Sylvania Dimmable Floodlights At Lowes

[BrightChristmas 0]

Was at the Lowes tonight and saw a dimmable PAR38 flood light by Sylvania that is rated as a 75W equivalent.

Some of the specs:

Claims to be dimmable to 10%

18 Watts

25-degree beam angle (closer to a spot in my opinion)

Warmer white (3000K)

Suitable for use in damp locations

Price: $54.98 -- haven't found them cheaper online.

They had a display at my Lowes and these were incredibly bright.

Sylvania Link: http://assets.sylvania.com/assets/Documents/RETRO037.a1ac6ff6-694c-489e-8b6f-688f320a11cc.pdf

Lowes Link: http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay?partNumber=93853-3-78495&langId=-1&storeId=10151&productId=3262291&catalogId=10051&cmRelshp=sim&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

I'd like to get any input on the dimmability claims and how weatherproof they appear to be (my application uses them pointing up so they need to be weatherproof or capable of being covered in clear plastic).

If these are new, then I may have to buy one and start testing it.

[rescue_653 10]

Do you want to use the Sylvania? I know Lowes is carrying about 3 different brands of LED's now and one of the others claims to be dimmable. Atleast the one we have here has several to choose from. I had not seen one on till the other day when we were at Chillis restraunt and they had all there lights changed to the LED lights and I was impressed. Reallity is though you should be able to cover the lights to water proof them seeing no more heat that they should produce.

[BrightChristmas 0]

And I'm at Home Depot tonight and notice they have their own competing version under the EcoSmart label (made by Lighting Science Group Corp.) for around $46.

I picked up one of their 125W models to test.

Specs:

1300 lumens!

24 watt consumption

Dimmable

3000K

Suitable for damp locations, but this one definitely says not to be used where it will get wet. Although by looking at the light, there is a couple places that clearly need sealing, but after that, it should be watertight.

Now, I haven't found a definitive beam angle on these, and this item appears to be a home-depot special item, but Lighting Science sells similar bulbs and calls them Spot (15 degrees), narrow flood (25 degrees), and flood (40 degrees) with the part designators SP, NFL, and FL. The HD part number has FL, so this implies a 40-degree angle.

[nutz4lights 2]

FYI. The most expensive bulb that Minions Webs sells is $37 for one ($30.40 if you buy 6)... these are fully dimmable and bright... they are warm white and have 120 LEDs in them... PAR38.

PAR38 bulbs @ Minions Web

Seems like paying $45-55 at Home Depot or Lowes is alot of money compared to $37 (or $30 if you are going to buy several of these).

[darrenv 0]

FYI. The most expensive bulb that Minions Webs sells is $37 for one ($30.40 if you buy 6)... these are fully dimmable and bright... they are warm white and have 120 LEDs in them... PAR38.

I have used hundreds of Minions LED over the past 3-4 years. I love the color. Perfectly dimmable. Long lasting - with the exception that the glass front/cover falls off during the season about 30% of the time. The seal around the glass front is very poor. I've never understood why they need the glass cover to begin with since the LED's are encased is some sort of water tight resin.

Mainly I love the minion bulbs because of the color and the size variety - they carry several different sizes.

I recommend them even with the glass front problem.

[BrightChristmas 0]

I've ordered from MW multiple times in the past and just bought 5 of their infrared PAR38's to light up the display for the security cameras. Great service and great products!

Looking at the warm white 120-LED PAR38 spots, it looks like the beam angle is about 40 degrees and the lumen output is 617.5 lumens -- consuming a little over 6 watts.

So, it looks to replace a 60-watt equivalent.

I suspect for many applications, that will work fine. I'm trying to get a narrow spot with as high an intensity as possible. We get fog on many nights during the holiday season and having the spot lights cutting through the fog over the heads of the observers is a really neat effect (see the pic at the top of the www.folsomlights.com page).

Similarly, I'm trying my own RGB spots using modules from the Lighting Science Group: http://www.lsgc.com/dmdocuments/Titan_Datasheet_FM-0168_Rev_052108.pdf

I have the module in hand and will be testing it shortly. With all LED's on, it should output 1303 lumens. Individual colors: Red (435 lumens), Green (685 lumens), and Blue (183 lumens). And I'll be running it through a narrow beam lens (11 degrees with 70% efficiency). Cost of such a setup will probably end up at about $150 per fixture, and will be a true RGB mix instead of individual RGB bulbs. Once it is up and running, I'll report back on the results.