Electrical question

[Freefaller]

Last year I replaced three outside porch lights with LED Lights. It was nice not having to replace light bulbs. Now my front door porch light has begun to flash instead of a steady light. Anyone have an idea why this happens? Is this something that can be easily fixed or do i need to replace the fixtures?

 

[Bean Machine]

Last year I replaced three outside porch lights with LED Lights. It was nice not having to replace light bulbs. Now my front door porch light has begun to flash instead of a steady light. Anyone have an idea why this happens? Is this something that can be easily fixed or do i need to replace the fixtures?

Most, if not all LED lights have a transformer built in. The LED doesn't go bad, but the transformer will, which effectively means you have to to replace the light anyways...although you do save $$ from using the LED

 

[Chris0nllyn]

Driver is bad. Replace the light.

 

[GWguy]

Most LEDs are not weatherproof. The electronics fail. It costs a little more, but find a weatherproof LED.

 

[limblips]

If the light has a photocell it could be going bad. Most likely the bulb but....

 

[Clem72]

Most LEDs are not weatherproof. The electronics fail. It costs a little more, but find a weatherproof LED.

Most will also overheat if used in an enclosed fixture.

 

[LightRoasted]

If I may ...

Ahhh. The panacea that is LED lights. Bring back the incandescent I say. As an aside. I wonder if other Nations were/have been forced to dump incandescents to use LEDs? Or is this phenomenon solely American?

 

[GregV814]

Ahhhhh,

the internal combustion engine. The newfangled modem of power generation!
I say let’s return to the equine..

How that answers the posters question is in doubt.

 

[GURPS]

I say let’s return to the equine..

I'm not sure we could grow enough hay to feed all the horses required to replace EVERY Car

 

[spr1975wshs]

I'm not sure we could grow enough hay to feed all the horses required to replace EVERY Car

But, we would have a surfeit of manure to compost for fertilizer.

 

[limblips]

But, we would have a surfeit of manure to compost for fertilizer.

We could send bloomer some for his farm.

 

[officeguy]

I found that they don't last nearly as long as advertised. I keep replacing LED bulbs that are not all that old. If you keep your receipt you can sometimes get the manufacturer to replace them, but that just gets you another shitty replacement bulb.

 

[PeoplesElbow]

I found that they don't last nearly as long as advertised. I keep replacing LED bulbs that are not all that old. If you keep your receipt you can sometimes get the manufacturer to replace them, but that just gets you another shitty replacement bulb.

The LED itself will burn forever, it's parts that convert the 115 AC to the ~2v DC that are made way too cheap.

I put up some tape LED under my cabinets a couple years ago and they are on about 10 hrs a day without problem so far. I did put in a good DC power supply.

 

[Goldenhawk]

I found that they don't last nearly as long as advertised. I keep replacing LED bulbs that are not all that old. If you keep your receipt you can sometimes get the manufacturer to replace them, but that just gets you another shitty replacement bulb.

My experience is quite different.

I made the switch to LEDs when they first came out in serious quantity. I think it might have been 6-8 years now. Since then I have replaced exactly four bulbs in a 3000 sq ft house.

Before, I had two big boxes full of CFL and incandescent replacement bulbs, and I was constantly making replacements, maybe one every two weeks; ever since, I rarely visit those boxes. So from my experience, LEDs are vastly preferable.

There's little rhyme or reason to my brand selection; half have been the Lowes brand, for example, but plenty have been a scattering of other types. I have avoided the Dollar Store or Walmart quality level of LED bulbs, so it's possible they're much worse, which wouldn't suprise me. You do get what you pay for with electronics.

 

[officeguy]

GE and Lowe's house brand. And yes, it's the itty bitty switching power supply that dies, not the LED itself. I readily admit that they are an improvement over CFLs, those were just awful.

 

[GopherM]

Most LEDs are not weatherproof. The electronics fail. It costs a little more, but find a weatherproof LED.

That was my experience. I had an LED installed above a shower that kept failing until I replaced it with one designed for damp environments. I have several outside lights, all waterproof, and they have been burning for over 5 years with no problem.

 

[kom526]

That was my experience. I had an LED installed above a shower that kept failing until I replaced it with one designed for damp environments. I have several outside lights, all waterproof, and they have been burning for over 5 years with no problem.

I put a combination fan/LED light in our walk in shower and it has not failed in 3 plus years. I did put dusk to dawn LEDs with a built in photo cell in my outdoor fixtures and one of them blinks every 5 minutes or so which is irritating as hell. (Just haven't had the time to buy a replacement yet.)

 

[GWguy]

As I've been rebuilding the house, I've replaced all the lights with LED, but not just the bulb in the original sockets. The entire fixture gets replaced. The whole kitchen is LED with no failures in 3 years. I replaced the outdoor flood lights with LEDs at least 5 years ago, still fine. The down side is that many LEDs don't play well with electronic timers. I have an X-10 system running many of my lights, and only the ones that have an external transformer work well.

 

[Gilligan]

I'm not using LEDs where incandescent bulbs are, but I replaced all my shop and office 4' flouro tubes with LED tubes and am loving the improved light and, especially, vastly improved longevity. We were constantly replacing flouro tubes and ballasts before the changeover.

 

[itsbob]

Epstein didn't kill himself