Buying advice for LED light bulbs, to replace Fluorescent (CLF) and Incandescent (use as general advice, many minor variations)
Over last 4 years I have been replacing all the CFL and Incandescent bulbs to LED.
Along the time I have found good and bad LED products, so here is my advice in brief format.
This advice is to replace typical old style bulbs, not special design, but be free to take advantage of off the exciting new lamp designs not limited to the screw socket!
NOTE: LED is so superior to CFL by every metric, and with the chemical hazards, CFL should be removed and properly disposed of ASAP.
Selection advice:
LED's offer excellent variety and range of brightness, but 2 factors to consider:
Choose a Lumen and Kelvin for area. In Kitchen, utility room, and Garage go with high lumen (600+) and K (5000) for best visibility. Highly recommended with outdoor lights, closets, and some lights in bathroom. For bedroom a less bright (600 or less) and orange (2700K) to better mimic dusk and dawn light.
Excellent:
Sylvania / Osram: Best bulbs I have found. Great light, no banding, no buzz, reasonable price!
Good:
Ikea brand is super cheap!! They are lower end, low Lumen bulbs, but for fixtures with many bulbs are a great choice! Recommended!
Lowes brand Utilitech I was pleasantly surprised with (but only purchased a few bulbs)
Ugly:
GE bulbs, have tried several, and was generally less than impressed, with a few bulbs actually slightly noisy. GE offeres a slightly cooler 2850k light that does look great.
Bad:
Wal-Mart "Great Value". NOISY, NOISY, NOISY!! I kept returning the bulbs because of buzz.
buzz buzz buzz! Some noisy enough can hear in next room!!
STAY AWAY!!
EXCEPTIONS TO ABOVE:
There are a few exceptions where the old style Incandescent is recommended over LED:
Extremely hot places, like attics. Electronics lifespan is shorter the hotter it gets.
Rarely used places, like attics. At 1/5 the cost, why spend more when the bulb is used twice a year?
and one to consider:
Very Humid locations, LED bulbs may not be designed to resist high humidity, and water and electronics do not like each other. There are special outdoor LED with waterproofing, but need look out for them.
Other opinions and experiences posts welcome.
Over last 4 years I have been replacing all the CFL and Incandescent bulbs to LED.
Along the time I have found good and bad LED products, so here is my advice in brief format.
This advice is to replace typical old style bulbs, not special design, but be free to take advantage of off the exciting new lamp designs not limited to the screw socket!
NOTE: LED is so superior to CFL by every metric, and with the chemical hazards, CFL should be removed and properly disposed of ASAP.
Selection advice:
LED's offer excellent variety and range of brightness, but 2 factors to consider:
- Brightness, typically known by "watts" (40, 60, 75, 100, etc), now look for "Lumin" (100, 200, 400, 1000, etc)
- Color or Temperature, known as "Kelvin". 2700 is a "Soft white" of "warm" glow. 5000 is "Natural" or "Cool white", which is close to afternoon sunlight.
- Frequency, or "banding" on cameras. Good quality LED produce a completely steady illumination. Cheaper units are not as good filtering, looking at bulb with camera you will see banding on image.
- Noise: Cheap units also produce an annoying buzz.
- Dimable: if you need LED compatible with old style dim control, you need to choose bulb that support this!
- Location: LED's bulbs may not fit some fixtures (A21 size), or not be ideal for some locations.
- NOISE!: cheap bulbs produce annoying buzz!! Check for this when installed, replace immediately!
Choose a Lumen and Kelvin for area. In Kitchen, utility room, and Garage go with high lumen (600+) and K (5000) for best visibility. Highly recommended with outdoor lights, closets, and some lights in bathroom. For bedroom a less bright (600 or less) and orange (2700K) to better mimic dusk and dawn light.
Excellent:
Sylvania / Osram: Best bulbs I have found. Great light, no banding, no buzz, reasonable price!
Good:
Ikea brand is super cheap!! They are lower end, low Lumen bulbs, but for fixtures with many bulbs are a great choice! Recommended!
Lowes brand Utilitech I was pleasantly surprised with (but only purchased a few bulbs)
Ugly:
GE bulbs, have tried several, and was generally less than impressed, with a few bulbs actually slightly noisy. GE offeres a slightly cooler 2850k light that does look great.
Bad:
Wal-Mart "Great Value". NOISY, NOISY, NOISY!! I kept returning the bulbs because of buzz.
buzz buzz buzz! Some noisy enough can hear in next room!!
STAY AWAY!!
EXCEPTIONS TO ABOVE:
There are a few exceptions where the old style Incandescent is recommended over LED:
Extremely hot places, like attics. Electronics lifespan is shorter the hotter it gets.
Rarely used places, like attics. At 1/5 the cost, why spend more when the bulb is used twice a year?
and one to consider:
Very Humid locations, LED bulbs may not be designed to resist high humidity, and water and electronics do not like each other. There are special outdoor LED with waterproofing, but need look out for them.
Other opinions and experiences posts welcome.
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