The final death nell of the incandescent light bulbs is at hand....1 JAN 2014

I tried about 15 different makes of 35W-50W GU10 halogen replacement LED spots (3W-6W) and through trial, error and quite some cost I've found that the only superb replacement comes from such and unsexy company as Philips.

These are fully dimmable with a dimmer meant for LED-lamps (note: you can fool a capacitive load dimmer with leaving a single normal halogen lamp on the circuit - because LED's have an inductive load traditional dimmers won't react to the them by themselves or react sluggishly.) and provide a real drop-in replacement with the 40-deg angle of light. (Most cheap LED-spots come with a 25-deg light angle so they are mostly useless in room lighting)

Check out The suggested dimmers list from Philips.

I prefer the Warm White (2700K) variety which is quite close to normal halogen spot colour - the cold ones feel bluish.

I've replaced around 50 spots around our house and I've encountered one broken Philips one in the last three years and it blew up when the power was cut due to a storm so it might have been a power spike and not wear.

I can't say the same for the chinese and non-brand ones I tried prior to giving up on cheaper alternatives and tried Philips ones (£50/pcs at the time). So with them costing a measly £20/pcs today I don't see the point in stacking up on old lamps. The imports from China (DealExtreme ones either had a bad thermal design (over heats and breaks
 
Yeah the LEDs are coming down in price. I'm sure within a couple years they will be pretty decently priced with lots of  options. That will be good. 

Paul your closet is exactly the type of place I would still use an incandescent.  Interesting about the short vs. long on time related to longevity.  In my case the short  on time locations happen to be the same as the places I want incandescent. The bathroom is the exception. I would call that a medium  duration location. I do replace those more than others but still get about 2 - 3 years from them.

For now I like the options, and LED is coming on strong.

Seth
 
LED bulbs still aren't where they need to be, in terms of quality of light and dimming capabilities. I work with whole home lighting control systems and have tried a large number of bulbs. The best bulbs we've tried have issues being dimmed linearly and we haven't found a bulb yet that dims down to 1% like an incandescent (the closest we've found for recessed fixtures is 15%). On a normal dimmer you might not notice either one of these issues but when you're calling up lighting scenes and having lights ramp up/down over a defined period of time it becomes very apparent.

LED fixtures with fully dimmable drivers seem to be the answer for all these issues but if you thought a bulb was expensive these babies can run 200-400+ per fixture, depending on wattage and CRI. BTW, the best LED fixture I've seen to date was by Lutron called the Finire. It's a new one they just started shipping in November with a CRI of 95+. All I can say is wow, but the price will keep it from becoming mainstream for some time.

For now I'll keep buying halogen bulbs as these aren't a target of the ban, at least not yet.
 
CFL's just don't dim as well as the incandescents. And, one thing I've seen little mention of is the warmth of the incandescent bulbs. That's one thing the CFL's and the LED's do not have. I like that warmth and often it's just enough when I'm reading under one to forgo turning on the space heater which *does* cost money to run. Even my cat likes sleeping under the incandescent task lamp that hangs over my bed. :)
 
CharlesWilson said:
So, what do we replace our oven lights with?

Charles
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Unlike the thread title suggests, not all incandescent bulbs are being axed by the law. I suggest reading the link in the OP.
 
Oldwood said:
Weather or not you save money with LED or florescent could depend on the climate you live in.
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Well, I fully expect there will be a run on incandescent light bulbs just before they're banned. I'll likely be one of them, probably earlier than later.
 
Paul G said:
CharlesWilson said:
So, what do we replace our oven lights with?

Charles
Click to expand...

Unlike the thread title suggests, not all incandescent bulbs are being axed by the law. I suggest reading the link in the OP.
Click to expand...

Contrary to popular belief here regarding the status of 75 and 100 watt bulbs..... they are already gone.  They ended manufacture in 2013. This latest shutdown is for the 40 and 60 watt'ers, which are the remaining popular wattage incandescents.

Latest story:  40-60 Watt bulbs follow the higher wattage bulbs into history.
 
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