@KDemo Don’t see why not. The problem is mostly from heat, which LEDs don’t produce in nearly the copious amounts that incandescents do (heating up metal until it glows essentially). It’s that efficiency thing that LEDs have, remember.
@mike808@medz - I once read that it can be a problem with some LEDs, but thanks for the info, I have ordered them.
Let there be (cheap, efficient) light!
If you want to install an A19 LED 60-watt equivalent in an enclosed ceiling fixture (the most common type of residential enclosed fixture), read the packaging carefully. Most say that the bulb cannot be used in this way.
And this from c/net
You probably know that LED bulbs run dramatically cooler than their incandescent cousins, but that doesn’t mean they don’t produce heat. LED bulbs do get hot, but the heat is pulled away by a heat sink in the base of the bulb. From there, the heat dissipates into the air and the LED bulb stays cool, helping to keep its promise of a very long life.
And therein lies the problem: the bulb needs a way to dissipate the heat. If an LED bulb is placed in an enclosed housing, the heat won’t have anywhere to go, sending it right back to the bulb, and sentencing it to a slow and painful death.
Consider where you’d like to place your LED bulbs. If you have fully or semi-enclosed fixtures you need to light up, look for LEDs that are approved for recessed or enclosed spaces.
So I will cancel my order, and hope someone from meh will let us know if the package mentions this.
@awk - Apparently some are okay, but not all. Cannot find notes or info from the packaging on these, so hoping that someone can figure it out when the staff returns tomorrow.
@awk Yes, the Switch brand of LED bulbs can be used in inclosed fixtures and even under water! They give off great light and I love them. But they are not cheap.
@KDemo You asked “does anyone know?” Short answer - no. An incandescent bulb is simple, and is meant to be very hot. An LED is complicated, and full of electronic components that fail if they get too hot. I have had good luck with Cree A19 LED bulbs in cans. But I think that at this point, we are all beta testers.
lost my message. So, I got the VMP and do I need this?
I’m tired, and sorta looking for someone cool. I’m poverty stricken, but I love getting something in the mail I forgot about.
@2many2no The ones I got last time say 3000K and the light appears to be 3000K-3200K. Visually comparing them to 3400K bulbs which is what I usually get.
wew is right, how can MEH afford to ship to me for $5 a month. Then I buy something I do not need to justify the $5 a month and forget and then its like christmas but with more guilt and less ham. I will buy these bulbs.
Is there any way to know how accurate that 23 year life is? Is it like atomic clock accurate, or more like walkie-talkie range accurate? If I were to use them in a dungeon or cellar 24-7, how long could I expect them to last?
@xqcitizen Realistically they’re electronics, which means there’s probably a bathtub curve: in a large test sample, several will die pretty quick, the vast majority will last a long time, and then they’ll all start to go in increasing numbers. The closer to ideal conditions (reasonably-speaking: typical room temperature/humidity) you are, the longer they’ll last. In particular I don’t think most of these (not the standard ones, anyway) are outdoor-rated (maybe the floods are).
My guess is that “23-year life” breaks down to something like “out of a test sample of so-many-thousand, we had a failure rate of X% in Y hours of testing, which we extrapolated out using some math mumbo-jumbo to an average lifetime of 23 years”. In real life that might hypothetically mean if you took 1000 bulbs, say 1 dies pretty quick, then the rest last a little over 23 years.
I got two six-packs of these last time. I just went around and counted: I have 4 still in boxes unused, and I found 7 in fixtures still burning. (And while I was going around doing that, I found two burned-out bulbs: one old CFL, and one Feit that I think came in a pack from Costco before I bought these – I was not impressed with those Costco bulbs…)
I think that 8th bulb might just be in one of our fixtures where I can’t see the bulb from outside. Anyway at worst that’s 1 fatality (maybe none) after 8 months. That’s way better than both the Feit bulbs and the various CFLs I bought before I swore off CFLs forever (seriously, I will never buy another CFL again, ever, because they’re uniformly either a) expensive b) crap c) expensive crap).
So I just bought two more six-packs of the GreenTech – history suggests they might be the last bulbs I buy this decade. And the light is, at least for me, exactly what I want – neither yellowish like the CFLs, nor bluish like a lot of raw-white LEDs give. For your $20 it’s worth buying a pack of these – if you decide you don’t like 'em, I guarantee somebody you know will be happy to take them off your hands at cost.
I was going to skip it, and then I remembered that one of my vanity lights was burned out. Hopefully I’ll remember in the morning to make sure six is enough.
I happen to like the warmer color temps that these are at (3000k), which to me give off the same color balance as an incandescent bulb. For the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would want the cooler, bluish light given off by “daylight” bulbs. To me their color temp reminds me of the florescent lighting from a shop light in a garage or over an office cubicle.
And with this purchase I’m a VMP once again, as long as Meh doesn’t have another long, boring dry spell of water bottles and useless speaker light bulbs!
I’m bummed out no more, as I was able to get the deal this time. 2x BR-30s for me. I have 8 fixtures in my kitchen, so I guess I’ll put the extra 4 in a time capsule or something.
BUT I was able to use my first sharkchamp coupon, AND re-up for VMP. Grand total for my 12 bulbs: $29! Wheee!
On a related note, do the write-ups notify when there’s an @ mention? I’m guessing not, but it would be neat if it did in case the mentionee was not paying close attention.
I have a 13 light vanity mirror and I ordered 2 6 packs of the vanity bulbs. Meh, if you have 1 stray dimmable LED vanity bulb laying around feel free to toss that in
It is true that incandescent bulbs throw off more heat than LEDs. However, LEDs also get very hot - it is just that all of that heat is concentrated on a diode the size of a pinhead. That heat has to be dissipated, or else the LED will suffer a very short life.
Good LED designs have good heatsinks to carry heat away from the diode. Poor LED designs have poor heatsinks. If you’ve ever had an LED fail on you prematurely, there’s a good chance it was due to improper heatsinking. This has been all too common with inexpensive LEDs in the past.
The other issue is enclosing LED “bulbs” inside a fixture. Heat will build up inside the fixture and lead to premature LED failure, unless the bulb is specifically designed to work in an enclosure. Few are.
Remember that LED “bulbs” are a stopgap measure to replace incandescent bulbs and make use of existing Edison fixtures (sockets). The LED lights of the future will likely not use an Edison fixture, and thus be able to have much better heatsinking built into the fixture. This will allow brighter LEDs that can run much more efficiently and last longer.
My appropriately (or perhaps ironically?) generated order confirmation just yields pictures of schematics. First time I’ve been disappointed googling my order id.
decisive-fluorescent-stitch
@u4icmusic It represents the ability of the bulbs to reproduce the visual spectrum. All of the colors we see are due to objects absorbing some wavelengths and reflecting others between ~390 nm and 700ish. If a bulb doesn’t put out an appreciable amount of a wavelength that’s reflected by an object, you can’t see that color and things look dull and muted. That isn’t an issue for incandescent bulbs, which put off a broad spectrum centered around a certain wavelength, but LEDs put out much narrower bands, many bulbs emit a blue wavelength and have a fluorescent coating which absorbs some of that light and emits it at a higher wavelength to round out the spectrum.
However, there’s very little emissions in violet and reduced emissions in the bandgap in the middle. Colors don’t show up where there are no emissions.
If they were 1/5th the cost maybe… Why are they so expensive? I can get the same pack (I’m assuming close to same brand) at Costco for like $3-4 per pack… (Could be the Vermont instant rebate.)
@sohmageek The cheapest equivalent Costco 6-pack that I could find costs $29.99 (60W equiv LED); and those are Feit bulbs, which are notorious for early/higher failure rates.
/giphy notorious failure
I’ve been all led for about 3 years. Cost almost 600. But I’ve changed two bulbs since then, and they paid for themselves in about 9 months. I picked up some spares today.
I have digital dimmers in my kitchen and dining area where these bulbs were supposed to go. Only after receiving the bubs and attempting to replace the old ones did I find out that they weren’t compatible with all dimmers as printed on the box. This would have been great information to have BEFORE purchasing $72 worth of bulbs especially since meh.com has a no returns policy. They actually told me to call GreenTech and ask which dimmers work … as if I am supposed to swap out $25 electronic dimmers just so I can use their bulbs. This deal and this company are a joke. Never again …
@ericgold82801 Given the number of dimmers out there, past, present, and future, I can’t fathom manufacturers listing every single model out there as approved or not.
I have the dimmable LED rope lights on an Ikea dimmer. It dims.
Swap a bulb in and try it out. It’ll probably work.
@narfcake
I tried 14 of the 18 bulbs and they ALL DID THE SAME THING!!! They NEVER TURNED OFF even when the power was turned off at the outlet.
The fact still remains that had I known that not all dimmers would work by actually listing this fact on ANY of the pages describing the bulbs, I probably wouldn’t have purchased them.
Response from Meh.com
Erica replied:
Hello Eric,
You send us multiple messages so I combined them here.
Sorry to hear your dimmer isn’t compatible with these bulbs. Our full return policy can be found below but in general we don’t accept returns so that we can continue to offer the best deals possible. We back every purchase with a warranty for any technical issues that may arise. The compatibility issue with your dimmer isn’t eligible for returns as the items you received aren’t defective or DOA.
“If it’s damaged, defective, or just DOA, we’ll either refund or replace it at our discretion.
We do not accept returns if you just decided you didn’t want it, don’t like the color, or just feeling a little buyer’s remorse. You might try eBay – with as cheap as you probably got it, you could even end up making a little off it. Or hone your reputation for generosity by giving it to someone a little less picky.”
I am going to assume that your unwillingness to see what the right thing to do is here is due to your position. I assume this because NO ONE could possibly be as intentionally dense as you are being in handling this issue without a reason.
“We back every purchase with a warranty for any technical issues that may arise…” I would like for you to explain to me how a bulb that NEVER TURNS OFF is not a “technical issue”!!!
“We do not accept returns if you just decided you didn’t want it, don’t like the color, or just feeling a little buyer’s remorse…” At what point in ANY of my posts have I even remotely hinted at ANY of these issues. I desperately WANTED for these bulbs to work and am disappointed that they don’t. To make implications otherwise is to question my integrity, which while it may not be an issue for you, is incredibly important to me.
I have to assume by the way you are handling this that you or you company has frequently been called out as liars or less than honest in the manner in which you conduct your business. I would even hazard a guess that that is why important information about this product (dimmer incompatibility) was more than likely, DELIBERATELY omitted from its description. That could hurt sales.
Lastly, If you are not qualified to speak intelligently about this please put me in contact with someone who can. I would even love a phone call from Mathew or Dave (Ruledge - The owners) if they have a moment. I am certain that while you may not care about the reputation of the company you work for THEY don’t want the name of the company they created to be sullied in any way, shape or form.
@ericgold82801 The bulbs are working – it’s your dimmer that’s not allowing them to be 100% off because it’s a TRIAC based design that doesn’t dim by regulating the current but rather by regulating the waveform – and it sounds like the circuit design of your existing dimmer controls (cuts) the forward-phase. This is an older, cheaper design versus the IC driven type which regulates by current or pulse-wave modulation.
With the draw and slow reaction time of incandescent bulbs, the phase-cut power isn’t apparent to the naked eye, hence they’ll appear “off”. With the efficiency of LED bulbs, the cut power is still enough to drive them. This is a function of the dimmer’s circuitry design, not the bulb.
NO ONE could have anticipated or answered that unless the dimmer was taken apart before these bulbs were purchased.
It still stands that the bulbs are working, and therefore, not defective.
Also, can a company named Mediocre really be sullied? It already means “of only moderate quality; not very good.”
@narfcake While I appreciate the explanation of why the bulbs don’t work with my dimmers, the fact still remains that there was NO mention of this shortcoming ANYWHERE on the website’s product description page. ANY mention of this would have given me pause before purchasing. Furthermore, I contacted GreenTech three times looking for assistance and came to find out that they don’t even manufacture these bulbs any more which explains why I wasn’t able to find the compatibility list that is on the product box.
As for your final comment … very true. I think Mediocre Corporation is a very apropos name for this company, especially its customer service department. Its probably even a bit superfluous.
@ericgold82801 100 bucks says the manual of your dimmer says it wont work right with some bulbs. this is a limitation of your dimmer design, not the fault of the bulbs. further more i am willing to bet your dimmer was never intended to work with leds. you cant expect a reseller or even a manufacturer to plan every possible outcome with a thousand different products out there.
@jihiggs Well, seeing as how the dimmers are 6 years old I’ll have to take your word for it as I don’t make it a practice to hold on to manuals for something as innocuous as electrical dimmers. Next, “you cant expect a reseller or even a manufacturer to plan every possible outcome with a thousand different products out there.” No, but I can expect them to list the fact that they may not work in the disclaimer which Meh.com agreed with and promised to include said disclaimer the next time they sold a similar product. Furthermore, before the product was discontinued, the manufacturer DID have a link on their website listing which dimmers were and weren’t compatible.
@RascalMJ Ah, perhaps repeatedly directly over delicious steaming (humid) homemade food that is served on the dining room table…Maybe? That’s probably a stretch.
@RascalMJ it does say 3 year warranty on the specs post at the top of this thread, so that is worth checking out. I’d check the fixture out to see if it might be responsible.
As for the humidity, I’m almost sure I also have the br40s in an outdoor fixture (a dual floodlight under the eave outside) and the humidity and moisture exposure isn’t a problem there. I’m not 100% sure they are this brand off the top of my head, but most of my house is outfitted with LED bulbs from Meh.
@djslack I have several outdoor (enclosed) fixtures that have LEDs and no issues. A couple of these are even on 24/7 with no problems. The ones in the bathroom, however, tend to fail the most. (2 different fixtures) I figured it was humidity, but I suppose there could be something wonky on the circuit… Bathroom would be a room where they get turned off/on a lot vs staying on for long periods of time. Do LEDs have trouble if they are turned off/on frequently?
Specs
Model: A19 Bulb/E26 Base
Model: BR30 Bulb/E26 Base
Model: G25 Bulb/E26 Base
Model: C37 Bulb/E12 Base
Model: BR40 Bulb/E26 Base
Condition: New
Warranty: 3 year GreenTech
Estimated Delivery: 7/19 - 7/22
Shipping: $5 or free with VMP
What’s in the Box?
6x LED light bulbs
Pictures
Options
BR40 Flood 100W group
BR40 Flood 100W
BR30 Flood 65W group
BR30 Flood 65W
A19 Standard 60W group
A19 Standard 60W
G25 Vanity 40W group
G25 Vanity 40W
C37 Candelabra group
C37 Candelabra
Warranty
90 days
Darkness be gone!
/giphy you shall not pass
2700k = very yellow.
@cengland0 The ones I got last time said 3000K and look like it.
If somehow you got the impression I was demanding it, I can assure you I was not.
@Tin_Foil That said, doesn’t mean I’m opposed to taking you up on your offer… spiteful-quarrelsome-sidecar
Pass pass
Watt–Meh bright idea
Gosh! I lit up when I saw this deal.
@veggiebear meh! has led us out of the darkness. Tonight I am wearing culottes to celebrate unisex bathrooms.
I’m not bright enough…
@eeterrific Dimwit is the word you’re looking for.
@mike808 Daaaaaaaamn.
@mike808 Wouldn’t “dim bulb” be more …
@rockblossom yes. No offense meant for @eeterrific. It’s all in good pun and in the spirit of enlightenmehnt.
@mike808 Or would it be dimwatt?
Bought the candelabra last time. 2 of the 3 I was using already blew out after a few months.
@amibhavsar28, dammit… those are the ones I ordered.
@amibhavsar28 I think they have a 3 year warranty
Nice. Needed some candelabra ones for the new house. Well timed, meh. Well timed.
Can the 60w be used in a closed fixture, does anyone know?
@KDemo Don’t see why not. The problem is mostly from heat, which LEDs don’t produce in nearly the copious amounts that incandescents do (heating up metal until it glows essentially). It’s that efficiency thing that LEDs have, remember.
@KDemo I use them enclosed and they’re fine. Less heat than a normal 60w bulb.
@mike808 @medz - I once read that it can be a problem with some LEDs, but thanks for the info, I have ordered them.
Let there be (cheap, efficient) light!
But now I found this from WP
And this from c/net
So I will cancel my order, and hope someone from meh will let us know if the package mentions this.
@KDemo Can any consumer A19 LED bulb be used in a closed fixture though? Because I need some myself and I haven’t seen them.
@awk - Apparently some are okay, but not all. Cannot find notes or info from the packaging on these, so hoping that someone can figure it out when the staff returns tomorrow.
@KDemo The candelabra ones I got last time say not to use them in an enclosed fixture, I assume the other ones are the same.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@awk Yes, the Switch brand of LED bulbs can be used in inclosed fixtures and even under water! They give off great light and I love them. But they are not cheap.
https://www.amazon.com/SWITCH-Lighting-A22131CA1-R-Classic-Replacement/dp/B00AHFM5EW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468248327&sr=8-1&keywords=switch+led+light+bulb
@KDemo You asked “does anyone know?” Short answer - no. An incandescent bulb is simple, and is meant to be very hot. An LED is complicated, and full of electronic components that fail if they get too hot. I have had good luck with Cree A19 LED bulbs in cans. But I think that at this point, we are all beta testers.
This advice is worth what you paid for it.
Getting closer. Talk to me when you’ve got 100w globes.
@daggar Egg Zachary. When that happens in soft white, there will be so much rejoicing in the bathrooms, you’ll think it’s the 80s.
@daggar
/giphy Kirsten Dunst Gown Golden Globes 2016
@mike808 Babys steps. We’re seeing incrementally fewer flailing attempts to push 40 watt bulbs as if Ebenezer Scrooge was paying the electric bill.
@sligett I was expecting more like
@daggar Costco has started to carry 100W equiv in some varieties; YMMV
lost my message. So, I got the VMP and do I need this?
I’m tired, and sorta looking for someone cool. I’m poverty stricken, but I love getting something in the mail I forgot about.
The 60W, 40W, and candelabra bulbs all say 3000K on the bulb base in the pictures.
Which is right? @shawn @matthew
@2many2no The ones I got last time say 3000K and the light appears to be 3000K-3200K. Visually comparing them to 3400K bulbs which is what I usually get.
@2many2no I think those photos are from the previous time we sold these; I have confirmed with our samples that both the bulb and the box say 2700k.
@Moose Oh well. Bought some anyway.
Thanks.
I don’t know why I’m upset that there are no day light bulbs available here, I’ve already replaced every bulb in my house.
But I feel like I need to say it… What do you guys have against white light?
@jemullins, the prices they can acquire them at?
wew is right, how can MEH afford to ship to me for $5 a month. Then I buy something I do not need to justify the $5 a month and forget and then its like christmas but with more guilt and less ham. I will buy these bulbs.
Got the candelabras for my bedroom!
stereotyped-untalented-caption
Plump-Futuristic-Ginger
In for one set of Vanity bulbs
Staying away. I got the last LED bulb offering from here and both bulbs were duds.
Don’t you think the country would be better off if these were undimmable?
Shopping for a new house so I don’t know specifically which bulbs I’ll need, but since I was called out in the writeup I had to take a shot at it…
/giphy short-loopy-library
Is there any way to know how accurate that 23 year life is? Is it like atomic clock accurate, or more like walkie-talkie range accurate? If I were to use them in a dungeon or cellar 24-7, how long could I expect them to last?
@xqcitizen Realistically they’re electronics, which means there’s probably a bathtub curve: in a large test sample, several will die pretty quick, the vast majority will last a long time, and then they’ll all start to go in increasing numbers. The closer to ideal conditions (reasonably-speaking: typical room temperature/humidity) you are, the longer they’ll last. In particular I don’t think most of these (not the standard ones, anyway) are outdoor-rated (maybe the floods are).
My guess is that “23-year life” breaks down to something like “out of a test sample of so-many-thousand, we had a failure rate of X% in Y hours of testing, which we extrapolated out using some math mumbo-jumbo to an average lifetime of 23 years”. In real life that might hypothetically mean if you took 1000 bulbs, say 1 dies pretty quick, then the rest last a little over 23 years.
@xqcitizen most lightbulbs are rated at 3 hours use per day. So that’s an equivalent of 25,185 hours. So at 24/7 they should last roughly 2.875 years.
I got two six-packs of these last time. I just went around and counted: I have 4 still in boxes unused, and I found 7 in fixtures still burning. (And while I was going around doing that, I found two burned-out bulbs: one old CFL, and one Feit that I think came in a pack from Costco before I bought these – I was not impressed with those Costco bulbs…)
I think that 8th bulb might just be in one of our fixtures where I can’t see the bulb from outside. Anyway at worst that’s 1 fatality (maybe none) after 8 months. That’s way better than both the Feit bulbs and the various CFLs I bought before I swore off CFLs forever (seriously, I will never buy another CFL again, ever, because they’re uniformly either a) expensive b) crap c) expensive crap).
So I just bought two more six-packs of the GreenTech – history suggests they might be the last bulbs I buy this decade. And the light is, at least for me, exactly what I want – neither yellowish like the CFLs, nor bluish like a lot of raw-white LEDs give. For your $20 it’s worth buying a pack of these – if you decide you don’t like 'em, I guarantee somebody you know will be happy to take them off your hands at cost.
The future bulbs are so bright
I gotta wear shades.
I keep forgetting to use the /buy thingy here in the forum.
Anyroads, calm-nasally-bulb:
I was going to skip it, and then I remembered that one of my vanity lights was burned out. Hopefully I’ll remember in the morning to make sure six is enough.
blind-small-fox
Blind Fox Kit Makes Friends With Three Kittens
I happen to like the warmer color temps that these are at (3000k), which to me give off the same color balance as an incandescent bulb. For the life of me I cannot understand why anyone would want the cooler, bluish light given off by “daylight” bulbs. To me their color temp reminds me of the florescent lighting from a shop light in a garage or over an office cubicle.
And with this purchase I’m a VMP once again, as long as Meh doesn’t have another long, boring dry spell of water bottles and useless speaker light bulbs!
@Kerig3 Because the higher temperatures are closer to daylight which is what humans see outdoors and is natural.
Meh! Not my combo. I need 40 watt equiv regulars and 60 watt equiv candelabras (which might not exist yet).
Great prices though.
@josephj11 If you’re close to an Ikea, they have a 2-pack of non-dimmable 40w equivalent for $1.99.
/Buy -model “60W A19 Standard”
@ManBehindPlan Sorry, this deal contains 5 unique items and I’m not sure which one you want. Try ordering from the checkout page.
@mediocrebot I give up…
Light bulbs? Light bulbs? I don’t need no stinking light bulbs!
I’m bummed out no more, as I was able to get the deal this time. 2x BR-30s for me. I have 8 fixtures in my kitchen, so I guess I’ll put the extra 4 in a time capsule or something.
BUT I was able to use my first sharkchamp coupon, AND re-up for VMP. Grand total for my 12 bulbs: $29! Wheee!
On a related note, do the write-ups notify when there’s an @ mention? I’m guessing not, but it would be neat if it did in case the mentionee was not paying close attention.
exceptional-pickled-snake
@ACraigL I was indeed not paying attention until I read your post.
@ACraigL Nope, the writeups don’t trigger @-mention alerts.
I never did get around to buying them on Amazon. Now my life is finally complete! Thanks meh!
I have a 13 light vanity mirror and I ordered 2 6 packs of the vanity bulbs. Meh, if you have 1 stray dimmable LED vanity bulb laying around feel free to toss that in
kingly-rude-caper
moping-real-scene
I keep on meaning to get 100w floods, this made life easy for me, although I would like them to be cree LED, so Meh!
Gonna try out the vanity bulbs to replace the horrid yellow bulbs I have now. Hopefully not as yellow
Meh/Bummed… need some PAR20 bulbs… maybe next time?
Finally Scored some of these. Cant beat this price.
unnatural-nimble-mouse
@mdrcoast I am disappoint,I expected the rodent, that would have been an adorable abomination.
I, shamefully, found a very cheap LED bulb alternative at…Walmart. Not dimmable but I ain’t rich I don’t have the money for turns knobs!
About using these in enclosed spaces…
It is true that incandescent bulbs throw off more heat than LEDs. However, LEDs also get very hot - it is just that all of that heat is concentrated on a diode the size of a pinhead. That heat has to be dissipated, or else the LED will suffer a very short life.
Good LED designs have good heatsinks to carry heat away from the diode. Poor LED designs have poor heatsinks. If you’ve ever had an LED fail on you prematurely, there’s a good chance it was due to improper heatsinking. This has been all too common with inexpensive LEDs in the past.
The other issue is enclosing LED “bulbs” inside a fixture. Heat will build up inside the fixture and lead to premature LED failure, unless the bulb is specifically designed to work in an enclosure. Few are.
Remember that LED “bulbs” are a stopgap measure to replace incandescent bulbs and make use of existing Edison fixtures (sockets). The LED lights of the future will likely not use an Edison fixture, and thus be able to have much better heatsinking built into the fixture. This will allow brighter LEDs that can run much more efficiently and last longer.
As an example, check out the Maxxima LED nightlight. They only use 0.8w, but are much brighter than the typical LED nightlight “bulb” replacement. https://www.amazon.com/Maxxima-MLN-50-Night-Sensor-Lumens/dp/B0030CDEEY
We are still in our infancy with respect to fully implementing efficient LED technology.
precise-capricious-nettle
Okay, how do I get it to fetch an image? I’d like to see “bipedal-impressive-horse” as well
My appropriately (or perhaps ironically?) generated order confirmation just yields pictures of schematics. First time I’ve been disappointed googling my order id.
decisive-fluorescent-stitch
What about Phillips hue!
Low CRI. Pass.
@befh What is CRI please? Thanks.
@u4icmusic It represents the ability of the bulbs to reproduce the visual spectrum. All of the colors we see are due to objects absorbing some wavelengths and reflecting others between ~390 nm and 700ish. If a bulb doesn’t put out an appreciable amount of a wavelength that’s reflected by an object, you can’t see that color and things look dull and muted. That isn’t an issue for incandescent bulbs, which put off a broad spectrum centered around a certain wavelength, but LEDs put out much narrower bands, many bulbs emit a blue wavelength and have a fluorescent coating which absorbs some of that light and emits it at a higher wavelength to round out the spectrum.
However, there’s very little emissions in violet and reduced emissions in the bandgap in the middle. Colors don’t show up where there are no emissions.
Oh man. I’m scared to actually look for images of my order number…
literal-cocky-love
@Portlis but I’m not… rather tame in fact:
If they were 1/5th the cost maybe… Why are they so expensive? I can get the same pack (I’m assuming close to same brand) at Costco for like $3-4 per pack… (Could be the Vermont instant rebate.)
@sohmageek The cheapest equivalent Costco 6-pack that I could find costs $29.99 (60W equiv LED); and those are Feit bulbs, which are notorious for early/higher failure rates.
/giphy notorious failure
@sohmageek dimmable LEDs for $3-4 per pack of 6? That exists? Never have seen bulbs like that for that cheap.
@UltraV21 ok maybe I was a little quick to say $3-4. It’s about $2/ bulb. So still. More expensive than meh.
Yes, @sohmageek. Some states/counties/cities/electric companies have subsidies for LED bulbs, just as they did with the earlier CFLs.
Non-subsidized, Ikea is among the lowest priced for non-dimmable LEDs.
/image sopping-eerie-bagel
/giphy sopping-eerie-bagel
Huh. I was expecting some disgusting bagels.
@RiotDemon Look! Sprinkles!
/image sprinkles
@compunaut yeah. I’ll pass. They ruined that bagel when they put sprinkles on it. It was perfect.
I did get some last time and thank you for offering them again so I could get some more.
I’ve been all led for about 3 years. Cost almost 600. But I’ve changed two bulbs since then, and they paid for themselves in about 9 months. I picked up some spares today.
Was interested until I saw the color temperature… My wife and I only like the daylight/5000K ones.
What a great buy!!
Meh, you light up my life…
insidious-dastardly-porter
I actually need these. I jumped.
/image grateful-precise-knee
I need one more vanity bulb. Anyone want to hook me up? PayPal or tell me where I can buy more
These bulbs arrived today, much faster than I thought they would. All 6 work perfectly and look great where I needed them.
I have digital dimmers in my kitchen and dining area where these bulbs were supposed to go. Only after receiving the bubs and attempting to replace the old ones did I find out that they weren’t compatible with all dimmers as printed on the box. This would have been great information to have BEFORE purchasing $72 worth of bulbs especially since meh.com has a no returns policy. They actually told me to call GreenTech and ask which dimmers work … as if I am supposed to swap out $25 electronic dimmers just so I can use their bulbs. This deal and this company are a joke. Never again …
@ericgold82801 Given the number of dimmers out there, past, present, and future, I can’t fathom manufacturers listing every single model out there as approved or not.
I have the dimmable LED rope lights on an Ikea dimmer. It dims.
Swap a bulb in and try it out. It’ll probably work.
@narfcake
I tried 14 of the 18 bulbs and they ALL DID THE SAME THING!!! They NEVER TURNED OFF even when the power was turned off at the outlet.
The fact still remains that had I known that not all dimmers would work by actually listing this fact on ANY of the pages describing the bulbs, I probably wouldn’t have purchased them.
Response from Meh.com
Erica replied:
Hello Eric,
You send us multiple messages so I combined them here.
Sorry to hear your dimmer isn’t compatible with these bulbs. Our full return policy can be found below but in general we don’t accept returns so that we can continue to offer the best deals possible. We back every purchase with a warranty for any technical issues that may arise. The compatibility issue with your dimmer isn’t eligible for returns as the items you received aren’t defective or DOA.
“If it’s damaged, defective, or just DOA, we’ll either refund or replace it at our discretion.
We do not accept returns if you just decided you didn’t want it, don’t like the color, or just feeling a little buyer’s remorse. You might try eBay – with as cheap as you probably got it, you could even end up making a little off it. Or hone your reputation for generosity by giving it to someone a little less picky.”
@ericgold82801
Erica,
I am going to assume that your unwillingness to see what the right thing to do is here is due to your position. I assume this because NO ONE could possibly be as intentionally dense as you are being in handling this issue without a reason.
“We back every purchase with a warranty for any technical issues that may arise…” I would like for you to explain to me how a bulb that NEVER TURNS OFF is not a “technical issue”!!!
“We do not accept returns if you just decided you didn’t want it, don’t like the color, or just feeling a little buyer’s remorse…” At what point in ANY of my posts have I even remotely hinted at ANY of these issues. I desperately WANTED for these bulbs to work and am disappointed that they don’t. To make implications otherwise is to question my integrity, which while it may not be an issue for you, is incredibly important to me.
I have to assume by the way you are handling this that you or you company has frequently been called out as liars or less than honest in the manner in which you conduct your business. I would even hazard a guess that that is why important information about this product (dimmer incompatibility) was more than likely, DELIBERATELY omitted from its description. That could hurt sales.
Lastly, If you are not qualified to speak intelligently about this please put me in contact with someone who can. I would even love a phone call from Mathew or Dave (Ruledge - The owners) if they have a moment. I am certain that while you may not care about the reputation of the company you work for THEY don’t want the name of the company they created to be sullied in any way, shape or form.
@ericgold82801 The bulbs are working – it’s your dimmer that’s not allowing them to be 100% off because it’s a TRIAC based design that doesn’t dim by regulating the current but rather by regulating the waveform – and it sounds like the circuit design of your existing dimmer controls (cuts) the forward-phase. This is an older, cheaper design versus the IC driven type which regulates by current or pulse-wave modulation.
With the draw and slow reaction time of incandescent bulbs, the phase-cut power isn’t apparent to the naked eye, hence they’ll appear “off”. With the efficiency of LED bulbs, the cut power is still enough to drive them. This is a function of the dimmer’s circuitry design, not the bulb.
NO ONE could have anticipated or answered that unless the dimmer was taken apart before these bulbs were purchased.
It still stands that the bulbs are working, and therefore, not defective.
Also, can a company named Mediocre really be sullied? It already means “of only moderate quality; not very good.”
@narfcake While I appreciate the explanation of why the bulbs don’t work with my dimmers, the fact still remains that there was NO mention of this shortcoming ANYWHERE on the website’s product description page. ANY mention of this would have given me pause before purchasing. Furthermore, I contacted GreenTech three times looking for assistance and came to find out that they don’t even manufacture these bulbs any more which explains why I wasn’t able to find the compatibility list that is on the product box.
As for your final comment … very true. I think Mediocre Corporation is a very apropos name for this company, especially its customer service department. Its probably even a bit superfluous.
@ericgold82801 100 bucks says the manual of your dimmer says it wont work right with some bulbs. this is a limitation of your dimmer design, not the fault of the bulbs. further more i am willing to bet your dimmer was never intended to work with leds. you cant expect a reseller or even a manufacturer to plan every possible outcome with a thousand different products out there.
@jihiggs Well, seeing as how the dimmers are 6 years old I’ll have to take your word for it as I don’t make it a practice to hold on to manuals for something as innocuous as electrical dimmers. Next, “you cant expect a reseller or even a manufacturer to plan every possible outcome with a thousand different products out there.” No, but I can expect them to list the fact that they may not work in the disclaimer which Meh.com agreed with and promised to include said disclaimer the next time they sold a similar product. Furthermore, before the product was discontinued, the manufacturer DID have a link on their website listing which dimmers were and weren’t compatible.
@ericgold82801 maybe stop being such a baby.
@jihiggs Internet tough guy. What grade are you in anyway? With that kind of well thought out and concise retort I’m guessing … sixth maybe seventh.
Anyone else seeing these fail WAY TOO SOON!?
@RascalMJ mine still work. Granted they are in the guest bath.
@RascalMJ @RiotDemon I’ve got these in several locations we use daily, including being dimmed regularly in the living room. No failures to report.
hmmmmm. I’ve started to suspect the fixture they are in so I thought I’d ask to possibly eliminate that. I guess it may very well be the fixture
@RascalMJ Is it in the bathroom? I think the humidity of hot showers is hard on my LED bulbs.
@medz … Actually no. It’s in my heavily used dining room
@RascalMJ Ah, perhaps repeatedly directly over delicious steaming (humid) homemade food that is served on the dining room table…Maybe? That’s probably a stretch.
@RascalMJ it does say 3 year warranty on the specs post at the top of this thread, so that is worth checking out. I’d check the fixture out to see if it might be responsible.
As for the humidity, I’m almost sure I also have the br40s in an outdoor fixture (a dual floodlight under the eave outside) and the humidity and moisture exposure isn’t a problem there. I’m not 100% sure they are this brand off the top of my head, but most of my house is outfitted with LED bulbs from Meh.
@djslack I have several outdoor (enclosed) fixtures that have LEDs and no issues. A couple of these are even on 24/7 with no problems. The ones in the bathroom, however, tend to fail the most. (2 different fixtures) I figured it was humidity, but I suppose there could be something wonky on the circuit… Bathroom would be a room where they get turned off/on a lot vs staying on for long periods of time. Do LEDs have trouble if they are turned off/on frequently?