Ill fitting LED’s

Unfortunately, the G25 Globe bulbs did not fit the Prescolite track heads. The necks are too short to fit into the sockets because of the lamp collars. Actually I read this caution on an Amazon comment but ignored it thinking the track heads were not as deep as some can lights. No dice.
But I will keep the G25’s as they look great in other lamps. The warm light is much brighter than the CFL it replaced which was supposed to be equal to a 60 watt light.
So I ordered these Feit R20’s too. From Ebay I could get 10 with free shipping for $69. That is still reasonable for the high CRI bulbs. They still use 8 watts but have fewer lumens so are not quite as efficient as the G25’s. (450/8 = 56.25 lumens per watt) I didn’t want to use a full 12 watts for each bulb so bought the R20 size (20 1/8″ increments or 2.5 inches wide) instead of the BR30 (30 1/8″ increments or 3.5 inches wide). I hope they fit!

Feit R20

Feit R20

I also found that I could get the R scores–that is the degree of Red in the light’s spectrum from the Energy Star list of certified lightbulbs. Download the Excel file to get them all. Not all bulbs list the score but most of the higher CRI bulbs do. These Feit bulbs have an R value of 62. The GE Reveal have an R value of 90 (out of 100). It is by far the best color rendering bulb, however it does that at the cost of efficiency and it is usually more expensive.

More information from Flexfire LED’s–What is CRI?

“Testing for CRI requires special machinery designed specifically for this purpose. During this test, a lamp is shone onto eight different colors (or “R values”), termed R1 through R8. The lamp receives a score from 0-100 for each color, based on how natural the color is rendered in comparison with how the color looks under a “perfect” or “reference” light source at the same color temperature as the lamp (i.e. natural sunlight at 5,600k, or a candle at 1,850k). The lamp’s eight scores are then averaged to determine its official CRI. ”

Notice that the temperature at which the light is tested can also influence the apparent colors in that light. So daylight bulbs at high CRI/R values are tested at 5000k which would make their color rendering closer to “sunlight” vs. 2700k lights which are “warmer” and would simulate color rendering closer to candlelight.

The bulbs came and I installed about half in the 7 LED line. In the photo the rear three are LEDs, the front three are incandescent. Looking at the bulbs from each direction, it is difficult to tell any difference at all between the 60 watt incandescent and the 45 watt equivalent Feit bulbs.  Except knowing the cost of the new bulbs is about 12 times more.

LED and Incadescent Bulbs

LED and Incadescent Bulbs

Over the life of the bulb–25,000 hours vs. about 1000 hours of use? (Or at 12 hours per day, about 6 years vs. 1/4 year–longer estimates of life are usually based on about 3 hours per day.) There are plenty of websites that show a calculation of the “comparative cost” based on lumen output over the projected life or based on the cost of projected electricity use. But over the course of several years, neither the cost of electricity nor the lumen output of LED’s is constant so the costs are relative.

As other bulbs take over the market, incandescent bulbs have gotten much cheaper too so today’s comparison is brief to be sure. Anyway, I don’t like arguments that say electricity is a trade-0ff with cost. Up to a point, the cost of energy saving measures like these LED’s is a small price to pay to use less–just like buying a hybrid car is a comparatively small price to pay to use less fossil fuel in gasoline. We are also buying new engineering, which is more expensive than using older technologies too. And that fits us all better!

 

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