All good info, about the LED replacement lighting... but just an FYI...
The company I work for just went through a contractor to replace most of our T8 overhead lighting with equivalent LED bulbs. The bulbs fit into the existing fixtures, once the T8 ballasts were removed. Very bright light, at a high spectrum. I really liked them... until they began falling out of the ceiling.
The internal electronics were located on one end of the bulb, and began over-heating - melting the plastic around the contact pins on that end, which then collapsed. The bulbs were encased in a shatter-proof sheath, so no broken glass... but we were fortunate that no employees were struck by the falling bulbs, there could have been serious injuries. We had to do an emergency change-out over a weekend, to pull out the faulty (and dangerous) LEDs & put the T8s (and their ballasts) back in.
Personally, I like to wait for a new technology to stabilize before jumping in, and this (and Major's observation about big-box LEDs) are great illustrations of why I do so. That not only gives time for the "bugs" to be worked out, it also allows for more competition, leading to better quality & lower prices. When I was trying to decide whether to go with T8s or T5s, an electrician commented to me that the life time of T5s was not yet worth the higher price - hence the T8s. (That was several years ago, maybe the T5s have since improved?) Anyway, as it turned out, the energy consumption per lumen was very comparable between the two anyway. The plants are really healthy under the T8 fixtures, so I am in no hurry to change, and won't have to... did I mention that I have two cases of bulbs???
Oh, and I'm always skeptical of exaggerated lifetime claims for lighting - especially when those claims are used to justify higher prices than the lights they replace. Remember the 7-year claims for compact florescent?
Which I change only
slightly less than the incandescent bulbs they replaced (and we now have to dispose of
toxic bulbs).
I installed 2 (allegedly) long life, dimmable LED bulbs in a lamp post a year ago, and one has already failed... doesn't inspire much confidence in the present state of the technology.
