Lighting Sciences Group becomes largest producer of LED bulbs in North America

[FeMan]

Another interesting article about LED lighting fro EDN

Here's the link:

http://www.edn.com/blog/PowerSource/...Today_20120125

[pbibm]

Great story FE Man. Since getting 2 ecosmart 8.6 watt, 40 watt equivalents at HomeDepot, I am continuing to watch this. I am really happy with them and when I look, my mind says they are 60 - 75 watt equivalents.

I think the prices will continue to fall. I am going to let my CF stock dwindle over the next year and figure by fall time the switch to LEDs will be on for key high use fixtures.

PAul

[FeMan]

When I posted that article I forgot to mention that this is the manufacturer of the Home Depot ecosmart LED bulbs. I noticed you picked up on that.

I also bought a few of those bulbs last weekend and I have to say they work very well. My wife thought the same thing, they appear to be much brighter than the 40 watt bulb I replaced. She also really liked the color.

I have not tested these bulbs in my Z-wave, Insteon, or X10 dimmers yet. I was going to do that this coming weekend. I am pretty sure they will dim, but will they be completely off when they are controlled by those technologies or will there be a soft glow.

I think the prices are also going to start coming down. When I was in HD looking at these bulbs, I noticed for the first time, that Philips has really gotten into the LED business. They had all kinds of bulbs, all the way down to quarter watt night-light bulbs. I bought one of their 3.5 watt candelabra small base bulbs. That bulb is much brighter than the 25 watt incandescent bulb I replaced. I had this bulb plugged into one of my Insteon dimmer plugins and when I turned it off, it was OFF. No noticeable glow. It also dimmed very well all the way down

I will also give that bulb some more testing this weekend on the other technology dimmers.

[Uncle Michael]

I haven't used these exact LED lamps, but I've tried several others from HD, and have been equally pleased. What I found with dimmers is that the dimming pattern is affected by the number of lamps (I hesitate calling the 'bulbs') in the load. One lamp dims the best, two work nearly as well with some flicker, but three tend to change brightness in jumps. In all cases the lamps dim to off, but with more than two on the switch they often just jump from on to off without any noticeable intermediate brightness.

[dschoppe]

I haven't used these exact LED lamps, but I've tried several others from HD, and have been equally pleased. What I found with dimmers is that the dimming pattern is affected by the number of lamps (I hesitate calling the 'bulbs') in the load. One lamp dims the best, two work nearly as well with some flicker, but three tend to change brightness in jumps. In all cases the lamps dim to off, but with more than two on the switch they often just jump from on to off without any noticeable intermediate brightness.

Have you tried the Philips AmbientLED? I've had no issue dimming any number of them.

[pbibm]

I had this bulb plugged into one of my Insteon dimmer plugins and when I turned it off, it was OFF. No noticeable glow. It also dimmed very well all the way down

I will also give that bulb some more testing this weekend on the other technology dimmers.

I had the same experience with insteon and it dimmed fine. It seemed to work with an x10 lamp module as well. It is a little on the whiter side, but I am using them for premise light. Both doors are fully lit right away when they come on. Unlike the CFLs that take time to light up especially below 30.

I plan to plug one in to a power meter this weekend, as well as a incandescent for comparison and see what it says they draw

[pbibm]

I haven't used these exact LED lamps, but I've tried several others from HD, and have been equally pleased. What I found with dimmers is that the dimming pattern is affected by the number of lamps (I hesitate calling the 'bulbs') in the load. One lamp dims the best, two work nearly as well with some flicker, but three tend to change brightness in jumps. In all cases the lamps dim to off, but with more than two on the switch they often just jump from on to off without any noticeable intermediate brightness.

UM, I noticed that behavior on the bulb I tested with X10. One module, a really old x10, refused to dim it. Any call for load at any % went 100% on. Its a 10 year old x10 so I dismissed that as the module, though it seems to work for incandescent. I

also tried it with a 5 year old magnavox x10 module. I saw the stepped dimming behavior you describe when controlling one of these in a lamp, but had attributed it to using a PLM to do the x10 part. It sometimes pauses between commands.

Paul