Ask me anything about Light Bulbs!

[Techhead]

If you can hold on a month or two Sylvania is releasing an LED strip light that is absolutely perfect for your situation. I think it's called the Flexlite or Flexlight. It'll be a reasonably priced set including daisy-chainable LED strips with a remote control. I think the retail will be around $60.

I can hold off, just got to convince the wife to. lol

I will keep an eye out for Sylvania's release of these new LED's.

ThanX

[hoponpop]

I'm a little lost, do you mean short neck? And what is a push-in LED?

Yes, short neck. There's the light up bulb portion, then immediately attached to the screw portion.

By "push in" I mean the non-screwing type bulb. My entire house is screw in so I have no idea about the other type(2 small silver prongs) and how they install and work.

Please help me!!!!! thanks again.

[mrcantrell]

Hi, is it possible to switch standard screw-in flood bulbs in my basement's pot lights for the push-in LED type, or even the push-in halogen type. I am having a harder and harder time finding screw-in bulbs with a short or medium base at most retailers. If so, how would I go about it? Do the entire pot lights need to be replaced? Or is there some sort of adapter that might fit into the pot?

In any case, do you know of a retailer that still carries small floods with the short base? Thanks for any help, I am going nuts trying to find them and when I do they are usually $10 a piece. I think the electrician that worked on my basement reno must have had these in the back of his truck for years and decided to save some money and stuck them in my house.

I'm going to try to answer this, but it's difficult to tell what you're asking. I think you're asking where to buy short neck halogens, but you haven't told me what type. If you're looking for a speciality buld, try your local specialty lighting store.

[Steve98]

Yes, short neck. There's the light up bulb portion, then immediately attached to the screw portion.

By "push in" I mean the non-screwing type bulb. My entire house is screw in so I have no idea about the other type(2 small silver prongs) and how they install and work.

Please help me!!!!! thanks again.

Are they like either of these?

[h2o-]

I do recycle the dead CFL bulbs at my local Canadian Tire. For fluorescent tube, some Canadian Tire accepted some put a note saying "DO NOT put fluorescent tube to CFL recycle bin".

How do you fluorescent tube?

[hoponpop]

Are they like either of these?

Thank you. Yes, but I need a screw in type base. I know I can still find them, but my main question is about converting to the type pictured by STEVE98. Is there a simple adapter that I can screw into the current socket or does the entire pot need to be replaced by an electrician? Thanks.

[mrcantrell]

I do recycle the dead CFL bulbs at my local Canadian Tire. For fluorescent tube, some Canadian Tire accepted some put a note saying "DO NOT put fluorescent tube to CFL recycle bin".

How do you fluorescent tube?

Try your local Home Depot. It's more important to recycle the long tubes than the CFLs since they have a lot more mercury in them.

[mrcantrell]

Thank you. Yes, but I need a screw in type base. I know I can still find them, but my main question is about converting to the type pictured by STEVE98. Is there a simple adapter that I can screw into the current socket or does the entire pot need to be replaced by an electrician? Thanks.

I haven't seen them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they exists, especially since both the GU10 and the Medium Screw are typically line voltage lamps. I'd first check out the electrical section at Home Depot or Lowes, then I'd look at someone like dealextreme for cheaper options. Good Luck.

The ones you have in your home currently seem to be quite common, you shouldn't be having such a hard time finding them, try your local lighting speciality store.

[Steve98]

Thank you. Yes, but I need a screw in type base. I know I can still find them, but my main question is about converting to the type pictured by STEVE98. Is there a simple adapter that I can screw into the current socket or does the entire pot need to be replaced by an electrician? Thanks.

Ok, I got the change-direction mixed up. The two bulbs I posted are different, the one on the left is a MR16 bulb with a GU5.3 base (has two pins) while the one on the right is a GU10 bulb with the stubby pins. As mrcantrell says, both are easily found. GU10 bulbs are very popular right now.

Yes you can buy a converter (I found this link, for example: http://www.ledlight.com/gu10-to-e27-...r-adapter.aspx

I'd want to confirm that the bulbs are line-voltage before proceeding. Are there no markings at all on the existing bulbs?

Some pot lights will allow this by changing the trim-kit (Halo lights do, I think) but most don't. This is especially true of reno potlights (as opposed to new-construction pot-lights). If you do have reno pot-lights, you could change them all. Probably take an electrician a day, and he'd have to find ones with the same (or larger) ceiling opening sizes.

I'm really confused why you'd bother, since it seems your existing bulbs are sold everywhere. Have you tried looking for them? You can even buy them over the web.

[B0000rt]

Recently moved into a new house (well old house but new to me) and there's pot lights galore... The 65watt BR30 type. There's 6 in the living room, 3 in the hallway by the front door, 7 in the kitchen, 6 in the family room and another 6 in the basement.

28 in total! And they're all on dimmable switches.. Any recommendations for dimmable LED bulbs for these pot lights?

[mrcantrell]

Recently moved into a new house (well old house but new to me) and there's pot lights galore... The 65watt BR30 type. There's 6 in the living room, 3 in the hallway by the front door, 7 in the kitchen, 6 in the family room and another 6 in the basement.

28 in total! And they're all on dimmable switches.. Any recommendations for dimmable LED bulbs for these pot lights?

I'm always going to recommend Sylvania, but that could be because I'm biased. From the comparisons I've seen Sylvania has the best light output, best light quality and the best warranty. Sylvania is also one of (if not) the worlds largest LED manufacturers and R&D companies.

[alanbrenton]

I'm always going to recommend Sylvania, but that could be because I'm biased. From the comparisons I've seen Sylvania has the best light output, best light quality and the best warranty. Sylvania is also one of (if not) the worlds largest LED manufacturers and R&D companies.

Mr. Cantrell, does Sylvania offer MR16 LED lighting? You had previously warned me about CFL MR16 lighting because of poor heat dissipation.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of MR16 LED lighting? Can I make use of an adapter, and if so, which would be most common? I don't believe we have any transformer (120 volt to 12 volt). Thanks as always.

[CF77]

Does anyone in this forum has Acculamp led par20? what is your opinion?

[mrcantrell]

Mr. Cantrell, does Sylvania offer MR16 LED lighting? You had previously warned me about CFL MR16 lighting because of poor heat dissipation.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of MR16 LED lighting? Can I make use of an adapter, and if so, which would be most common? I don't believe we have any transformer (120 volt to 12 volt). Thanks as always.

Yes they do, and I would stay away from any adaptors for MR16s, there isn't much space for them.

[alanbrenton]

Yes they do, and I would stay away from any adaptors for MR16s, there isn't much space for them.

Top of the morning to you Mr Cantrell. If mine all comes with two pins, would it be safe to say they are the GU 5.3 bases? It's definitely not GU 10 nor is it the screwable type (like most CFL's).

I'm pretty sure I don't have a stepdown transformer, will there be 120 v MR16 LED bulb variants or will they all be the 12 v type?

TIA.