High quality efficient home lighting using LEDs, HIRs and Halogens

Any thoughts on cans vs canless IC rated for 4” LED in a dining room (currently without any ceiling lighting at all)?

Canless seems easier but I can’t find CRI specs on any. Whereas installing cans might be more robust and allow me to pick a bulb later? But the latest super slim canless can go on top of a stud they are so thin. Hmmm

 

my canless are nice
were are you looking at them that isn't listing the CRI?

 

I found some 4’s that say 90 CRI and are cheap. Can’t find any spec’d at something awesome so f it? Easy to swap later on? I dunno. On the hook for light by Thanksgiving. Hardest part will be the wall switch but I got a slick 1 gang cutter and just need an oscillating multi tool to slice up my wood paneled wall.

 

Ok, while I slack on installing new ceiling lights, anyone have a bulb idea for this spot? Looks like it’s meant to point towards the wall where someone might hang a painting or something? We use this for board games so more light is best. I tried a 13w 700 lumen ge relax flood and a Feit 100w equivalent bulb. Warmer color is definitely preferred. I think I might try a halogen flood next?

 

I keep threatening to put these in

Feit Electric C4000/CCT/LEDI 300W Equivalent Choice Color Changing CCT LED Light Bulb, SW/CW/DL

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X9VR4PF?_encoding=UTF8&th=1

 

Bump for one of the best write ups I’ve seen for LED lighting in the home!
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-leds-hirs-and-halogens.574930/#post-19014840

 

Just an update on my own experiences. My house has enclosed ceiling fixtures with a frosted bowl and with an insulated reflective foil base. Unventilated the fixtures are a rough environment for any type bulb. There are 2 A19 60W bulbs oriented horizontally in each fixture.
With standard incandescent bulbs I was replacing a bulb or two every few months.
Cheaper LED bulbs replaced all the incandescent bulbs years ago, these lasted longer but eventually I had a few of those fail as well. I then tried GE Relax soft white 60W equivalent 2700k 800 lumens, rated for enclosed fixtures. These were better but after about a year a couple of these failed as well.
A year ago I installed 4 CREE 60W 2700K 815 lumens from Home Depot and a few months later 4 more. To date none of these have failed and I’m please with the lighting. I will update upon failures if needed.
For the bathrooms which have open fixtures I have 3000k 40W equivalent cheap LEDs.

 

Good to have an HD 90+ CRI light. The light design architecture is dated in those thought as the opaque base makes the light directional. This only matters based on orientation of course. I use a similar style in my garage where all the bulbs screw into the ceiling, so the opaque base faces the ceiling and the illuminated portion faces the garage floor, aka the area desired to be illuminated. In that specific setup the older architecture style doesn't matter. However, many fixtures or orientations are not like that, and often designed for the omnidirectional light of incandescents. The later gen GE bulbs use a frosted full glass body for omni-directional light that is extremely impressive in 360 light distribution, as shown below vs an incandescent in a horizontal ceiling mount. Things to consider for your light routing orientation vs bulb design.

 

My ceiling bulbs are oriented just as in your photo, bulbs look nice. My LEDs with a base have enough frosted plastic curvature to work fine in that application with good light spread.

 

The CREE bulbs have an impressive rated life rating of 22 years/25,000 hours. LEDs with extended bases are not outdated however, most still have them, as does GE (Relax for example). There were models with small bases years ago, both styles still exist. One thing I noted on the GE bulbs with the small bases I looked at is the note for some enclosures the life and lumens may be reduced, not sure if that’s the case with the ones you have.
One thing to consider is the larger bases provide more mass to dissipate heat, so not all of it has to be dissipated in or near your socket. Some brands of small base LED bulbs have ventilation slots in the bulbs (CREE I believe).
I believe the small base bulbs would be very suited to a lamp where the bulb is clearly visible (not enclosed).

 

After going nearly all of Covid without a functional oven light, I finally decided to replace it. Since an oven light is subject to extreme temperatures, incandescents are still the primary bulb type. Heat is the enemy of LEDs and baking it at 425 degrees isn’t going to fair well. There are LED appliance bulbs, but if you check the application they are listed for fridge and microwave but not oven, unlike the incandescent appliance bulb that specs HD high heat application. In addition to high heat, the appliance bulbs are also supposed to be heavier duty to withstand opening/closing of the appliance doors.

I ordered a Philips HD appliance bulb from Amazon, and instead received a “sparkling clear ceiling fan bulb”. Sigh.

If you want something done right… so I took a trip down to Home Depot to get the actual proper bulb. They only carried one brand in 40w or 25w.


There is pretty heavy diffusion on the oven light lens. For amusement I tried it with and without the lens (not that you’d heat the oven without the lens in place). As one would expect, the diffusion optic made a significant difference in more uniformity lighting the oven.

Oven lens

 

After absolutely hating the LED Christmas lights last year, went back to the incandescents as this year. The warm colored incandescent glow is so much more relaxing than the glaring LEDs of last year. Maybe next year I’ll look at getting some quality warm white LED units.

 

Lowe's is already marking everything Christmas down in store. I'm not sure what they carry though.

 

I went to these a couple years ago. Very high quality, very nice looking in the warm white version. I use the slow fade lights where each bulb slowly fades in and out independently. I leave my lights going all winter. I have about 20 strings and so far zero failures. The snowflakes are also from the same vendor.

https://thechristmaslightemporium.com/

 

do you have any of their nets? if so do you like them as well?

 

No, I just have strings and the snowflakes. The strings are very well made and I would expect the nets to be as well.

 

Crash, any suggestions for BA15d bulbs? I "borrowed" my wife's desk lamp, super old school halogen clamp on, and the bulb is just about toast. It puts out a ton of heat so I'm fairly tempted to swap to LED and found a few 2700k options but they all look cheap. Tough to tell which option is best in this game, a regular halogen for pure light or try out LED's till I find a decent one. I could maybe see going to 3000k but this is my crimping station work light so I really don't want to go much higher than that, I do some crimping at night when I can't sleep.

 

My A19 GE relax 60w equivalent porch light has been looking dimmer and dimmer as the nights have gotten cold and darker earlier, to where you could see it was on but wasn’t providing much useful light. With winter approaching and it being darker, I swapped it with a new GE relax 100w equivalent this time for better output. GEs unique bulb base provide better omnidirectional light than the competition that uses an opaque base.

I don’t have any great suggestions for that base. Without a good LED alternative, and as a work light, I’d likely just replace with the proper incandescent.

 

I noticed one of my relax bulbs in my liftmaster opener was super dim too. Replaced it with some costco feit bulbs I had just to add illumination. Spent 2 days chasing problems with my remotes, some worked, some didn't. Took out the bulb and yeah, everything is good again (after reprogramming homelink a few dozen times in the wife's van).

I guess I need to order more relax bulbs now.

 

I don’t recall what I have in my openers, they might be the 3000k HD Feit bulbs from Costco as well, which I use in the garage. LEDs do interfere with the garage door opener signal, some worse than others, which affects the range of the opener if the LEDs are on.

I did just notice these from GE, specifically designed to avoid that issue. 5000k and opaque base, so not as ideal as 3000k and the translucent base. But worth considering.

GE Garage Light 100-Watt EQ A19 Daylight LED Light Bulb (2-Pack) https://a.co/d/6lzK03E

Looks like Genie offers a similar bulb in 4000k.