The pendant light on my front porch had burnt out bulbs. I am kind of slow to replace them whenever that happens, but yesterday after church I stopped at Lowe’s to ge some replacements. I was looking at all my options and became really interested in the LED light bulbs. After much consideration, I bought three. They were thirteen dollars each, but they are supposed to last thirteen years. A dollar a year seems okay, plus I would not have to climb a ladder to change the bulbs until I’m 58.
BEFORE:
Bright, but burns out quickly.
AFTER:
Looks promising…
I went out to check the light after it got dark. The light was very dim. The bulbs all point the light upward, which is obscured by the light fixture. It left my porch way too dark. Dang. I will be returning the bulbs today and getting regular, old-fashioned, short-life bulbs.
Daggum it! The wave of the future is occasionally useless, eh? It seems I recall when you got LED lights for your Christmas tree, and they were boy howdy bright. Sad for your porch – but at least you can still find incandescent bulbs in stores…or will you look for curly-swirly CFs, perhaps?
[On the last BGE energy savings day we only “saved” a whopping $1 for conserving juice from 1-7 pm. (We must be doggone efficient on a daily basis, I guess.) The only thing I could think (besides e- rates might have gone up in September?) was that we still use plenty of Edison bulbs – like the 8 40-watters in our kitchen chandelier. For Christmas this year I would like a basket of LED lights of different sizes to see if that makes a measurable difference in our usage. Please make a note of this for Mr. Claus – thank you.]
Sorry about your bad experience, but at least it gave you a hilarious title! Lloyd and Sam both bought some LED lights this weekend that are CRAZY bright – like, as bright as the sun. They have 5000 blah-blah-blahs which makes a very white, very bright light. You could look for higher blah-blah-blahs?
I did check out the lumens (the measure of brightness). They weren’t bright-bright, but they were bright enough. The problem was that the light came out of the top of the bulbs instead of the sides, which wasn’t compatible with my light fixture.
Late to the party, but could you reflect the light? Maybe with foil? Or is that too…lacking in sophistication? 😉
I don’t think it would work. The light has to be emitted from the sides of the bulbs. If I could reflect the light from the “ceiling” of the light fixture, it would only shine down on the porch floor. I need it to shine out.
The 24 that Sam bought were $3.33 each, but they only had a 3 year warranty. But they were hella bright.