Been slowly but surely converting them in the house as they go out. Installed LED strip lights in a display case I refinished for my predator call collection, 10 - 11 years ago, the only time they're not on is when the power goes out. Don't believe there is an LED out in any of the 3 strips, after all that time. Was a cheap strip light kit, $22 for 4 - 16" strips, all connectors, cord, on/off switch, power supply, and mounting hardware.
My shop, 30 x 60 has 22 - 4' Fluorescent fixtures in it. 20 of those were retired from the local VA Hospital about the time the shop was built 20 years ago. Wife's uncle somehow wound up with the fixtures; before my time, but he told me all about the lights. Replaced all the bulbs in them trying to brighten the shop up, with whiter brighter fluorescent. Didn't help a lot. Higher watt bulbs started taking their toll on old ballasts, and I wasn't going to the trouble of changing all the ballasts out, and still not have adequate light.
Looked into LED tubes, specifically direct wire LED tubes that eliminate ballasts, and while it wasn't necessarily cheap to change them all over, it was cheaper than replacing all those ballasts. And, it is REALLY SIMPLE to do! Cut your ballast out, run your hot lead to the poles on one end of the fixture, ground to the other, snap your covers on, and plug the LED tubes in. Changed all 22 fixtures over in a day, by myself! Eight of those fixtures in a 12 foot ceiling. Lots of ladder climbing for an old fart.
I now have a hard time casting a shadow anywhere in my shop, except under my feet.
Changed fixture over in my Mom's laundry room with left over bulbs.
Got tired of battling fluorescent fixtures at work, convinced the powers that be, that LED tubes were a real simple fix for a LOT of PROBLEMS around there. Had 2 - 3 ballasts out, couple bulbs needed changing, place has always been less than adequately lit. So we went through all of one building, majority of a second, put them in the carport on the house. Everyone there was blown away with how bright they were, and I even stepped those down a notch or two giving 8' ceilings due consideration. My father, in all his 83 years of wisdom, was blown away with the simplicity in converting the fixtures over. Said he couldn't believe it was that simple to do.
Nephew up in ND has been listening to the local light bulb salesman up there, rather than listening to me. I'd been trying to tell him to look into these LED bulbs, but NOOO... "Don sold me these new super dandy T-16 fluorescent fixtures, and they're super bright, and not real expensive." He was down here and changed the fixtures over in the carport, yelled for my input, since he couldn't believe he was doing it right. He got done and said, "You have got to be kidding me. It's really that simple?" Don't know how much money he's wasted on new high tech T-16 fixtures to get more light in his shop up there, but I can assure you the remainder will be direct wire 8' LED tube conversions.
It's a no-brainer, they run so much cooler, so much cheaper, no ballast to power, wear out, burn up, have to be replaced, provide so much more light. Incandescent and fluorescent doesn't even begin to compare.
And, that's not to mention DC application. Little LED flashlights, 18650 battery, I was wondering... How far do they cast light? Walked out on the highway in front of the house one dark night. There's a dip in the road 2 miles south of the house at the creek next to my Dad's place. I was lighting the highway reflectors up beyond the dip in the highway. Bought a little better light; pretty sure I'm lighting them up beyond the shop 3 1/2 miles away from what I can tell. LEDs are truly unbelievable technology!
) temperature. The standard incandescent bulbs we grew up with put out a "warm" color temp at 2700 degrees Kelvin. What's a Kelvin? Well, I'm glad you asked. The Kelvin scale describes how a wavelength of light is rendered by the human eye. Ever see your car under a metal halide street light and you were like, hmm, is that really my car because it didn't look the right color. That's because our eyes are trained to render colors under natural sunlight, and when the light source is not the same color temp, we have to adjust. What's reaslly crazy is everyone, and I mean EVERYONE sees (or more appropriately, perceives.) color differently.
