High quality efficient home lighting using LEDs, HIRs and Halogens

So much this!

I worked for an electrical engineer for 8 years designing retail, commercial and industrial building plans so I'm pickier than most (or at least some ) when it comes to color temperature matching. It drives me crazy when I'm driving and the street lamps are different! There's no way I can do that in my own house!

So when a flood blew on my new house and I needed to buy a new one, I wanted to shift from incandescent to LED. Thankfully, the Feit Electric LED from Costco matched beautifully but I had to buy seven 2-packs because the kitchen (6 recessed cans), dining room (4 cans) and living room (4 cans) are all open to each other.

 

First off thanks for all the info. I'm constantly geeking out on lighting whether it's auto, home or flashlights. Costco is now selling Feit bulbs without the opaque base and boasts a 90+ CRI. Any experience with these? Didn't go through this whole thread so I apologize if you already covered them. Thanks.

 

I bought 3 boxes of them a while ago when they were on sale.



I have one left in the first box and so far no complaints. I can't speak to the CRI, necessarily, but they're working well enough for me. And more importantly my wife hasn't complained about them for doing her makeup.

 

Hahaha yeah my wife loves the Feit daylight bulbs specifically for that reason. The ones I have have the opaque base. We just painted our foyer a really light blue so I'm looking at a soft white. The older soft white Feit bulbs were very yellow. Since the newer ones boast a 90+ CRI I may try them.

 

I was going to try and get a picture of how the light looks (which depending on your screen may or may not work well) but more amusingly than that, my phone was freaking out trying to figure out which white balance to use.





Those were literally taken one second apart.

The mirror frame is a slight off white so the top picture is obviously more accurate.

 

I swapped out several of my 60w equivalent GE relax bulbs for some 40w versions of the same bulb to reduce light intensity in some areas that I felt were over-lit. One of the 60w equivalent GEs had the bulb frosting burned off, allowing to see inside the bulb. I was surprised to see basic looking emitters vs the wire stand style emitter, given the bulbs excellent omni-directional performance. The emitters do wrap around the top end of the bulb, they are not just on an opposing blade, but based on the design it would appear the 'soft white' bulb diffusion frosting plays a significant roll in creating the very well balanced omni-directional light.

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My other half also put these horrifically awful high color temp, color changing 'multi-function' LED strips in our kids bedroom as a 'nightlight'. The lowest setting was far too bright for the purpose and the light quality was abysmal. Nothing like him having nightmares at 2am and I walk into his room and find the place strobing in violet light. Needless to say all that went straight to the trash, and they accidentally broke on the way there to ensure it was a one way trip. I replaced his nightlight with a 3D moon lamp that only does white/warm white/warm yellow. It isn't an HD LED light (not necessary for the purpose), but provides a very nice diffused light in a warm color temp while inspiring curiosity for science. I really like these as a good kids night light which doesn't cost much for what you get. There are full multi-color LED versions available, but that is very counter to a good nightlight which should keep things to white/amber:

CPLA Moon Lamp for Adults Kids, Moon Night Light 16 Colors LED 3D Printing Moon Light with Stand & Remote/Touch Control and USB Rechargeable, Gifts for Kids Friends Lover Birthday (2.5)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GWFW9VH/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_image_o05_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

I used to have a corner table lamp that I never really liked. The lamp looked great but provided too much directional downlight and too little diffused uplight, causing a bright spot in the corner but not much ambient light for the room. I'm not sure why it took so long, but I finally replaced it with an arched open top floor lamp. The pictures do not do it justice, but the amount of uplight that is then reflected off the ceiling provides a very soft diffused light with little shadows covering a much larger area. Output intensity was actually too much with the GE Relax 60w equivalent bulb, so I stepped it down to the GE 40w equivalent bulb, and while drawing less power it provides significantly more light for the room, but in a much softer diffused appearance perfect for late evenings.



One thing I did not like, is if you were sitting next to the lamp you could directly look at the exposed bulb from the underside, which was harsh and unpleasant. They make diffuser panels for this purpose, though they are often intended to defuse upward light by installing in-between the top of the lap and the lamp shade. In this case I wanted to install it on the bottom of the lamp to defuse the direct down light. Using a

$14 Upgradelights Lamp Shade Bulb Clip Adapter Clip on with Shade Attaching Finial

lampshade clip (intended to attach a lamp shade to a bulb) and a lamp shade diffuser run on the bottom of the lamp, I was able to solve the direct light problem. I went small on the diffuser panel to let as much light through as possible, but should have gone a size larger. The smaller diffuser requires a slight tilt to block direct light from those sitting below the lamp.



Overall I am very happy with the light upgrade. I did also purchase a 3 way switch to convert the lamp to be higher power for the daytime and lower power for the evening, but the switch was not compatible with the lamp. With the amount of windows in the room, higher daytime light is really not necessary so I'll leave it as is for the time being.

In the kitchen I have recently lost multiple HIR GU10 MR16 bulbs. I had a few spares on hand to swap out with, but it is clear the kitchen bulb set is reaching EOL as they were all replaced at the same time. I plan on replacing the 10 light set with SORRA LED 95 CRI 3000k 60 degree wide-flood bulbs. I have 6 recessed ceiling lights that follow the counter line, 5 in a row on the back wall of the kitchen and 1 that steps forward in an L shape over the sink as well as 4 that hang down from the ceiling in a fixture that can be aimed. See my basic ASCII art example below. The light that comes out over the sink has a disproportionate amount of counter space to illuminate compared to the other lights, as well as being a primary task area, it should really have 2 lights.
_ _ _ _ _
.............| <-sink light
...............<-counter area with no overhead light
<>

My thought was to use 50w equivalent (7.5w) 60 degree wide-flood lights for the entire kitchen and a 65w equivalent (9w) 60 degree wide-flood bulb over the sink area. My hope is that in an area slightly deficient in light, the extra light in a wide flood will seem balanced and not become an obvious hot spot of uneven lighting.

 

This
And working for 20yrs in the electrical biz
For the most part
A+
Color Temps On the Led's are a little excessive for the shot, but ok! 5000k is like looking thru a window at noon with abundance of sun..little less blue
Again
A+ for time spent!

 

Annoyed. One of my Green Creative 95 CRI range hood lights has started rapidly flickering. It was installed 2/15/2020, meaning it didn't even make it 5 months. I swapped bulb locations to ensure it was a bulb problem and not a fixture problem, and confirmed it is the bulb. I'll likely reorder a replacement and hope it is a fluke.

 

Do all LEDs mess with RF signals? I'm remodeling my garage and trying to choose some lights but almost all have reviews that mention RF interference. Is there a manufacturer that eliminates this or does it just go with the territory and I don't have much of a choice?

 

Are you looking to avoid RF interference for the remote door control? Some garage door manufactures will publish a list of LEDs that don’t interfere with their opener in the users manual.

Mine interfere. It isn’t a big deal as interference just reduces range (greatly). To explain, when leaving the garage motion lights are on causing interference but I’m closing the garage door from right outside the garage when closing it and don’t need long range. When coming home, the garage LEDs are off and I can open the garage from the end of the street. Day to day operation is unnoticeably affected. However if the garage lights are left on for some reason, then I cannot open the door till I’m in very close proximity.

 

Mine operate exactly the same as @crashnburn80. The only time it's ever a problem is if my wife gets home less than 5 minutes before me or I forgot something after I closed the door.

The double sided, insulated steel doors probably don't help, either. :lol:

 

Doing some lighting work for a friend and they wanted me to install some 5000k recessed lighting in the kitchen, living room, dining room, hallways, and bathroom. I remember glancing over this thread and here I am brushing up on it lol. I'll see if I can convince them to go with softer lighting. I installed the hallway lights and damn it is bright. Will probably be tough to dissuade them as they already bought everything.

Maybe crashnburn should have a 24/7 hotline?

 

5000k throughout?!? Sell them some at the same time

 

Hopefully the lights are returnable. If they really want whiter lighting I’d try to convince them to go with 3000k instead.

 

Anyone know of any useful guides on how many can lights should in a given space? Specifically a kitchen?

 

Mine are right about 36" OC.





For yours, I'd be inclined to consider pushing them to about 6 foot OC the 10' direction to get it closer to your work surfaces.

Some lighting websites have a foot candle calculator that you can play with. Do you know what kind of lamps you're going to use?

Edit: Lithonia Visual Interior Tool

 

Mine are 16” apart with 8’ ceilings using GU10 bulbs. Ideal spacing will depend on your light fixture type, output intensity, beam spread, and fixture elevation.

 

Halo HLBSL 4” was the plan

 

Home Depot has them listed at 716 lumens and 3000k. If you're using the Visual Tool, the Juno Lighting 4RLD G3 06LM is pretty close to the Halo. Then all you need to do is put the room dimension and footcandles you want in and it will give you spacing and quantity.