Bullet Lights (Halogen Ceiling Lights)

[Dick Simonis]

I'm looking at replacing the halogen bulbs in those little "bullet" lights over the counter and seating areas with LED's.  I think I read that other have done this but can remember what comments were made considering the brightness.  I don't want to lose any intensity if possible.

Thanks.

Dick

[Joel Ashley]

If you put "halogen" into the field on the Search page of the Forum, you may find threads with references to the lights you speak of.

Joel

[Jeremy Parrett]

Hi Dick,
 here is the link to my post on this subject.
 http://forum.bacrallies.com/m-1292209535/s-3/highlight-halogen+/#num3
 Have a test sample sent to you in G4  warm white to check quality,colour and intensity.
  We have found these lights to be a wonderful modification.  Good luck

[JimDyer]

Hi Dick,

We bought ours from efortown on Ebay. About $3 each for 24led G4 units. We're very pleased, even though we lost some intensity and dropped our power bill about $50 per month. And I can leave them on for days without any temperature rise on the fixtures.......the center of the glass is warm (not the edge) but I can still put my finger on it and hold it there indefinitely. Big difference! The $50 related to 38 bulbs.

[JimDyer]

Just got out the temperature gun, and edges read 100F and centers about 160F, but it doesn' t feel that warm, so I'm thinking that is on the LED, not the glass. Also worth noting that the condensation look from the melted Styrofoam hasn't come back.

[Dick Simonis]

Thanks for the replies.  Truthfully, I'm not very concerned about power draw as we seldom dry camp.....although heat related stories are a worry.  My main concern is loosing very much intensity as these ageing eys requre more light that that they used to for reading.

I think at a minimum I'll replace the ones over the counter and dinette.

[Joel Weiss]

I hate to burst your bubble, but I seriously doubt if you're saving $50/mo due to buying these LED fixtures.  A 30-day month has 720 hours. A 10W light left on 24/7 will, therefore, use 7200 W-hours of electricity = 7.2 kW-hrs.  Even at 20 cents a kW-hr (an extremely high rate) that is $1.44 per light fixture (if left on 24/7)

I know you guys with Marquis have a lot more lights than us poor Thunder owners, but unless you like sleeping in an awfully bright bedroom I doubt you have enough of them on 24/7 to get to $50/mo (and I have treated this "analysis" as if the LED lights use no energy at all which obviously isn't true).

LED lights are still expensive enough that they are difficult to justify on a purely economic argument.  There are many reasons for using them, but the economic payback takes quite a while to achieve.

[Dick Simonis]

In my looking around.  I found two styles of LED lights.  One is a tower and the other looks like a disc.

Also, I'm not very familiar with the differant colors.  Seems like there is a choice between cool white, white, and warm white.  

Any thoughts are what color is best for our applications.

[Joel Weiss]

  Seems like there is a choice between cool white, white, and warm white.  

The best (most honest) retailers will provide a color temperature for the light.  This is a measure of how white (or blue) the light is.  Temps around 4500K are sort of like cool white fluorescents (usually LED retailer call this white).  A color temp of ~3500K would be sort of like an incandescent bulb (warm white).  IMHO I would not buy any LEDs with color temps >5000K; they are too blue for my tastes even though they are often called cool white.

If a retailer does not provide a color temperature, beware, unless you have experience buying from them.  You have only their verbal description of the color which is often very self-serving.

[Jeremy Parrett]

  I used   G4 warm white with 6 LED's. They are not  as bright as halogens but have transformed the look and mood of the main living space when they are all lit.  
The halogens were so harsh and bright they were really too much light for the space.

[Dick Simonis]

These are the ones I'm thinking about.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/500987084/24PCS_SMD_5050_g4_24_led.html

It would seem a "spot" beam would be preferable over some of the omnidirectional tower bulbs.  24 LED's should put out enough light to read by and the current draw is still modest.

I have no idea if they will fit dimesionally but I guess I could just order one and find out.

[william thorup]

Dick, I replaced all my halogens with the G4 6 led bulbs.  They are as near the same brightness as the halogens and even dim on the circuits with dimmers.  My reasoning is we like to dry camp and the amperage draw is significantly less with the LEDs  Also there was a heat factor with one of the bulbs being near the thermostat...the LED solves that problem....a win, win all around.

Bill
2008 Contessa 42