Experience with LED retrofits?

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BMWpowere36m3

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Hi there,

In the process of remodeling my house and I have a question on those LED retrofit lights/trims. I have a bunch of 5-6" cans in my house (~30-40). Currently I just have incandescent in them (no trim). By the time you buy trim and either PAR38 or CFLs bulbs the price rivals the LED retrofits.

We tried several of the retrofits at my parents house and the HALO brand ones worked the best, but also cost the most (at the time $40-50ea). They ended up using Commercial Electric brand ones, for $15 (subsidzed by power company), but they have a ~1sec delay before coming on (kind of annoying, to me at least).

Anyway, I hit HD over the weekend and now the HALO brand ones seem to be subsidized as well... still more expensive. However I found this one: RL560WH-R for $10 ea. I'm wondering if I should just bite the bullet and buy them all up now. The next step up is RL560WH6835R.

Their both 600 lumen, ~80CRI, and 3000-3500k. The cheaper one is 3000k, uses 9.4W (I bought one to try) and the other is 3500k, uses 7.x W(can't remember, but I remember looking at it in store). The cheaper one is $10 and the other is $20. Its a limited sale, so thoughts?

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Price should never be a decision factor when it comes to personal lighting.

It will suck if you put it all up, only to personally hate it later.

Regret reasons include: temperatures of the colors causing depressing or anger, how people's faces look when they are under them, audible noise from the bulbs, when you hate something, you will find a reason.

Your personal experience has already shown you what is 'best' and 'annoying'. I would totally go ape if I had to deal with a 1-second delay on the throw of a light switch. Even if it was all free, I wouldn't take it if it's just going to piss me off down the long run.

This is lighting that you will use in the remainder of your limited life. You want to be extra happy with it.

(ignore all if you are a investment property owner and you are doing this for tenants)
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BMWpowere36m3

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Well, let's not be dramatic... haha. I've been in rooms with incandescent lighting, CFL, LED, etc... never altered my mood. The only things I've noted is that incandescents generally provide a "warm" yellowish cast and LEDs generally more bluish. The only thing that's ever bothered me is too little light, not really the "color" since most indoor lighting isn't THAT far different.

I actually picked up one of those $10 HALO retro fits... it says 3000k soft white or something similar, more incandescent color than blue and instant ON. No humming or buzzing yet... but I've only read that if certain kinds of dimmer are used. I was hoping someone would have had experience with them.

Personally I don't see any issues with them in the few hours I've had them on. Hell, if they totally suck HD has a really good return policy.
 

Jadnashua

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It somewhat depends on where the lights are to be used...the color temp can make a BIG difference in, say a bathroom, or even a kitchen/dining room, where the different colors can make food look totally disgusting and a person's makeup unflattering. Some LED fixtures do not dim particularly well, and the low-voltage power supply in there can make some noises, depending on design (and execution). Then, depending on the LED layout and lenses, the coverage may not be as even or the spread could vary considerably - a spot when you wanted a flood, comes to mind. LED's tend to be more spots, and unless there's a good reflector or lots of them spread around, it may not provide what you are looking for. An incandescent tends to have some moderate spread to the color spectrum...LEDs can be quite narrow. Natural light is very wide spectrum. Depends on what you're looking for. Some people are adversely affected by narrow spectrum lighting (SAD), and common florescent and LEDs tend to be narrow spectrum. They do make wide spectrum florescents that approach natural lighting, at least a lot more than an incandescent, but I've not seen an LED bulb that purports to utilize multiple types of LEDs to output a wider spectrum lighting beam. Could be done, but I've not seen it.
 

BMWpowere36m3

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I don't think I've ever given lighting THAT much thought... Honestly like I said, the only things that come to mind if I "critique" light is a lack of it and possibly the warmth. However that said, the house I grew up in the lights were a hodgepodge throughout.... baths with halogens, CFLs, incandescents; kitchens with CFLs then LEDS, etc... food or makeup never looked "weird", dunno.

Honestly never gave it any thought... other than complaining my room was not bright enough (12x12 with 3x 60W incandescents).

From what I understand "most" problems with dimming LEDs are due to the dimmer themselves. There seem to be new ones, ELV (or something similar), however they are expensive $100 a pop. Then again, my house has no dimmers (except maybe a ceiling fan) and I never missed having them... it was always a lack of light, NOT too much.

I think I did okay with my recessed light layout (all the rooms are very bright, with just 60W incandescents screwed in, no trim). Both bedrooms have 4x (220 sqft), living room 6x (270 sq ft) and kitchen 7x (290 sq ft).

I might check out the Cree TW series kit (2700 & 5000k, 90 CRI)... I think they might be on sale as well currently.
 

BMWpowere36m3

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Well, HD had the Cree TW series retrofits… all on sale for $10 ea. Picked up 45x lights. I had a few "burning" all night at the house as I found the "color" does change somewhat. The 2700k look exactly like incandscents, maybe a little whiter and the 5000k are very white/blue. Not as blue as they look when I first fired them up.

I'd like to use them in the kitchen, master closet and bath… but only time will tell. The walls are still in white primer, so it's hard to "see" how the color will look when the walls are painted and things moved in. Good thing I have 90 days to decide ;)
 
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