#Giving LEDs a Try - Replacing Kitchen Overhead Lights with LEDs

We decided to give LED lights a try for our overhead track kitchen lights. Thought I would pass on the results.

There is a lot more to buying light bulbs than there used to be!

We had 6 R30 flood lights overhead track lights in the kitchen area. These are the most used lights in our house. When we moved in back in 2000, the lights were incandescents, and we changed them to R30 CFL (Compact Fluorescent Lights) units. The CFLs have worked pretty well, but they do have some delay coming on, and the life has not been that great. The life has proved to be a good deal shorter than the life claim on the box -- this is probably because the lights get turned off and on quite a bit. The lights are about 13 ft off the floor, and in a position that is awkward to get a ladder into, so not having to replace them so often would be a big plus.

The original 6 CFL R30 lights along with a trial run on one of the new LED R20 lights.

The appeal of using LEDs for these lights is that: 1) they would come on instantly, 2) switching them on and off frequently would not shorten their life, and 3) if the life claims are true, we would never have to go up that ladder again. In addition they might save some additional power over the CFL lights.

In looking into LEDs to replace the R30 CFLs, we found:

- They are pretty pricey -- the ones made specifically to replace the R30 size 65 watt incandescents are up in the $40 area. Quite a bit to spend for a light bulb, and we needed 6 of them.

- When the DOE checked on LED actual performance vs manufacturer claims, they found that 78% of the LED lights did not meet the manufactures claims. This note on LED at the 1000Bulbs site is interesting.

So, you have the prospect of paying a whole lot for an LED light that does not live up to the claims made for it -- the worst of both worlds.

- The color quality of the LEDs can be disappointing compared to incandescent lights. Since we spend a lot of time in this area, we wanted the light color quality to be good.

In order to lower the risk somewhat, we decided to just buy one of the LED floods locally and give it a trial run. After looking at the selection at several places, we decided to try an ECO Smart PAR20 LED made by Lighting Sciences and sold by Home Depot. This LED is a 350 lumen, 8 watt unit, and has an estimated life of 50,000 hours. These units were actually intended to replace 40 watt incandescent R20 bulbs, but we decided it was worth a try as they are substantially less expensive than the the R30 units -- they cost $22 each.

We installed the one test LED, and were very pleasantly surprised by the light level -- it appeared to light its area better than the 65 watt equivalent CFL had. This LED is a 3000K color temperature light, and the light is just a touch less warm than would be ideal, but fine. The CRI (Color Rendering Index) for this LED was rated at 85 out of 100 and we were wondering if this would be noticeable, but it seems fine.

Based on the good results with the test LED, we went ahead and bought 4 more of them. We also bought new fixtures to hold the lights. The LEDs would fit in the old fixtures, but the ventilation around the LED heat sink would have been somewhat restricted. We like the looks of the new fixtures better as well -- they are more compact. The old fixtures are going out to my shop and to the local Habitat Restore.

The new LED lights. Note that you can't really go by the photos to evaluate lighting levels or color temperatures.

We have had the 5 new LED floods installed for several weeks now, and are very happy with them. The 5 LED lights provide considerably better lighting than the 6 CFL floods did. The lights come on instantly, and (hopefully) will never have to be changed again.

I'm a bit puzzled as to why five LED floods rated at 350 lumen each can provide better lighting than six CFL lights rated at 750 lumen each. The pattern of the LED's is narrower than the pattern for the CFL's, and that probably accounts for some of the difference, but the narrower pattern works fine in our case. Other factors might be the optimistic ratings mentioned above, or perhaps the output of the CFLs dropping some as they age. What ever the reasons, its just undeniable that these 5 LEDs at 8 watts each light the area better than the 6 CFLs at 15 watts each.

So, this is quite a progression: Started with 6 incandescents at 65 watts each for a total of 390 watts, went to 6 CFLs at 15 watts each for a total of 90 watts, and now on to 5 LEDs at 8 watts each for at total of 40 watts -- nearly a factor of 10 drop in energy use! See the section below for the savings in electricity and carbon.

The new LED lights and fixtures.