Re: [PLUG] OT: LED bulbs from PECO

["Eric H. Johnson" <ejohnson@camalytics.com>]

JP,

Most of the LEDs are AC, it is many of the fluorescents that require
ballasts, so the LEDs will come in two types, AC and retrofit. The retrofit
will work with existing ballasts without any rewiring, while, if ballasts
exist, the direct AC bulbs will require bypassing the ballasts. There are
kits available for this. The AC bulbs will tend to be a bit less expensive
than the retrofits.

I am talking mainly about the T-8 type tube lighting, GX23 / GX24, etc. I am
not sure how the fluorescent light bulbs work, if they have a built in
ballast. 

Last fall we replaced about 150 t-8 tube lights at my condo with the LED
retrofits. The bulbs were $9.99 each, but we got $1120 in incentives from
PECO. These lights are on all the time, and thus we have been seeing about
$150 reduction per month in the commons PECO bill over from the same time
last year (16 Watts per bulb savings). The direct AC T-8s were $8.99 and the
ballasts have a slight draw too, but we could not justify the cost of
rewiring so used the retrofit. With just changing the bulbs we were able to
do it with volunteers. Rewiring would have required hiring someone.

Regards,
Eric  


Bonus question I have thus far failed to figure out.  Why can I plug a
$5 string of Christmas lights directly into 120v AC and they Just Work, yet
all these LED bulbs require fancy transformers and whatever in them? 
  WTH can't I just take the LEDs from the string, bundle them together, and
plug them straight in?


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