LED bulbs

[jcummins]

The Costco LEDs that are failing quickly had a good price but I would not call them cheap. Cheap are the ones I picked up at Lowes for about $1-2 for a R40 bulbs. I really expect these to fail but for the price, figured it was worth the risk, especially since the bulbs are a good brand name. Costco usually has a great/good price on quality items which is why we were shocked that the LEDs they were selling failed so quick. The power company was selling LEDs at a good discount, about $1.75 for an R40 bulb, so I bought a dozen which was the most they would let me buy. Never heard of the brand but figured it was cheap enough to try.

When we built the house, we bought quite a bit of stuff from Home Depot because we got a discount. The house has 80ish recessed cans and flood lights so we had to buy a fair number of bulbs. The Home Depot CFLs were very consistent and reliable. We still have quite a few of those bulbs working after 12 years! :thumbsup: However, we bought a bunch of closely priced CFLs at Lowes that had very high failure rates. It got to the point I would take the failed bulbs back to the store. We would then only buy name brand CFLs which were not really that much more expensive.

Failure of CFLs, and now, LEDs seems sorta hit or miss, but I try to stay away from cheap, unknown brands when buying from stores. Figured the power company would not sell LEDs that will fail quickly but time will tell.

Still surprised at the Costco LEDs failure rate....

Later,
Dan

I agree hit or miss. The leds are working well enough, last time I was in there, bought some more. I haven't had a failure yet.

 

[RBLapham]

Some LED bulbs give off RFI - radio frequency interference, some do not (usually brand named ones, but not always) This will interfere with the RF remote for the garage door opener. Try this - does the opener work all the time with the LED off, but hardly ever with the LED on? Bingo LED RFI killing the remote. Try another LED. LED light bulbs should last longer than other types in a vibration area. Most LED failures are not the LED, but the circuit connections in the bulb.

 

[dmccarty]

Are you sure you have clean power? I haven't changed a light bulb in a year and a half since I went to LEDs. I noticed a few CFLs on little used circuits the other day that I must have missed, but still no failures. House is 3000 sq ft, garage another 600, shop another 1000. So 4600 sq ft and no burned out bulbs. Mostly Cree in areas we sit and use and house brand in other areas. Some Phillips. House brand was mostly Walmart Great Value or whatever it is called. .

I think we have ok power. The only bulbs that have had problems are the LED one from Costco AND those bulbs were given some very poor reviews on the Costco site says to me that the bulbs are just junk. We have had some good brand name CFLs not even work right out of the package or very shortly after being put into use but that did not happen often. The LEDs from Costco had a very high failure rate.

A few bulbs, including the LEDs, have burned out and when a few more go, I will replace them with the new LEDs I bought at Lowes on sale. It will be interesting to see how well those work.

Later,
Dan

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Where I grew up, it wasn't unheard of a man that caught his son doing something mischievous...would snatch off his belt and wear a hole in his britches...the problem was that if the son's best friend just happened to be there when the mischievous act occurred....he would also get a hole worn in his pants. If the friend were lucky, the man would not call his father who would then repeat....

My grandfather ran away from home when he was 15 because he was afraid his father would kill him. A neighbor friend was actually killed by his father, so it might have happened. This was in 1878, and the "spare the rod" Christians didn't have a leash on them yet. Parents owned their children and if they wanted to kill them they could. Freedom of religion and all that.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Are you sure you have clean power? I haven't changed a light bulb in a year and a half since I went to LEDs. I noticed a few CFLs on little used circuits the other day that I must have missed, but still no failures. House is 3000 sq ft, garage another 600, shop another 1000. So 4600 sq ft and no burned out bulbs. Mostly Cree in areas we sit and use and house brand in other areas. Some Phillips. House brand was mostly Walmart Great Value or whatever it is called. .

Reliability has been my experience too. I still have a 3-light fixture with some of the very first CFLs in it. Remember the ones that took a whole minute just to come up to full brightness? Those are great in the bedroom, where the last thing you want is an immediate flash of bright light. They are still working fine after decades. I replaced all the 65w bulbs in the kitchen can lights with LED bulbs from Costco years ago. They are all still working fine. The outdoor lights are all CFLs, and the only problem there is that I have to remember to leave them on in cold weather, because they won't start if it gets too cold. They are the smallest I could buy, 25w equivalent, that use about 4 watts. They still put out plenty of light to avoid stumbling around in the dark. They get left on a lot. I have replaced 2 out of 3 bulbs in the front of the house, but one of them, and the one by the back porch, are still going strong after 22 years.

 

[SPYDERLK]

I think we have ok power. The only bulbs that have had problems are the LED one from Costco AND those bulbs were given some very poor reviews on the Costco site says to me that the bulbs are just junk. We have had some good brand name CFLs not even work right out of the package or very shortly after being put into use but that did not happen often. The LEDs from Costco had a very high failure rate.

A few bulbs, including the LEDs, have burned out and when a few more go, I will replace them with the new LEDs I bought at Lowes on sale. It will be interesting to see how well those work.

Later,
Dan

I have 8 of the COSTCO/FEIT bulbs in service. They are the 100W Bright White [3000K] dimmable variety. 2 months along no failures. I like the light quality -- 3000K looks a lot closer to the daylight [5000K] characteristic than to the 2700K soft white. - go figure :confused3:

 

[Oldoak]

Me, when I switch on a light I want LIGHT, not a dim glow in the dark. I replaced our 60W incandescent bulbs with 14W LEDs, 100W equivalent. At 14 watts they are still quite a bargain energy wise. More light output with 46 less watts than the 60 watt incandescent. I use Philips LEDs sold at Home Depot. Started using them last year. So far not a problem even with the two in my garage door opener.

 

[ultrarunner]

I think we have ok power. The only bulbs that have had problems are the LED one from Costco AND those bulbs were given some very poor reviews on the Costco site says to me that the bulbs are just junk. We have had some good brand name CFLs not even work right out of the package or very shortly after being put into use but that did not happen often. The LEDs from Costco had a very high failure rate.

A few bulbs, including the LEDs, have burned out and when a few more go, I will replace them with the new LEDs I bought at Lowes on sale. It will be interesting to see how well those work.

Later,
Dan

Are these the screw in bulbs of the 4' tubes from Costco?

Only have used the 4' tubes both as individual tubes and as a complete two bulb fixture... can't say enough good things about the 4' tubes/fixtures

 

[mapper]

Now, think about this garage door opener thing. They operate near 300Mhz. And if a source of RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) puts out enough trash from its switching type power supply, to affect a nearby 300Mhz receiver, wow, think about all of the other garbage all through the radio spectrum they are generating.

We as a society just keep on buying these cheap switch mode power supplies and putting them in everything. Our rules and regulations are wholly inadequate to protect the radio spectrum. It only takes a few cents per item to suppress this electronic pollution, but we won't spend this money to make them clean.

Think about the "antenna's" that these devices have to radiate their RF energy in the airwaves. Yes the house wiring, and entrance wiring for sure, and some may make it through the transformers to radiate over the longer powerlines. I haven't detected any RFI from Cree Led bulbs, but many others are horrible RF radiators. Most Chinese switch mode power supplies are filthy, some more than others.

The end result is over the last 10 years the "noise floor" has risen by several decibels. I predict that this will continue thru the years as an ever increasing pollution source.

We thought nothing about chemical pollution of our environment until some rivers caught fire and people got sick. And we are totally ignoring this new form of "pollution". The pollution of our RF spectrum. It makes our radio receivers "deaf" and decreases the ranges that communication can be maintained. It effects all radio services and is no respecter of boundaries.

But money talks, and BS walks. We will always buy the lowest cost item when we don't see a benefit to buying the higher priced one.

Tried listening to AM radio recently?

 

[k0ua]

Tried listening to AM radio recently?

Yep, and I often operate 160 meters (1.8 to 2.0 Mhz which is just above the AM broadcast band) in the fall, winter and spring until the summertime static from storms gets too bad. The noise floor just seems to raise higher every year. A new thing is these "grow lights" that the marijuana growers are using. Real spectrum polluters. Another "green" thing besides the "green" bulbs is these new furnaces. Many of these new variable speed drive motors in these energy saving furnaces are really bad emitters also. You can bet that any kind of energy saving technology being brought into the marketplace will be extremely filthy in terms of emitting large amounts of RF energy. A Prius car is another example. A big mobile radio transmitter.