Have LED lamps come of age?

Based on my 8 hours’ experience with it to date, the latest generation of LED lamps may be ‘good but not great’ (as CFL’s have been for more than two years, now). For under $10/lamp, it appears I have my hands on a 50,000-hour lamp with good domestic-use (warm) color temperature and adequate light output from a standard, 120V, A19 lamp base. The lamp claims to be dimmable but that’s a qualified ‘sort of’ based on my initial testing (see below).

This morning, I purchased (12) of a Utilitch Pro 7.5W dimmable, 3000K, 40W-equivalent LED lamp, Model number LA19DM/LED

Utilitech seems to be an up-and-coming, economy Lowe’s store brand. I’ve had mostly good results using their incredibly low-priced products. I don’t love that they’re Chinese-made, and I am still fighting Lowe’s to get them to take the Utilitech 6-pack of 6″ IC recessed lights off the shelves: Utilitech does not make ANY trim that is compatible with the fixtures, AND they make a trim that advertises itself as compatible, but isn’t. This could get pretty costly for a contract where you have a bunch of holes in someone’s ceiling from rough installation but no listed trim to cover them with for finish!

Now, to the LED lamps…!

First impression. The LA19DM/LED’s feel well-made to the touch. It appears Utilitech achieved its low price point by using less-expensive clustered, low-power LED’s behind an integral globe diffuser/color correction lens. Expensive brand-name LED’s seem to tend toward using a single, high-power LED component with no diffuser, or, at most, a cluster of three high-power components.

In an undimmed circuit, they put out excellent light that to my eye appears more like 60W-equivalent than 40W. Like other solid-state electronic components, LED’s power output tapers off with age. It may be that to make the 50,000-hour lamp-life claim, manufacturers have to account for output-level reductions through 40,000 hours, when output may be more similar to (or below) that of a standard 40W incandescent.

 

 

The color looks right for the 3000K color temperature indicated. High output at 3000K is quite an achievement for LED technology, but I would prefer something closer to 2500K for home use, especially where my eye will be expecting incandescent-type output from luminaires (lighting fixtures) that have always had incandescent lamps in them. 3000K is a very common color-temperature of fluorescent tubes used in office ceilings, but much closer to daylight than conventional incandescent.

The LED lamp’s half-dome diffuser does an excellent job of emulating omnidirectional characteristics of a conventional incandescent lamp, at least in the fixtures where I have installed it, so far (under a ceiling fan and in a desk-lamp). Again, omnidirectionality is an achievement for an LED lamp, since LED’s like to project light in a fairly tight beam (a major advantage in many applications, but not for general-use domestic lamps).

My first test was in a 3-lamp ceiling fixture controlled by a Lutron Maestro fan/light control installed several years ago (before dimmable high-efficiency lamps were widely marketed). I installed three new LED lamps one at a time, substituting them for the incandescents previously installed as I went. The first lamp dimmed in parallel with the remaining two incandescent lamps, and put out comparable light throughout the entire dimming range from barely-lit to full-bright. The difference in brightness between the two lamp technologies became more pronounced as the dimming level dropped.

After some more experimenting, I found that the LED’s by themselves don’t play well with the (years-old) Lutron Maestro dimmer. But connected in parallel with at least one incandescent lamp, they dim and brighten smoothly. See the video for a thousand words’ clarity on this.

It may be that the 7.5W loads presented by the LA19DM/LED’s aren’t enough to let the Maestro dimmer operate in its normal range. Dimmer manufacturers have responded to the exploding (and soon to be mandated) market for high efficiency lamp types, with Lutron and Leviton both producing CFL/LED-friendly dimmers during the past 12 months (I would have to confirm, but I believe these are not intended for use with incandescent lamps).

The LA19DM/LED’s appear not to have been been damaged from their foray into all-LED dimming on a legacy dimmer (they still work on non-dimmed circuits, or when connected to the Lutron Maestro in parallel with at least one incandescent lamp). A note on lamp life: don’t trust it. I had a 10,000-hour CFL burn out in under 1,000 hours, and all lamp-life claims may (?) be staked on finely-controlled lab conditions that never happen in real homes (especially not old homes or homes on old utility lines). Even if your grid and your house wiring are perfect, your refrigerator and HVAC motors turning on and off create surges in your house (and your neighbor’s house) that may be orders of magnitude greater than what would be present on a well-regulated laboratory test-bench power supply. Unless tests were designed to imitate real-world surges, they can’t account for them.

Due to a few anecdotal experiences with apparently premature CFL lamp failures, I have taken to dating all high-efficiency lamps with a sharpie before initial installation. Every installed location has a different characteristic daily usage cycle, but when the failure is less than the rated lamp life in absolute terms from the date of installation, you really have to wonder what’s going on. I encourage you to follow suit and return any lamp that fails before its rated life span. A decent brand should seek this kind of feedback from early adopters, and at $10 ($40 and up for Sylvania LED’s), consumers deserve lamp life at least 1/2 of the rated life. I also encourage you to comment to this or to my CFL blog entry in the event you encounter premature lamp failure.

All that said, the lamps seemed to survive their bout of bad behavior with no long-term ill effects, and neither did the dimmer make any buzzing or whining noise that would be typical of dimmer strain prior to accelerated failure (this can be a huge problem for people installing standard CFL’s without reading the ‘no dimmers’ label, and even with so-called ‘dimmable’ CFL’s that I have tried). The absence of apparent dimmer strain operating pure LED loads (erratic as they were) makes me optimistic that a dimmer designed for low-power, efficient, electronically-ballasted lamps may do very nicely.

If that’s the case, we may be in for a cool, bright future, and I may be in for a few years’ work retrofitting legacy dimmers to allow folks to upgrade to efficient lighting that’s a pleasure to live with. At $10 for a 50,000-hour lamp, we just may be able to afford the future, too.

Follow-up

Subsequent testing has proven the LA19DM/LED to be a serious contender, with smooth dimming through its entire range when connected alone to simple slider type dimmers, such as the Lutron Diva S-600. Ikea-style cord-and-plug connected dimmers intended for table-top or floor lamp connections also played well. Simple rotary dimmers operate on similar principles and ought to play well with this lamp, too.

 

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See also:

• Utilitech A19 Product Review on ElectricianTalk.com (cheap, but shows flicker and color variation lamp to lamp).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

14 Comments

• 
  Brian Charles Hill 2012/04/04 at 2:18 AM

  I had basically the same experience you did with an older Maestro (maybe 5 years old?) and a 12V/20W MR16-type LEDs from Utilitech (#0352277) – as long as I had one Halogen in there, everything worked fine. It makes me think that using a simple resistor of some kind across the circuit would save me from having to get a newer Maestro.

  Are you saying that your older Maestro did wind up working with different LED bulbs than the ones you originally tried? Or am I stuck getting a smarter dimmer?

  Reply
• 
  Robert Monk 2012/03/17 at 12:13 AM

  Home Depot sent out coupons for $10 EcoSmart 8W LED’s similar to Lowe’s Utilitech Pro 7.5W model featured in this post. I’ll probably be reviewing it soon.

  Reply
• Polarity matters in AC wiring « « Licensed Electrician Robert Monk Licensed Electrician Robert Monk 2012/02/20 at 3:26 AM

  [...] lampholder that is wired either way. When the lamp is installed, the incandescent lamp filament (or high-efficiency lamp electronics) will complete the circuit between ground, through breaker to transformer winding, [...]

  Reply
• 
  Robert Monk 2012/02/18 at 10:12 PM

  Some months later, I have had no reports of trouble or failed lamps. The hope is that these lamps will live up to their ~25,000 + hour expected life. Since most LED electronic components last 50,000 hours, making it through the first months is a good sign. The LED driver/power supply is likely to be the point of failure, anyway — especially in a market full of older power distribution equipment and power spikes like Philadelphia.

  Reply
• Cable track lighting systems are elegant, only good for 300 Watts « « Licensed Electrician Robert Monk Licensed Electrician Robert Monk 2012/02/16 at 9:40 PM

  [...] Have LED lamps come of age? [+] Share & Bookmark • Twitter • StumbleUpon • Digg • Delicious • Facebook [...]

  Reply
• 
  Utilitech Lighting 2012/02/07 at 9:05 PM

  Hi Robert, I agree with you, L.E.Ds are almost there. I think as more people start to adopt them they will improve and start to get cheaper.

  I’ve only just found your blog today, I must say I’ve been finding it an enjoyable and informative to read. I wonder if you would consider a guest post on my site sometime, I’m sure my readers would love to be introduced to you.

  Keep up the good work!

  Reply
  • 
    Robert Monk 2012/02/20 at 4:01 AM

    Thanks for the offer. I’ll stop by again soon and see if any topics spring to mind for a guest post.

    Reply
• Consequences of over-lamping « « Licensed Electrician Robert Monk Licensed Electrician Robert Monk 2012/01/01 at 8:17 PM

  [...]  Have LED’s come of age? [...]

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• Recess lights installed with minimal plaster repair « « Licensed Electrician Robert Monk Licensed Electrician Robert Monk 2011/10/15 at 11:03 AM

  [...] dimmable as of this writing, despite any manufacturer claims), or spend additional for dimmable LED’s (including housing- and trim-integrated types for recess lights), or take your chances on [...]

  Reply
• 
  Robert Monk 2011/09/20 at 3:44 PM

  Lowe’s price went up to $19.95 for a time, and has come back down to $15.xx. A higher-output 800 lumen version (slightly longer, probably very appropriate for a 6″ recess can) is now available for just under $30, that I have not yet tested).

  Reply
• 
  Robert Monk 2011/06/11 at 5:34 PM

  PRICE NORMALIZATION
  Lowe’s has restored the price for this item to a market-normal $19 odd. I should have bought the whole pallet while I had the chance…

  PREMATURE LAMP FAILURE OR INCOMPATIBLE DIMMER CAUSING DAMAGE?
  I had one burn out on me after less than 30 days installed (less than 350 hours operating), possibly caused by the Maestro dimmer mentioned in the original post. Lowe’s graciously posted a credit back to the credit card used to purchase the lamp — as usual. No receipt needed. Even if you can’t produce the card used for purchase, you can always get store credit.

  LOGIC CONTROL DIMMER UPDATE
  Many logic-controlled dimmers require a minimum load. I have not researched to see if the Maestro fan/light control dimmer I used that was incompatible, had such a minimum load requirement, but my guess is that it does have a minimum and that the minimum is 25W. Operating the LED lamp by itself with a dimmer that needs a minimum load could have damaged the lamp and caused it to fail prematurely. I have (3) other LED’s operating and have not seen any trouble with them, yet.

  Reply
• 
  Robert Monk 2011/05/20 at 8:29 PM

  Lowe’s has an outstanding loss(?) leader with this lamp. Home Depot is still selling LED’s at over $20/ea. and its dimmable CFL’s are at $10 in volume of 10packs.

  Reply
• 
  Robert Monk 2011/05/11 at 2:00 PM

  I installed the LA19DM/LED in a recessed damp location shower fixture yesterday, and I am pleased with it’s smooth dimming response through the entire dimming range, using a basic Lutron Skylark (TM) mechanical slider dimmer (model #: S-600). It appears that the trouble I had dimming the LA19DM/LED is limited to dimmers with logic controls such as my Maestro fan/light control and/or the remote dimmer module located in the fan/light fixture canopy, that ships with the Maestro fan/light control.

  I am particularly pleased with this application, since the recess fixture location is above a basement shower stall with very little headroom, and the lower heat output from the LED lamp will make this a better fit. The wet location trim with diffuser also improves the warmth of the LED’s output. Most significant, the lamp change procedure for a damp location fixture is rather more involved than average, so an extra-long-life LED lamp will be an excellent choice here, provided it lives to its advertised lifespan.

  Reply
• 
  Robert Monk 2011/05/05 at 12:47 AM

  A few days later, the lamps installed in a 3-lampholder ceiling fan remain strong and quite satisfactory as a dimming, high-efficiency light source — two of which must be ‘ballasted’ by the load of a third, conventional incandescent lamp.

  Reply