Thoughts on lighting with LEDs

[vakkotaur]

It's been a couple weeks of life with a mix of CFL and LED in the office, and battery-powered motion-sensing LED in a stairway. I no longer foresee replacing the remaining CFLs in the office with LED. The LEDs are okkay for filling in the gaps, but they just aren't that that bright, even allowing for the lower equivalent wattage. And they are bit color-skewed.

In the office I was for a time considering going back to a "soft white" for at least one of the CFLs. The somewhat bluish LEDs and the white CFLs result in a cold feeling light. I'd say clinical, but every clinic I've been in was careful not to give this impression. It's sort of like the descriptions in some UFO stories: cold, slightly bluish, almost eerie light. If it was the same white or blue-white throughout the house I probably wouldn't notice so much. But every other room has CFL (or halogen for the living room[1]) that is more of a so-called soft white. The difference can be stark. I am curious enough that I might try switching to all LED in the office, but only as a very short test. I expect the office to remain a mix of CFL and LED unless or until LED gets significantly better: brighter and more of natural white. A more diffuse light would also be a Good Thing. Right now, for general use, CFL wins over LED everywhere except apparent power consumption. I say apparent as I suspect that with current LED technology to get full illumination would require so many more LED lamps that they would use as much power as the few CFLs they would replace.

I can see using LED in places where color and great brightness aren't that critical. A porch light that is only needed to reveal a step and the keyhole seems about an ideal application. Maybe LED lighting in a storage, but not clothing, closet would make some sense as well. If there was a light over a stairway, that's another place that only needs enough light to let you see where the top and bottom steps are.

I bought a couple "locker lights" which are a combination motion sensor and LED lamp. I put one in the main stairwell near the bottom so that it trips before I get there when descending. That lets me see the bottom step without my needing to switch on an upstairs light or carry a flashlight around. Another will go on the porch so that I can easily find the keyhole at night.

The LED lamp still isn't ready for general purpose lighting. It's fine for specialized applications and can fill in some gaps, but CFL wins big on brightness and color.

As I see it:

LED - For applications where efficiency matters more than color or brightness.

Fluorescent - General purpose lighting. (Some can be dimmed and some are outdoor rated, but you have to look for these.)

Incandescent - Specialty applications (appliance lighting, e.g. oven and refrigerator lights). Easily dimmable. Runs cooler than halogen.

Halogen - Slightly more efficient than incandescent and can easily be dimmed.

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[1] Which is a dimmable torcherie that would not be a trivial swap conversion to CFL. If/when the halogen fails, I would certainly consider swapping out the socket arrangement to go to a dimmable CFL.

Comments

[yakko.livejournal.com]

At the old place, I experimented with LED lighting. I outfitted the until then unused "dining room" chandelier with LED lights. These seemed to work fine, but they weren't as bright as the CFLs from before. The light pointed up and bounced off a white ceiling to make it reasonably bright.

Then two LED lights went into the fixture by the front door where I'd been running a single CFL for 3 years. It was a fraction of the perceived brightness of a standard 13w CFL (because LED is directional, I suddenly had some dark parts of the hall), but it took only 3 watts. I'd rather use 10 more watts and get something I can see with.

The extra round LED bulb went into the closet by the front door. It wasn't as bright as the CFL, but it didn't have to be. It was bright enough to let me see inside and I wasn't dependent on it for general illumination.

My current place has all CFL lighting. I could try LEDs again in the ceiling fan, but I'd imagine I'd miss the light. The basic problem with the ceiling fan is that it's an overhead light that has proven to be an annoyance when using the computer.

I want something not-overhead again. Possibly a remote-controlled outlet hooked to 2 fixtures, into which I'll put the 9w CFLs I use in the ceiling fan. Or maybe a regular fixture and LEDs in the ceiling fan just so I don't have to stumble for the lights when I come home. The overhead light won't be bright enough to be an annoyance when I'm at the computer.

(all my LED lights are closer to "soft white" than, say, my LED flashlights, which are 9300K clinical blue-white ice light. They match the CFLs reasonably well in color temperature.)

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

I was at Menard's today and looked over the lighting. All the LED lamps were rather dim and almost all the packaging indicated it was for accent or decoration rather than genuine illumination.

I took one of the Locker Lights (made or at least distributed by Globe Electric) apart and replaced R16 (15k 75k ohm) with a 2.2k ohm resistor. The thing still trips on motion when there is a dark overcast, but not when the sky is clear - and that's in the stairway which doesn't really get direct sunlight most of the time. I plan to make the same change with the other light and put it over the back door. My concern there is how well things it will work in the cold of Winter.