Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ranch

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mediatechnology
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Re: Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ra

Post by mediatechnology »

I'm very happy with my LEDs particularly the ~$10 Feit A19s and the Sylvania/Osram PARs.

Out of a houseful of LED lamps (I stopped counting at 59 LEDs) I've had two fail since January 2011.
One failed and I was given $80 worth of coupons by the manufacturer to buy more.
I don't feel like I was particularly screwed by that episode.

The second failed after lightning struck and exploded a Juniper tree within about 20 feet of it.
Not sure I can blame the LED for being "weak," virtually every Ethernet port in the entire house was destroyed at the same time and it had enough energy to splinter a tree blowing chunks of bark 40 feet.
My neighbor had every breaker in their house trip that night...

I didn't buy LEDs to save money, be "green" and I think global warming is pure BS.
And I don't appreciate being told what I can or cannot buy by government.
But LEDs look damn good, draw very little current, and don't heat the house in summer.
And they're usually dimmed pulling just mA each.
My lighting load is a blip with a near-unity power factor.

The remaining incandescents are in the oven, vent hood, two fridges and the Lava lamp.
The CFL vs. LED experience have been like night and day.
I have boxes and boxes and boxes of incandescents I've removed from service or had stored.
I don't miss the heat or yellow light.
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mediatechnology
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House Lighting Load

Post by mediatechnology »

This is the house base load, radios, computers, routers, test equipment, Blu-Ray, clocks, plant light in basement, sneak loads etc with no lighting other than under cabinets and a photocell-activated flood I can't easily turn off. The load on the grid is about 4.9A for a 1930 square foot home.

Image
House base load. No lighting. About 4.9 Amps total.

Reading below is the base load plus EVERY single LED I could find in the entire house turned on full up. (About 60.)
The full load is ~7A. The lighting load for the entire house* is <600W.
If these 60 LEDs were 60W incandescent lamps the lighting load would be about 3.6 kW and there would be an extra 3 kW of heat load to air condition.


Image
Load with area lighting including closets, desk lamps, table lamps, outdoor LED floods etc.

(*The garage are T8 fluorescents (off) and the attic, also off, are CFL.)
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JR.
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Re: Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ra

Post by JR. »

Just had my first LED lamp die... 12W I was using for my desk lamp... started blinking off a few times over last few days, then this morning did not turn on.

I guess all LED lamps are not created equal. :lol:

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ra

Post by mediatechnology »

I did have a PAR30 Osram LED fail recently due to a very nearby lightning strike.

The premature LED failure count for failures not caused by lightning is one out of about 75 in three years time.
The premature failure, you may recall, was a lone, single, GE 62180.
GE sent me coupons for it under warranty and I was able to purchase about 2-1/2 free replacements for the one that failed.
Not a bad deal.

I can't say I blame the Osram PAR30 LED or the technology.
I also lost a router, switch, cordless phone base unit and a parallel printer port on a PC.
Two neighbors lost cable modems.
A third neighbor had pottery blown off a high shelf from the concussion.
A fourth neighbor lost one of her wired phones.

One of my neighbors happened to be outside when it happened.
He felt heat, and then was blown a couple of feet back into his closed front door.
I feel safe in calling this an "event."

Like I said, can't blame the LED for failing.
It was the lowest-cost thing to break.

I've now added three additional ground rods.
The new router and switches have three wire power cords and I've added CAT-5 and additional RF coax arrestors.

Living on an escarpment is a lightning magnet.
This is what it did to a tree last year:

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JR.
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Re: Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ra

Post by JR. »

The one benefit from living on low ground is I am not at much risk of lightning, while my neighbors house took a hit a few years ago... :o

Getting back on topic sort of... what I need is a UVC LED lamp. :lol: The UNC fluorescent lamp industry used for sterilization germ killing applications is now owned by the Chinese, and the quality has suffered.

The original UVC lamp inside my RO water filter just burned out again. They rate them for like 10,000 hours and this one looks like it died on schedule. My recollection is that the original lamp lasted for several years.

When I replaced it the last time for $25 + shipping from the water filter company I saved the box the tube came in, and now I found another vendor for around $7 per lamp. If I buy 3 at a time the shipping charge is the same, so my cost + shipping drops to about $10 each. :D

I just figured out that I should be able to put this on a timer. and double or quadruple the life... I do not need to run the UVC bulb over night so that doubles the life... etc...[edit- or not cycling the mercury UV lamp on/off affects life too /edit]

Still would like an UVC LED. Apparently they exist but cost hundreds of dollars per....so no mass market parts.

JR
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Gus
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Re: Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ra

Post by Gus »

I have been following this thread.
Just bought a Phillips SlimStyle 800 lumens 10.5 watt 2700K at a local Home Depot. Every time I go to Home Depot I check the LED lamp prices.
Have three Phillips, one Ecosmart, three Feit, two Cree installed in open luminaires and a number Cree, Phillips, Feits still in packages to be installed. I date each one when I install it. I also save the receipt and packaging for the warranty.

Have you seen the following web sites?
http://www.designingwithleds.com
http://sound.westhost.com/lamps/index.html
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mediatechnology
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Re: Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ra

Post by mediatechnology »

No more LED failures since the last lightning strike in June.
Low power bills this summer too.
Wished I could say the same for water...and gas.

The natural gas bill this summer is quite high compared to last year.
I think it may be the dual-mantle Charmglow gas lamp I re-installed last September.
My Mom bought it in the 60s from the Lone Star Gas company.
It is a fixture from my childhood.
I love the "charm" but maybe I'll use the psychological "glow" only in the winter months.
I can see the heat waves coming off the top...

I also recently upgraded the garage T12 florescents with electronic ballasts.
There are 8 tubes out there. I had an "investment" in T12 tubes so I didn't convert to T8.
The electronic ballasts seem to be more gentle on the tubes, will work with tubes that won't light on the magnetic ballasts, and are brighter.
There is no "ooze" coming out of the ballasts.
I also suspect they'll work better when temperatures drop this winter.

LED lighting works. (At least with good name-brand ones.)
I've got four Bankers Boxes full of incandescents and boxes full of CFLs.
I won't go back unless there's an EMP event that takes them out.
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JR.
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Re: Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ra

Post by JR. »

JR. wrote:Just had my first LED lamp die... 12W I was using for my desk lamp... started blinking off a few times over last few days, then this morning did not turn on.

I guess all LED lamps are not created equal. :lol:

JR
I guess I need to report a miracle here... My LED lamp healed itself... :D :D

well perhaps with a little help. :lol: I decided to take it apart to see what the inside looked like, I didn't get it completely apart (3 LED chips at 120' angles). but I wiggled a few wires and tried to make some measurements...

I think my VOM may be getting tired too...

Long story short, I decided to screw the bulb back into my lamp for one last test before I chucked it, and low and behold, it is now working.... :o

We'll see how long this time.. I didn't see any bad connections but something changed.

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ra

Post by mediatechnology »

I had one that had a bad solder connection to the threaded part of the base.
That was an easy fix.

Good luck with yours.
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Re: Residential Lighting with LEDs: Retrofitting the Pink Ra

Post by JR. »

I left off the plastic diffusers that covered the LEDs and now the bulb seems to throw a bunch more light. May run a little cooler, but heat sink is hot to the touch.

JR

{edit 12/19/2014... well the miraculous recovery was only for 3 months... this morning the LED lamp refused to start again. Oh well.. [/edit]
Last edited by JR. on Fri Dec 19, 2014 11:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
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