6 Feb
2015
6 Feb
'15
8:15 a.m.
On 2/5/2015 9:04 PM, Jon Elson wrote:
On 02/05/2015 03:14 PM, Tothwolf wrote:
Very interesting -- how did you build a
retrofit for a 48" T12?
- J.
I don't have links to all the
relevant documents handy, but 100W,
75W, 60W and 40W are all banned from
import or manufacture in the US
(rough service bulbs are exempt...for
now at least). Stores are allowed to
sell off existing stocks and
inventory, and many chains stocked up
heavily before the second half
(60W/40W) of the light bulb ban took
effect.
I have VERY few incandescents here. I
have started converting our kitchen
(where the lights are on a LOT of the
day) to LED. I couldn't find anything
I liked (some LED fixtures are
actually on recall as a fire hazard) so I
built my own. I made a 10 LED fixture
with Cree 1W LEDs first for our
pantry/laundry room, which had the
worst lighting in the house. (A recessed
fixture too cramped to fit a CFL, and
made so it lit a spot on the floor and
not the room.) I built my own
constant current source for it, and it
was
a huge success. So, then I built two
retrofits for dual 48" fluorescent tubes.
These have a string of 20 1 W Cree
LEDs and a commercial LED lighting
power supply. The old magnetic
ballast drew 103 W, the new LED system
shows 21 W, and the lights actually
appear brighter than the fluorescents.