Can someone shed some light?
I’m at the point in my PGH construction when we need to select light fixtures. We plan several recessed lights above the kitchen counter and island. We need about eight to ten fixtures. Above the ceiling is a utility chase, with air barrier and insulation above that, so we’re not concerned about the usual recessed can air sealing issues. We just want unobtrusive lights.
The lights will be on a lot, so energy efficient lights are essential. LED units are expensive, over $100 each. Plain old recessed can fixtures are cheap. CFL bulbs are cheap. LEDs can be cheap. My local hardware store was selling LED bulbs for 99¢ the other day.
This may be a stupid question, but can I put LED bulbs into the cheap recessed fixtures? I don’t care about dimming them.
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Replies
Stephen: as far as i know, CREE CR6 @ HD are worth WOW now only 20$!!! http://www.homedepot.com/p/Cree-TrueWhite-6-in-65W-Equivalent-Soft-White-2700K-BR30-Dimmable-LED-Recessed-Down-Light-Bulb-H1CR6TW62527E04/204656359?N=5yc1vZbol
Which is far from your assumed 100$ are and are pretty much the best recessed LED lights in the world. They are also sealed units, so you could use some light silicone or mastic under the front bezel and completely seal off the room from the recessed.
Stephen,
Yes, you can install screw-in LED lamps into any ordinary recessed lighting fixture.
Before you buy a bunch of these LED lamps, however, make sure that you like the effect. Some LEDs have a relatively wide beam, but others are strongly directional -- making a very bright (but small) spotlight effect, with the area outside of the target enveloped in darkness.
I recently bought some Maxcor DLR56 recessed LED downlights to retrofit a bunch of can lights in my house. They are tremendous, I have been very pleased. However, I caution you to test which color temperature you like best. E.g., 2700K (Warm White), or 3000K, or whatever. I did some expensive testing (ie, I bought a bunch of other lights, installed them, and then found out that no one liked them), and found that I personally have a strong preference for 2700 in most lighting situations. That is one of the reasons that I bought the Maxcor lights, as they can be ordered in four different colors.
They are a bit more expensive than some other options, but these LED lights improved everything about the lighting in our rooms.
Ditto. Just installed some Sylvania retrofit LED cans yesterday, love beam/color, 2700 is a nice color, very similar to incandescent light IMO. Also, got a bunch of Cree 4 flow led bulbs yesterday, very happy with how they look. Again, very similar color/light to incandescent IMO.
LED lighting is improving rapidly. I'd be reluctant to spend too much on a design that is not modular. The Cree CR6 or similar is one good option; the other is to screw in something that looks more like a bulb.
Beyond color temperature, you might want to also consider color rendering index (CRI). For a given color temperature (e.g 2700K), a higher CRI will render colors more clearly. Old lousy fluorescents have CRI ~60; lousy LEDs have CRI ~70, typical decent LEDs have CRI 80, and the high grade ones for color snobs have CRI 90 or higher. The Cree module that Stephen linked to is the "TW" series which has CRI 90.
CFLs are still worth considering. Only the very best LEDs have better efficacy and color than typical CFLs.