Incandescent lights

[Jon Elson]

On 02/05/2015 03:14 PM, Tothwolf wrote:
>
> 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.

I was worried that the color temperature would be horrible, 
the LEDs look
real blue if you look at them, but with the fixture, 
diffuser and the
whole room, they look perfectly normal.  (Warning, if you 
look right
AT the LEDs, you will only be seeing spots for a couple 
minutes, they
are blindingly bright.)

Jon