Led vs CFL

[olddawg]

Still new here and looked like the other thread was closed, but I have a question for you all.

I have run CFL's off my inverter and they don't last.
I mean, dead after a few uses.

I've changed over to LED and having no problems.

Is this unique to me or do you folks have the same problem?

I have come off the 'bigboy' (Cobra 1500watt) inverter and now run only the Black & Decker 400watt.
I only run a light in the kitchen, then recharge the laptop and cell phones from it.
Ya, it's my backup power supply.

[Sunking]

The problem is your inverter being Modified Sine Wave.

[olddawg]

The problem is your inverter being Modified Sine Wave.

Makes sense now...
So is my 'bigboy'....
Oh and that's a 2500 watt unit.
Mis-stated earlier...

I take it the LED's don't mind modified then?

I'll be shopping for a new inverter soon...

[olddawg]

CFL bulbs consumes lots of electricity and at the same time LED consumes very less electricity, thats the only reason why your inverter was shed out of power when using CFL light bulbs.

Thank you for the response, but;
I think you may have missed part of the issue
The bulb is dead, like doesn't work, not lacking power.

I believe Sunking may have nailed the issue.

[Sunking]

Whoever directlight does not have a clue what he is talking about.

[Naptown]

Whoever directlight does not have a clue what he is talking about.

Directlight has been warned
useless posts all over here today

[Sunking]

I take it the LED's don't mind modified then?

Well yes and no. It depends on what kind of ballast it uses.

[russ]

Directlight has been warned
useless posts all over here today

I bumped him off last night - posting nonsense from India and 14 posts immediately upon registering.

[john p]

?????

I can never understand why prople ever get short life from CFLs on MSW inverters. WE run at home ALL our CFLs ONLY off MSW 400w inverter and I have set other peoples lightinglike this and no one is having problems. Also at work we have never measured any differences in lifespand between running them of MSW or TSW inverters.
I have found that Philips CFLs definately last much longer than anyone elses no matter what you run them from

One of the main advantages of LEDs over CFLs ,if 12v ones are used it you dont get inverter losses which can be high if you just running one or two 14w CFLs on a 1000w inverter,

[Designer_Mike]

I was just going to post about how impressed I am with the new LEDs but decided to piggy back on this thread

I bought a couple to try out and see where the color falls/power comparison is.

OH MY GOD>> I was blown away. I swapped a 75W halogen out with an 8W LED from Phillips and it is impossible to tell the difference with the light. They don't seem to have quite the same range with the dimmer but it is very close.

I had planned on installing occupancy detector switches on some of the lights that seem to always get left on but heck...the cost to power the LEDs is so little, it would be better for me to buy the LEDs and just leave them on instead of spend $45 on a fancy switch. (4) 6W bulbs will cost me less than $30/yr to leave on 24/7

Sorry for the hijack

[Mike90250]

Keep us posted on the lifetime. We know LED's are more sensitive to heat that the CFL's were, and hot CFL's burn out pretty quick. Notice how the bulb mounts in the fixture and how the heat path works.

[Designer_Mike]

they have a LOT of mass to them. I assume to help sink the heat away.

They do get fairly warm/hot...I can grab them and hold on but just barely.
I have been pretty disappointed with the CFL life and the slow warmup is annoying.

I'm kind of surprised they generate that much heat with such low energy consumption.

[Sunking]

I'm kind of surprised they generate that much heat with such low energy consumption.

Well now you have uncovered a dirty secret. LED efficiency is not what they claim. When they rate them they do so with a brief pulse, at room temps, and in the middle of the focused beam. They do not count the power being used you feel as heat.

Example they may rate a LED @ 100 L/watts for a 1 watt LED, but it burns 3 watts of power with ballast.. That makes it a real 33 L/watt or about the same as a plain old fashioned Edison incandescent bulb.

[Designer_Mike]

I got some time to do some testing this weekend.

I used an existing string of lights and just unscrewed bulbs.

With one bulb on, my string was drawing .829 amp (yep, 100W bulb)
I added two 9W LEDs and current went up to 1.008 amp

I removed the 100W bulb and was left with .143 amp

After 5 minutes I only saw a rise to .145

If you change all the lights on some dimmers out to LED you may get some ANNOYING flickering since there isn't enough load for the dimmer to be happy. Adding one CFL into the string seems to take that away.

I will measure them again after they have been on for an extended time.

[SmokeMaker]

Hi, I'm new here and I have been reading the archives. I'm not trying to hijack the thread, I just wanted to bring this new product to your attention. I will be getting a few and testing them.

Mod note Buy a few and try them before posting link