Just changed over to LED lighting

[MaeJoMTB]

Have been looking at LEDs the past couple of years and this year the price was right.

My home was almost entirely circular fluorescent, always annoying when they take a few seconds to start up. 

Saw Home Depot was selling 18w LED kits for 159bht each.

Just need to strip out the entire innards of my existing 32w fluorescents, then the replacement strips are held on by magnets.

Old lights 32w + 12w ballast = 44w, new lights 18w and brighter than the flourescent. 

 

[johng]

My "Otoko" T8 led died the other day after almost exactly 1 year of "normal" living room use.

I also discovered that despite saying it has reduced RF interference compared to florescent tube....it seems all its RF interference is in the FM radio band resulting in only 2 stations with high enough power to cut through the hash.

[Daffy D]

Changed most of my circular and strip lights to LED some months ago still working well.

 

Go to love the " Instant on" when you flick the switch.

 

[Pib]

When buying lights, whether LED or florescent, be sure to consider the color temperature you want....that is, Soft/Warm Daylight, Cool Daylight, or Daylight.   

 

Although the lumens output can be identical between different color temp lights, what your eyes see and how your brain feels about the light color can vary. The light can feel too bright...it can just feel like not the right light to use....etc.  That's why they sell lights with different color temperatures....match the color temp to the environment to be illuminated.   

 

Personally, I prefer Daylight in almost all rooms of my house as it helps me see better....but the wife prefers Soft/Warm White in some rooms as it gives a more cozy appearance.   And Cool White would be better for some rooms.

 

Street lights on highways are usually Cool White or Warm White as Daylight might be too strong for some drivers to look at and draws more bugs. 

 

I recently installed some LED "floodlights" on the outside of my perimeter wall to illuminate the sois around my house since the moobaan soi lighting hasn't been reliable. I purposely went with 15W "Warm White" LED Floodlights or Daylight LEDs since Daylight LED Floodlights would appear too bright when looking at them based on my experience of installing some 10W Daylight LED Floodlights on my house last year.  These 10W Daylight LEDs floodlights are just a  little too bright looking when you have to look directly at them...hard to avoid looking at them in some cases. 

 

Anyway, I really wanted Cool White LED Floodlights but ended up buying some 15W Lamptan Warm White LED Floodlight (slim style) and I'm pleased with the results....lights up the sois well....easy on eyes if having to look directly at the lights such as vehicles/neighbors driving under them.

 

As nice to know, this Lamptan website give a good overview of their LED products--in English.  Just providing the website as I found it to be very "informative" in all the different LED products now on the market.

 

I see the OP went with a 6500K temp LED which is a Daylight color temp....that will give a bright looking room.

 

 

 

Quote

 

The Range of Color Temperature

The three primary types of color temperature for light bulbs are: Soft White (2700K – 3000K), Bright White/Cool White (3500K – 4100K), and Daylight (5000K – 6500K).

The higher the Degrees Kelvin, the whiter the color temperature. Although the whiter lights will appear “brighter” than those of a lower Kelvin reading, the amount of Lumens(measurement for brightness) does not change, and true brightness is not affected.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Daffy D]

Lamptan do a 3 in 1 color light:-

 

http://www.lamptan.co.th/en/product_detail.php?menu=LED CIRCULAR SET&item=LED Circular Colour Switch

 

 

Change from Daylight/Warm White/Cool White just by flick of the switch

 

 

 

 

 

[MaeJoMTB]

I went for daylight because all my fluorescents were daylight.

[cooked]

I got sick of the 'check the connection, change the starter, change the ballast' routine every time a lamp failed. Not often to be sure but I can live without it. 

I had decided to routinely change to LED some time ago and am happy to see that the prices have become so reasonable. 

[johng]

15 hours ago, johng said:

My "Otoko" T8 led died the other day

[Pib]

For folks who want to keep using florescent  lighting but want instant on capability and even longer last lighting you can install an "electronic ballast" in the fixture which replaces the original non-electronic ballast and starter.

 

This gives instant-on capability and makes the florescent light last a lot longer also since a high frequency versus line frequency is now being used to power/drive the florescent bulb.    You might want to think of an florescent electronic ballast as the driver circuit (a.k.a., power supply) in a LED light fixture.   Screw-in bulb type  florescent lights use electronic ballast...that why they immediately turn on.

 

10 years ago when I first bought my new house here in Bangkok I immediately began installing electronic ballasts on my florescent lighting fixtures...took me about a year to complete the process....just took my time.  Just couldn't stand the turn on sequence for a standard/non-electronic ballast florescent light...you know, the flicker, flicker and a few seconds later it finally comes on.   Did the lights we use frequently within the first six months or so and got the rest of them over the next six months.  And 10 years ago LED lights were not really an option since there were few LED lights available and the ones that were were expensive.   

 

However, but, if I had just started the swap-out process say "today" I would go with "quality" LED  lights in almost all cases since LED now come in all shapes and sizes, color temperatures, and save a little more power than florescent bulbs,  etc., and probably does last longer that electronic florescent bulbs.    I'm not prepared yet to say LEDs light fixtures last longer "for sure" than florescent fixtures using electronic ballast because I don't have that "long-time personal comparison experience" between the two yet....and don't always believe manufacturers perfect world life ratings.   Plus one of the LED brake lights I used to replace the incandescent brake light in my car burnt out after only a year....and I sure see a lot of defective/partially burnt out LED lights on vehicles running around Thailand....but those LED lights are surely pretty cheap/lower quality. 

 

While LEDs usually come with 30,000 or more hour ratings and florescent bulbs with 10,000 to 15,000 hour ratings that is perfect world, manufacturer ratings.  And while the LED "light itself" (the part that shines bright) would can indeed last a long, long time--longer than a florescent light--unfortunately, the LED must be power powered by its driver circuit (a.k.a., power supply composed of an IC, resistor, diode, capacitor, etc.) that may fail long before the LED light itself would fail.    How long that driver circuit lasts all depends on the quality of manufacturing of that driver/power supply circuit integrated into the LED light/fixture.

 

Anyway, to date I've never had an florescent electronic ballast go bad...some are 10 years old already...and I've only needed to change one florescent circular tube which uses an electronic ballast over those 10 years.  The tube I had to replace had already been burning for almost two years before I got it converted with an electronic ballast.   

 

Almost all of my electronic ballast are Lamptan ballasts....like the T9 ballast shown at this Lamptan webpage.  Easy to install.   I didn't start with Lamptan because I did any advance research...it's just when I started the ballast swap-out process years ago on the day I was in the hardware store looking at the different electronic ballasts that was one of three or four brands they had on the shelves that day.  I liked it the best while standing there that day, bought a couple, and then just continued to buy them as I continued my conversion to electronic ballast over the year.  I have never had a Lamptan electronic ballast go bad....and I probably have a dozen or so installed around the house.   

 

Now I have had one electronic ballast made by GATA develop and intermittent problem and I had to repair that ballast...it was a simple repair.  I took the plastic cover off to look at its electronic board and found two capacitors with cold solder joints...I  re-soldered those two capacitors and the ballast has worked ever since.  Just defective soldering from the factory the day that ballast was made.

 

Yeap, if you want instant-on and longer lasting capability for your florescent fixtures just install an electronic ballast...easy to install...ballast cost will be average around Bt100-150 per quality ballast.   But LEDs should be your first consideration now days if for no other reason to save a little more on the electric bill as they do use a  less power than florescent lightning.  Yea, LED lighting has advanced a lot and become much cheaper over recent years.

 

 

[carlyai]

I put in all LED lights when I built the place about 4 years ago. Out of the approx. 70 - 80 LEDs we have, 4 have failed in that 4 year period. None of the 5 outdoor LED spotlights have failed.

Sent from my SM-J700F using Tapatalk

[scorecard]

Any members who had made big changes to LED made any calculations about reductions in electric bill?

 

But the big one - big reductions in electricity usage by air conditioners. Anything new to share, anything new on the horizon?

[MaeJoMTB]

9 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Any members who had made big changes to LED made any calculations about reductions in electric bill?

Fluorescent 32w bulb + 12w ballast = 44w, LED 18w

Saving 26w/hr/LED.

Out of my 6 lights I'm assuming 2 lights running 6  hrs/night, saving 26x12x2 = saving 0.64 units per day at 3.5bht/unit = 2.24 bht/day

 

Total savings = 817 bht/year

The LED lamps (159bht/lamp) will pay for 5 in 1 year.

 

[tagalong]

Thanks Maijo....I saw one of these last week but, could not work out what or how etc... U av shown me ....I can now buy n put into my place....

Cheers...Mudguard..

[MaeJoMTB]

5 minutes ago, tagalong said:

Thanks Maijo....I saw one of these last week but, could not work out what or how etc... U av shown me ....I can now buy n put into my place....

Cheers...Mudguard..

I've found it's easier to take the whole fitting off the ceiling to work on than stand on a chair with your arms above your head.

About 15 minutes per lamp.

Turn your fusebox off before you play with the lamps!

[HooHaa]

6 hours ago, MaeJoMTB said:

I went for daylight because all my fluorescents were daylight.

i dont know how people can live under daylight fluorescents, the first thing i do in a home is remove all the flouro lights unless it something like a dedicated work room

[tagalong]

Thanks for the safety reminder.....

[MaeJoMTB]

2 minutes ago, HooHaa said:

i dont know how people can live under daylight fluorescents, the first thing i do in a home is remove all the flouro lights unless it something like a dedicated work room

I'm old and my eyesight isn't good.

The brighter the lighting, the better I see (pinhole effect).

[scorecard]

1 minute ago, MaeJoMTB said:

I'm old and my eyesight isn't good.

The brighter the lighting, the better I see (pinhole effect).

 

Any members aware of any news / anything on the horizon that will make big reductions in electricity usage by air conditioners?

 

 

[MaeJoMTB]

Correction to OP

HOME MALL not Home Depot

https://goo.gl/maps/azTNJyvQZ6K2

[Pib]

8 minutes ago, MaeJoMTB said:

I'm old and my eyesight isn't good.

The brighter the lighting, the better I see (pinhole effect).

Yeap...older eyes need more light than younger eyes.  

 

https://www.thespruce.com/lighting-for-aging-eyes-2175153

 

 

Quote

 

Changes to the number of photoreceptors (rods) in the retina, hardening or yellowing of the lens of the eye, increase in floaters, decrease in the pupil size, and common eye diseases like cataracts and glaucoma all can reduce the amount of light that the eye can use and increase how sensitive the eye is to glare. The eye also often becomes less sensitive to blues. 

When we get older, our eyes may change and our activities may also change. Here are some tips for how to design lighting in your home for aging eyes. 

For some tasks, someone aged 60 may need ten times the light that a person of 20 would need.

 

 

[Pib]

8 minutes ago, scorecard said:

 

Any members aware of any news / anything on the horizon that will make big reductions in electricity usage by air conditioners?

Replace standard/fixed speed A/Cs with a properly size inverter A/C. 

 

I swapped out a 18K BTU fixed speed A/C in early Jan with a 23K inverter A/C and have seen a big reduction in my kilowatt usage per day....especially since this particular A/C runs 24/7.    Full details at this ThaiVisa thread.

[jacko45k]

I think I will do the same, am already replacing the CFLs as they fail, far too cheap to get rid of functioning bulbs. I put a tiny bit of WD40 on the neck as with the long life of them I hope they don't get stuck. Replacing the circular flourescents would be of great benefit to my blood pressure as I find them infuriating, flashing and flicking and making me wait.

[Jeffrey346]

Looks like you bought the discontinued style. The new LED replacement is either 18 or 24 watt and connects direct to the power. No ballast. I paid B249 for the new style 24 watt.

[csabo]

I switched to colored led bulbs I control with my phone via Bluetooth. Can set the mood or holiday with a few phone taps. I could never live or work under florescents. Even when I worked in an office I moved soft lighting in. There are numerous studies documenting its harmful effects. 

https://www.thoughtco.com/how-fluorescent-lights-affect-you-1206641

[Cake Monster]

Instant ON is no problem with the older style Fluorescent Circular lights if you use electronic starter ballasts

 

LED is still too expensive in Thailand. The hours usage figures are Waayyyy too high because they just do not perform to those stated figures and this makes them expensive to both buy ad replace.

[maxisrael]

Where to get them never seen them ,Thanks

[MaeJoMTB]

27 minutes ago, maxisrael said:

Where to get them never seen them ,Thanks

Home Mall 159bht https://goo.gl/maps/azTNJyvQZ6K2

Lazada 190bht a bit more expensive https://www.lazada.co.th/led18-10849747.html?spm=a2o4m.searchlist.list.24.3d1d35cevjxpka

AliExpress 240bht a bit of a wait for delivery. https://www.aliexpress.com/store/2073062?spm=2114.10010108.100005.1.7bb67d02ZWcHjv

 

I was surprised I could buy it locally, cheaper than mail order.

You gotta check out both before ordering.

[Cheops]

13 minutes ago, maxisrael said:

Where to get them never seen them ,Thanks

Just order them from AliExpress. Lots of choice. With or without remote. Via Bluetooth, WiFi or just standard. 

[Andrew Dwyer]

My fluorescents are really annoying and I would like to change them out , especially in the 3rd bedroom that has my tools etc, I can be almost in and out before it stops flickering !

Is Home Mall a chain or just in Chiang Mai ?

Plus, just checked my spare unit ( put ceiling fan in its place) and it’s a 32W lamp with a 32W Ballast, why would this be so different to your 12W ballast ?

[dotpoom]

Good for you.