from you.

I‘ve been slowing modifying my blunt responses that should, and usually are, taken harshly, because I don’t always use emojis and my humor is a little subtle. The reason: I almost exclusively post from my phone, after spending way too little time reading and comprehending the intent of the thread. A bad habit, for sure. I also understand that I ask questions or make statements that, upon later reading, pretty much seem like, ‘are you dumb? Let me tell you why you’re so dumb’, when I’m usually being quite literal.

So, if I post dumb stuff unintentionally, I try to think the same of others. Dang (apparently the other D word is censored…), did I just call you dumb? I know YOU get it, but just in case it isn‘t clear, I’m being facetious.

A really, really great post gmw…

Really very thoughtful and insightful.

I too have struggled with my wording or typing things on here.

I believe typing words and then others reading them is extremely easy to misunderstand each other.

 

[alarmguy]

Man, I consider myself knowledgeable, if not actually very bright. Lol. You’re smart AND bright, from what I’ve read from you.

I‘ve been slowing modifying my blunt responses that should, and usually are, taken harshly, because I don’t always use emojis and my humor is a little subtle. The reason: I almost exclusively post from my phone, after spending way too little time reading and comprehending the intent of the thread. A bad habit, for sure. I also understand that I ask questions or make statements that, upon later reading, pretty much seem like, ‘are you dumb? Let me tell you why you’re so dumb’, when I’m usually being quite literal.

So, if I post dumb stuff unintentionally, I try to think the same of others. Dang (apparently the other D word is censored…), did I just call you dumb? I know YOU get it, but just in case it isn‘t clear, I’m being facetious.

Yes, I got it but appreciate your post.
I dont know, call me crazy but I think sometimes I have some of the most easily misconstrued posts in here.

Not intentional by any means, I really try to help, yeah, might be a little headstrong at times, I to love to learn new things though, I always try have an open mind and I have REALLY been working hard to understand how what I post sometimes can be misread and will change the wording around but like you, I too at times am just on my phone, on the run someplace and god forbid I try to have Siri take dictation I ned up going back and correcting things and sometimes I have no idea what I am doing by the time I am done *LOL*

 

[alarmguy]

I too have struggled with my wording or typing things on here.

I believe typing words and then others reading them is extremely easy to misunderstand each other.

^^ Ditto, I always try to say too much and sometimes comes out so wrong. I think that might be the Italian side of my family tree *LOL*, I kid about that all the time. (dont get me wrong, I had the best food in the world growing up)
I go on explaining and explaining *LOL* and I bit strong in my convictions but will acknowledge and admit the second I see that I am wrong.

 

[alarmguy]

I swear I think I have been changing out light bulbs in our house since the day we moved in 16 years ago. First CFLs then a whole range of LEDs.
We always were big on lighting, I LOVE bright homes. The home we just sold had a front door foyer and great room with 16 foot ceilings and windows all the way up. Never even put curtains on them, but did have them 3m night vision tinted.

Anyway just giving that background so others may understand. I always buy the brightest bulb I can which is pretty much a 100 watt equivalent.
About two years ago, maybe more, for me and our house we found the holy grail. Really nice bright bulbs with realistic indoor color temperature, not to blue, not to yellow just right for us and nice and bright. I buy them when Costco puts them on sale and stock up on them. In fact I already know any bulbs in our new home, IF they can be changed out will get changed out to these if it helps anyone.
Im posting right from the manufacturers website. Everyone will know the company and they also make cheaper bulbs but these are their higher end ones and would expect them to have good service life.
In the couple years we had them, there has been no noticeable color shift and no early failures.

All Light Bulbs - Feit Electric

Explore a broad selection of energy-efficient bulbs from LEDs to CFLs and a large selection of traditional Incandescent and Halogen bulbs.

www.feit.com

Keep in mind the above link is for the 3000k color temperature which you will see printed at the top of the box, this is the color temperature we like and that is what my comment is based on. The manufacturer also sells in the same exact box a 5000k color temperature and the only difference is 5000k is printed in that small band on top of the box. I say that because our personal preference is 3000k we dont like 5000k.
These 3000k are not as yellow as other brands, really pleasant, again, for us.
Not easy to find but worth the effort. Other than Costco, Amazon does but have to be careful between 5000k and 3000k there is a third party seller right now selling 4 packs for $11. I am sure there are others but it does take some searching.

Amazon Feit 100w equal. LED

 

[gathermewool]

I swear I think I have been changing out light bulbs in our house since the day we moved in 16 years ago. First CFLs then a whole range of LEDs.
We always were big on lighting, I LOVE bright homes. The home we just sold had a front door foyer and great room with 16 foot ceilings and windows all the way up. Never even put curtains on them, but did have them 3m night vision tinted.

Anyway just giving that background so others may understand. I always buy the brightest bulb I can which is pretty much a 100 watt equivalent.
About two years ago, maybe more, for me and our house we found the holy grail. Really nice bright bulbs with realistic indoor color temperature, not to blue, not to yellow just right for us and nice and bright. I buy them when Costco puts them on sale and stock up on them. In fact I already know any bulbs in our new home, IF they can be changed out will get changed out to these if it helps anyone.
Im posting right from the manufacturers website. Everyone will know the company and they also make cheaper bulbs but these are their higher end ones and would expect them to have good service life.
In the couple years we had them, there has been no noticeable color shift and no early failures.

All Light Bulbs - Feit Electric

Explore a broad selection of energy-efficient bulbs from LEDs to CFLs and a large selection of traditional Incandescent and Halogen bulbs.

www.feit.com

Keep in mind the above link is for the 3000k color temperature which you will see printed at the top of the box, this is the color temperature we like and that is what my comment is based on. The manufacturer also sells in the same exact box a 5000k color temperature and the only difference is 5000k is printed in that small band on top of the box. I say that because our personal preference is 3000k we dont like 5000k.
These 3000k are not as yellow as other brands, really pleasant, again, for us.
Not easy to find but worth the effort. Other than Costco, Amazon does but have to be careful between 5000k and 3000k there is a third party seller right now selling 4 packs for $11. I am sure there are others but it does take some searching.

Amazon Feit 100w equal. LED

Edit: I think I was using the wrong nomenclature. I initially thought that soft was a lower color temp than warm. I believe my bulbs are mostly around 3000K. Maybe even as high as 3500K. /edit

Almost all of our light fixtures contain three or more bulbs. I originally used 60W equivalent, because 75+ were way too expensive. Now that they‘re pretty common, I swapped out 60 —> 100W eq in the garage, the dining room, and driveway lamp post. I actually just swapped out the lamp post and dimmable dining room lights late last year when I noticed that Home Depot had Philips filament-style candelabras! Holy moly, what an upgrade! The dining room is near the front door and is it’s only light source, so he brighter the better for 99.9% of our needs. I actually assumed I‘d be using the dimmer more often, but it’s rare that I don’t want all 100W.

Most other rooms are fine with the 40-60W eq bulbs, since there are so many of them. HOWEVER, I will NOT be replacing the smart Philips bulbs with new smart bulbs when they fail. For at least half of my outside lights, 60W eq just isn’t doing it for me. I’ll reserve the smart bulbs for the bedrooms and one other location where having a dimmable smart light is just plain convenient. I may just be seeing things, but the smart bulbs seem to get a little warmer as you dim them.

I believe most of our lights in living spaces are soft white. I do prefer the higher—color-temp, whiter ”daylight” lights in work locations, such as the garage, though. They may also be beneficial outside, but I think the high-temp lights look terrible. Since I leave my outside lights on all night, every night, I’d rather it look more pleasing.

As a quick side story, I actually needed to buy LED lights designed for enclosures (the heat sinks are better that preventing an early death), but Amazon sent a box of of the wrong daylight bulbs instead of soft white. My wife doesn’t like how they look, I don‘t think, but they’re only 60W eq and I don’t know where else to put them where I want the daylight color temp AND only 60W eq. I might just buy the softer bulbs to make her happy (brighter might actually be nicer, too) and keep these as backups.

 

[gathermewool]

I did end up replacing the daylight (5000k), 60W eq (800 lumen) bulbs in the basement with new soft white (2700k), 100W eq (1600 lumen) bulbs. ~$16 for 4 bulbs. I’ll keep the others as spares. Parts of my basement have more lights, so 800 lumen each is fine.

I also said to heck with it and removed the opaque cover. It‘s not a living space and I couldn’t care less how it looks (big square cutout).

The difference in illumination is significant. I’m tempted to pull the two smart bulb I have on the back deck and install some 1600 lumen bulbs there. One smart bulb has already failed, so it’s just one bulb now anyway. I’ll probably wait until warmer weather, since we don’t use the deck when it’s cold.

 

[gathermewool]

Oh, noticed this shady crap while at HD. Can anyone point out the discrepancy?

 

[Rmay635703]

Oh, noticed this shady crap while at HD. Can anyone point out the discrepancy?

Not sure why companies do this, if it’s not 1600lumins it shouldn’t be labeled with anything referring to 100 watts

 

[tbm5690]

Oh, noticed this shady crap while at HD. Can anyone point out the discrepancy?

That lumen output and wattage consumption is closer to a 60W replacement, not 100W.

 

[gathermewool]

Not sure why companies do this, if it’s not 1600lumins it shouldn’t be labeled with anything referring to 100 watts

That lumen output and wattage consumption is closer to a 60W replacement, not 100W.

I scoured the box for some sort of fine print, but nothing. Even stating in the fine print something like, “100W equivalent light output for all three” would be shady. This seems illegal.

 

[alarmguy]

That lumen output and wattage consumption is closer to a 60W replacement, not 100W.

Yeah, being its Home Depot I can only assume a printing error, either the bulb is higher wattage than stated on the box or the 100 watt equal is mis marked.

 

[Dave P.]

My sister has a two-bulb table lamp. Each socket has a pull chain ON/OFF switch so one or both bulbs can be lit. The outlet is on a 30 year old whole house timer system and is dimmable also through the timer system. Everything works fine with incandescent bulbs. When she put in dimmable LED bulbs, the lamp went haywire. With both bulbs lit, if you pulled the chain on one socket, both bulbs would go out. That would happen regardless of which chain was pulled. I didn't inspect the lamp wiring but why would it work fine with the incandescent bulbs and not the LED bulbs? Is there always a certain flow of electricity to a socket even when the switch is off that the different type bulbs react differently to?

 

[tbm5690]

My sister has a two-bulb table lamp. Each socket has a pull chain ON/OFF switch so one or both bulbs can be lit. The outlet is on a 30 year old whole house timer system and is dimmable also through the timer system. Everything works fine with incandescent bulbs. When she put in dimmable LED bulbs, the lamp went haywire. With both bulbs lit, if you pulled the chain on one socket, both bulbs would go out. That would happen regardless of which chain was pulled. I didn't inspect the lamp wiring but why would it work fine with the incandescent bulbs and not the LED bulbs? Is there always a certain flow of electricity to a socket even when the switch is off that the different type bulbs react differently to?

Dimmable LEDs only work well with certain dimmer switches that are more sensitive. Each bulb manufacturer will typically have a list of dimmers that they are compatible with.