LEDs really are still mostly mediocre, especially at the low end, without spending big $.
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Interesting read, but the author appears to have had a grudge against LED lighting from the start. I agree that LED lighting is not perfect, but I feel it is an improvement over most other mainstream products.
I bet there were folks in times past that had some these same comments when oil lamps were replaced by electric..."Sure it's convenient, but try to warm your hands with it or light your cigar!"
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I was only able to get through about a third of the article (attention span of .. what was I saying?).
There really isn't any technology for which I could not write a similar article. In our current house, there are really only one or two use cases where I might prefer incandescent. In fairness, I am a nerd who used to read spec sheets for LEDs, experimented with a variety of drivers, and built a few custom fixtures before they were commercially common. So, I might not be representative of the overall market.
Agree 100% with this. A good chunk of the problem can be attributed to low quality bulbs.
We recently (end of 2021) bought a house direct from the builder, so every bulb in the place was brand new. In less than 18 months, out of about 30 led bulbs in the place, at least five have stopped working, usually going dim and flickery first, then just plain stopping completely.
It turns out that the builder bought the absolute cheapest bulbs they could find, since neighbors I've spoken to have noted the same thing.
I just started replacing them with some reasonably priced Philips "dumb" LED bulbs, and haven't had a problem from those yet. Same thing with the TP-Link 125's that were bought and installed in our previous house.
So I really think it's a quality issue, and he's just getting the short end of the stick.
And/or maybe has a grudge.
I think the most disingenuous thing the manufacturers are doing it absolutely burying whether or not a bulb is rated for an enclosed space.
The biggest enemy of these LED bulbs is heat, and while I have nothing to back this up. I suspect that enclosure rated LED bulbs will last longer than most based on their superior thermal management.
I bought a bunch of some of the very first high quality LED bulbs that were out there, from Switch. The globe was filled with liquid silicone and most of my Switch bulbs are still soldiering on, closing in on decade of use.
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Another is lifespan estimates. The packaging claim of 100,000 hours life of the LED is completely bogus if you only put in a driver that's going to fail in 10,000 hours.
From his problem description I think it's less of an issue with LED's (especially phillips) than an issue with his power or something in his power feed.
Absolutely have to buy high quality bulbs. The cheap ones put out green-gray light that makes everyone look like corpses. It's not as bad as it was 10 years ago, but it's still not good.
And fortunately, the high quality ones also aren't as expensive as they used to be. But any time I buy a bulb, my minimum standard is:
Color Temp: 2700-3000K
CRI: >94
BTW, if anyone needs to update old flourescent tubes, I highly recommend the ones made by Fulight. I had a bunch of flourescent tubes in my office and replaced them with Fulights. You can get them at 3000K, 95 CRI, dimmable. They put out beautiful warm light. You do have to alter the wiring in the fixture to remove the old ballast, but it's a quick and easy process.
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Have any recommendations? I’ve not looked recently, but may want to start again.
IMO after living with 3000 for a long time now anything less is way too warm in most cases. I think the sweet spot is 3000-3500. Maybe 4000 for some places.
I thought the original article was interesting on the limitations of CRI. I didn’t read it all, but this article goes over the trade offs:
Yeah, I don't know much about TM-30. I do know that the difference between bulbs that are currently marketed as CRI95 vs the ones marketed as CRI85 is STARK. And even the CRI90 ones are closer to the 85 ones.
I have faith that the technology will continue improving. Probably a CRI95 in 2028 will be much better than a CRI95 today.
Do you have any bulb recommendations?
When we built our home in 2015-16, we only used LED bulbs. 2023, and some of the decorative bulbs have needed replacing. But the majority are going strong. My secret is getting almost all of them from Menards (a home improvement chain in Wisconsin) instead of Amazon cheapos. The ones I did have to get from Amazon, are usually the ones that fail.
Also, I only get dimmable bulbs if there is a choice. More expensive, but made better. Work great for dimming switches, and if I every convert a light switch to dimmable, correct bulbs are already there.
Only read half. the early LED's, and some of the more expensive ones currently were much longer lasting. If you buy a bunch of Cheapo LED bulbs form companies whose names are just random letters on Amazon, or Feit bulbs, and they aren't going to last much longer than the old incandescent. colors are muted because suddenly everyone is buying Bright White and daylight bulbs. Colors aren't the strong suit of these bulbs. people (and apparently this author) don't understand the concept of color temperature (I was one of them). they think a 60w equivalent will look the same as a old fashioned 60wat soft white. they don't get they need to actually look at color temperature.
I've have my inovelli RGB's for about 4 years, I've had my innr dimmable whites for about 3. both produce a 2700K light that is very close (but not quite the same) as old 40wat incandescent. If I could i would actually go down to 2300, which is closer. As to the dimmer, well duh. it clearly wasn't a dimmable bulb. again, know what you are buying. would have been easier and cheaper for them to just get a dimmable bulb than to replace the dimmer with a regular switch. and honestly, the contractor should have known that too.
you said it. direct from the builder i.e. as cheap as possible. they pay about 5 cents for the bulbs thy put in. they are cheap and designed to look good for open houses and a few months to a year after move in. they are cheap, low-quality bulbs. old incandescent weren't any better, and hey, at least LED's give you a heads up they are about to burn out, if you are paying attention, for a few weeks or months before hand.
And this is why most people don't like LED's. They (not saying you, speaking in broad general terms here) don't know the difference. They buy what's most prevalent on the shelf (Bright white and day light are far more common than soft white) and get used to 3000- 5000k (basically commercial/ industrial lighting) and then can't go back to residential lighting because it's too dim. We use 2700, and most the time don't go over 40% brightness., but hey we tend to be cave dwellers, and i work over-nights 2 nights a week. We have two lights that are 4000 or higher. our laundry room (I would go 5000K except it's too close to the rest of the house and would be to harsh) and the Garage.
Even the old incandescent bulbs came in a range of color temperatures — usually soft white, cool white, and daylight. Sometimes others.
Most of my dumb LED bulbs are soft white, which is around 2700. They are mostly in the bedrooms and halls. In the kitchen and family room — the rooms that are used most — I have Hue bulbs. It's gloomy here in the PNW quite a bit. I like having daylight white during the day, so they are set at about 5000. Before sunset, they start a long, slow change to around 2500 to mimic the light change outside. On days when we actually have sunshine, the lights dim appropriately. After bedtime, they dim to 20% if there's any motion.
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