I use Track Lights with the spot lights about every two feet to give an even lighting to the layout. However I still had hot and cold spots on the backdrop most noticeable. I was never really happy with the hot filament flood bulbs, tried cooler Fluorescent spots but I never really happy with the lighting.
Then one day at the Hardware Store I saw a new light bulb display with the new LED Flood light type of bulbs. I bought one to try out. And I was really impressed how bright and warm an 8 watt LED bulb worked! It was providing a warm tone that made everything look like daylight! I went back down to the store and bought 9 more LED bulbs. I was now lighting my layout with only 80 watts of power and LED bulbs being on for a while are barley warm.
The best part is that the local Power Company are the ones that sponsor the LED bulbs sales. The cost is only $3.99, per bulb compared to the normal cost of over $9.00. Only a $40.00 investment and very happy with my new layout lighting.
For those that have Pacific Power in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, its a great deal. Power companies are looking to reduce power consumption on their grid.
Nothing like that here either. In California, it’s probably an effort to encourage conservation of existing resources considering the costs of building new capacity on the part of the power company. Take advantage of it where you can, most definitely.
In addition to lower power bills, LEDs offer another very important feature, especially over the hot halogens often used in track lighting – they run cool. This was a major plus in my installation as I had about 3 dozen 50 watt halogens. Nearly all are gone, with a few still remaining seeing far more limited use.
Instead of track lighting, I went with LED light strips that are plug-n-play (no transformers) and easy to hang almost anywhere. Unlike the point-source spot effects from track lights, these provide a linear light much like daylight. More in this thread, starting on page 2 IIRC:
Just be sure to get the warm light. I have mostly the cool white in our wine cellar. Up in the train room all I have is the old fashioned class room flourscents that were put in the room when the building was built in the 1940s.
I’ve learned to be picky about this too. But recently I’ve found that the definitions/labeling tend to be more flexible. The LED light strips I use and get from Menards started out being listed as Daylight, with Cool White (bluish) and Warm White (yellowish) options also available. They transitioned to another supplier, with the same choice. Then the Daylight was dropped! I panicked, as I still needed more and wanted them to match. All they had was Warm and Cool White. [:(]
Further inquiry showed they had changed the label on the Daylight ones to Cool White and dropped the bluish ones from the line. Plugging them in confirmed that Cool White was the new Daylight in this particular case. If in doubt, plug them in and compare.
I have gradually made the switch to LED floods for most of my layout lighting and I’m very pleased with the results.
I found CFLs to be too bulky but I had used quite a few during the transition.
Many of my fixtures are recessed and take a MR16 GU-10 lamp as shown below.
When I began with the LEDs they were $16 each. I found a source on Amazon where a box of 6 is $45. Less than half. Only difference is they are 3000k and the others are 2700k but I still like the color temperature.
The light output is nearly identical to the 50 watt halogen and as Mike mentioned, much cooler!
For my track lights I found a really neat gooseneck fixture that the GU-10 socket fits into and I will be getting more of these.
(No time for a photo right now, I’ll post later)
Our power company, First Energy wanted to have a program where they were going to “give” every customer a half dozen CFLs. They were goung to charge for them with the cost spread over one year ($60) and they had the gall to propose to add the cost of your electricity savings (an additional $60) to your bill.
The Ohio Public Utilities Commission finally put a stop to that plan. (they almost allowed it!) and all the CFLs wound up at a thrift shop at 2 for a buck!
I bought some CFL floods for the recessed cans in my train room ceiling. I’ve got regular incandescents in there now. They were a good price and they had a CFL dimmer on sale, too. Next time one of the incandescents goes, I’m going to upgrade the whole ceiling and the dimmer.
Do they have dimmers for LEDs, too? Are they the same as the CFL ones?
A comment on ceiling, can installed, downward facing CFL floods. Be aware that they more often than not do not provide near the advertised life. I use them in the 4 cans in my office (and train room) area and they are not on that often and have not worn out too often. I don’t want the incandescent type there (if allowed to buy them) as I don’t want to turn on 300 watts or so of heat in the summer. The point being that I’m not dead set against them. But in more often used lighting in the house, it seems the CFLs do not last longer to the point of being cost effective. So I use them some places, not others.
I understand that the heat (granted, less wattage) going upward to the ballast in the stem of the bulb can reduce life to less than advertised. Just a consideration. It may be that the LEDs, while pricey, do not suffer this effect and (or incandescents if available) may be more cost effective in some cases. Just IMO.
Most—but not all—LEDs can be dimmed but the dimming range is not as broad as with incandescents. Some people, I have heard, have trouble with certain brands of dimmer switches as well. I have no problem with mine but they only get down to about 25% at the minimum dimmer setting.
Here is the route I’m going with my track light cans…
That’s a 7W MR16 GU-10 3000K lamp in there and as you can see I can crank it around in any direction. When I need light to photograph something on the layout I can just reach up and grab the lamp and aim it where I want.
The Home Depot link says $13 but I just bought 5 at my store and they were $11 ea. (they include a 50W halogen) I put in the LED lamp and I’m still under $20 per head.
I tried some of these little guys as well, they are $16 and look kind of neat, too.
I’d never checked my LED light strips for dimming. They do, however. I used a cheap dimmer. Putting it in line cut output by half with the dimmer full on. It then allowed the LEDs to dim way down. I suspect a better dimmer switch would give you closer to full output available on the dimmer itself.
That is an option. I tend to leave mine either on or off…
[URL=http://s1341.photobucket.com/useI have 3 CFL ‘s that stay on 24/7 for security reasons. The first one burned out after almost 9 years of use, 2nd one just over 9 yrs and I still waiting for the 3rd one to burn out. For the layout, which is a 24" deep around the walls, I’m using strip LED’ s 5050 size 60/meter. They have a remote. I’ll post pictures of me experimenting with them later. I like the idea of being able to adjust the light for different times of day, including night with several shades of blue.
My CFL’s are in track lighting cans. The cans cost $1.67 each (had to settle on brass for that price, white ones were around $8, 8’ of track was around $20. Whole basement lighted including bulbs, less than $300 including bulbs for over 20x30’ space.
I began switching to LED flood lights last year because the electric circuit on which I had daisy chained florescent shop lights had become overloaded. It was about that time I discovered Lowe’s was selling LED flood light bulbs for under $15. For whatever reason, they were several dollars cheaper than smaller bulbs. These put out 1065 lumens and I have found I need one only about every four feet. I bought every one they had in stock and went to several Lowe’s stores to accumlate ten of them. Unfortunately, the ones they carry now of similar size are about twice the cost.
I’m going to use these exclusively on the new section of the layout and overtime, I’m going to replace the shop lights with the LEDs. I still have a number of 4’ florescent bulbs on hand but when I go through these, I will replace them with the LEDs.
