Replace Your Fluorescent Lights with LED Lights
With a combined target of a reduction in energy bills, a reduction in carbon emissions and other “green” considerations, many people have gone through the process of replacing their incandescent light bulbs with more efficient compact fluorescent lights/lamps (CFLs). A new kid on the block – still in the same form factor – are LED lights, which are even more energy-efficient than CFLs. Until recently, however, there were no decent replacement options for standard fluorescent lighting. But now new products such as posilight and ReLED fill that gap in the market.
Why It’s Clever
Incandescent lamps have become almost obsolete and will be taken off the market in a few years in most parts of the world because new lighting regulations stipulate a higher efficiency than they can possibly offer.
Replacement with LED lights is a good option, since these have become powerful enough to replace current light bulbs, have become dimmable too and use only a fraction of the energy of traditional lights. And it makes sense to replace (compact) fluorescent lamps with LEDs, because they offer a considerable increase in efficiency, hence saving energy. There are also situations where fluorescent lighting doesn’t perform very well, for instance in cold environments. LED lighting wouldn’t have a problem there.
While LED light manufacturers have mainly focused on traditional bulbs so far, they are now bringing out solutions in a traditional fluorescent form factor as well. This means that you can easily replace your fluorescent lamp with an LED light in seconds without changing the fixture. I suppose that this will spell the end of those dreaded flickering fluorescent tubes as well.
One of the manufacturers is posilight, who seem to focus on applications in refrigerators, for instance in food stores. Besides operating better at low temperatures than fluorescent lights, another advantage of LED lights is that they generate less heat themselves, thereby reducing your cooling requirements: A win-win.
The posilight Legacy e exists in T12, T10 and T8 fluorescent form factors. The light is not directional, similar to a normal fluorescent tube, making it a perfect replacement.
Another brand is ReLED. The idea is similar, the main difference being that ReLED uses high-power directional LEDs in a fluorescent tube form factor. This means that the ReLED light, which is evenly spread in the case of a fluorescent tube, becomes more directional. The tube can rotate 180 degrees, enabling you to aim it at the spot where you want most light, but the effect might not be the same as with the fluorescent lamp that you want to replace.
ReLED offers two different color temperatures (neutral white and warm white) and has a driver circuit with the same form factor as a traditional ballast from a fluorescent lamp, allowing it to be fit to the existing fixture. It’s available in standard T5, T8 and T12 sizes. Here’s a drawing that explains how it can be retrofit. I suppose this is similar for the different products.
Summary
- LED replacements for traditional fluorescent lamps
- T5, T8, T10, T12 sizes
- Up to 85% energy saving
- Gives off less heat
- No flickering lights anymore
- Approx. 50,000 hours lifespan
- Retrofits existing fixtures
- Even or directional lighting.
Tips
Many of these lamps require you to replace the fluorescent’s ballast with a new LED driver circuit. Check if the driver fits your fixture before buying (it should be designed that way, though).
Where to buy
You can find such LED lights on Amazon.com where you can also read some positive customer reviews. Something that could be the ReLED can be found on here - with all those OEM products you never know for sure.
Also on Amazon.com, I see two products that may be or look like the posilight, . Click here for the first alternative and for the second type.
Approx. price: $60-70 (April 2010)
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Categories: home improvement,energy saving,green,lighting
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|2010-04-09 02:31:10 Clever & EasyWell, they do claim 50,000 hours. If that's really the case, we'll know in 50,000 hours from now
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|2010-04-09 04:35:14 ECA50,000/24/365 is about 5.7 years.
But most places use 8-10 hours per day. which is about 13 years.
Figure 12 hour days or 1/2 lighting..11 years??
But who wants to test it for that long.
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|2010-04-09 09:48:16 Clever & EasyThat's right. You did pass math, I see.
Anyhow, warranty will have expired by the time you find out, so the only thing you can do when it breaks down sooner is complain in some forum on the Internet...
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Thank you for posting this information, it will help a lot of people.Can you tell me of other source of this information?
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|2010-04-11 04:41:48 Clever & EasyHi, the information comes mainly from the manufacturer's websites, but is also collected from other sources on the Internet.
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I know certain supplies to have a 5 year warranty but its not always about the lamp burning out, cheaply built LED lights can last 50k hours providing all its supporting components dont fail beforehand.
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|2010-04-18 11:53:11 Clever & EasyYou're right. Still, a 5 year warranty is not too bad, better than nothing at all.
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|2010-04-18 14:11:47 ECAYou have to understand something.
1. they arent cheap yet.
2. they dont use a transformer, which is about $40-100
3. Breakage.. These dont break as easy..
4. Storage... Iv seen companies tha had CASES of CFL bulbs, wating for them to go out.. they may be cheap, but they can be a waste of space.
In my previous post I mentioned the number of hours used per day.
Starter/transformers are the first this to worry about in CFL, the LESS you turn them On and off, the longer MOST last. Both Bulb and transformer.
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|2010-04-19 00:54:06 Clever & EasyI'm sorry, but I don't fully understand your remark, probably I'm missing something. CFL bulbs don't need an external transformer, do they? Or are you referring to halogen?
On the other hand, these LED tubes do require an external driver too. If you click on the retrofit drawing link, you'll see that the ballast from the original fluorescent tube is replaced by a similar sized driver circuit for the LED tube.
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|2010-04-19 02:51:04 ecaNO, THEY NEED A voltage rectifier...change AC to DC..
I was talking about the florescent bulbs..
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I have visited hundreds of websites but no one can give information as much as yours,great posting!thank you! Can you tell me of other source of this information? Thank you very much!
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|2010-04-24 02:45:06 Clever & EasyThanks for the nice feedback, but unfortunately I can't give you any specific source of information. It comes from sources all over the web, have't kept the links to them. But it shouldn't be that hard to find.
How long they WILL/MIGHT last..
Standard LED is upto 10 years.
I dont know about the ultra brights.