Joule Thief

[Pirate88179]

Yes these LED lights are the way to go and becoming more popular over here in the UK. I recently replaced my bathroom halogen down lighter spots with just one single LED spot, there are six LED's encapsulated in a single spot light. Although the cost is quite high (£33.00 sterling) the light matches the old halogens a treat and of course far cheaper to use. I'm convinced LED's will continue to improve further with time. Good work SkyWatcher

The Cree 60 watt equiv. cost $10.00 (USD) and are far brighter than any of the $30-$40 bulbs I have tested.  The heat sink gets a little hot, but I made some additional heat sinks out of a cut up beer can.  (I will show this in a video when I get a chance.)  I am sure Cree knows what they are doing but, keeping it a bit cooler can only add to the life of the bulb I would think.  I agree totally with what you said about the leds only getting better with time.  I am so done with those stupid cfl's.  I have a box full of them after they burned out.  None lasted longer than a few months.  Add the mercury problem and the disposal rules and the cost and all you get is a piece of crap.  (can you tell I don't like them?)

Bill

[SkyWatcher123]

Hi crow, yes, leds are great, thanks for kind words.
Hi pirate, payed $10 USD for one of these 6watt (40watt equivalent) bulbs at the depot, hmm, maybe they have come down in price since.
Ran this gutted bulb up to around 2.8 watts input, using 4 volt lithium ion pack from salvaged lap top.
It is nice and bright at that input, though what seems interesting, is it generates very little heat at that input.
Wonder if using the full 6 watt input, would the heat start to skyrocket or not, hard to tweak it much higher with this particular core/coil setup.
Though get the feeling that the high frequency pulsing, allows it to run much cooler than the standard circuit inside bulb, which would make the leds last far longer, maybe.
peace love light
tyson

[crowclaw]

Your quite correct the HF pusing will make some difference to the heat being generated compared with a steady state DC voltage. One point I ment to mention in my last post is the notable difference in the colour temperature with my LED_ halogen  replacement. The light output closely matches standard incandescent lamps that we are more used to, and easier on the eye to accept. You Guys were experimenting with these replacement LED's for the home long before they became readily available here in the UK, but standard white LED's in their various forms  emit a more of a silvery glow, not unlike moon light.
I've experimented with outdoor lighting for some time using high wattage LED's, driven by JT circuits, these are extremely bright but as you look around at the illuminated area although lit up, the amount of brightness persieved is not quite the same as that of incandescent lighting by comparison. The colour spectrum influences this difference of course. As costs and availabilty of more natural LED lights come within my experimental reach, I will be replacing my outdoor CFL's. Incidently... has anybody made similar LED comparisons with the types mentioned here? Regards Crow

[Pirate88179]

I agree.  Some of these leds respond well to high voltage/high frequency which helps us use less power and the "dead" batteries last a lot longer.

Some photos of my heat sink made from an adult beverage can bottom.  Yes, I got my lights at depot also and yes, they were on sale.  They had the 40 and the 60 watt equiv. on display in two light fixtures.  For just $2 more I went with the 60's to run off the mains.  Now I will have to take one apart and see if I can get it to light too.  Can you save the glass bulb when taking it apart?

Bill

[SkyWatcher123]

Hi crow, the cree bulb pirate is showing, at least the 6 watt (40 watt equivalent) ones here, have pretty much identical color temperature to an incandescent sitting next to it.
Pirate, the glass globe with coating is secured with some type of glue that is very hard, almost glass like, probably to handle the heat and so the glass globe does not want to go back on, maybe a high temp glue would work to resecure it, if needed.
peace love light
tyson