2nd Generation 5W LED Bulb 230VAC

Neat little 2nd generation 5W LED bulb using the remote phosphor technology. This is bulb is built using low tech methods as it is essentially hand assembled from the various components as shown.
This bulb needed proper ventilation to operate and will not operate properly in a enclosded lamp shade as overheating will shut down the bulb.

 

To allow for additional heat transfer another aluminium disk
is added to the LED module. This become necessary since

the design of the main heat sink body did not faciliate a large

contact surface with the LED module. Surprisingly this is effective

in sinking the heat to the main bulb body as it is become hot to

the touch when in operation.

The LED driver with the waxed insulating paper wrapper

in the background.

 

The various parts of the 5W LED bulb. LED module, heat sink

lamp base, driver module, clamp ring, insulation paper, tape

to hold insulation around the driver module.

Inside look of the main heat sink body of the LED bulb.
The large cavity reduce the heat sinking ability, but is needed

in order to house the driver module.

 

Blue Green LED Ambient Mood LED Lights - From Recycled Outdoor White LED Lights

The electrical characteristics of 5mm blue and green leds are quite similar to the white LEDs used in this outdoor white LED light.

Simply replacing the white LEDs with the green and blue LEDs gives me a pair of not too bad ambient LED light. Needs careful desoldering of the white LEDs so as not to damage the PCB.

You can get newer and better LED ambient LED lights at affordable prices nowadays, but this project is just an excercise in recycling.

Here are the results. The saturated colors reflected of the walls is due to the Olympus camera which does take pictures well in low light condition. The pictures are taken with just the LED ambient light on. Light output in this case is lowered because the acrylic cover from the old light housing is yellow with age due to many years of exposure to UV from staying out in the sun.

100 Watt Equivalent LED Bulbs

As of today most lighting manufactureres has announced the 100 Watt Equivalent LED Bulb:

1.  GE Lighting's 27 W Energy Smart

2. Switch Lighting's 100 W-replacement LED light bulbs

3. Osram Sylvania's Sylvania Ultra series: a 20 W, 1600 lumen light bulb with a warm, "incandescenty" color appearance of 2700 K.

4. Philips The 23-watt EnduraLED Philips LED bulb

A LED Ceiling Light Lamp From Recycled Outdoor LED Lamp

This LED ceiling lamp is made completely from recycle parts : the old GE D-type flourescent bulb housing, the LED modules from the first generation LED outdoor light, the AC step down transformer, the AC/DC rectifier, the wires come from old PC power supply.

Surprsingly, it is almost as bright as a Philips myVision 6W LED light bulb costing about SGD15.

Specifications: 
AC 220VAC input 12V DC output
Power about 8 Watts.
Lumens: A comfortable level for a small room to watch TV or browse the Internet or just laze around.

Uses 12 first generation LED modules from outdoor LED lamps. These are connected in a series parallel configuration. As each LED modules needs about 6.5V DC, connected 2 LED modules in series allow them to be powered by a easily available 12V DC power supply. So this ceiling lights uses 6 LED modules connected in parallel which is then connected with another parallel connected assembly of 6 LED modules.

There are two hues from the LED modules, a yellowish hue and a violet hues due to the different characteristics of  the LEDs used in the modules. But the camera is not able to capture this very well.

12 LED modules are installed in this recycle flourescent lamp ceiling fixture.

A tried and test transformer and diodes circuit provides 12V DC

Diiferent shade of white light causes by different characteristics
of LEDs used in the LED modules.

This LED ceiling light is bright enough to take a picture with.

A video taken with the first generationLED ceiling light.
Not bright enough for video. Ceiling light is turn off near
the end of the video leaving the computer screen
barely visible.

This Philips AmbientLED A19 60W LED Energy Saving Light Bulb Can Last 20 Years.

This new Philips 60W LED light bulb will last for 20 years. Launch on Earth Day 2012 to replace the 60W incandescent bulb, it cost between USD20 to USD60.

This LED bulb also goes by the trade name of myAmbiance LED bulb for a E27 socket, retailing at S$78.10.

The unique design allows the normally directional LED light to be emitted from all sides of the bulb giving it the same illumination pattern as a incandescent bulb. This allows it to directly replaces all 60W incandescent bulb in most lighting applications.

This LED bulb is designed by Philips for the L Prize challenge in the U.S:

Quote:

"The U.S. Department of Energy today announced that Philips Lighting North America has won the 60-watt replacement bulb category of the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize (L Prize) competition."

Unquote.

Requirements for the 60 Watt incandescent LED replacement, as laid out by DOE, include:

• Efficacy of more than 90 lumens per watt, exceeding the efficiency of all incandescent and most compact fluorescent sources today, ranging from 10 to 60 lumens per watt
• Energy consumption of less than 10 watts as compared to a 60 Watt incandescent
• Output of more than 900 lumens, equivalent to a 60 Watt incandescent light bulb
• Lifetime of more than 25,000 hours, which is 25X greater than a typical incandescent bulb
• Color Rendering Index (CRI) greater than 90, which is a high measure of lighting quality
• Color Temperature between 2700 – 3000 Kelvin, which is “warm” white light comparable to incandescent

The Results

	L Prize Requirement	Philips Result
Luminous flux (lumens, lm)	> 900 lm	910 lm
Wattage (W)	≤ 10 W	9.7 W
Efficacy (lm/W)	> 90 lm/W	93.4 lm/W
Correlated color temperature (CCT)	2700 – 3000 K	2727 K
Color rendering index (CRI)	> 90	93

Data taken from http://www.philips.com/

A Weather Proofed Outdoor LED Light - How It Is Made

This outdoor led light is an early generation led light using 28 small ultrabright LEDs. Power consumption is about 1.5W to 2W. AC input is 230VAC. This is one of the 2830 odd  that lights up the designer domes of the Esplanade Theatres and Esplanade Concert Hall and are currently in the process of replaced by the Esplanade Theatres with new generations more energy efficient and programmable colored LED lightings.

It has been designed for high reliability with the LEDs driven at about 8mA of current, well below the nominal of about 20mA for such LEDs. Measurement shows that the LEDs used norminally have a forward voltage drop of 2.8V.The LEDs are all connected in parallel each with its own 470 ohm current limiting resistor. This configuration allows the LED light to still work even if a few LEDs burns out. The power supply is a proven and simple step down transformer giving 6VAC and  2 rectifier diodes and a smoothing capacitor giving 6.5V DC when all the LEDs are lighted. The LEDs could potentially be driven with 12VDC increasing the operating current to about 20mA, but the increased in brightness seems marginal and the 470 ohm resistor get very warm to the touch. However 8mA seems like a good choice since the LEDs lights are just to illuminate the domes at night.

A Inside Look At A Disassembled Outdoor LED Light.

The LED Lamps are connected in parallel ( daisy-chained ) so for each lamp
there are two AC power cables connected via joins inside the housing.
Making these joints outside the housing will simplify installation and maintenance
but may increase initial costs because weather-proof  electrical T-joints will be needed.

This particular light seems to be better weather sealed.



There seems to be a bit of corrosion inside due to the seepage of moisture or water.

The aluminium clamp ring. Note the use of two different types of screws.
Two screws are fastened directly to the threaded hole in the aluminium case.
Two screws needs a nut each, these are difficult to fastern as an additional tool
needs to be use to hold the nut stationary while turning the screw. This can be
difficult if the LED light is mounted in difficult to acess locations.
This may have contributed to the less than perfect weather proofing in the LED lamp.

Simple robust proven AC DC power supply using a
step down transformer and 2 diodes and a filter capacitor.

A corroded electrical terminal. Because many lights are use they need to be chained up
electrically. This requires the use of T-joints to distribute the electrical power.
Putting the T-joints inside the loght casing in this case makes maintenace difficult.
A better way is to use weather proof T-joints outside the lamp, with only one cable going into the case.

Cable gland for the AC power cable. Two needed for each LED lamp.

At about 10mA for each LED, it is still pretty bright.
The LEDs are operating just before they reach forward voltage saturation,
which makes them quite efficient in terms of lumens/watt.