Dave_H
Flashlight Enthusiast
I found some great clearance deals on LED lights at HD just before and after Christmas. This included a few "changeable-tint" products: ceiling lamp (Commercial Elec), BR30 spots and A19 spiral LED filament bulbs (EcoSmart). Each has three switch settings: 2700/3000K, 4000K, and 5000K.
Sticker on one package listed clearance reason as "slow moving" which is fortuitous if it's something you can use.
The ceiling fixture uses 24 SMT LEDs, 12 each warm and daylight. Driver has two outputs. On 3000K and 5000K, respective LEDs are lit; on 4000K, both are lit at partial brightness i.e. "mixed". The mid tint certainly looks OK with overlapping spectra of the two. Without a spectrometer it would be difficult to compare with a light which uses dedicated 4000K LEDs, but interesting approach.
What strikes me about this is in majority of cases, at end of life half the LEDs will be unused (wasted), except mid-tint. It's possible when one set LEDs fails or dims, user might switch the another, but in all likelihood the fixture will be replaced. This is waste which we pay for. Good thing these cost me $5 for a box of two.
The BR30's use 21 LEDs, three of each tint, only seven on at a time, so up to 2/3 of the LEDs may be wasted. Box of four was $4.
The 40W-eq. twisted-filament bulbs are settable with small screwdriver blade from the tip of the base; no OTF change short of removing the bulb. Set and forget I guess. Like the ceiling fixture, LEDS are mixed to provide middle tint which is 3000K not 4000K. Anyway they have nice appearance and good efficacy (100 lumens/watt) but would not have bought them at full price.
Lastly for $2 each I got a couple of Philips 60W daylight bulbs which have three-step dimmer built in, by toggling the switch. Works well but the tint is not great for overhead hall light, slight greenish tinge at lowest level (1W, 80 lumens), so back to the warm bulb.
Anyway it's given some opportunity to check out seasonal deals, spend a bit of money (but not much!), and have fun investigating and playing around with some of these features.
Dave
Sticker on one package listed clearance reason as "slow moving" which is fortuitous if it's something you can use.
The ceiling fixture uses 24 SMT LEDs, 12 each warm and daylight. Driver has two outputs. On 3000K and 5000K, respective LEDs are lit; on 4000K, both are lit at partial brightness i.e. "mixed". The mid tint certainly looks OK with overlapping spectra of the two. Without a spectrometer it would be difficult to compare with a light which uses dedicated 4000K LEDs, but interesting approach.
What strikes me about this is in majority of cases, at end of life half the LEDs will be unused (wasted), except mid-tint. It's possible when one set LEDs fails or dims, user might switch the another, but in all likelihood the fixture will be replaced. This is waste which we pay for. Good thing these cost me $5 for a box of two.
The BR30's use 21 LEDs, three of each tint, only seven on at a time, so up to 2/3 of the LEDs may be wasted. Box of four was $4.
The 40W-eq. twisted-filament bulbs are settable with small screwdriver blade from the tip of the base; no OTF change short of removing the bulb. Set and forget I guess. Like the ceiling fixture, LEDS are mixed to provide middle tint which is 3000K not 4000K. Anyway they have nice appearance and good efficacy (100 lumens/watt) but would not have bought them at full price.
Lastly for $2 each I got a couple of Philips 60W daylight bulbs which have three-step dimmer built in, by toggling the switch. Works well but the tint is not great for overhead hall light, slight greenish tinge at lowest level (1W, 80 lumens), so back to the warm bulb.
Anyway it's given some opportunity to check out seasonal deals, spend a bit of money (but not much!), and have fun investigating and playing around with some of these features.
Dave
