LED Bulb Pointers

So...what should we look for in a LED light? Well there are a couple of requirements you should demand.

1. The bulb or tube should be UL (or some other NRTL) listed.

Although a lot of people are selling CE certified bulbs, this is not good enough for the US market. Though the chances are very small, if a fire should occur in your home or business, and the part involved is not listed by UL or another nationally recognized testing lab (NRTL), then your insurance carrier may not cover the loss. Though the UL listing process is expensive for manufacturers, it should be something you demand of products you buy. It does not guarantee they will work as advertised, but it does tell you it is not going to catch fire and burn your home down.

2. The LEDs in the bulb or tube should be manufactured by a big name manufacturer.

Edison, Osram, Semi, Cree, Epistar, Seoul Semiconductor are a few that pass muster. Lots of manufacturer's are able to incorporate these high quality LEDs into high quality bulbs and tubes. At the same time, anyone in a garage can make an LED light. And I have seen some garage outfits. If you start off with a high quality LED you are on the right path.

3. Heat is the enemy of a LED. Any tube or bulb worth purchasing should have an extensive heat dissipation device built in. Wether it is an aluminum base with multiple ridges, flanges or some type of fan, there needs to be a way to draw heat away from the LEDs. A smooth base is not going to cut it. The more surface area the flanges create the better.

4. Any LED bulb or tube you buy should have a minimum of a 2 year warranty. If it does not have a 2 year replacement warranty, or a full refund when returned if you are not happy when you receive it, you do not want to buy it. The LEDs in these bulbs should function well for you 35,000-50,000 hours. And if it lasts 1 year, it is probably going to make it 5-10 years, but a 2 year warranty will help separate the wheat from the chaff.

These are images of T-8 LED replacement tubes. These tubes are very bright and very cool to the touch. These models have LED drivers built into the tubes.





For these lights I ended up destroying the stove top in my kitchen :). One slip of the foot on a glass top can be very very bad. However, now I have a great lab for testing bulbs, and the light in my kitchen is much brighter and cleaner than the 40w fluorescent bulbs I had before.

Well, it finally happened to me. I've read about it, talked about it, and now just recently, I've lived it. It was unexpected. I was putting my son to bed, and over the monitor I hear "honey, come here quick"!

First, a little history on the subject. Around 18 months ago I began considering Compact Fluorescent bulbs (CFLs) for my house. No, I didn't particularly like the idea of bringing extra mercury home, but we have to do something to be more energy efficient, and leave a better world for our children. I didn't like the appearance of the light compared to the illumination from the incandescent bulbs. It also took some experimentation buying different bulbs to find out what "color temperature" the family liked best in different situations. (More later on this).

However, in spite of my concerns and dislike of CFL bulbs, I started sneaking them in to the house. I would change them out in entire rooms to see what response I would get, and if anybody would notice. Yes....they did notice. I took precautions to match "colors" with what had been there previously, but they still caught me every time. My wife really didn't like the changes. Over time she has forgotten what we are using, and adjusted to it.

Now, back to the story.... So, I go rushing into my 2 year old daughter's room to see what is the matter, and her reading lamp has fallen over. The CFL in the lamp is smashed and all over the carpet. I knew we were not supposed to be in the room for a while, because of the mercury contained in the bulb. It was past my daughters bedtime, but we all pulled out of the room anyway, so I could do some quick research.

Somewhere I found that at least an hour out of the room was required, and that is what we did that night. This seemed a bit extreme to me at the time, but I have read 8 hours in other places doing further research since this happened. That night, I used a vacuum cleaner to get up all the glass (a big no no), and put it in a standard trash bag (a big no no). I also picked up bigger pieces of glass with my fingers (a big....you are getting the picture by now). The next day I learned all of the no no's I had broken. I now have to keep rubber gloves around as long as I have CFL's in the house.....

For more on cleanup requirements go to: The EPA website

You can also see...The State of Maine

for the results of testing on broken bulbs.

There is a better answer...