LED Floodlights - Work Good?

[Spudland_Dave]

New Garage...havent even installed the box yet, but thinkin of getting a LED Floodlight like this one:
http://www.lowes.com/pd_111679-337-...L=?Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

Has LED Technology advanced far enough that this puts out enough light to make it a good buy? Or save the money and go old school Halogen?

 

[pattenp]

I was just at Lowes a hour ago and happen to look at the LED bulbs. The life is impressive but I just can't get past the price. I was getting some of the little landscape light bulbs and noticed they had them in LED. The price, $14.99 each for a 11W 12V bulb. I bought the $5 pack of 4 of the regular ones. I just couldn't bring myself to shell out $60 for four of the LEDs.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

I was just at Lowes a hour ago and happen to look at the LED bulbs. The life is impressive but I just can't get past the price. I was getting some of the little landscape light bulbs and noticed they had them in LED. The price, $14.99 each for a 11W 12V bulb. I bought the $5 pack of 4 of the regular ones. I just couldn't bring myself to shell out $60 for four of the LEDs.

Theres that...I'm mentally justifying it in terms of I down own a ladder tall enough to access that light once its installed. Heck I've had a burnt halogen on the one on our attached garage for a few months now, I will change it when I get a minute, but only because my buddies 24' ladder has been home since we started construction.

 

[shoturtle]

The new led are well past 500 lumens, so they can do the flood light work well. But the light is not as focus as xenon. But you put them up and forget about them for years over years. That is a big plus.

 

[pattenp]

Theres that...I'm mentally justifying it in terms of I down own a ladder tall enough to access that light once its installed. Heck I've had a burnt halogen on the one on our attached garage for a few months now, I will change it when I get a minute, but only because my buddies 24' ladder has been home since we started construction.

Well, if I had to drag out a 24' ladder to change my landscape bulbs I would gladly pay the $14.99 per bulb, if they last the 10 yrs as claimed.

 

[Norcal]

My experience has not been good w/ LED, tried a couple Utilitech from Lowes that failed rather quickly, a Phillips A-lamp LED is getting dimmer & dimmer, should be a pretty good night light soon, the only ones that have performed decent are some LED PAR floods that bought at Costco, but they are not on all the time,but Costco sent me a note offering to refund my money on them because the life was not as claimed, but LED exit signs have performed well. My opinion is wait on LED until they get their act together.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

My experience has not been good w/ LED, tried a couple Utilitech from Lowes that failed rather quickly, a Phillips A-lamp LED is getting dimmer & dimmer, should be a pretty good night light soon, the only ones that have performed decent are some LED PAR floods that bought at Costco, but they are not on all the time,but Costco sent me a note offering to refund my money on them because the life was not as claimed, but LED exit signs have performed well. My opinion is wait on LED until they get their act together.

Thanks for confirming my sneaky suspicion...and why I asked the Q...

 

[Gary S]

The customer reviews on Lowes site are good, but nobody has any long term experience with them yet. Time will answer that.
Lowes site is very imcomplete. I see no specification of power consumption on the site. Without that, it is impossible to evaluate what you are getting.

 

[DocRocket]

I have some LED floodlight bulbs over the garage door. They are bright and come on instantly, even in the cold (SW OH, not Artic Circle). We'll have to see about the lifetime, but I have had them up for about 18 months now. They were pricey, but the location is a PITA to change, so I thought they would be worth it if they last.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

I have some LED floodlight bulbs over the garage door. They are bright and come on instantly, even in the cold (SW OH, not Artic Circle). We'll have to see about the lifetime, but I have had them up for about 18 months now. They were pricey, but the location is a PITA to change, so I thought they would be worth it if they last.

I may not be in the artic circle either, but some times I swear the winter wind is blowing in FROM there, can get quite nipply at times. CFL's arent even an option for exterior lighting here, unless they've changed since 3-4 years ago.

 

[ishiboo]

I'd check out Home Depot's EcoSmart bulbs, I LOVE their recessed replacements. Great color rendition (warm), good looks and works great on the Insteon dimmers and will dim below what many others do.

I don't like the color of LED for landscape lighting (still too cool white/blue), but it does save a lot of money AND if you have long runs it can mean a significant difference in voltage drop/wire size. IE, I have a 450' driveway with small trees alongside it and the only way for me to reasonably do lighting was to use LED as it's 1/8th the power requirement.

 

[Big-Foot]

I don't have those flood lights but will be looking into purchasing them. I have a couple of lights mounted very high that are a royal you-know-what to change out.. Next change out will be for LED. PLUS, I hear that bugs are not attracted to LED lights which is a huge PLUS out in the country...

I have this set of LED Work Lights and very happy with them. They are so bright they are quite literally blinding to look at..

 

[Gary S]

CFL's arent even an option for exterior lighting here, unless they've changed since 3-4 years ago.

I have CFLs for all my outdoor dusk to dawn lighting. They work great in the cold. I have been running them for 8 years now at temperatures down to -44F. Unless you get a lot colder than that, they are definitely a great option because they are low power consumption.