LED light bulbs from Lights Of America

[Redbelly98]

I recently bought some LED light bulbs, made by Lights Of America, at our local Ace hardware store. Lights of America part number is 2026LED-30k and 2026LED-65k.

So here are some of the claims written on the packaging:

Uses 1.5W
Replaces 40W bulb
90% more efficient than incandescent and halogen bulbs

NOT on the package:
Lumens rating

Also missing: any mention of this product at their website.

Okay, for starters, when I got home and tried them out, they definitely do NOT look as bright as a 40W incandescent bulb.

Secondly, they're efficiency and power claims on the package are inconsistent with one another. 1.5W vs. 40W would mean 25 to 30 times more efficient, not 90% more.

Finally, similar bulbs by Philips indicate these 1.5W bulbs are closer to the light output of a 10W incandescent. (Philips has 1W LED = 7W incandescent, and 3W LED = 20W incandescent) That's still an impressive 6 to 7 times the efficiency.

I imagine they thought people would be put off by a 10W equivalence claim, since that is not a commonly used wattage. And to make a truly 40W equivalence would require 4 times the number of LED's. They are already charging $9 or $10, so perhaps they don't think they would sell if they had to charge more.

 

[Proton Soup]

i've never had much luck with LoA products. the fluorescent screw-in bulbs I've bought failed quickly. naturally, this erodes my confidence in the idea that one can save either energy or money with them. i believe i ended up wasting both.

i do think LEDs will eventually be the way to go, but i still wouldn't buy from LoA.

 

[nottheone]

I recently bought some LED light bulbs, made by Lights Of America, at our local Ace hardware store. Lights of America part number is 2026LED-30k and 2026LED-65k.

So here are some of the claims written on the packaging:

Uses 1.5W
Replaces 40W bulb
90% more efficient than incandescent and halogen bulbs

NOT on the package:
Lumens rating

I hate to say this but the product looks like it lives up to half its claims. It doesn't make any claims as to a luminosity replacement it just says replaces a 40W with a 1.5W. They meant that it will fit, not be as bright. The wording is purposely vague so people will assume it will be as bright. Most people won't realize that there is no way an LED using 1.5W can be even close to as bright as a 40W incandescent, that would be about 2600% more efficient wouldn't it? The 90% more efficient claim would take some some creative defense but I think a lawyer could do it.

 

[mgb_phys]

A lumen is roughly the power in the visible band
A 40W light bulb puts out about 2% of the energy in the visible (about 12 lm/W = 500 lm)
For a 1.5W (perfectly electrically efficent ) source to match a 40W bulb it would need to achieve around 330 lm/w

A perfect source monchromatic source in the middle of the visible is 680 lm/W - no broadband source is going to manage 500 lm from 1.5W, a green laser diode might, but only because of the definition of a lumen.

 

[russ_watters]

I can't comment specifically on the output light claim, but...

Uses 1.5W
Replaces 40W bulb
90% more efficient than incandescent and halogen bulbs

-------

Secondly, they're efficiency and power claims on the package are inconsistent with one another. 1.5W vs. 40W would mean 25 to 30 times more efficient, not 90% more.

You're not completing the math, so it isn't clear to me that you have it right. 40/1.5= 26.7. That's 26.7 times less power. That's not in terms of efficiency or "more efficient" - it's upside-down. In terms of efficiency, that's 1/26.7 = .0375 = 3.75% as much power or 1-3.75%=96.25% more efficient.

But since the claim is 90% more efficient, not 96%, then it should put out 1.5/.1=15 Watts of light (equivalent). Seems an odd claim to me - not technically false if that's what it really puts out, but definitely misleading since the words imply something different than the numbers say.

 

[Redbelly98]

Well, that makes more sense. And if the light output is 15W-equivalent, that's comparable to the Philips numbers.

 

[heartstopper]

they are using a bit of deception here. i bought some too and was similarly disappointed. i had previously gotten some LofA bulbs at Costco (floodlight bulbs) and was reasonable satisfied though the light is more directional than i wanted.

i then bought some of these, same ones you have, off the internet and was questioning them much like you. their words are deceptive. after searching a bit on the internet i found out these bulbs put out the equivalent to a 25W bulb... but they say to replace your 40w bulb with them. I am not totally up on what's available from lightbulb manuf but i don't think 25W bulbs are common so you would use these to REPLACE a 40W light bulb instead of a 25W bulb. anyway, the improvement in efficiency is reduced considerebly to NEAR the 90%.

also, the color of the light is dependent upon the "color temperature" f the bulb. the ones i got are 30K. they make another one of the same type at 65K. the 65 K would be MUCH whiter than the 30K.

personally, i don't think i would buy more of LofA bulbs. I've had many early failures of the CFLs and am greatly dsappointed. of course, to take them up on their warranty you have to have the receipt to show when you bought it.

nonetheless, i have put these bulbs in porch lights and the refrigerator. besides using LESS energy than standard appliance bulbs, they will not dissipate as much heat into the frig so that will help with the operation of the frig.

 

[heartstopper]

you will find equivalent CFL lumen output to be a dimmer quality of light. this is because of the color temp being diferent. the good CFLs with high color temps tend to be MUCH higher in cost than the cheaper ones (that are so prevalent today) that neither provide a good light OR the life that they claim.

 

[Pythagorean]

When it comes to lumens for LEDs, most manufacturers claim about double what their LED actually puts out.

 

[Kupper]

I purchased 6 of the 2025LEDE12-30K1.5 watt 30ma lights for a hallway. The light output is nowhere near 40 watts as claimed and 10 watts would be a strech. That said they did produce enough light for the area. The big problem is the 50% failure rate in 60 days that rates these lights a big expensive zero!

 

[bobbythebuild]

Okay, for starters, when I got home and tried them out, they definitely do NOT look as bright as a 40W incandescent bulb.

Try aiming them up onto a white ceiling. LED lights are extremely directional, much more directional and focused than even very focused and directional incandescent, halogen, etc light. If they are pointed upward to a white ceiling, they will seem about 10x brighter and they will light up the entire room (or at least part of the room). We have 9 of these in our main room and our energy bill is more than 20% less for the entire house, because these LED lights use a small fraction of the energy of regular lights and moreover because in the summer, this gain is at least twofold because the A/C has much less to cool off since these bulbs produce much less heat, as well.

 

[ECHOSTONE542]

Hi, I am a sales in a LED lighting company. to tell you the truth, the LED lights really saving energy, and it really lighter than traditional lights, but the problem is that not that much. Generally speaking, 1W LED can equals to 5W traditional lights. but this also depends on the technology of the manufacture, even the same chip. Cree chip is nearlly the best, but expensive, manufactures may use other brand chips, but the mounted technology is also a key point.

I recently bought some LED light bulbs, made by Lights Of America, at our local Ace hardware store. Lights of America part number is 2026LED-30k and 2026LED-65k.

So here are some of the claims written on the packaging:

Uses 1.5W
Replaces 40W bulb
90% more efficient than incandescent and halogen bulbs

NOT on the package:
Lumens rating

Also missing: any mention of this product at their website.

Okay, for starters, when I got home and tried them out, they definitely do NOT look as bright as a 40W incandescent bulb.

Secondly, they're efficiency and power claims on the package are inconsistent with one another. 1.5W vs. 40W would mean 25 to 30 times more efficient, not 90% more.

Finally, similar bulbs by Philips indicate these 1.5W bulbs are closer to the light output of a 10W incandescent. (Philips has 1W LED = 7W incandescent, and 3W LED = 20W incandescent) That's still an impressive 6 to 7 times the efficiency.

I imagine they thought people would be put off by a 10W equivalence claim, since that is not a commonly used wattage. And to make a truly 40W equivalence would require 4 times the number of LED's. They are already charging $9 or $10, so perhaps they don't think they would sell if they had to charge more.

 

[Tom4748]

We bought LED lights by Lights of America at Sams Club (3 chandeliers for $14.86). Two of the three burned out in less than 3 months. Kept the receipt. The package stated they would last 2 years! A VERY POOR PRODUCT! Our old, regular lights lasted 1-2 years!

 

[Foxman09]

We bought light bulbs by Lights of America at Sams Club (3 chandeliers for $14.86). Two of the three http://www.sourcingmap.com/spotlight-c-1137_1949.html" burned out in less than 3 months. Kept the receipt. The package stated they would last 2 years! A VERY POOR PRODUCT! Our old, regular lights lasted 1-2 years!

I met the same problem here in China. I often had to replace new bulbs after several months. The manufacture even claim that they can last 4 years.

 

[mugaliens]

After years of dragging my feet while enjoying my two 300 W halogen torchierre lamps, I bit the bullet earlier this summer and replaced them with two 39 W flourscent lamps (two bulbs each, a 13 W and a 26 W).

Cost of the lamps: $40 for both. Cost of the bulbs: $20.

At 11.52 cents per kW-hr, and an average daily use time of 12 hours, they're saving me 10.78 cents per day. I'll recoup their cost in 556 days i.e. 1.52 years.

But that's direct cost of the electricity usage alone. As they produce a lot less heat, they save bucks in the summer, but I have to make up for that lost heat in the winter, so I figure it's a wash in that regard.

I did look into getting LEDs instead of CFLs, but when I did the math, the additional expense of the LEDs compared to mere incremental gains didn't make good financial sense, and I'd read about burn-our issues with the LEDs as well, so I chose to go with the CFLs.

They're advertised to last 6 years, but at what usage rate? 24 hrs/day? Time will tell!

 

[Redbelly98]

But that's direct cost of the electricity usage alone. As they produce a lot less heat, they save bucks in the summer, but I have to make up for that lost heat in the winter, so I figure it's a wash in that regard.

But, how do you heat your house/apartment? Pretty much any other type of heating is cheaper than heating by electricity, so you should be saving in the winter as well.
Where I live (NJ, USA), electrical energy costs 3 to 4 times what natural gas heating costs.

 

[mugaliens]

But, how do you heat your house/apartment? Pretty much any other type of heating is cheaper than heating by electricity, so you should be saving in the winter as well.
Where I live (NJ, USA), electrical energy costs 3 to 4 times what natural gas heating costs.

Much of what I say on this subject comes from owning three houses, a traditional ranch in NC, a condo in NC, and another ranch in Las Vegas. In addition, I helped my uncle build his own house. Not design, just build, but he shared all his design plans with me, and they were his own designs from the ground up. He has four degrees, including two masters, and has just been there, done that, so I don't argue with his stuff.

Here in Colorado, they've got a natural gas line from the gulf, so it's less expensive than electric for heating. Waste heat from incandescent's remains less efficient than going with CFLs and heating the loss with natural gas. Given the fact the size of my place is much the same as it was in Germany, I'm wondering why my erg requirements are fully twice what they were in Germany?

Yes, the designs here in the states are that bad. It's a builder's market, but that is absolutely no excuse for buying into homes which are less than one third as efficient as they could be. I have a friend of mine who lives out east of Falcon, CO, who owns a ranch that has twice the square footage of my apartment, yet his year-round energy bill is less than 25% of mine. Then again, he, too, designed and built his own own, about 18 years ago, and did it right, with both passive solar heating and cooling.

Let's face it - the homebuilders in the U.S. absolutely are NOT focused on energy. My uncle pays less, on average, than $50 a month for either heating or cooling, even though he lives in a 3,000+ sq ft house in Michigan, and in the winter months, it rarely tops $70/mo.

Does your heating/cooling bill look like this? Mine doesn't. Mine is through the roof because my apartment complex was built to "traditional" standards.

NJ - little natural sunlight during the cold winters, some fairly sweltering days during the summer, no chance for evaporative cooling...

You folks need to insulate! And recapture as well as air exchange and climate control. You need fully sealed houses, insulated, forced-air basements, R-50 walls, R-75 ceilings, air-exchange systems, and block houses.

I'm just repeating my uncle's requirements, as you're both in the same part of the country, although in MI he gets some cold storms that you folks don't.

We're just not doing it right, folks! That's why nearly ALL of us are paying 3 times as much for heating and cooling than we should be!

Come on! This is one thing we can, as a group, tackle successfully, and without any loss to personal comfort (a gain, in fact, when it's done right, and at zero extra cost).

 

[garyhu]

We bought LED lights by Lights of America at Sams Club (3 chandeliers for $14.86). Two of the three burned out in less than 3 months. Kept the receipt. The package stated they would last 2 years! A VERY POOR PRODUCT! Our old, regular lights lasted 1-2 years!

I bought 2 packages Chandelier and 2 packages regular (also 3 LED bulbs) from Sams, the regular size bulbs only last less than 2 weeks. Chandeliers were the same as yours. It is too bad I don't keep the packages and couldn't return to Sams.

 

[TopuLEDlight]

Actually LED lumens is different, some like Epistar DIP chip its about 6.5-7lm per unit, for SMD chip its about 5-6.5lm per piece. Now Epistar or CREE have high power LED, one piece 1W-3W for led spot light, 10W-100W for led street lights, led high bays, tunnel lights...these lumens is about 90-110lm, maybe cree chip higher...

 

[Redbelly98]

Now Epistar or CREE have high power LED, one piece 1W-3W for led spot light, 10W-100W for led street lights, led high bays, tunnel lights...these lumens is about 90-110lm, maybe cree chip higher...

Which wattage produces the 90-110 lm?

 

[TopuLEDlight]

Which wattage produces the 90-110 lm?

currently we use 1w-3w leds, unit led lumens is about 90-110lm, you know cree chip? if for CREE XP series maybe higher lumens...

Take E27 3W led spot light for example, its lumens is about 270lm in real, however the power driver need to consume some lumens, usually the power factor for it is 0.85-0.95, so for 3w led spot light total lumens will be 240lm around....

One more thing, if for high power led lights, such as led high bays, led street lights, led flood lights, the led is about 60-70lm/w, unit led 10W, 30W, 50W, 60W, 100W or integration led, unit high power led is higher costs than integration leds also better quality...

sorry my led lighting technology is limited... hope we can communicate futher...

Nice to know you!

 

[Redbelly98]

Update:

Lights of America now gives a lumen rating of 70 to 90 for their 1.5 W LED bulbs (lumen rating varies for different bulb models). I was looking at them in my local hardware store the other day, where I originally bought the LED bulbs that prompted me to start this thread.

The lumen rating means they are comparable to a 10 to 12 W incandescent (GE's 15 W soft white bulbs are rated at 110 lumens). At least Lights of America is more forthcoming about the light output now, but I am still leery of the lifetime issues. At $10 per bulb, I don't plan to retest them.

 

[aceaceace]

I purchased 4 Lights of America 1.5 watt 2026LED-30K LED Bulb bulbs for myself in 2010. They did not have enough lumens to light up a room, but they were good for a bedside light to read by or to illuminate the house numbers on the front of my house. So I was happy at first. They seemed to be about the same as a 20 watt incandescent. Plus I liked the cool plastic housing.

These LED bulbs are supposed to last 30,000 hours. I kept the packaging just in case they didn't last. All 4 2026LED LED bulbs burned out in less than 6 months, all in 2010. I do not recommend Lights of America LED bulbs, all 4 Lights of America bulbs failed in 6 months and are advertised to last 30,000 hours. I am disappointed because this manufacturer gives all LED bulbs a bad rap.

I took 2 of these Lights of America LED bulbs Lights of America 2026LED-30K LED Bulb back to the local Walmart were I got them along with the packaging, but Walmart would not give me credit, a replacement, or money back without a receipt, even with the original packaging (who keeps a receipt for a light bulb, but if you buy one of these you better keep the receipt). They said I had to go to the manufacturer. I told them to look up this purchase up on my credit cart, but they said Walmart is not setup to do that. Sorry for the extra rant about Walmart, but it was related to my Lights of America purchase.

I contacted Lights of America by email, they did email back, but said I had to have the receipt or send the 2026LED LED bulbs back at my expense. I still might send them back, but what good is that to pay for shipping for LED's that I know will only last 6 months?

Here is the form letter response I received back from Lights of America.

---------------
Dear xxxxx,

Every product has a warranty policy written on the product package. Please check your package for the policy covering your product. Our warranty policies are also listed on our website. For online purchases, this warranty is only valid if the products are sold by an authorized reseller listed on [noparse]www.lightsofamerica.com[/noparse].
Example: Ebay is not an authorized reseller of Lights of America.

If your LED product fails within the stated warranty period due to defects in material or workmanship, the product may be returned to the retail store for refund or replacement.

Lights of America's warranty policy is explicitly for repair or replacement of product parts only. We require a copy of your purchase receipt. Please send a copy of your receipt by fax 909-598-1446 or you can mail it using the address below. Please include this issue number and mailing address with all correspondence.

If you do not have your receipt, please return the product to Lights of America at your expense.

Please send all returned items to:

Lights of America
611 Reyes Drive
Walnut, CA 91789
ATTN: Consumer Affairs Dept.

Thank you,
Lights of America, Inc.

 

[Nik_2213]

That's roughly the reply I got from local B&Q super-store when I queried LED life.

Snag is there's no way to determine from lamp how long it lasted. Incandescents, fluorescent tubes and CFLs tend to darken with use, LEDs just die...

Also, when a lamp is quoted as eg 'Five Year Life !', be wary: This may apply to use for only a couple of hours a day.

I got an LED lamp to go over a staircase because the existing CFLs lit slowly and, sometimes, blinked before striking. With a photo-sensitive epileptic in the family, this was intolerable. My first 'fix' was to replace one of the three CFLs with a 40 Watt incandescent lamp, which provided immediate navigation light and masked the CFLs' start-up.

It was such a chore climbing up every three months to replace the incandescent, that I got an LED lamp. It was great for a couple of months, then died at switch-on. The mail-order supplier refused to consider replacement as I couldn't prove it was their product at fault...

 

[Misericorde]

Does anyone here have a light meter for photography? If so, we could put this to a test, because I recently fell into the same trap as Redbelly... damn it.

I think the failures must be the chips controlling the LED, not the LEDs themselves, bastards.

 

[aceaceace]

It would be nice if someone from Lights of America would respond, or maybe a retired or X employee of Lights of America (I know you are reading this right now), and explain how Lights of America arrived at a 27 year warranty (3 hours a day for 27 years = 29,565 hours) on an LED bulb that in reality burned out in 6 months?

Plus, are we seriously supposed to keep our receipts for 27 years? I think on a warranty this long the date of manufacture could be stamped on the bulb instead. This is standard practice on things that really do have a decent company behind a long warranty. Example: hard disk drives have the date of manufacture stamped on the drive and no receipt is needed to get a replacement drive.

 

[HowlerMonkey]

Lumen rating needs to be weighted vs the spectrum of output.

http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/education_resources/learn_about_light/distribution_curves.htm

 

[Redbelly98]

Lumen rating needs to be weighted vs the spectrum of output.

http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/education_resources/learn_about_light/distribution_curves.htm

Can you explain the relevance to this discussion? The link does not include any LED data that I could find. Am I missing something? Also, it's data from GE, not Lights of America.

 

[aceaceace]

I looked on Lights of America's website, they don't have any data at all about Lumens.

I did find on their website that they warranty LED bulbs for 3 years (yet they advertise they last 27 years). But you MUST have the proof of purchase, and you have to ship them at your own expense to Lights of America. Based on my experience with LoA, I would not purchase LED's from them.

 

[aceaceace]

Maybe the FTC reads our posts?

The Federal Trade Commission has sued a California-based light bulb manufacturer and its principals to stop them from misleading consumers by exaggerating the light output and life expectancy of its Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs.

In filing the complaint, the FTC is seeking a permanent injunction to stop the defendants’ allegedly illegal conduct, as well as monetary redress for consumers who bought the deceptively labeled products.

full story here:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/09/lightsofamerica.shtm

 

[aceaceace]

Also, possibly as a result of all the Lights of America false advertising complaints.

Coming in 2011: New Labels for Light Bulb Packaging

Starting in mid-2011, the Federal Trade Commission announced today, consumers shopping for light bulbs will notice new labeling on packaging designed to help them choose among the different types of bulbs on the market – traditional incandescent bulbs, and newer high-efficiency compact fluorescent (CFL) and light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs. The new labels will enable consumers to save money by selecting the most efficient bulbs that best fit their lighting needs.​

full story here: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/lightbulbs.shtm

 

[Redbelly98]

full story here:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/09/lightsofamerica.shtm

That is good news, thanks for posting it.

From the article:

Also, in many cases, Lights of America deceptively compared the brightness of its LED light bulbs with incandescent bulbs, the FTC alleges. For example, the firm claimed that one of its LED lantern bulbs could replace a 40-watt incandescent bulb. However, while the typical 40-watt incandescent bulb produces about 400 lumens, the Lights of America LED bulb produced only 74 lumens.

So that's about 18% of the light output of a 40W incandescent. The article discusses the lifetime claims as well, giving concrete numbers to dispute LOA's stated lifetime rating.

.

EDIT: This thread locked due to high incidence of spam posts (now deleted).