LED Light Panel Question: Good or Bad?

[Fire Instructor]

I just got some 36 LED white's in from Virtual Village (another Hong Kong company). These worked out very well. I also ordered a couple of smaller directional bulbs (6-led) for the reading lights. The wedges on these seem too loose in the socket, need to constantly fiddle with them to get them to make contact and light, then when they do light, they aren't bright enough to read from. Gonna order more of the 36-light units from them, but have to keep looking for the "right" light for the reading fixtures.

[Paul Stamser]

Bean,

Thanks for the good explanation about LED lights and why they don't last. Needless to say, I was very disappointed after all the hype and then the ones I bought went bad in a short time. By comparison, some incandescent auto bulbs in my 12 volt house have lasted for many years.

Reliability over anything else is #1 in my wish list.

Originally Posted by bean

Paul,
Yes most LED lights (and most products for that fact) are built as cheaply as possible. The reason most LED lights don't last long is because they are over-driving the LEDs to get the most light.

This causes them to overheat and use more power per lumen. The overheating causes the LED junction itself to fail, or the solder joint to fail.

My design uses more LEDs operating at about 1/2 max power (about 2/3 of typical power). This requires more LEDs to get the same amount of light, but will last thousands of hours.

My design is NOT meant to be the most effecient, but a very effecient design could be built.

Good designs are not cheap, with most products selling for 10x the parts costs, adding a $0.50 part will increase the selling price by $5.00!!!

Of course making stuff for yourself is much cheaper. Even with the expense of ordering small quantities of parts.

I might look into designing a very effecient LED light later. It would be an interesting project.

Bean

[Paul Stamser]

Originally Posted by Fire Instructor

I just got some 36 LED white's in from Virtual Village (another Hong Kong company). These worked out very well. I also ordered a couple of smaller directional bulbs (6-led) for the reading lights. The wedges on these seem too loose in the socket, need to constantly fiddle with them to get them to make contact and light, then when they do light, they aren't bright enough to read from. Gonna order more of the 36-light units from them, but have to keep looking for the "right" light for the reading fixtures.

How long have those 36 LED units been in service for you? A million hours?

I wonder if they are same as those farmerseller offers?

I have not received mine yet, but I hope they get here soon. My old crappy LED bulbs in the kitchen are flashing and quickly giving up the ghost. Three of the original six have totally burned out. Only one is still working the way it should. Two are flashing like Morse Code.

[bean]

You can tell a "good" LED light from a "poor" one by seeing how hot it gets after operating for awhile (15 minutes). Turn the light off and immediately try to touch the LED (carefully). If the LED is too hot to hold (and keep) your hand on it...it will probably fail in short order. If the LED feels warm, but you can keep your finger on it...it will probably last for many years.

It is cheaper to put a big heatsink on an LED light rather than add more LEDs. So that is what they do.

In short, you want a bulb to convert electrical energy into LIGHT energy not into HEAT energy. LEDs are pretty good at this if they are not overdriven.

Bean

[Paul Stamser]

Originally Posted by bean

You can tell a "good" LED light from a "poor" one by seeing how hot it gets after operating for awhile (15 minutes). Turn the light off and immediately try to touch the LED (carefully). If the LED is too hot to hold (and keep) your hand on it...it will probably fail in short order. If the LED feels warm, but you can keep your finger on it...it will probably last for many years.

It is cheaper to put a big heatsink on an LED light rather than add more LEDs. So that is what they do.

In short, you want a bulb to convert electrical energy into LIGHT energy not into HEAT energy. LEDs are pretty good at this if they are not overdriven.

Bean

Thanks for the tip. I'll check how how hot these failing ones get when I make supper tonight. I think they are flashing some kind of code, but unfortunately I don't read Chinese. ;-)

These other ones should come any time and I'll give them the heat test too. Truthfully, I'm not expecting much reliability from them but have my fingers crossed.

[Fire Instructor]

Originally Posted by Paul Stamser

How long have those 36 LED units been in service for you? A million hours?

Not at all! In fact, they came the day AFTER I finished winterizing, a couple of weeks ago. Instead of hauling the batteries back out of the house basement, I just hooked the terminals to a battery charger to check-out the bulbs. After reading some of the comments, I'll do a better check before I order more...

[Paul Stamser]

Originally Posted by Fire Instructor

Not at all! In fact, they came the day AFTER I finished winterizing, a couple of weeks ago. Instead of hauling the batteries back out of the house basement, I just hooked the terminals to a battery charger to check-out the bulbs. After reading some of the comments, I'll do a better check before I order more...

Thanks. Can you tell us who you got yours from? I'd like to compare them to the ones I ordered from farmerseller to see if they are the same make or not.

I may be pessimistic, but I'm not expecting much from mine that are coming from Hong Kong but HOPING for the best. Of course, I use mine every day year around and put a lot of hours on them.

PS: the crappy 12v LEDs now in my house don't seem to get hot at all. At least the ones still working. Not sure if the burned out ones got hot or not. Probably did. I also notice the place I got these from still list them, but they seem to be permanently "out of stock." That is probably a good thing...

[Fire Instructor]

Originally Posted by Paul Stamser

Thanks. Can you tell us who you got yours from? I'd like to compare them to the ones I ordered from farmerseller to see if they are the same make or not.

I got mine from VirtualVillage.com.

[Paul Stamser]

Originally Posted by Fire Instructor

I got mine from VirtualVillage.com.

Thanks for the info. I'll check them out.

My LEDs from Hong Kong haven't arrived yet but I'm anxiously awaiting them daily.

Hope they come soon. If they prove up okay I'll order more.

[Paul Stamser]

Here's another Hong Kong 12 volt 24 LED at a good price.

But I don't recognize the 2-pin connecter. Can anyone clue me in about that feature?

Claims 50,000 hour life but I doubt that's true...

G4 24 SMD LED Pure White Marine Light Bulb Lamp 12 Volt - eBay (item 300462221411 end time Nov-29-10 09:06:54 PST)

[Paul Stamser]

My 24 and 36-LEDs came from Hong Kong yesterday. I started a new thread on the "Mods & Updates" forum about what I think of them and to open a new discussion about long term results using 12 volt LED lighting.

Thanks for you help.