Replacement LED light Fixtures -

LED lights should not be selected by power - efficiency in different lamps is different. The lamps with the same power can vary greatly in brightness: lamps that replace the usual light bulb-pears 60 W can have a capacity of 6 to 10 watts, lamps that replace the ""candle"" 40 W can have a capacity of 4 to 7 watts.
Most manufacturers of LED bulbs indicate the equivalent wattage of incandescent bulbs. For example, the packaging may state that the vont.com bulb has 6 watts and shines like a 60-watt incandescent bulb. Some manufacturers indicate this equivalent quite incorrectly, so I recommend that you always pay attention not to the equivalent wattage but to the luminous flux.

Get fixtures that take standard bulbs, then buy LED lamps from M4 Products, you will get the best on the market and if you choose a color such as soft white (yellow) or Daylight you will get the same color in every different lamp because they specify certain LED's for consistency.

https://m4products.com/

Charles

definitely use fixtures with bulbs--not permanent.

jodeb720 wrote:

GDE - I'm with you on the replacement bulbs. It's so hard to find the brightest LED's out there. Any suggestions on SMD types of panels? I'm wondering if they've gotten around to COB's that are just solid luminous panels that give off a ton of light.

josh

This is a monumental task.

LEDs dies come in a vast array of sizes and wattages and different efficiencies.

Common SMD LED dies used by most LED bulb manufacturers are 5050 1/4W size and they are dirt cheap.

The ones I have found to be the most potent are bulbs using 5630/5730 LED dies which are 1/2W LEDs with higher efficiency than 5050 LEDs per watt. Physically larger than 5050s and typically most LED bulbs will use many less 5630/5730 chips than the ones with 5050 chips.

5050 LEDs typically have 80 lumens per watt efficiency.
5730 LEDs typically have 100 lumens per watt efficiency.

As I mentioned, typically LED bulbs are rated as equivalents to incadescent but this tends to allow manufacturers way overstate the actual brightness.

With LEDs what you are looking for is the actual wattage draw at the voltage you are needed.

Typical 20W equivalent 12V LEDs draw as little as 1.5W to as much as 3W with a brightness of under 200 lumens up to 350 lumens respectively.

Sometimes you will see ones rated as 20W-30W equivalent, those most likely will be brighter than ones rated as 20W equivalent since they are being rated to replace up to a 30W incandescent bulb.

What you want to look for is the ones drawing 3W at 12V which is about .25A (1/4 Amp).

The ones drawing 1.5W will draw .125A (1/8 Amp) and will not be as bright as a 20W incandescent.

Gary - Thanks for the link - that's something to keep in mind.
450 Lumens on the ceiling - at 3500 is a decent color but I wonder how bright.

GDE - I'm with you on the replacement bulbs. It's so hard to find the brightest LED's out there. Any suggestions on SMD types of panels? I'm wondering if they've gotten around to COB's that are just solid luminous panels that give off a ton of light.

The other issue is boondocking. I've seen the round LED light fixtures that will fit into the ceiling in place of where my existing fixtures are - but I don't see the lumen rating - maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.

Thanks Again!

josh

jodeb720 wrote:
Ok,

10+ years ago I bought a bunch of the SMD LED replacement light "bulbs". They have been relatively dependable but they are starting to Fail.

As I'm doing a complete renovation of the 5er - and I'm coming to the end (finally after a year +) we (DW and I) are looking to replace the fixtures with Black (he design motif is using the rubbed bronze look so it's almost black anyway).

I've done a big of searching and what I'm finding is similar to what I've already got - SMD LED boards in the fixtures.

What I'd like is much brighter LED's that what I have from 10 years ago.

Any suggestions on:

Replacement fixtures (Where the lumens are posted)?

The incandescent bulbs (I believe) put out about 210 lumens (Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please).
The latest and greatest replacement bulbs are 360 Lumens (again, correct me if I'm wrong).
New Fixtures are what lumenosity?

Thanks in advance!

josh

Paint your current fixtures to match.

Krylon makes a paint specially designed to stick to plastics called "Fusion".. Works like a champ.

You can also use Fusion paint to act as a "primer" for other paints so you can really customize the result.

A typical 20W halogen bulb will typically have 250-280 Lumens of brightness. A non halogen 20W bulb (standard) will be under 250 lumens.

LED replacements are not so cut and dry, and often ones rated as 20W "equivalent" will range from 170 Lumens (2W LED)to 350 Lumens (3W LED)..

So, you have to be careful when selecting..

shastagary wrote:
something like these? Black Double Dome Light

Looks nice, but..

Personally, I would really recommend using fixtures that are relampable.

First, LEDs as you have noticed often never make it to the "100,000 hr mark (35 yrs at 8hrs a day)" or even the more conservative 50,000 hrs (17.5 yrs at 8hrs per day).. Much closer to 5-8 yrs at 8hrs per day.

If you are unlucky, may be changing them every few yrs depending on how poorly they are made.

I know the rage is to buy sealed fixtures but from my own experiences with LEDs I would rather be able to remove and replace the dead bulb instead of changing fixtures..

Second, you might spend a lot of dough on the new fixtures and discover you hate the color temperature, is too bright, is not bright enough.. At least with relampable fixtures you can simply remove and replace bulb with color and brightness you desire.

Granted, the one in the link give, you can remove the lens, but you can't remove the LED plates, you would have to buy new plates which fit the space and then have to tape the new plates over top of the old. Not a quick fix and to get to the wiring, most likely have to remove the fixture..

Sadly, small relampable fixtures now days are getting hard to find and finding "designer" versions are even more difficult to find.

I actually made exclusive use of small under cabinet puck fixtures which used 20W halogen bulbs, removed the Halogen bulbs and replaced with LEDs with same pin configuration as the halogens. The caveat with those is finding LED replacements which are small enough to fit the fixture.

something like these? Black Double Dome Light