- Location
- Greenpoint Brooklyn, NY
I got to play with the Cree LED LR6 retro boxes and bulbs yesterday when I went measuring for cabinets at a business friends house. I peed a little when I walked into a room full of Cree boxes that's how excited I was to see someone using LED's in their home. Its a rarity to be installing these in residential homes even in the upper spectrum of renovations and construction. The only place I seen them used alot are in newer commercial buildings. Halogens just outperformed and were cheaper when lighting in higher demand installations.
The guy had a regular incandescent installed in one of the retro's and a LED bulb in another fairly close to it to show the difference and the LED was the same warm light as the incandescent (I was quite amazed at this, I was expecting the monotonous LED color spectrum from them) and a bit brighter. I actually couldn't tell it was a LED when looking at the two of them as far as the color of the bulbs. Its not Halogen bright but almost there. The fixtures were dimmable and the retro boxes and the bulbs themselves were something you wanted to show off in a trophy case thats how nicely they were built. The downside was the 3 yr warranty vs the 5yr you get off any other light and the price which was about 30-40$ more than the halogen equivalent. The boxes and bulbs retail at 160$ or so. Wholesale its around ~115$ per point for the Cree's which is great if your buying bulk and know some people. Your paying about 40$ per point for the incandescents so its a big difference in initial costs for comparison.
Anyways, from what I've been reading on home LED's I would wait another year if anything if anyone wants to install LED's in their home. They should drop in price and have a wider range of options for the home. But if your interested now Cree looks like its the way to go.
After seeing them in action I'm tempted to shell out the 30$ per MR16 LED bulb from Philips for my kitchen when my bulbs start to go out which should be soon.
The guy had a regular incandescent installed in one of the retro's and a LED bulb in another fairly close to it to show the difference and the LED was the same warm light as the incandescent (I was quite amazed at this, I was expecting the monotonous LED color spectrum from them) and a bit brighter. I actually couldn't tell it was a LED when looking at the two of them as far as the color of the bulbs. Its not Halogen bright but almost there. The fixtures were dimmable and the retro boxes and the bulbs themselves were something you wanted to show off in a trophy case thats how nicely they were built. The downside was the 3 yr warranty vs the 5yr you get off any other light and the price which was about 30-40$ more than the halogen equivalent. The boxes and bulbs retail at 160$ or so. Wholesale its around ~115$ per point for the Cree's which is great if your buying bulk and know some people. Your paying about 40$ per point for the incandescents so its a big difference in initial costs for comparison.
Anyways, from what I've been reading on home LED's I would wait another year if anything if anyone wants to install LED's in their home. They should drop in price and have a wider range of options for the home. But if your interested now Cree looks like its the way to go.
After seeing them in action I'm tempted to shell out the 30$ per MR16 LED bulb from Philips for my kitchen when my bulbs start to go out which should be soon.
