PAR 30 Bulbs

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AeR0

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hey guys... currently having a bit of a hard time with some light bulbs.


i have 6 in lights in my basement that i need to replace, they must be dimmable. Currently ive been using a par 30 sylvania 75W bulb.


need to go to something that is uses alot less energy.


any help?
 
Just did one of these. The lamp socket could stand 60w max and I wanted a bulb that is
100W equivalent,
2700K color temp,
not a flood or a spot, and
dimmable.

HD didn't have it so I got it online, an LED assembly about the size of a 100w bulb. The range of control leaves something to be desired but overall I'm OK with it. It has a low hum that you can hear within a few feet.

The take away for this was, the more constraints you have the less chance you will find it in a bricks and mortar store.
 
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do i need to change dimmer switch if i put LED lights in?
 
You shouldn't have to change the dimmer. The quality of LED bulbs varies a lot so far. And since most of the manufacturers are new names to me, I can't remember which bulb is in which fixture. But some come on instantly, some have a little delay.

They also make dimmable CFL bulbs, which you can find in a big box store. But I am moving away from CFL in favor of LED. More expensive, but CFLs don't seem to last as long as they claim.
 
That was the other thing; my wife didn't want the spiral tube appearance.
 
I'd recommend checking the dimmable LED lights. I installed 6 in my kitchen and I'm very satisfied, except for the initial costs, which run about ~$40 a piece.
 
Wuzzat: your dimmer may be shot.
I suspected that for a while, bought a new one but did not install, then the lamp socket started crackling so I replaced the lamp and I figured it was a lamp socket loose connection.

Anybody else notice my symptom with their dimmable LED bulb?
If no, at some point I should take this new bulb in the basement and hook it to the new dimmer with clip leads to test your idea. This'd be a half hour, max, but currently I'm doing the taxes and even with the tax course I took I am still pulling out my hair. My backup plan is Turbo Tax but the odds of me getting the same answers the first time around is close to zero.
 
This'd be a half hour, max, but currently I'm doing the taxes and even with the tax course I took I am still pulling out my hair. My backup plan is Turbo Tax but the odds of me getting the same answers the first time around is close to zero.

when it comes to taxes, I'm definitely not DIY:hide:
 
Two weeks into the tax course I took at the community college, my tax guy died. Is this some kind of omen? I didn't even know he was sick.
 
Two weeks into the tax course I took at the community college, my tax guy died. Is this some kind of omen? I didn't even know he was sick.

How much is your time worth?
Have you done a spreadsheet to see how long it will take to recover the cost and time to take the coarse and then the odds that you will miss something perhaps costing some taxes or overstepping the boundries and bringing unwanted attention from the feds.:hide::beer::D
 
hey to kind of get back onto my original topic


i went out today and bought some LED retro fit kits for my recessed lights in my downstairs here is the problem i am having is that the top of the LED is hitting inside the socket, and i cannot adjust the socket.

 
I don't know what is allowed but looks like you could pullthe can and remove the socket and wire the connecting wire directly.
 
So there are mechanical constraints on matching bulbs to fixtures and we don't know and maybe cannot know what they are in advance.

Incandescent bulbs somehow seemed to do a much better job of not having these problems.

Maybe me not having this kind of problem was the exception and not the rule. :(

So back to the bricks and mortar store and this time you try each energy saving candidate bulb in several of their fixtures. The problem is you'd need to check with a multimeter if the bulb is making contact and I doubt the store clerks would put up with that.
A cardboard profile of the bulb might also work and it's not difficult to make one.
 
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