led light forum

[jamaicabraden]

i hope this link can help you out, http://www.plasmaled.com/diy_led_help.htm

[Manton]

try this one www.aled.dk

Hello, does anybody know is there a website/forum about DIY LED lights or information about LED light projects. Thanks

You can try this website if you want so info.

https://www.aled.dk

[Sunking]

So you have commercial AC service? Check your L1 and L2 voltage at the main breaker and make sure they are approx equal of 120 VAC. My guess is you have a bad neutral and will see one side with a higher voltage than the other. Make the measurements with lots of load with everything on.

As you noted everyone else has good life cycle. Something is nucking futs.

[russ]

I have lamps as follow (for the past 2 1/2 years in this home -

1) T5 tube lamps for light pools
2) T5 circular or other funny shaped lamps
3) CFL type
4) LED for night lamps in a few locations
5) Incandescent lamps where a motion detector is used

So far I have lost only 1 incandescent bulb

We do not have the most stable power - don't have any idea about surges though.

[Steve]

I've heard the CFL's are supposed to last longer, and I know it's what a lot or most people experience. I'm at a loss why I've had so much trouble with them.

The only two enclosed fixtures I've had them in are (1) the back yard post light in which I had 3 outdoor rated CFL's powered on the grid. One of the 3 burned out after about a year and a half.
I replaced all 3 with new CFL's when I put the post on my solar power project, running from a Powerbright mod sine inverter powered by a 12v 240ah source. These new 3 CFL bulbs worked fine until I switched them out with 3 2.8w LED's. The CFL's I removed from the outside post are working inside now.

The only other enclosed fixture is our front door/step light which is one of those cheap, simple square ones the builders put in with the tapered glass sides with a square metal cap and bottom. It has far less venting than the post light.
I put an INDOOR rated 13w CFL into that front outside enclosed fixture about 2.5 years ago expecting it to fail. But it proved me wrong and it's been on every night and still works while the same model bulbs from the same package located inside burn out. Go figure.

All other fixtures are non-enclosed types. Ceiling fan lights (non-dimmed), open ceiling fixtures, bathroom fixtures which are nothing more than a rectangular base with a row of 6-8 sockets to screw decorative lights in, table lamps etc.

[Mike90250]

base up in an enclosed fixture, they heat up (gasp) and die.

[Sunking]

Something is wrong because CFL's should last for several years.

[Steve]

Let me guess, you are using modified sine wave inverters huh?

99% of the CFL's are used for indoor lighting off the grid. I am thinking it may be a power spike problem, but the CFL's are the only single product I've ever had a problem with, I mean something which may be power related.

The post light was also on the grid until I put it on the inverter and replaced all 3 outdoor rated CFL's. The CFL's were in the post for maybe 7 months and did fine until I needed the additional spot light illumination. I replaced them with LED's when I put up the spot lights.

[Sunking]

I know a lot if not most people have good luck with CFL, but my failure rate is probably around 40%.

About 3-6 months from new he base of them will usually begin an arcing sound and they quit shortly afterward.

Let me guess, you are using modified sine wave inverters huh?

[Steve]

We first converted all our indoor residential lighting to CFL several years ago.

I know a lot if not most people have good luck with CFL, but my failure rate is probably around 40%.

When they are around 3-9 months old, the base of some will begin an arcing sound and they quit shortly afterward. The lights are typically used for a few hours a day, most every day.
We usually buy them in a package of 4-6 from various manufacturers and the result is the same. The oldest working CFL in our house is probably around 3 years old, and we've been using them for about 10 years.

They do come with a MFG warranty but call me lazy, I don't want to mess with mailing multiple packages of CFL's over and over.

We have a backyard post light which houses 3 bulbs. We put in 3 outdoor rated CFL's and all 3 lasted about 1-1/2 years before one quit working. They were rated 13w each.

I wired the lamp to my solar power project and replaced the bulbs with new CFL's of the same rating. The light was sufficient for what the single post lamp needed to do.

Later on it became necessary to add two spot lights to the circuit on the back side of our property to illuminate our parked vehicles. The three CFL's plus two incandescent spots would have over taxed my small solar project. Years ago I bought an outdoor rated CFL spot to illuminate our flag pole but it failed in less than a month. I kinda expected it to fail so I didn't want to waste more money there.

I ended up with 3 LED bulbs for the post light, each rated 2.8w each and 2 LED spot lights rated 18W each. The post light is considerably dimmer than it was with the 13W CFL's, but when combined with the very bright 18W LED spots my property is more than adequately lit. We are more than satisfied with the arrangement and the power supply is doing fine.

We have also replaced most of the indoor lighting from CFL to LED, mainly substituting LED when the CFL's burn out.

It's been my experience and my opinion that most everyone's house is over-illuminated.
Who needs a very bright light to be on while watching TV, or just walking across a room, chatting at a table or on a computer (etc). My family has been very happy with a lower general ambient light provided by the LED's.
Our bathrooms have those long 6-8 socket light fixtures, and each of those sockets have a 2.8w LED bulb which produces plenty of bathroom lighting. The bulb is a frosted globe so it looks nice. The alternative for those types of fixtures is one or two CFL's lit and the other 5-7 sockets off or empty, which doesn't look as good. They look more "complete" if you will.

Most of the LED's on the market do not have a frosted diffuser, just a cluster of the single elements which emit an extremely harsh type of light, producing artificially harsh shadows- but they appear to do a better job at illuminating a room vs a frosted type.

Forget reading printed text in a room illuminated exclusively by LED. They don't produce enough light to read properly, and if they do the light is not "right", maybe not the right wavelength (Just a guess) and it causes a lot of eye strain. When me and the Mrs. need to read something, or the kids do homework we use one or two higher output CFL's.

We have bought maybe 2 dozen LED bulbs in varous wattage and design, some rated for indoor and some rated outdoor and none have all-out failed. We bought one pack of 8 which use the smaller screw in base for our dining room chandelier and those have grown dimmer over a couple years. Other than that there's been no failure, even the 18w spots which are mounted high in a tree and directly out in the rain.

I absolutely love those spots, they do a better job of general illumination than a 75w incandescent. Flat out better, especially for security purposes. If you look directly at a 75w incandescent it is really bright, and will burn a spot in your eye when you look away. The 18w LED's are very much more piercing, harsh and "blasting" than an incandescent and burn a more solid (pattern of dots) in your eye's retina. (Don't ask me how I know this) I can only think the intensity may help detur a potential preditor for the courseness of it.
Another point is if I had purchased 2 dozen CFL's instead of LED's I would expect maybe 10 to have failed. Again.

So our family uses the LED for outside security where the harshness doesn't matter, and for soft ambient general indoor lighting and use CFL for special purposes like reading.
The kitchen is the exception. We use a big flourescent tube fixture, two bulbs rated 80w each. Sometimes you just gotta have a bright light source for the kitchen. But we usually use a 25w tube light over the sink when the light from the celing fixture isn't needed.

[LEDMAKER]

Led light webshope i know

Too bad you do not know what you are talking about

There is webshop i know that could also help you....

[diane21]

I like the 40' of the cool white 12v flex strip on a 96 watt transformer that looks real good. Looks like some interesting lighting projects.
Very tempting to buy the cool white flex strip.

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[Sunking]

I see your points. I think they'll catch on in

They already have some niche applications which they fit nicely mostly pertaining to task lighting. But when it comes to area and outdoor lighting, especially the commercial markets, they have a long way to go. The efficiency, CRI, and price point are way off to gain wide acceptance. When you start seeing engineering firms like I own and operate and government offices using them will be the sign of the times. Right now we do not use them and the USA Government does not allow their use in any of their buildings.

Well I lied a bit we do use them for special architectural lighting effects, and I do see some used in Walmart Freezer cases but that is quite a special location because you can run the LED's at full rated power to get the efficiency up because they are in 0 degree temps. Try that at room temp and you get a flash cube.

[NABCEP Russ]

Today they are not quite as efficient as CFL's, have a long way to go to match T8 and T5 florescent efficiency, mediocre to poor CRI, and terribly expensive. I think that will change in the future, but they are not ready for prime time yet.

I see your points. I think they'll catch on in the residential sector because they eliminate many of the problems average consumers have with CFL's. They turn on instantly, they don't flicker, they have a very long lifespan, and they don't give off much heat. And of course the no mercury benefit, but that shouldn't be that much of an issue anyway.

I sell LED's in my store and a lot of people love them. I get a lot of people that come in and HATE cfl's. The flickering bothers them, they hate the warm up time, etc. I've had a lot of people put them in vaulted ceilings to avoid the chore of changing lightbulbs. Since we've started offering them, I've seen more interest in them than I initially expected.

Replacements for T5's and T8's however do have a much longer way to come.

[Sunking]

What do you see as the shortcoming of LED's that will prohibit them from becoming the primary light source?

Today they are not quite as efficient as CFL's, have a long way to go to match T8 and T5 florescent efficiency, mediocre to poor CRI, and terribly expensive. I think that will change in the future, but they are not ready for prime time yet.