I never had anything good to say about crappy LED Retrofits....
Here is why-- I can speak about 3 instances where manufacturers of LED retrofits
have had faulty stuff recalled - the latest Lighting Science groups offerings- the Ecosmart LED
cheapies sold at Home depot - have/ ( continue to) smoke, overheat, ignite on some occasions
Bad for owners- SSL quality zealots have to restrain themselves from saying - SEE I TOLD YA
I have been railing against these cheap products with their inferior components for
5 years + now - I am aware of the negative damage done by crap products - I go out
of my way to qualify my LED advocacy with cautions of BUY ONLY SSL with good quality
standards- regardless things like this will continue the SSL business as it find its legs.
Sad but true - It SSL ( buyers remorse) would happen less with more pre purchase scrutiny
that comes from asking key questions- Which chip is in 'em whats the E caps MTBF
or asking questions about validating sprectral output claims - if those questions can't be
answered adequetely I'd shop elseware-
Better - skip LEDs using 120 VaC mains-I favor using LEDs on a Power over the
ethernet+ although standard (common LED lights) will be good-
I really want to skip ahead to the "good stuff" the 2020 era
OLETs using POE -that would really be A-Ok.
Until the constructs are changed folks are going to need to be discriminating buyers
hopefully going in with open eyes, using unbaised performance data and knowing that some
of the crappiest LEDs are typically the ones at chest level at big box purveyors.
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Permalink Reply by Dennis Heidner on -
Perhaps some day I should post my pictures of a garbage can full of CFL's. Both CFL's and LED's have electrolytic caps in them... and the lowest cost items are a problem. But for CFL's you normally don't see the power supplies in them fail --- only because the mercury in the bulb is depleted first. But the CFL electronics do fail -- I have some dead CFL's I collected for show and tell.
More common problem on the LED's is that the power supplies just fail and they stop working. I have a small collection of those.
It is probably also worth noting that for both devices - the claims of long life... is a little bit of a stretch. You've got to read the labels AND what a lifetime is defined as.
Most bulbs are spec'ed at about 3.5 hours day. One turn on, one turn off. For CFL's the turn off light as you leave the room can shorten its life by 20% or more. LED's generally don't see the same on/off impact. HOWEVER, some do experience a droop somewhat like CFL's. AND even though much of the marketing claims say 20,000 hour life - that really means the bulbs half life is 20,000 hours. (Worst simplistic case it means half the bulbs fail almost immediately and the other half make it the full 20,000 hours.)
I also have some scary incandescent lighbulbs. Like the ones that overheat --- resulting in a bonding failure between the glass and the base. So when you unscrew the light the base is still in the socket.
The early generation of LED's certainly didn't hold up to my expectations. The newer generations of bulbs are getting pretty good. BUT the ROI for a bulb switch is still marginal. It only works if you use dimmers (they kill the CFL's), you are trying to avoid mercury, you don't want the heat the CFL's produce, and you still are willing to be an early adopter.
OLET's using POE will not be very energy efficient. Too much loss in power between the supply and the light. Wire size is simply too small. You can calculate out the loss -- it is much higher than you might expect. Plus the ethernet power sources are generally not optimized for lighting use.
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