MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
We are trying to judge stuff as it changes almost daily. A pretty tough job.
My personal gripe with CFL's is how slow they are to warm up. And until they warm up, CFL's are watt-hoggs. Gad, there is a lot of junk out there! Years ago I threw a temper tantrum and trashed all the CFL's and replaced them with "G.E." brand lamps. The others like "Feit" claimed 26 watts 100 watt eqvt, but they were dim as hell as compared to the same model in the GE lamp. There are no federal trade agencies to protect the consumer any more. It's pure E CAVEAT EMPTOR.
As far as LED 120 volt lighting is concerned, I have ditched ideas of purchasing a CFL lighting quality replacement. For overall room lighting. I go with LED spotlights. But where to buy a 100 watt equivalent 120 volt LED lamp? These guys are expensive as hell.
And I have searched and searched for a 12 volt white LED flood bulb (not a corncob type) with around 5,000K color temperature and 7 watts or greater power in a tail light bulb 1156 configuration. Good luck. Wouldn't it be nice to find such a bulb say a 5 watt CREE flood?
I did do some research and found that a lead crystal glass lamp lens offers by far the best LED light transmission and dispersion. But once again reality rears its ugly head and screams "Where ya gonna find lead crystal lens'?" They're also heavy and can shatter if dropped.
Then comes the final insult: As I age I find I need more light to see. I CAN'T WIN!
I think 12V LED high output is taking a back seat to 120VAC applications. Why?? well part of it is the design requirements. For the very high brightness LED's they need to be driven by a quality temperature compensated current source. Otherwise you get into thermal runaway and poof! And you need a decent heat sink. LED's are NOT that efficient yet. Junction temps for long life need too be held below 100C. That cost $ in a market looking for an inexpensive bulb.
And for AC (120V/240/480) applications, price point is slightly higher, and potential volume is orders of magnitude higher. So they are starting to design the LED and regulation into one die focused on 120VAC input. Or low cost 120VAC regulators for these applications.
