Author Topic: LED bulbs in enclosures?  (Read 2910 times)

kudy

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LED bulbs in enclosures?
« on: July 10, 2016, 10:53:57 AM »
Last year I swapped out a lot of light bulbs in my house with Costco LED bulbs (+50% reimbursement from my utility!), but I didn't change any of the bulbs in enclosed light fixtures. The packaging warns against putting the bulbs in enclosures, presumably because they generate heat and the electronics on the bulb are sensitive to high heat?

Should I ignore this warning and not worry about it? About half of the bulbs in my house have yet to be changed over, and while I have the rebate I'd love to get some more for ~$1.50 each.

BlueMR2

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Re: LED bulbs in enclosures?
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2016, 11:18:41 AM »
I ignored the warning and put several CFLs into enclosures a couple years ago.  No problems to report yet.  From what I read it should shorten their lifespan, but I don't really care, I got them for free anyways...  I suppose there's a slight risk that an electronics failure could lead to a fire?

BudgetSlasher

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Re: LED bulbs in enclosures?
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2016, 03:38:59 PM »
I believe you are correct a CFL/LED putting out the same lumens, but using less watts must put out less heat than the comparable incandescent bulb, which means there is no risk to the fixture (and probably no real fire risk either). The only seems to be premature failure.

The warning against fixtures is only totally enclosed fixtures . . . that being said I put the in all of my fixtures including totally enclosed and at the end of two years I have had one 100w equivalent daylight bulb in a bathroom space heater/exhaust fan fixture fail . . . so whether is was the enclosed space in what is the bulb that get the longest and most often use (at least among the totally enclosed) or the fact that it was literally inches away from a space heater that killed it is anyone's guess (the two other space heater combos are still working fine).


NoStacheOhio

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« Last Edit: July 10, 2016, 07:23:04 PM by NoStacheOhio »