So, you're a 1st time LED ( luminiare) buyer...

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Permalink Reply by Bob Blanchette on July 20, 2012 at 4:03pm

AC LED's? I've not ever seen them. I've seen 2 LED's in one case called and "A/C LED", but not a true A/C LED. Cost of LED's needs to drop before they gain widespread acceptance, the general public won't pay $20 for one light bulb.

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Permalink Reply by Dennis McCarthy on July 21, 2012 at 10:35am

Bob

 My associates in SSL would definitely  disagree- many of us in the biz are selling thousands- and often

tens of thousands worth of products each month. Currently we have 2% of the market -by 2020 we'll

have 90% + of the lighting market( total lamps sold - all form factors included).

It's simply math - it depends on many variables but most savvy business owners get it - and as the

availabilty of great performing LED lighting choices increase the value of LED lighting will increase also.

 

The subset of LED luminiares that use AC/LEDs is also growing - there are many AC LED chip

makers ( it's growing) many of the most highly regarded dice makers have both AC as well as DC chips-

the beauty of the AC /LED equiped luminiares is that they don't require a constant current driver and

they don't use electrolytic capacitors-   I recently tore apart one of those $10.00 ecosmart LED A-19

You may have seen these at home depot- they cost $10 and are eligible for a $8- $10 rebate per bulb.

- the dynamic of post rebate pricing refutes the "the're to expensive arguement"

 

So this mediocre - rebranded LSG product purports to be a

40 watt equivalant lamp- WELL IT no longer works after just 18 months ( less than 10, 000 hours) - the tear

apart revealed the flaw: a nonfunctional electrolytic capacitor ( a typical weak link in such designs).

 

The products with poor engineering and product design are the bane of the SSL community - 

We dread folks getting the "yugo" version of SSL- THE'RE  getting sales , BUT then folks are judging all other LED luminiares by their bad  experience.  Its especially true in LED lighting purchases - ya get what ya pay for !

The likelyhood of getting burned by a poor performing lamp goes way down when you buy products with an

educated eye and discriminating performance expectations.

 

 

 

  

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Permalink Reply by Bob Blanchette on July 21, 2012 at 10:46am

Yes I've seen the $10 ecosmart LED lamps @ HD. They also have a different 40w ecosmart that has a flat shaped "bulb" for $16, same lumen output. I was wondering why such a price difference, now I know why. We don't have the $8-$10 rebates in our area that I've seen. People simply buy the CFL which offers the same lumen per watt as the LED's, but the lamp costs 1/4 the price.

The electrolytic cap has been a problem for CFL lamps also, not just SSL. Oddly they rarely fail for the full size electronic ballasts used in T8/T5 fixtures. I think the problem is the the capacitors have become too physically small to dissipate the heat effectively for the load they experience. A hot capacitor lives a short life which isn't helped by putting the lamp in an enclosed fixture.

What REALLY needs to happen is LED FIXTURES need to be manufactured instead of focusing on retrofit lamps. If the fixture is designed for LED from the start it opens up lots of design options in the process. The difference in fixture price could also be brought down. People may pay $100 for an LED fixture that includes the LED's vs. $80 for a standard fixture than put a $20 LED retrofit bulb in it.

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Permalink Reply by Dennis McCarthy on July 21, 2012 at 12:43pm

As I am a huge proponent of OLEDs it goes without saying I agree with

what you say   - Oleds offer desigh capabilities that standard form factor & even ropes or ribbon formats lack.    There will definetely be an

increase of all forms of solid state lighting. some traditional - some

enhanced,its got to be seen to be believed. There are outstanding examples

of the coolest stuff at LED trade shows - LED integrated in to all

sorts of different platforms with 1000's of design possibilies -

There are some really cool new developements in SSL

these days..

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Permalink Reply by Bob Blanchette on July 21, 2012 at 1:36pm

Even standard form factor LED offers many design possibilities you cant get with CFL or Incandescent. This is what will launch LED's, providing features/benefits that aren't currently available with other technologies. With mass production prices will eventually come down to where price per lumen can be competitive with CFL.

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