OT - LED for general kitchen lighting?

[sillygoose]

I love my LED aquarium light.

Now we are in the dusty trenches of a kitchen remodel and I'm trying to light the space. Because of our roof/ceiling structure, we can't do any recessed lights. I spent quitea while at Sun Lighting on Broadway today trying to come up with some LED options for general overhead lighting. (It's pricey - but hey - I already spend money I don't have on my aquarium.:fish2: ) I'm seriously considering buying some.

Does anyone have any experience with LED fixtures and the color rendering issues I've heard about? In one of my lives, I'm a glass artist so color quality is a big consideration. I'd really like to save energy and keep our house cooler and a bunch of halogens is not going to do that.

 

[mattsummers]

cf will have a better lite spectrum. led are limited i believe in home applications

 

[azsrt]

I'm a huge LED fan and have replaced all my house bulbs with LEDs, along with my reef tanks.

There are LED "bulbs" on ebay that screw into standard receptacles and have 90 leds pointing all directions instead of 1-3 pointing down like the retail ones selling for 30 bucks a pop. I went with those after not being impressed with the ultra expensive retail ones. The ultra expensive 1-3 LED retail ones are good for track lighting but not for general room lighting like the ebay ones I purchased are. I bought a few different sizes from ebay and ordered in bulk to save a few bucks. I did the whole house in one fell swoop after trying a couple out for a week. I had to pop the bulb/globe off a few to get them to fit in my ceiling fans and lamps. I love the light output as far as brightness and quality. I would recommend purchasing a bulb off of ebay or wherever and trying it out first to see if you like the light quality. Everyone is different and I imagine there are some that prefer the look of regular bulbs or CFLs but not me. They are not for everyone but since I prefer the quality, love the power savings and lifespan they worked out well. I can run every single light in the house for less than the cost of running 2 CFLs.

Here's a few pics of mine.

I know my "bulbs" are not aesthetically pleasing since I'm a form follows function type on house lighting. However, most of them are under lampshades or globes, so it's all good. There are hundreds of different styles and configurations on ebay and I'm sure you could find something that would fit your needs. garage1217 replaced his kitchen lights with LEDs and imo they look great. He has nice looking fixtures, etc... I have ceiling fans in my kitchen so I don't have any fancy fixtures.

The middle pic is my porch light and is far larger than my indoor ones. The porch light is the brightest on the block and only consumes 7.5 watts. It is actually too bright to leave on all night so I use it sparingly. I have solar led spotlights and walkway lights that keep the yard sufficiently lit without messing with my night sky viewing The other pics are of the most commonly used style in my indoor fixtures. They consume 4.5 watts, the pic shows it with the globe removed so it would clear the lampshade mount.

 

[jjk_reef00]

That is cool, that makes me want to buy some LED light bulbs now!

 

[sillygoose]

WOW - thanks. That's more info than I've found in any reviews so far. Who is the manufacturer/brand? Who was the vendor? As far as light quality, have you managed to avoid the creepy, cold look to the light? We used an LED spot from Home Depot that made our carport look like a serial murder scene (as my kids called it). I know there are much better bulbs. I would love to use as many LEDs in the house as possible.

 

[Tucson Reef]

Remember its focused light, each LED focuses on a spot. If you have kids make sure they can't look direstly at any LED, could get eye damage