L.E.D. Light Bulbs Or Compact Florescent Bulbs ?

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Originally Posted By: BearZDefect
Originally Posted By: whizbyu
I always look at labels. Incandescent bulbs are made in the USA...

Not anymore from what I've seen. It has been years since I've been able to find good old Made in the USA incandescent bulbs. First they went to Mexico, then to China.
+1 Sylvania closed a big bulb plant in the midwest several years ago.
 
Originally Posted By: whizbyu
Someone explain to me how LED's cost soooooo much more than other bulbs.

OK, sure. Have you ever looked into wholesale bulk LED (just the diode, not the whole fixture) pricing? You're going to be paying several dollars for the diode alone. Then there's the power circuitry, as LEDs can't be run directly off of 120V AC. And last, there's the heat-sinks. Even though LEDs are more efficient than incandescent bulbs, they still give off heat. And unlike CFLs, that heat is concentrated in the relatively small area of the diode. So they need heat-sinks to dissipate the heat.
 
I have changed almost everything in my house to LED. I had a number of CFL's that lasted longer than incandescent, but a couple of them burned up (literally) and they always take a long time to get bright and ultimately they die. As they failed I replaced them. I have CREE, Philips, eBay and others - all of mine are dimmable. I haven't had an LED bulb fail yet, many are going on 4 years old (when they were much more expensive). I go for the warm white ones - virtually identical color to incandescent.

My biggest issue is that a lot of my dimmers don't work without an incandescent attached. So if I have ten high hats on a dimmer, one has to be incandescent.
 
Originally Posted By: NateDN10
Originally Posted By: whizbyu
Someone explain to me how LED's cost soooooo much more than other bulbs.

OK, sure. Have you ever looked into wholesale bulk LED (just the diode, not the whole fixture) pricing? You're going to be paying several dollars for the diode alone. Then there's the power circuitry, as LEDs can't be run directly off of 120V AC. And last, there's the heat-sinks. Even though LEDs are more efficient than incandescent bulbs, they still give off heat. And unlike CFLs, that heat is concentrated in the relatively small area of the diode. So they need heat-sinks to dissipate the heat.


This is not the case with the diode itself......the LED itself cost parts of penny's when you buy 20,000 of them at a clip. go to mouser.com and look for your self. We order them by the skids at work.
other than that I agree with your post.

The issue I have had with A/C LED lights is simply the quality of workmanship, the diode itself is probably rated 25-40k hours but the rest of the circuit WILL fail prematurely, in my experience.

I would just stick to CFL's, the cost on the part itself makes the CFL cheaper (not including the electricity savings)

$2/8000hr=0.00025 CFL
$20/25000hr=0.0008 LED
 
There are many costs associated with manufacturing that we often overlook. The cost to tool-up a production line (or to build a new factory), the cost of labour, the cost of utilities, et cetera. These costs are always passed on to the consumer, and it is the early adopters who pay the most.

On a bulb-technology note, CFL's are absolutely useless in outdoor fixtures this time of year, at least around here. We have used one (75W equivalent) on the outside of our detached garage for at least two years, but we have to swap it for a good ol' incandescent in the winter; the CFL will not warm up if left on from dusk until dawn.
 
Originally Posted By: TBirgensmith

On a bulb-technology note, CFL's are absolutely useless in outdoor fixtures this time of year, at least around here. We have used one (75W equivalent) on the outside of our detached garage for at least two years, but we have to swap it for a good ol' incandescent in the winter; the CFL will not warm up if left on from dusk until dawn.


Interesting. I have compact florescent bulbs in some of our outdoor lights and they're just fine, even in the middle of winter and in temperatures around 0 (F). At that temperature it takes about a minute to come up to full brightness, but that's not a problem for us since they're usually left on when we leave, or they're on when we're expecting someone to come home.
 
One thing I've learned is that LEDs work better on dimmer switches. In open fixture applications both CFL and LEDs hum with dimmers as well.
 
Led lights run cooler than the others almost cold at least that is what i thought...i just put my hands on one that was on all night and it was cool im not sure about the inside
 
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