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The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

creebulb.com

31–40 of 143 posts

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#31
Am I the only one not impressed by these 60 watt bulb replacements? 60 watt bulbs leave my entire place looking dim and depressing, sure good colors are nice, but if I can't see anything, what does it matter?

My light fixtures were designed for a few 100 watts, replacing them with these 60 watt LEDs may save me power, but at the cost of my eyesight!

I am more interested in true 100, or even better, 150 watt, replacement bulbs. Get those in a good package size with some energy savings!

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#32
I got my parents a Switch[1] bulb for Christmas. If the Cree bulb is anything like it, I'll be swapping out the CFLs I use the most right away--$13 at Home Depot is better than the ~$45 I paid for the Switch. It puts out great light and "feels" better than a CFL bulb. Not sure if it's the ballast frequency, color temp, or the spiky emission spectrum, but CFLs bother me.

1. http://switchlightingco.com/

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#33
post #14

Hmm, actually beats a CFL - although not by much, the CFL uses 11 watts, this uses 9.5. But the CFL costs $1, this costs $13. It lasts 3 times as long, but still - unless you really need great color accuracy (i.e. CRI), I can't see myself buying this. (I'm comparing to a CFL with the same warm color temperature.) Edit: CRI of 80! That's worse than the CFL I'm comparing it to! Why would anyone want to buy this? The sm…

I would hope that an LED wouldn't melt its way through my apartments fixings like the compact fluorescents have.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#35
post #14

Hmm, actually beats a CFL - although not by much, the CFL uses 11 watts, this uses 9.5. But the CFL costs $1, this costs $13. It lasts 3 times as long, but still - unless you really need great color accuracy (i.e. CRI), I can't see myself buying this. (I'm comparing to a CFL with the same warm color temperature.) Edit: CRI of 80! That's worse than the CFL I'm comparing it to! Why would anyone want to buy this? The sm…

How much do you pay for electricity?

Over 10 years, the difference probably makes this cheaper, even with such a small difference.

2.5 Watts, 6 hours/day, 300 days/year, 10 years, 0.13 USD/kWh [2]

=> 7.2 USD saved in electricity [1]

Count in the replacement CFL prices, 3 USD vs 13 USD, and the costs are pretty much equal.

Point being: Electricity is the biggest cost.

[1] right?: https://www.google.com/search?q=2.5*6*300*10*0.16%2F1000

[2] from here: http://www.bls.gov/ro9/cpilosa_energy.htm

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#37
post #22

i use one of these to walk my dog. it's ridiculously bright and it's laughable when you see someone using a 'normal' flash light which basically just looks like someone using a zippo lighter to light their way. bought 2 for the office and 1 for the car too. mine use regular AA batteries not the expensive high voltage rechargeable ones. edit: this comment is about the same cree LEDs except in flashlight form.

Your message is offtopic. Delete it before you get tons of downvotes, and your account gets banned. Next time actually read the linked article before posting.

It's not all that off-topic. Cree does make LED flashlights, presumably with closely related technology. If they do a good job there, that's a good indicator that they might do household LED bulbs well also.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#38
post #31

Am I the only one not impressed by these 60 watt bulb replacements? 60 watt bulbs leave my entire place looking dim and depressing, sure good colors are nice, but if I can't see anything, what does it matter? My light fixtures were designed for a few 100 watts, replacing them with these 60 watt LEDs may save me power, but at the cost of my eyesight! I am more interested in true 100, or even better, 150 watt, replacem…

Use a pair of them for each fixture? At $20 it's still cheaper than a single lower power LED bulb from other brands.

Re: The Biggest Thing Since the Light Bulb

#39
post #31

Am I the only one not impressed by these 60 watt bulb replacements? 60 watt bulbs leave my entire place looking dim and depressing, sure good colors are nice, but if I can't see anything, what does it matter? My light fixtures were designed for a few 100 watts, replacing them with these 60 watt LEDs may save me power, but at the cost of my eyesight! I am more interested in true 100, or even better, 150 watt, replacem…

It's amazing how widely people vary on light. It's observable across major cultures, or even different families.

A Japanese IKEA I went through recently had a display which would allow you to switch between 'Japanese' style lighting' and 'Western' style, with western style being dimmer, and with warmer color temperature.

I immediately found the Western one more comforting, relaxing, while my wife (Japanese) prefers the brighter one. Internal lighting in Japan is almost uniformly overhead neon, without the baffles you'll see in many North American offices.

I've grown used to it, but would rather work in the dark.

I'm sure there are many people that, like you, feel that these LED bulbs are too dim. If you're at all curious though, I'd recommend that you find one and give it a shot, many of them /feel/ brighter than the numbers would lead you to expect when compared to an incandescent.

It might be better to compare on the basis of Lumens, as watt's are a measure of power instead of brightness[1].

1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb

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