Thread Number: 72947
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
Still getting used to LED lights |
[Down to Last] |
|
Post# 963646 , Reply# 1   10/21/2017 at 10:22 (2,378 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
I think the LED from my street light across the street goes right into my room! In fact I often think (and my daughter even sometimes asks if) that it's Daylight...
(Gotta get back to the 'Streetlights' thread, as our street lighting has changed once again & in an even shorter time to those LED's...) -- Dave |
Post# 963664 , Reply# 4   10/21/2017 at 12:23 (2,378 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
|
Post# 963676 , Reply# 5   10/21/2017 at 14:07 (2,377 days old) by kb0nes (Burnsville, MN)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
5    
Tim, what is the design of the LED lights that snow accumulation is an issue on? Here in MN we sometimes get snow (although yours is possibly more wet and clingy then ours) and I have never seen a problem.
Most of the LED street and parking lot lights here have the LED's as a flat array underneath the lamp so accumulation isn't a problem. The big benefit that will someday come with LED lighting is when they start to use motion sensors to switch them off when they aren't needed. Think of all the parking areas we light at night, all night that could be dark until a car drives in there! Something vapor discharge lights could never do since they don't start fast. |
Post# 963687 , Reply# 6   10/21/2017 at 15:37 (2,377 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
|
Post# 963731 , Reply# 8   10/21/2017 at 20:06 (2,377 days old) by sudsmaster (SF Bay Area, California)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
1    
The sodium vapor street light in our cul-de-sac was replaced this past year with a much brighter LED lamp.
It seems to cast more shadows, as well as reaching farther than the old light. That much is appreciated as it reduces the possibility of crime. However, the color rendition must be very low. I refer to such light as "gray light", because everything seems so lifeless under it. I suspect the reason is that such white light with poor color rendition is the cheapest and most energy efficient way to produce illumination. At least that was my observation with the earliest LED bulbs: for the same wattage the "daylight" bulbs produced more lumens than the "warm white" bulbs. Or, more precisely, for the same lumens the daylight bulbs consumed fewer watts than the warm white bulbs. For a while I purchased daylight bulbs instead of warm white ones, until I realized the colder light was making it more difficult to get to sleep at night. In the meantime, companies like FEIT apparently figured out how to make LED lamps of any color temp with great color rendition, while still being energy efficient. These are mostly what I buy these days, and at Costco they are often heavily discounted with instant rebates from the local power company. When I moved in here, initially I didn't like the yellow light of the sodium vapor light. But as time went on, I got used to it. I even got yellowish LED lamps for the porch and coach lights out front to blend in with it. Now those are a great contrast to the gray light from the new street lamp. Oh well, can't have everything. Maybe I'll write a letter to the city asking for the next replacement lamp to have a warmer tone as well as better color rendition. Not that it will do anything. |
Post# 964327 , Reply# 11   10/26/2017 at 00:25 (2,373 days old) by sudsmaster (SF Bay Area, California)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
Oh, LED lights are fine with me.
The rub is what KIND of LED. I'm not a big fan of low CRI LED's, which is what the new streetlights here seem to be. Also they cast light everywhere. If it weren't for the big magnolia tree in my front yard, I'd be complaining about the new light streaming into the living room. As it is, the bedrooms here face away from the street, so there isn't a problem with that. Not sure what my neighbors, some of whom have bedrooms facing the street, think about the new light. The old streetlight was high pressure sodium. I did not like the light when I first moved here, but slowly it grew on me, especially when I got yellowish LED (vintage looking, 2300K) lights for the porch and lamp post. Now they sort of look out of place in the gray light. Even worse are the low pressure sodium lights, which blanket the San Jose area - or at least they used to. I remember seeing them light up Market Street in SF in the 70's. Awful. Made it look like a war zone. |
Post# 964330 , Reply# 12   10/26/2017 at 00:54 (2,373 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
Mercury-to-Sodium: I think I remember that sort of thing, down to a neighbor, whose house I was at, and this was kitty-corner, at the corner of the street I grew up on, before she, then later, me, grew up & moved out, saying "there was a new street light out there", but I vividly remember seeing the white-glow of a mercury, coming off of a suspended-wire-globe, than her to have quoted her saying that to the now-familiar sodium cobra-head, running off of the antiquated wooden pole, that even there, houses those new LED's, once unique to the side of town that I now live in--They start in refined NORTH Oak Park, before working back to EIGHT MILE...
-- Dave |
Post# 970201 , Reply# 17   11/27/2017 at 05:34 (2,341 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
A very elderly lady we have across the street in our neighborhood replaced her bulb-operated front porch light with an LED-lit one that I find very attractive...
It even goes on by itself... I wish I could replace the one we have and our side door (which she also has like we do, but left the orig. light) that accidentally gets turned on because someone can't only turn on one switch when they go to the basement (the one next to the basement light switch would obviously be for the light outside the door, which I often see happen at the neighbors' house right across the street from us... -- Dave |
Post# 970268 , Reply# 18   11/27/2017 at 14:00 (2,340 days old) by PhilR (Quebec Canada)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
1    
Last summer, they replaced all the light poles on my street and while I have to say I liked the style of the old light poles, I don't care much for sodium lights. The new ones have bright LED and I like them. I'm curious to see how long they'll last as I have seen some fairly new ones go bad and flashing like a stroboscope elsewhere and that's quite disturbing...
The 7 first pictures show the old sodium street lights and the others show the new light poles with LED lights. |
Post# 975993 , Reply# 19   12/29/2017 at 12:02 (2,308 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
The Coolers and Freezers at work---just when I thought it was safe have 'em now! All over the ceilings trying to give off the light of what used to be by the door, one (now UNUSED) incandescent bulb...
The walls of them also changed to that $%#@*tty corrugated metal--when just plain, flat stainless steel was the standard... Ditto for the couple of meat rooms at another Kroger (the one by my dad's I occasionally shop at) I was "band saw" stalking around--more on that in the Secret Rooms thread... (Well, one had room aprons, and jackets & other wearable-gear having on hooks, I was staring dead at, through windows (that my store just may have in the other rooms and annexes in the actual room I had been in and out of a couple times that I didn't stay in long enough to get any sort of view of, as they were off to the side) just for a few people (the workers and my fellow-customers and shoppers) around me, STARING DEAD at ME, thinking I was "needing to be put-away somewhere" WEIRD!!!!)... -- Dave |
Post# 975996 , Reply# 20   12/29/2017 at 12:47 (2,308 days old) by joeekaitis (Rialto, California, USA)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
. . . with a very narrow beam, almost as if it's been aimed and focused to light only the street from curb to curb but no more. The previous mercury vapor, then sodium vapor streetlights on the pole across the street from us spilled light all the way up the driveway. Now the front yards, with the exception of those bathed in a homeowner-installed security light, are dark shores flanking a river of light. |
Post# 1026487 , Reply# 21   3/7/2019 at 12:28 (1,875 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
Switched from my incandescents that Big Brother is Outlawing to these LED's in the bathroom, said toe the most-used lighting in the house...
So, then, I've traded what I find frequently burning out to a light that I gotta used to the glow of... Seems as though even the turning the bulbs on is quite different in the way that the light is coming out... And although the disagreeable hue is still trying to be comparable to those old school incandescents, I somehow still see and feel a slight contrast... -- Dave |
Post# 1026491 , Reply# 22   3/7/2019 at 13:05 (1,875 days old) by oliger (Indianapolis, Indiana)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
I have a big mercury light on the side of my garage. Never knew it was regulated or a rare find. It still works. No idea how old the bulb is, but the fixture is probably at least from the 50's. |
Post# 1026538 , Reply# 23   3/7/2019 at 22:17 (1,875 days old) by cfz2882 (Belle Fourche,SD)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
I have a mercury on the side of my house-illuminating the back yard:1978 Stonco wallpak running 100w bulb-really nice illumination and color. |
Post# 1026604 , Reply# 26   3/8/2019 at 22:24 (1,874 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
5    
|
Post# 1026605 , Reply# 27   3/8/2019 at 22:36 (1,874 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
|
Post# 1026619 , Reply# 30   3/9/2019 at 01:13 (1,874 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
The heavy, bulky, obsolete mercury vapors in the parking lot at the Walmart I used to work at were falling apart, fragments and pieces were falling down, almost on people and cars, so here’s where smaller, lighter LED’s were just the thing...
When I started working there, and I was sitting in my car on a break during a rain shower, I saw a huge ball of orangish-yellowish light in the airacross the roadway, just for a day later to see a broken street light with a huge black mark on the concrete at the foot of it, and a few broken pieces of what would be from the fixture and glass lens from overhead—a lightning bolt probably lit it up, and then blew it out... — Dave |
Post# 1026766 , Reply# 32   3/10/2019 at 18:25 (1,872 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
>How many folks are reading from & posting to AW.org using a phone, tablet, or computer that has a screen lit with LED technology?
Good point. Although it's entirely possible LED detractors here are using older LCD or even CRT screens! One day, there may even be a post about how much better CRT computer screens are. |
Post# 1026767 , Reply# 33   3/10/2019 at 18:35 (1,872 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
>The irony is palpable. I remember that up to the early 90's or so, only people in universities and rich companies could even pay for the internet, and even at that, not everyone was allowed to have email access.
I remember working for one place around 2001, and, back then, people had to have a position above a certain level to get an e-mail address. I can't remember the exact position one had to be at (or above), but I'm thinking that most employees did not have e-mail, even though most positions required at least some light computer use. I no longer work there, but based on what people whom I knew back then say, I think today everyone has an e-mail address, regardless of position. Times change. As for universities... I recall one local university doing some building in the 80s, and I seem to recall hearing about wiring for the future (computers). I've sometimes wondered if that wiring was ever used--by the time it was probably needed, the technology was probably outdated. |
Post# 1026791 , Reply# 34   3/11/2019 at 01:59 (1,872 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
LordKenmore: Although it's entirely possible LED detractors here are using older LCD or even CRT screens! One day, there may even be a post about how much better CRT computer screens are.I don't know the curve for when the balance tipped to LCD and/or LED computer monitors over CRT but I can say I got my first LCD (two, both of which I'm still using) in May 2009. No need to replace for an LED until they go kablooey. My TVs are a 42" plasma panel (Sept 2002) in the living room and a 27" CRT (Oct 1987) in the bedroom. The plasma will stay until it goes kablooey. The CRT is used ~daily for General Hospital, *rarely* for anything else. Also have a 24" CRT (2005) inherited from the grandmother 5 years ago (have not used it), and a 20" CRT (1986) that needs to be trashed (picture is bad last time I tried it). |
Post# 1026804 , Reply# 35   3/11/2019 at 04:03 (1,872 days old) by LordKenmore (The Laundry Room)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
>I don't know the curve for when the balance tipped to LCD and/or LED computer monitors over CRT but I can say I got my first LCD (two, both of which I'm still using) in May 2009.
I'm pretty sure I heard some people in one computer Facebook group talk about preferring CRT since 2009. BUT they had specialized needs. Graphics IIRC. I have to say, though, I was really happy to make the transition to LCD monitors. My first LCD monitor was old, and didn't have good picture quality--it was easily bettered by a CRT monitor--but the text clarity was so good compared to all the CRT monitors I had experience with. I really missed the text clarity when that monitor died, and I had to go back to a CRT for a period, even though that CRT was a pretty good CRT. Eventually, I was able to find a good, used LCD monitor, and that was it for my use of CRT monitors, at least on a day-to-day basis. I have no idea LCD computer monitors improved to a tipping point for me...but I definitely used (but didn't own) a monitor made no later than 2007 that was good enough that I doubt I'd have ever missed CRT. I have, as a toy, a 1996 or so Apple PowerBook 1400CS. Based on limited experience, I could not live with that PowerBook's monitor as my one and only...and I'm not sure I could live it as a secondary screen. Color isn't good, but the big thing is that when typing fast it takes too long for letters to appear, and there is too much "ghosting" with the mouse pointer. BUT the screen technology wasn't optimal, even by 1996 standards--it was the "cheap" approach. I remember reading of people who bought high end PowerBooks just to get a better screen. But I've also read people who had that level of screen technology in some PowerBook, and were happy at the time. "Your mileage may vary" and all that. |
Post# 1029323 , Reply# 36   4/8/2019 at 23:53 (1,843 days old) by DaveAMkrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
Here is my bathroom light fixture showing a fluorescent lighting-like "afterglow" when it's turned off:
Quite jarringly stark just as when these bulbs go on, to see this happen for a bit, a split-second after they're turned off... -- Dave |
Post# 1029324 , Reply# 37   4/8/2019 at 23:55 (1,843 days old) by tolivac (greenville nc)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
I have some Lowes utility workshop LED lights that give the same afterglow.Figure it must be charges left in capacitors after the light was turned off and bleeding down thru the LEDS. |
Post# 1029389 , Reply# 38   4/9/2019 at 19:46 (1,842 days old) by SudsMaster (SF Bay Area, California)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
I replaced all my incandescent bulbs (other than in appliances) with CFL's back in the 2000's. In the past five years I've replaced the CFL's with LED's. The Circline fluorescent ceiling fixtures will take longer.
Where LED's make great sense is inside fridges and freezers; that's a no brainer, and who cares about CRI in that capacity? Speaking of CRI, I am a fan of Feit's "Tru Color" series with CRI's above 90. Very nice, and you can generally get them in warm white, bright white, or daylight. In the past couple of years the high CRI 100 watt equivalent bulbs have become available, and they are nice. One drawback of LED's (as well as older CFL's) is the radio static they can cause. Oh well. Early LED bulbs did have atrocious color rendition. Think: gray light. But with the new high CRI bulbs, much better. I find I really like the "bright white", 3000 K lamps. The street light in the cul-de-sac here was converted to LED a couple years ago. At the time, I noticed it has horrible color balance. That "gray light". It burnt out a few weeks ago, and the replacement seems better. As for melting snow off traffic lights... I suppose signal light fixtures could have thermostatically controlled snow melting heaters built in... but it's not a problem in this part of California. |
Post# 1029406 , Reply# 39   4/9/2019 at 22:17 (1,842 days old) by IowaBear (Cedar Rapids, IA)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
I just have two LED bulbs that I specifically bought for a hard-to-reach fixture.
The rest of my bulbs are CFLs and this batch really seems to be holding out a long time.
Electricity here is expensive but I live alone and only keep the lights on in the room I'm occupying. It doesn't make any financial sense to change the CFLs until they burn out. |
Post# 1029408 , Reply# 40   4/9/2019 at 22:36 (1,842 days old) by DaveAMkrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
Well, here is an LED desk lamp that seemed to be the only kind Walmart sells (there was a One Regular Incandescent there, but the store refused to sell it, prompting me to wonder why & when the last time that it COULD!)
The Kama flashed, flickered and arc'd at first, and the diodes even lit up unevenly, as in incompletely, but the inherent defects fixed themselves, so it operates normally, replacing a couple incandescents which I had before, one secured with a clamp, but the gooseneck son them were seemingly breaking... Again, I wish I could have stuck with the Conventional Incandescent design, but I grew to like it, or get used to it, and I'm praying it giving me a long life--I really don't recall having to change light bulbs in the former units that frequently, and I don't mind it being left on or squawk about it being left on as the halogen (that somehow lost its glass lens) that is in the last picture, I'd briefly on that desk, employed... -- Dave |
Post# 1029546 , Reply# 43   4/10/2019 at 21:02 (1,841 days old) by dylanmitchell (Southern California)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
I hate LED streetlights. The only ones that I'd be willing to put up with are the smart dimming ones that have motion sensors and go to full light when a person or vehicle and sometimes the neighbors' cats go by.
What tech has the best light quality sodium vapor, mercury vapor or other? And are any of those dimmable or tolerant of motion sensor on-off cycles? The best LED lights I have are the first ones Cree came out with that had the dope on the glass. Some of the first LED's Cree had that were $15 or $20 but I got several for a close out price when they were switching to the easier to manufacture but less vibrant LED's. |
Post# 1029846 , Reply# 45   4/14/2019 at 11:49 (1,838 days old) by cfz2882 (Belle Fourche,SD)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
1    
I hate LED street lighting for many of the reasons given above in reply 44-HPS,LPS are far superior for street lighting tasks than LEDs.. Funny when the goofy things go bad and start to strobe-those get fixed right away! :)LEDs do good for gas station canopy use though. |
Post# 1029908 , Reply# 46   4/15/2019 at 00:15 (1,837 days old) by SudsMaster (SF Bay Area, California)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
1    
Well, it went outside the other night to check on our streetlight, and it's the same old ugly "gray light" it had before the bulb was replaced.
I don't see why a better color balance couldn't be installed... they may save a few watts with the gray light, but the quality of life would be improved. I might pen a letter to the City asking that the next time they replace our street lamp, they use a higher quality LED bulb. Or thingie. And I confess even though the light is ugly, I was relieved in the middle of winter to see that bulb replaced. Adequate street lighting has been shown, I believe, to be crime-fighting. The previous street lighting was low pressure sodium. An awful orange light. So the LED was an improvement over that. |
Post# 1029949 , Reply# 47   4/15/2019 at 13:50 (1,836 days old) by dylanmitchell (Southern California)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
Still a few CFL fluorescent pathway lights around here I call them disco lights when they start to flicker out.
There are some excellent LED lights my favorites is the 2014 era TW Series Cree LED Bulb with Neodymium that bluish covering that filtered the light and the Cree Surface LS series in my garage the LS4-40L-40K-10V. I think Neodymium that bluish covering is expensive but would make street lights less harsh and blinding. My garage is beautifully lit but I wouldn't want that light anywhere near my when trying to sleep! |
Post# 1080536 , Reply# 48   7/10/2020 at 19:38 (1,384 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
Well, the outer diodes in my LED desk lamp aren’t giving off any light, only the inner and center, and contrary to hard it is to notice in the pictures here, the light it gives off is noticeable dim...
— Dave |
Post# 1080547 , Reply# 49   7/10/2020 at 22:54 (1,384 days old) by SudsMaster (SF Bay Area, California)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
|
Post# 1080556 , Reply# 50   7/10/2020 at 23:44 (1,384 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI)   |   | |
Checkrate/Likes
 
     
I know, I have to go out shopping for a screw-in desk lamp, I got screwed out of one from left from a Walmart's remaining inventory that it wouldn't selll me...
Otherwise, there's the halogen bulb one that gives off plenty of light but I don't like it left on, which I don't mind this one being (or even an ordinary incandescent Bulb)... -- Dave |