Personal computing discussed
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The Egg wrote:Wow....bulb makers are getting really bad with their wattage rating games. I've seen some that are pretty far off, but that one takes the cake. A standard 60w bulb is 800 lumens. They're calling that one a "60w equivalent" when it's only putting out 309. Clearly there's no regulation on wattage rating whatsoever, because that should be considered false advertising. 309 lumens is even substantially less than a 40w (450), and actually closer to a 25W than anything. It looks like we've gotten to the point where you can't trust their ratings at all, and should only be looking at lumen output.
I also noticed that the color temperature is really warm (2200k). That's almost as low as candlelight (1900k).
just brew it! wrote:Yeah, I didn't notice the low lumen rating until I'd already bought it (it was an impulse buy at the local Lowes). My guess is that the lumen output is comparable to a historical 60W Edison bulb of the type they're emulating, and since that's the aesthetic they're going for I guess they... *ahem*... took some liberties with the wattage equivalency rating.
That fixture typically gets switched on only late at night, for the night owls in the family to get a snack or glass of water after the non-night-owls have gone to bed. In that role, the low light output -- even if it wasn't exactly my plan -- isn't really a detriment; there's another ceiling fixture if you need more light.
It's definitely not "60W equivalent" as we normally interpret that phrase, though.
The Egg wrote:Another disturbing trend I've found is that "standard light bulbs" in the sense that you and I know them are almost extinct. If you go to the incandescent bulb section of any store now and look closely, what you'll actually see bulbs that look nearly identical, but strangely have lower wattages and are (again) "rated" at a higher wattage even though they have slightly lower lumen output. These are not standard bulbs. What they actually are, is pressurized halogen in a standard bulb casing, and they're prone to some degree of explosion if cracked or broken. Hooray!
Kougar wrote:JBI, what about the Feit's you got from Costco? The reliability on those any better than the Cree bulbs? I still haven't bought anymore Feit's from Costco since I returned the last two packages for the irritating buzzing noise, but it's been a year and everyone seems to like those bulbs now.
Kougar wrote:I found out about LED shoplight CFL replacements late last year and was floored, it simply hadn't dawned on me these things existed until Costco started carrying them.
just brew it! wrote:In that role, the low light output -- even if it wasn't exactly my plan -- isn't really a detriment; there's another ceiling fixture if you need more light.
Crackhead Johny wrote:I still suspect that the "20 year life" that was bragged about for LEDs is at best cherry picked.
I now notice that the LEDs in aquarium bundles at the fish shop say "6 Year life".
bfg-9000 wrote:Obviously heat depends on how hard the LEDs are driven as well as the output path for heat--those free Harbor Freight LED flashlights lose some 70% of their output by the first battery change because they are badly overdriven and because 5mm LEDs have a poor heatpath so the phosphors bake.
...
Heat makes LEDs dim, not outright fail, ...
just brew it! wrote:I have not had any issues with them; however, I have not used any of the 100W equivalent ones, which are apparently the ones that gave you grief?
ludi wrote:Read the fine print, and you'll always find that lifespan estimates are based on some metric where the bulb is installed in an upright orientation (for optimal convection) in an open fixture (for optimal ventilation) and run for just "n" hours a day (simulating a brief morning use followed by a longer evening's use) with a single power cycle per use period (to maxmize the driver life).
Lumens Incandescent light bulb watts Fluorecent/ LED watts
375 lm 25 W 6.23 W
600 lm 40 W 10 W
900 lm 60 W 15 W
1125 lm 75 W 18.75 W
1500 lm 100 W 25 W
2250 lm 150 W 37.5 W
3000 lm 200 W 50 W
Jigar wrote:Lumens to watts tableCode: Select allLumens Incandescent light bulb watts Fluorecent/ LED watts
375 lm 25 W 6.23 W
600 lm 40 W 10 W
900 lm 60 W 15 W
1125 lm 75 W 18.75 W
1500 lm 100 W 25 W
2250 lm 150 W 37.5 W
3000 lm 200 W 50 W
Jigar wrote:Lumens to watts table
Jigar wrote:Lumens to watts table
SecretMaster wrote:I hate to thread necro, but I was wondering if any of y'all have any additional input on LED bulbs. I'm in the market to replace bulbs on about 4 lamps and am wondering if I should try out LED. Reading up on user experiences and know-how here at TR lead me to think I'm better of sticking with CFL's. I'm doing a cursory search on amazon and seeing a ton of stuff.
The Egg wrote:SecretMaster wrote:I hate to thread necro, but I was wondering if any of y'all have any additional input on LED bulbs. I'm in the market to replace bulbs on about 4 lamps and am wondering if I should try out LED. Reading up on user experiences and know-how here at TR lead me to think I'm better of sticking with CFL's. I'm doing a cursory search on amazon and seeing a ton of stuff.
What rooms are they going in, and what type of fixtures? A decent quality LED is going to produce better light than CFL, though CFL can be used in totally enclosed fixtures, and might be more temperature resilient. LED is also difficult to find at certain color temperatures, such as anything in-between 3000-5000k (I prefer 3500k in my bathroom). To me, incandescent still has the most pleasing light, for areas where ambiance is critical (and the bulbs are easily accessible for frequent changing). My suggestion would be:
Incandescent: Living room, bedroom
CFL: Outdoors, garage, totally enclosed fixtures
LED: Pretty much everywhere else
SecretMaster wrote:I'm looking at prices for LED's and they just seem pricey relative to CFL's. Especially if the bulb is going to crap out on me in ~5 months.
SecretMaster wrote:The Egg wrote:SecretMaster wrote:I hate to thread necro, but I was wondering if any of y'all have any additional input on LED bulbs. I'm in the market to replace bulbs on about 4 lamps and am wondering if I should try out LED. Reading up on user experiences and know-how here at TR lead me to think I'm better of sticking with CFL's. I'm doing a cursory search on amazon and seeing a ton of stuff.
What rooms are they going in, and what type of fixtures? A decent quality LED is going to produce better light than CFL, though CFL can be used in totally enclosed fixtures, and might be more temperature resilient. LED is also difficult to find at certain color temperatures, such as anything in-between 3000-5000k (I prefer 3500k in my bathroom). To me, incandescent still has the most pleasing light, for areas where ambiance is critical (and the bulbs are easily accessible for frequent changing). My suggestion would be:
Incandescent: Living room, bedroom
CFL: Outdoors, garage, totally enclosed fixtures
LED: Pretty much everywhere else
They would mostly go into plugin-lamps; with various flavors of cloth lamp-shades. There are several ceiling fixtures with dimmers as well, but everything I've read (and even mentioned here) leads me to believe the dimmer might muck up the bulb (I'm currently in an old, old, apartment). I've been using CFL's my lamps for years now and have had no qualms about the light quality. Maybe its because I'm still young (although my eyes are garbage), or maybe it's because I simply don't know what I'm missing.
I'm looking at prices for LED's and they just seem pricey relative to CFL's. Especially if the bulb is going to crap out on me in ~5 months.