Highly dissapointed with LED light bulbs

[john_eckels]

I was very excited to find these LED candle light bulbs at Costo. The package says that the are rated to replace 40W light bulbs. I put them in my foyer light, which previously had 25 W incadescent bulbs which did an excellent job of lighting the place up. Upon turning the light on at night, the 3 40W equivalent LED's produced less than 1/4 the light of the 25W incadescent bulbs. They barley light the place up. I am tying to decide if I need to get my 16' ladder back out and replace them.

 

[Michael Hanson]

Seems to be that marketing tricks are still with us,let the buyer beware! Mike

 

[titanpat57]

Seems to be that marketing tricks are still with us,let the buyer beware! Mike

Totally agree Mike...just saw these tonight and had them in my hand at Sam's Club, glad I didn't pull the trigger. The LED technology is advancing quickly, but the really good LED's cost serious money, and they're a classic case of "you get what you pay for". I know at Sam's these were going for around 15$ for a pack of 3.

 

[john_eckels]

These were around $16 at Costco. I usually pay a fraction of that for 3 incadescent bulbs. My kids have a habbit of leaving lights on around the house. I often come home from work and find lights turned on in the bedrooms, bathroom and of course the foyer. Reminding them dosen't seem to work. I was hoping to partially combat this problem with low wattage i.e. LED lights. I guess I need to be patient and wait for better products.

 

[e9999]

I'm waiting a year or 2. For better tech. Plus I just changed a bunch of bulbs to CFL. I better get all this free $$ I was told about.

(several of these CFLs have already acted up, too.... with some plain dead and my wife complains they take too long to get bright...)

 

[carboncycles]

Yea, definitely wait on the LED market to mature in this space. The flashlight market has become saturated with LEDs, and it's now a matter of time for the big makers to finally gear up for them. As for the CFL, I agree that they take a while to lightup; however, there are the new ones that have the instant on feature. I would switch over to them, but I've recently replaced all the lights in the house and the ROI wouldn't be there for me to swap to the new ones...I will say that I saw at least a 30-35% reduction in my electricity bill once I had migrated over.

 

[-Spike-]

CFL's are great, but they have two Achilles heels- dimmers and short run times. You can get used to the warm-up thing, but if you don't leave them on for at least 5 minutes their life is significantly reduced. Dimmers are even harder on them, if they're not intended to be used with them.

-Spike

 

[e9999]

unfortunately, I have a bunch of dimmers in the house. And when I went on my splurging on highly discounted CFLs last year they didn't have inexpensive dimmable ones. Even now they are expensive. So, those are still incandescents. And I don't want to buy more CFLs now with the better LEDs on the horizon.

I don't know about this 5 mins rule, though. More reliable info?

 

[-Spike-]

Just stuff I picked up on a Google search. It was noted in several places, shouldn't be hard to find.

Here's one, complete with sources noted in the link- 'The life of a CFL is significantly shorter if it is only turned on for a few minutes at a time: In the case of a 5-minute on/off cycle the lifespan of a CFL can be up to 85% shorter, reducing its lifespan to the level of an incandescent lamp' From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_fluorescent_lamp

-Spike

 

[e9999]

Just stuff I picked up on a Google search. It was noted in several places, shouldn't be hard to find.

Here's one, complete with sources noted in the link- 'The life of a CFL is significantly shorter if it is only turned on for a few minutes at a time: In the case of a 5-minute on/off cycle the lifespan of a CFL can be up to 85% shorter, reducing its lifespan to the level of an incandescent lamp' From Compact fluorescent lamp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

-Spike

interesting. Hard to judge what is best to do though. If you leave them on 15 mins when they are needed for 1, you're wasting 15x the energy...

 

[firetruck41]

I have found most CFLs burn out WAY faster than they are supposed to. Generally I replace them about the equivalent of 1-2 lifetimes of regular incandescent. I have been using them since ~2001. My electric bill dropped by 1/3 to 1/2 when I first switched, back in our old house.

 

[sandcruiser]

for lights on dimmers, look at halogens, especially halogen spots.
they aren't as efficient as CFLs but they are more light/watt than 'normal' incandescent bulbs.

 

[kerker]

Thanks for the good info. I'm glad I didn't buy a set at Costco,

 

[e9999]

well, keep in mind that at our Costco for example you can buy CFLs discounted by 90% or so by SoCalEd every so often (like right now). So some are like 50c a piece. Even if they burn out quicker than expected that may still be some savings...