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Not all LED Replacement Bulbs are made the same

GU10
on September 26th, 2012 by - No Comments

About 6 months ago I purchased 6 Encore DP-ESL3x3GU10A4 LED replacement bulbs GU10 dimmable and I was quite pleased with the product. The light was right as I expected for a warm white bulb, the three 3W LED were doing a good job to replace energy hungry halogen bulbs and the LED replacement bulb dim functions was linear and went quite far down to be called dimmable.

I was very satisfied with these GU10 LED bulbs to prepare a positive review but I put it on hold just to make sure they were keeping their specifications after a few months of usage. Unfortunately a month later, one LED bulbs started blinking without any sign of fatigue or failure. I removed the LED replacement bulb, let it cool down and re-installed it but it kept blinking. I replaced it by the spare one I kept on hand.

A few weeks later another GU10 LED replacement bulb refused to lit and got replaced by another brand of LED bulb. I contacted the seller who told me that the problem was coming from my installation – not the answer I was waiting on but she refused to replace the 2 faulty LED bulbs which very soon became 3 and 4 until I replaced the last one yesterday evening.

All 6 GU10 LED replacement bulbs I purchased died within 6 months, very far from the 30 years of service claimed by the Chinese manufacturer. I think there is a design flaw in the heat dispenser that makes the electronics of these LED bulbs quite long time before the LED itself.

As you know all my house is now on LED bulbs and I continue to try and evaluate several models and brands – the oldest one I have are E27 12W LED replacement bulbs that run since 4 years without any sign of problems or color change. Some like these Encore DP-ESL3x3GU10A4 GU10 LED replacement bulbs for 50W halogen bulbs are not design or manufactured correctly and should be avoided – see product below.

 

Brand:Encore
Model:DP-ESL3x3GU10A4
Replacement Bulb:50W
Power consummed:9W
Color:Warm White
Lumen:800
Socket:GU10
Dimmable:Yes
Pierre's Rating:1
Product Summary:GU10 3 by 3-Watt High Power Edison Led bulbs to replace 50W GU10 halogen bulbs

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LEDnovation brings efficacy to LED Replacement Bulb

LED Bulb News
on December 1st, 2011 by - No Comments

LED Replacemnt Bulb, LEDNovation brings 100lm/W

LEDNovation LED Replacemnt BulbVery often you read “I wish for a 100W equivalent LED Replacement bulb with an efficacy of 100lm/w” – 100 lumens per watt would bring LED replacement bulbs for the 75W and 100W incandescent with less than 10W consumption. LEDNovation a company from Tampa, Florida released on November 28th the 2nd generation of its EnhanceLite A19 line of LED replacement bulb with the 810 lumen and the 1013 lumen which complement the existing 40W and 60W LED Bulbs which were already kicking a 100lm/W target. The LED Replacement bulb line comes in warm white at 2,700K similar to the equivalent incandescent bulb and the LED bulbs are dimmable with almost all dimmers.

These bulbs are downlight type used in recessed fixtures and flood light applications – not yet a 100% replacement of all existing incandescent bulbs but we are getting there.

The big downside? The cost and that was to be expected for a high efficacy LED Replacement bulb. The price of the 60W LED Bulb at 100lm/w is around $70 but pumps 6.1W only – using my calculator, at 3hours usage per day, it would take a little bit over 9years to recover the expense of the LED Replacement Bulb. Now for a business it would be a different story – at 12 hours/14 hours a day, the same LED Bulb would pay for it self in 2 years or so.

Bottom line, LEDNovation hit a big milestone by releasing a waited for 100lm/W big size LED Replacement bulb, I should say bulbs as LEDNovation now covers the whole line-up from 40W to 100W replacement bulbs. These bulbs are very expensive compared to the $20 LED Bulbs at 60lm/W nevertheless they are the right choice for businesses. We will have to wait to see the cost of these bulbs come down to a payback level under 2 years for home application.

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CREE 12W Dimmable BR30 Led Replacement Bulb

BR30
on November 30th, 2011 by - No Comments

CREE 12W Dimmable BR30 Led Replacement Bulb

Brand:CREE
Model:LBR-30-25
Replacement Bulb:60W
Power consummed:12W
Color:Warm White 2700K
Lumen:600lm
Efficacy :60lm/W
Socket:BR30
Dimmable:Yes
Pierre's Rating:4 of 5

The CREE LBR30-25 is one of the best LED Replacement Bulb for a 60W incandescent lamp, with 600lm and a warm white at 2700K, this down light bulb will be efficient anywhere in your home or business.

Created to replace BR30 bulbs, the LED Replacement LBR-30 has an efficacy of 60lm/w and life of 50,000 hours I really trust as it uses a ceramic metal halide technology which provides longer life and similar light feel as halogen bulbs. This LBR-30-25 has a dispersion angle of 25° which for a perfect directional lighting.

My rating is 4 of 5 because I wished to see a higher efficacy and a lower price nevertheless I would recommend this LED replacement bulb for homes and businesses. I understand that the price tag is a bit scary but for a 50,000 hours of life that’s over 10 years of usage at 12hours a day bringing the yearly cost of this LED bulb around $8 a year, a well worth investment.

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LED Replacement Bulb savings calculator

LED Calculation LED Economics
on November 29th, 2011 by - No Comments

LED Replacement Bulb savings calculator

To help decide if a LED replacement bulb is for you, I made a simple spreadsheet to estimate how much energy and money your new LED bulb will save you as well as how it will take for the LED replacement bulb to pay for itself. The calculator is an Excel 2010 spreadsheet you can download here: LED savings calculator. I tried to make this calculator easy to use and downloadable so you can use it offline – comments are welcomed as well as idea to make this LED Replacement bulb calculator better.

How to calculate your yearly saving by using LED Replacement bulbs, enter your data in the blue shaded cells for example if you want to replace a 60W incandescent bulb by a G7 Power 9W – 60W LED Replacement Bulb:

LED Replacement Bulb Saving Calculator

The LED Replacement bulb calculator will show you that the new LED bulb used 6hours a day will save you some 105KW per year and the actual cost of the incandescent bulb is $17.04 per year while the same equivalent LED Bulb will only cost you $3.41 the $20 new bulb will pay for itself in a year and half. Now if you use that lamp for 1 hour a day only, it would take 8 years to recover the cost of the bulb while it would take 4 months if it’s an always on lamp!

With this LED cost savings tool, you’ll be able to immediately verify if replacing an incandescent bulb by a LED Replacement bulb is worth it or not including purchase price factor, state’s electricity cost and quantity of bulbs to replace.

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CREE LR6 12W GU24 Dimmable Recessed LED Replacement Bulb

6" Can LED Bulbs GU24
on November 28th, 2011 by - No Comments

CREE LR6 12W GU24 Dimmable 6″ Recessed Can LED Replacement Bulb

Brand:CREE
Model:LR6-DR650
Replacement Bulb:60W
Power consummed:12W
Color:Warm White 2700K
Lumen:650lm
Efficacy :54lm/W
Socket:GU24 - 6" recessed Can
Dimmable:Yes
Pierre's Rating:4 of 5

Another of my favorite, the CREE LR6-DR650 LED Replacement Bulb for 6” recessed ceiling cans. The LR6-DR650 emits 650 lumens of warm white light at 2700K and comes with an efficacy of 54 lumens per watt, not the highest but I’m afraid that higher efficacy would hit the cost by 100%.

This LED replacement Bulb fits the following can fixtures housings – make sure your fixtures are compatible before ordering even if you have free return shipping with my partners:

  • H6 – GU24 – Architectural
  • RC6 – GU24 – New construction
  • RR6 – GU24 – Retrofit
  • SC6 – GU24 – Surface mount
  • SC6-CM – GU24 – Cord mount
  • SC6-WM – GU24 – Wall mount

This LED Replacement bulb seems expensive but at 10hours usage per day one CREE LR6-650 would save you 175KW per year – just imagine replacing 10 of them – if you own a business with 50 cans at 12hours of usage per day, you would save some 10,000KW a year!

The CREE LR6-DR650 LED Replacement Bulb is announced at 50,000 hours of life I feel it might be a bit over rated nevertheless it’s about 14years of service at 10h a day.

This 6” GU24 recessed LED Replacement bulb is definitively a must have.

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