LED layout lighting finally affordable?

[Cajonpassfan]

Modeling southwestern U.S., crisp, directional layout lighting has always been important to me. For reasons I won't go into here, I never liked fluorescent tubes and used halogen floods and low voltage fixtures track lighting in my layout room. Of course the heat generated is not helpful when it's pushing 100 degrees outside and the wattage used is substantial. I did look into LED lighting in the past, but found the price prohibitive and the performance of some of the bulbs masquerading as " Watt Equivalents" wanting...

This weekend I stumbled on a blowout sale at our local Home Depot, with PAR 30 track light heads going for $2.10 (!) each and accompanying 770 lumen LED bulbs for under nine dollars, so a bought a few to test. They are supposedly a 75 Watt equivalent burning 13 Watts (but it's really the lumens produced we're buying). In short, I'm impressed with the output and light quality; the 3000K color has enough warmth in it while the brightness seems representative of our southwestern setting. I think I need to stare at it for a while, but I may run to the store soon to make sure I buy the remaining sale items...

Pics below illustrate my experiment. Before I commit, does anyone else have LED lighting experience? Am I missing anything?
Thanks,
Otto K.

[peteski]

I don't know much about these particular lights, but the CRI of 92 is pretty impressive.  Looks like white LEDs have come a long way.

[np1969]

I'm not sure I agree that it's finally affordable, but the day is coming. I have started to use track lighting with the "60-watt" equivalent daylight LED "bulbs." It takes a lot of them, but the "75 watt" equivalent are three or four times as expensive. I tried the warm 3000k lights, but the 5500k lights seem to be more pleasing for me here in the northwest. I keep watching the prices, but when the "75-watt" LEDs are less than $5, I will try them, and reuse some of the light heads on the other side of the layout. I suppose if I had the lights closer to the layout surface, say three feet, the "60-watt" bulbs would be just fine, but I'm lighting from standard ceiling height. I honestly haven't calculated the cost of the fixtures plus "60-watt" bulb as opposed to fixture plus 3x "75-watt" bulb. Maybe I'm throwing money away, but I'll let the math wizzes figure that out.

[MVW]

I've been using 16" cabinet lights, the Patriot brand sold at Menard's (a big-box home improvement chain in the midwest, maybe elsewhere). Puts out 475 lumens at 10.5 watts. CRI is 82, and the light color is 3000k.  They are dimmable. But the price tag is typically $25 to $30.

I've been happy with the light, but not happy with the price.

So Otto, you're getting about 70 lumens per dollar spent, right? I'm getting 19 tops. I think you win. Sounds like a hellofa deal.

Jim

[Ike the BN Freak]

I don't know much about these particular lights, but the CRI of 92 is pretty impressive.  Looks like white LEDs have come a long way.

What's CRI?  Kind of on, but off, topic, but I got a cell site that has flag pole lighting, and right now it uses Halogen spotlights, however I'm out there every 3-4 months changing out the bulbs. We've looked into LED, but have a feeling part of the issues come from the sprinklers in the area that flood the ground and water is getting into the flood light cans, which I'm sure is shorting out the bulbs.

[peteski]

What's CRI? 

It is how close the light source is to sunlight in rendering colors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_rendering_index

[Cajonpassfan]

CRI stands for "color rendering index" and anything over 90 is considered very good to excellent.
Jim, I'm not sure I "win", but you hit the nail on the head: people are conditioned to think in Watts, when in reality it's about Lumens: the amount of light generated. It's as if people were buying cars thinking more fuel consumption is a good thing; it's performance that matters and while they are related, it's the efficiency of the car (or bulb) that is what's important. In the case of this 13 W LED, getting 770 lumens, focused through a 38 degree lens which can "throw" light some distance is amazing.
The experiment continues...
Otto K.

[wm3798]

LED lighting keeps getting better and cheaper.  I prefer a less direct lighting with softer shadows, but even this can be achieved with the new varieties that have diffusers and color filters. 

Save those watts for your sound decoders!
Lee

[basementcalling]

Modeling southwestern U.S., crisp, directional layout lighting has always been important to me. For reasons I won't go into here, I never liked fluorescent tubes and used halogen floods and low voltage fixtures track lighting in my layout room. Of course the heat generated is not helpful when it's pushing 100 degrees outside and the wattage used is substantial. I did look into LED lighting in the past, but found the price prohibitive and the performance of some of the bulbs masquerading as " Watt Equivalents" wanting...

This weekend I stumbled on a blowout sale at our local Home Depot, with PAR 30 track light heads going for $2.10 (!) each and accompanying 770 lumen LED bulbs for under nine dollars, so a bought a few to test. They are supposedly a 75 Watt equivalent burning 13 Watts (but it's really the lumens produced we're buying). In short, I'm impressed with the output and light quality; the 3000K color has enough warmth in it while the brightness seems representative of our southwestern setting. I think I need to stare at it for a while, but I may run to the store soon to make sure I buy the remaining sale items...

Pics below illustrate my experiment. Before I commit, does anyone else have LED lighting experience? Am I missing anything?
Thanks,
Otto K.

Otto, I wish my Home Steepo would have that sale. I've been looking at track lighting for three areas of my upper deck, but the LED option is too expensive still, and CFL tracks are hard to find in Virginia.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I let the whole basement with LED cans. This was less expensive in the long run compared to alternatives. It also let me use dimmers. Over the layout, I'm using 4 colors of adhesive backed LED ropes: daylight, incandessant, amber and blue. Each one is also on a dimmer. This allows me to adjust lighting to any time of day. I like the continuous light emitted from the rope, as it greatly diminishes the multi-point shadows that can ruin a sense of realism.

I think the entire system together runs something like 250 watts if everything is lit. If this was incandescent, it would be north of 1.5KW.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I let the whole basement with LED cans. This was less expensive in the long run compared to alternatives. It also let me use dimmers. Over the layout, I'm using 4 colors of adhesive backed LED ropes: daylight, incandessant, amber and blue. Each one is also on a dimmer. This allows me to adjust lighting to any time of day. I like the continuous light emitted from the rope, as it greatly diminishes the multi-point shadows that can ruin a sense of realism.

I think the entire system together runs something like 250 watts if everything is lit. If this was incandescent, it would be north of 1.5KW.

Pics?

[jdcolombo]

I've switched completely to LED's.   Instead of R30's however, I mostly use Luxrite R20, 3500K bulbs with a 110-degree beamwidth that I got from Amazon.  They were $15 each, but should last beyond my lifetime (25,000 hours; I have the layout lights on maybe an average of 15 hours a week, or 780 hours per year, which is about 32 years.  If I'm still going at age 92, I'll gladly buy new bulbs!).

I like the 3500K color temp for photography, although the CRI on these bulbs isn't as good as others (it's 80).  But don't forget the beamwidth number if you're using track lighting - narrow beamwidth means you'll need more bulbs (and accompanying track heads) to evenly light the layout; but narrow-beamwidth might be useful for highlighting a particular scene.  While the up-front investment was significant (I've got 30 of these), it's not likely I'll ever need to replace them.   And these are 8-watt bulbs, instead of the 50-watt Halogens I had been using, which means that I'm using only 240 watts instead of 1500 (!) for lighting, and the room stays A LOT cooler - the heat put out by halogen or standard tungsten bulbs is very significant, particularly when you get 30 of them going in a 500-sq.ft. room!

John C.

[Cajonpassfan]

Thanks for your comments, John, appreciate your experience.
One other factor I didn't mention that plays into this is the distance between the head and the scene.... I have a very nice looking but somewhat impractical cathedral ceiling in my train room and need to throw light some distances in certain locations. Because lighting intensity diminishes so dramatically with distance, the narrow beam helps overcome this problem.
As to using stick-on LED strips Daniel, I have a 5 meter strip from MIcro Mark under a narrow shelf lighting up a portion of the lower deck, but the separation there is only about a foot and even so there's barely enough light. Frankly, I don't understand how one could adequately light up a train room using those, but maybe I'm missing something...I'd be curious about about the product you're using.
Regards, Otto

[Skeebo]

     This is a subject my group has been researching for over a year, when my next door neighbor clues me in. LED's are now available in tubes to replace fluorescents. My layout is lit on both levels with fluorescent fixtures which I hate, and I've been wanting to replace them for years. A simple rewiring and you have the perfect alternative, no noise, flicker, heat, they use less energy and put out more light. We discovered a new site; earth LED dot com, and after evaluating four bulbs over my layout I immediately ordered enough to do the whole thing. I rewired my entire upper and lower level lighting in both layout rooms in less than two days.
     They have LED tubes that simply replace fluorescents without rewiring, but surprisingly enough the tubes that you eliminate the ballast cost less. And who wouldn't want to rid themselves of the ballast anyway. Their prices are extremely good and to date they have never charged me tax or shipping, and the tubes arrived in two days! I have no connection to the place except that I'm a very satisfied customer. If you like, check them out at https://www.earthled.com/. I bought the Luceco 2400 lumen bulbs and cannot be happier.

[jdcolombo]

Thanks for your comments, John, appreciate your experience.
One other factor I didn't mention that plays into this is the distance between the head and the scene.... I have a very nice looking but somewhat impractical cathedral ceiling in my train room and need to throw light some distances in certain locations. Because lighting intensity diminishes so dramatically with distance, the narrow beam helps overcome this problem.
As to using stick-on LED strips Daniel, I have a 5 meter strip from MIcro Mark under a narrow shelf lighting up a portion of the lower deck, but the separation there is only about a foot and even so there's barely enough light. Frankly, I don't understand how one could adequately light up a train room using those, but maybe I'm missing something...I'd be curious about about the product you're using.
Regards, Otto

Ah.  Cathedral ceiling?  I'm guessing the layout isn't in a basement 

Yes, my track lighting is only 3' from the layout, so I don't have to worry about light diffusion and the R20 heads and bulbs work great (although I do have a few R30's in recessed cans for general lighting).  LEDs have come a long way; we're slowly replacing everything in the house with them, starting with the recessed can lights, but I've also done a couple of floor lamps.   I never used CFL's because I just didn't like the light output of CFL's - something about them didn't strike me as "right," but I'm pretty happy with today's LED bulbs.  A long way from Edison, but time marches on.

John