Got my GE BrightStiks

BOBBY_G said:

yeah thats what its rated. i put 3 of these in a 3-way splitter side by side and theyre pulling 30 W from the wall, so 10W is accurate.

i wonder if the 760 lumens are with the diffuser or not, they could crack 800 with it removed

76 lumens per watt is nothing to write home about but they are $3 each at home depot and make CFs obsolete around the house

Click to expand...

I bet it's a lot closer to 1,000 & 2,000.
Like the poster earlier said, it's measured in a sphere with it on. This is all focused down in one spot with it off.

well theres a reasont hey call it an integrating sphere- it measures ALL the light

10% loss is expected for a lens/diffuser. 25% would be a lot

BOBBY_G said:

my 10W ones get smokin hot

too hot to touch

as i would expect from 76 lumens/watt =~ 25% efficient

Click to expand...

This is because they dont have a real heatsink. Leds will lose output when they are run to hot. If you can pry the chips off and mount them to an actual heatsink you could cool them correctly. You would also be able to mount the driver/socket outside of the grow area to further reduce heat.

I found some 9w bulbs at lowes for $1 each over the holidays. At 10¢ per watt it is a cheap way to source a driver/led.

I think the L/w published on the box is relatively meaningless because, as mentioned in this thread, that measures how the diffusion cap disperses light omnidirectionally. With a Cree (88 L/w) you have to mount it in a reflector to get directional light.

The diffusor can be removed from it and the GE for more light. But, the Cree is designed to be omnidirectional. It still has to be reflected into a directional. The GE is basically directional by design. So, even though the 10w (60w equiv) is only 76 L/w on the box, it delivers 23% more light than a Cree (both mounted in a reflector. I haven't compared an unreflected GE to reflected Cree. I imagine it's 50% more light.).

Something I've wondered about: If we cut the diffusion cap off, but leave 3/4" remaining, could the inside of that ridge be painted white and serve as an integrated reflector to collect some of the light that goes off 90-degrees to the sides?

I remember reading fumes from things like silicon is harmful to the phosphors on COBs. I wonder if acrylic white paint fumes would harm the diodes.

I think a slightly better candidate light is the Phillips 14.5w (100w equiv) A19. (the round light, not the flat-top). That's 1500 lumens (103 L/w) compared to GE's (16w/100w equiv) 94 L/w.

If the Phillips diodes are front facing too, then it should be significantly more L/w than the Cree (omni by design, must be reflected).

That's a really good idea! I ripped em all off though so I can't reuse them. But they're in those hoods I made and you can tell there's a definite it footprint. So I believe it's working as intended. But, you could just line the inside of the diffuser cut off with foil tape or he'll even mylar.

Airwalker16 said:

That's a really good idea! I ripped em all off though so I can't reuse them. But they're in those hoods I made and you can tell there's a definite it footprint. So I believe it's working as intended. But, you could just line the inside of the diffuser cut off with foil tape or he'll even mylar.

Click to expand...

That's a good idea. The foil "duct tape" would be easy to line inside the GE's diffusor. It's already sticky on one side.

I'd like to get a Phillips 14.5w (100w equiv) to see what it looks like with the diffusor removed. Its base kind of flares out a lot. If the diodes are forward facing (like the GE BrightStik) and *recessed* inside that flared base, that could be a slightly better "reflector" by design.

But, this is quibbling over minor details. The BrightStik delivers massively more light where it's needed than hanging unreflected CFLs in mid-air (even inside a turkey-pan reflector. I don't think those work well to reflect a cluster of CFLs, not like reflecting individual bulbs. And then the BrightStick is already reflected by design.).

I could understand the reluctance of CFL users to spend $12 on a Cree A19. It's only 50% more light, you still have to reflect it. But, the GE 10w costs about as much as a CFL but is 4.8 times more light than an unreflected CFL.

Ya that's why I switched. I would have used 5000k 60w brightstiks on the 3 sockets I didn't buy any for, but I used the CFs solely for uv benefits.

just came from costco. bought a 10 pack of the Feit brand 5000K "100W replacement" bulbs @ $49

like the brightstiks, the "100W" replacements are a lot more efficient than the "60W" replacements at lm/W

"100W" brightstik are only available in warm white and i wanted them for cuts...

these "100W" Feits put out 1500 lumens at 14W (vs 760 lumens@10W for the "60W"... thats 40% more efficient

imma pop off the cover i hope they are directional like the brightstiks

they also had a 2-tube led shoplight for $25. 4000K, 38 watts, 3700 lumens

Ya I hope yours are forward facing too! Put up pics!

Airwalker16 said:

Ya that's why I switched. I would have used 5000k 60w brightstiks on the 3 sockets I didn't buy any for, but I used the CFs solely for uv benefits.

Click to expand...

white cfs have negligible uv

unless youre using a dedicated reptile bulb, dont expect much

Airwalker16 said:

Ya I hope yours are forward facing too! Put up pics!

Click to expand...

at the risk of double posting, this belongs here, so ill repost from the other thread

Ahhh yeah... these are gonna crush. the globe pops off easily with no tools and all the LEDs face forward. blindingly bright without the globe, ill rig some of these up in my tent and get some par/spectrum measurements.

Must be a brand new product, cant find it anywhere on costcos or feit's site. the only close comparison must be an older generation and are 3 times as much

this part number is CEA1500/5K/LED/10, sku 17801 14330

some pics for you guys

Very similar!

I'm gonna have to go to Costco and teSt my luck! I could use some 5000k for my veg room

see if they have the same thing in 2700k. i cant remember

No, I have 2650 & 2800k already. I need what you have for veg, 5000k. Ge only makes in 6500k if I remember right.

How easy were the tops to get off those ones? GE is simple on the 60w equiv. The 100ws are a bitch though.

some were glued better than others. some almost fell off, others were more work. i didnt spend more than 2 min on the worst one. just wedged a screwdriver in and pried around a couple times

I just don't see the excitement with rigging up all the bulb holders it's gonna take and still barely breaking 100 lumens/watt?

OneHitDone said:

I just don't see the excitement with rigging up all the bulb holders it's gonna take and still barely breaking 100 lumens/watt?

Click to expand...

Because it's forward facing light without their diffusers. The lumen output is actually a lot greater than the box says that way. And you saying that is like saying it's not effective using cfls. People grow beautiful stuff with them. LEDs are more efficient and have a much better overall spectrum of usable light than cfls do and are a lot cooler than they run as well. It's a great way to get into LED rather than cobs for people who can't spend that kind of coin.

Airwalker16 said:

Because it's forward facing light without their diffusers. The lumen output is actually a lot greater than the box says that way. And you saying that is like saying it's not effective using cfls. People grow beautiful stuff with them. LEDs are more efficient and have a much better overall spectrum of usable light than cfls do and are a lot cooler than they run as well. It's a great way to get into LED rather than cobs for people who can't spend that kind of coin.

Click to expand...

COBs is more a thing that takes some time to research rather than cost. (diy)