Slashdot Mirror

Then a socket set with a straight socket. Another common tool mostly useless for plumbing.

Do you mean something like the thing for replacing spark plugs? It would be fine for attaching a faucet - if there was no pipe attached.

Are you honestly saying that tools a regular person bought to, say, work on a car, would work for replacing a toilet or faucet?

Did I write anything remotely like that?

http://www.homedepot.com/p/BrassCraft-12-in-Steel-Basin-Wrench-T151/100006605#.UZmqOSJ9sYV

Eleven bucks. A plumber's going to charge four times that for turning up.

As much as I love CREE LEDs in general, I prefer Philips 10.5-watt bulb. The bulb itself it more aesthetically pleasing (in my opinion) and it diffuses the light better (the CREE focuses all the bulbs in one area and its very apparent from the very bright spot in the middle). I own six of them. Home Depot sells them for $27.97 for a two pack.

Are we talking about the same CREE LED bulbs?

I bought two of the new CREE bulbs, a 40W and 60W equivalent and the light distribution is very even, though if you look at the bulb it is slightly dim at the top. While I haven't tried the 10.5W Philips bulb you linked to, it looks like it would be darker than normal at the bottom of the bulb.

Now the Philips L-Prize bulb is awesome in performance - even more efficient than the other bulbs mentioned above industry leading CRI and light distribution - but it's even funnier looking at the funny looking Philips bulb you linked to above. The L-Prize bulb initially sold for $35-45 each. The price has been cut to $15 now at Home Depot, but they generally have very low quantities of these now, it's very apparent that the normal looking Cree at a lower price is killing it in sales.

The cost per lumen of LEDs has held the technology back as a viable replacement for incandescent bulbs for all-purpose commercial and residential lighting.

Really? CREE started distributing LED bulbs a month or two ago through Home Depot for less than $10 each. I own two of them.

450 lumens for $9.97 is 0.0222 per lumen. It's rated to last 22.8 years. That's $0.0010 per lumen per year of use.

Let's compare that to an "equivalent" (the cree is a 40-watt equivalent bulb) incandescent bulb. $8.77 for a pack of 6 is $1.46 per bulb.

300 lumens for $1.46 is $0.0049 per lumen. But it's only rated to last 0.9 years. That's $0.0544 per lumen per year of use. It's more than 54 times more expensive than the CREE. That's before you look at the electricity you'll be saving (6 watts to get more light than you would out of a 40 watt incandescent).

Home Depot is also selling CREE's 60-watt equivalent:

800 lumens for $12.97 is 0.0162 per lumen.It's rated to last 22.8 years. That's $0.0007 per lumen per year of use. The incandescent is 77 times more expensive.

As much as I love CREE LEDs in general, I prefer Philips 10.5-watt bulb. The bulb itself it more aesthetically pleasing (in my opinion) and it diffuses the light better (the CREE focuses all the bulbs in one area and its very apparent from the very bright spot in the middle). I own six of them. Home Depot sells them for $27.97 for a two pack.

800 lumens for $13.99 is $0.0175 per lumen. Rated to last 18.3 years. That's $0.0010 per lumen per year of use. If I'm going to spent the next two decades with a bulb, I'll spend the extra three hundredths of a cent per lumen on something I really like. Still less than one fiftieth the cost of an incandescent per lumen.

The only things I see holding back LED bulbs are misinformation and lack of availability (Home Depot is the only major brick and mortar store I've found that carries them). That, and some freaky designs that don't look like light bulbs... I bought one of these out of curiosity, and its appearance, on or off, just irritates me for some reason... if I was redesigning my living room to look like Quark's, I'd go with these all the way, but since I'm not "that guy" it's in a lamp that I almost never use. Which means it will probably outlive me. It may even survive to the 24th century and end up in Quark's.

The cost per lumen of LEDs has held the technology back as a viable replacement for incandescent bulbs for all-purpose commercial and residential lighting.

Really? CREE started distributing LED bulbs a month or two ago through Home Depot for less than $10 each. I own two of them.

450 lumens for $9.97 is 0.0222 per lumen. It's rated to last 22.8 years. That's $0.0010 per lumen per year of use.

Let's compare that to an "equivalent" (the cree is a 40-watt equivalent bulb) incandescent bulb. $8.77 for a pack of 6 is $1.46 per bulb.

300 lumens for $1.46 is $0.0049 per lumen. But it's only rated to last 0.9 years. That's $0.0544 per lumen per year of use. It's more than 54 times more expensive than the CREE. That's before you look at the electricity you'll be saving (6 watts to get more light than you would out of a 40 watt incandescent).

Home Depot is also selling CREE's 60-watt equivalent:

800 lumens for $12.97 is 0.0162 per lumen.It's rated to last 22.8 years. That's $0.0007 per lumen per year of use. The incandescent is 77 times more expensive.

As much as I love CREE LEDs in general, I prefer Philips 10.5-watt bulb. The bulb itself it more aesthetically pleasing (in my opinion) and it diffuses the light better (the CREE focuses all the bulbs in one area and its very apparent from the very bright spot in the middle). I own six of them. Home Depot sells them for $27.97 for a two pack.

800 lumens for $13.99 is $0.0175 per lumen. Rated to last 18.3 years. That's $0.0010 per lumen per year of use. If I'm going to spent the next two decades with a bulb, I'll spend the extra three hundredths of a cent per lumen on something I really like. Still less than one fiftieth the cost of an incandescent per lumen.

The only things I see holding back LED bulbs are misinformation and lack of availability (Home Depot is the only major brick and mortar store I've found that carries them). That, and some freaky designs that don't look like light bulbs... I bought one of these out of curiosity, and its appearance, on or off, just irritates me for some reason... if I was redesigning my living room to look like Quark's, I'd go with these all the way, but since I'm not "that guy" it's in a lamp that I almost never use. Which means it will probably outlive me. It may even survive to the 24th century and end up in Quark's.

Here's some math: my kids waste about 1KW 24/7 by not turning lights off. Our house stays lit up all the time. If there are 100M families like mine out of the 1.6B viewers who watched last year's event, there's about 100GW just waiting to be saved through turning off lights when you leave a room.

Even better, how about just replacing all the 60W bulbs in my house (about 100 of them) with $13 Cree LED bulbs? I'd cost me $1,300, but I'd save about $700/year (900W * 24hours/day * 356days/year * 0.08/KWH). Payback time: under 2 years. Sweet.

Not True.
Beautiul warm white light. 80CRI. 10 year warranty. 60W equivalent. $13
http://www.homedepot.com/p/CREE-9-5-Watt-60W-Warm-White-2700K-LED-Light-Bulb-1-Pack-BA19-08027OMF-12DE26-1U100/203991774#.UUSCORzvvq4
Or $10 for the 40W equivalent
http://www.homedepot.com/p/CREE-6-Watt-40W-Warm-White-2700K-LED-Light-Bulb-1-Pack-BA19-04527OMF-12DE26-1U100/203991778#.UUSDzhzvvq4
LED's are here. Discalimer: I work at Cree.

Not True.
Beautiul warm white light. 80CRI. 10 year warranty. 60W equivalent. $13
http://www.homedepot.com/p/CREE-9-5-Watt-60W-Warm-White-2700K-LED-Light-Bulb-1-Pack-BA19-08027OMF-12DE26-1U100/203991774#.UUSCORzvvq4
Or $10 for the 40W equivalent
http://www.homedepot.com/p/CREE-6-Watt-40W-Warm-White-2700K-LED-Light-Bulb-1-Pack-BA19-04527OMF-12DE26-1U100/203991778#.UUSDzhzvvq4
LED's are here. Discalimer: I work at Cree.

Disclaimer: I make these for a living, hence posting as AC. LED light bulbs are available here in the US, and have broken the $10 barrier. Their time has come.
Beautiful warm white light, 10 year warranty (Cree)
$10 for a 40W equivalent at Home Depot
http://www.homedepot.com/p/CREE-6-Watt-40W-Warm-White-2700K-LED-Light-Bulb-1-Pack-BA19-04527OMF-12DE26-1U100/203991778#.UUSCARzvvq4
$13 for 60W equivalent
http://www.homedepot.com/p/CREE-9-5-Watt-60W-Warm-White-2700K-LED-Light-Bulb-1-Pack-BA19-08027OMF-12DE26-1U100/203991774#.UUSCORzvvq4

Disclaimer: I make these for a living, hence posting as AC. LED light bulbs are available here in the US, and have broken the $10 barrier. Their time has come.
Beautiful warm white light, 10 year warranty (Cree)
$10 for a 40W equivalent at Home Depot
http://www.homedepot.com/p/CREE-6-Watt-40W-Warm-White-2700K-LED-Light-Bulb-1-Pack-BA19-04527OMF-12DE26-1U100/203991778#.UUSCARzvvq4
$13 for 60W equivalent
http://www.homedepot.com/p/CREE-9-5-Watt-60W-Warm-White-2700K-LED-Light-Bulb-1-Pack-BA19-08027OMF-12DE26-1U100/203991774#.UUSCORzvvq4

Home Depot has a flush mount fixture that looks exactly like the one from Lowes. Probably came from the same factory in China.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc1vZ12ky/R-203607579/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053

And Home Depot also has a flush mount fixture with similar styling that takes two bulbs. I have a stairwell that it is really a pain to reach the fixture, and I plan to put one of these to light it, with two Phillips 12.5 Watt LED bulbs.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100166374/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053

Home Depot has a flush mount fixture that looks exactly like the one from Lowes. Probably came from the same factory in China.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc1vZ12ky/R-203607579/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053

And Home Depot also has a flush mount fixture with similar styling that takes two bulbs. I have a stairwell that it is really a pain to reach the fixture, and I plan to put one of these to light it, with two Phillips 12.5 Watt LED bulbs.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100166374/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053

Can you get standard light fitting LED bulbs which put out the equivalent of more like 5000 lumen? I'd love something to replace my 60W CFL bulb (that's actual watt not equivalent).

At 200 lumens per watt, that would work out to a 25w LED bulb.

I haven't found (or looked for) anything that puts out that much light in a single bulb. Is this an outdoor security flood?

The light I referenced is http://www.homedepot.com/EcoSmart/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ4b8/R-202240932/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&storeId=10051#.UOB5rOj2GG8.

Heh... This failure you're showing the video of would have happened with CFLs, LEDs, etc. Anything other than a regular incandescent- and if you exceed the rating of the fixture, you can have a fire there too. I question the determination that LED bulbs in the enclosed fixtures caused the fires- they don't produce enough heat to die and catch fire like is being ascribed. The failure in the video isn't heat related- defective electronics (defective ballasts, etc. can cause fires...).

And, I question the video you're showing us. Strikes me as faked- the squalling noise is arcing in the circuit from 110v AC followed by the LED's failing. IF it was doing as ascribed and not staged, the bulb wouldn't have lit initially on turn-on. Moreover, it's NOT a Sylvania bulb as ascribed in the video- the shown bulb is a $10 Ecosmart bulb from Home Depot- as a Home Depot exclusive.

Shown Bulb

Comparable Bulb from Sylvania purchasable at Lowes

Quite simply, what you linked to is liable to be BS.

A year ago, I had no idea who "Cree" might be.

Then I bought one of these:

http://www.fenixlight.com/viewproduct.asp?id=151

It's the best pocket flashlight I have ever owned. Bright and useful on "low" power (32 Lumens) and very bright on high (105 Lumens). 500 minutes of light (over 8 hours) from a single AA cell on low, or 110 minutes on high. (I'm trusting the manufacturer's numbers here, but I can verify that it actually is bright and lasts a long time.) Anyway, that's a Cree LED, and it doesn't have the horrible bluish tint of older LEDs I have bought in the past.

More recently I bought an Ecosmart light bulb at Home Depot. "Ecosmart" is a Home Depot house brand, and uses Cree LED chips. For $10 I got a light bulb that claims to give equivalent light to a 40 Watt incandescent bulb, but seems brighter than that (I think because it's much more directional; it's in a downward-facing fixture so that's fine).

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202188260/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053

And just two days ago I got a fixture that retrofits a 6" can fixture with an LED light. I bought one with the 2700K color temperature, because I like that better than the "colder" lights (bluer, which actually have higher color temperatures). I walked into the store planning to just buy a bulb for my can light fixture, and now I'm very glad I bought the whole Ecosmart fixture. I found an LED light geek web site, and the guy bought one of these just to do a teardown; he found 5 Cree LED chips inside it. Where I live, the power company is subsidizing these lights, so I only had to pay $20 for this light. This dissipates only 9.5 Watts, yet it's very bright. I love the design: it includes three spring fingers to hold it into place, but if you rotate it the fingers collapse and stop holding it. So two decades from now when the LED stops working, it will be easy to remove.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202240932/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053

So now I want to see Cree make some sort of flush-mount ceiling fixture. I have only found a few flush-mount LED fixtures, and they are all super expensive and I can't find the 2700 K color temperature. I did find one promising looking cheap fixture, but on eBay only and it's an import from China... I have no way to be sure of the quality, other than just buying one and trying it.

My current plans are just to install some fixtures that have air gaps for circulation, so I can use the Phillips LED bulbs (omnidirectional, not directional like the Ecosmart ones). I'm going to install one of these tomorrow and see how we like it. In case the URL doesn't work right, this is a "Project Source 2-Pack White Ceiling Flush Mount" from lowes.com.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_394606-43501-87822-01_0__?productId=3745415

Based on my experience with these lights, we are just on the cusp of these becoming mainstream and common. I've been buying these because they are subsidized, but electronics always gets cheaper over time, and within a couple of years or so LED lights should be cheap enough without subsidy that everyone starts buying them. (Even without the subsidy, they make sense long-term versus incandescent bulbs. If you have incandescent lights, consider LED rather than compact fluorescent.)

P.S. I haven't bought these, but I wish the office where I work would buy them. These are Cree replacement lights for standard fluorescent fixtures. Some companies are making LED lights that are the exact size of a T8 fluorescent bulb, with matching pins; for $60 or $80 or so each bulb, you can replace fluorescents (but you must rewire the fixture to bypass the ballas

A year ago, I had no idea who "Cree" might be.

Then I bought one of these:

http://www.fenixlight.com/viewproduct.asp?id=151

It's the best pocket flashlight I have ever owned. Bright and useful on "low" power (32 Lumens) and very bright on high (105 Lumens). 500 minutes of light (over 8 hours) from a single AA cell on low, or 110 minutes on high. (I'm trusting the manufacturer's numbers here, but I can verify that it actually is bright and lasts a long time.) Anyway, that's a Cree LED, and it doesn't have the horrible bluish tint of older LEDs I have bought in the past.

More recently I bought an Ecosmart light bulb at Home Depot. "Ecosmart" is a Home Depot house brand, and uses Cree LED chips. For $10 I got a light bulb that claims to give equivalent light to a 40 Watt incandescent bulb, but seems brighter than that (I think because it's much more directional; it's in a downward-facing fixture so that's fine).

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202188260/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053

And just two days ago I got a fixture that retrofits a 6" can fixture with an LED light. I bought one with the 2700K color temperature, because I like that better than the "colder" lights (bluer, which actually have higher color temperatures). I walked into the store planning to just buy a bulb for my can light fixture, and now I'm very glad I bought the whole Ecosmart fixture. I found an LED light geek web site, and the guy bought one of these just to do a teardown; he found 5 Cree LED chips inside it. Where I live, the power company is subsidizing these lights, so I only had to pay $20 for this light. This dissipates only 9.5 Watts, yet it's very bright. I love the design: it includes three spring fingers to hold it into place, but if you rotate it the fingers collapse and stop holding it. So two decades from now when the LED stops working, it will be easy to remove.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202240932/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053

So now I want to see Cree make some sort of flush-mount ceiling fixture. I have only found a few flush-mount LED fixtures, and they are all super expensive and I can't find the 2700 K color temperature. I did find one promising looking cheap fixture, but on eBay only and it's an import from China... I have no way to be sure of the quality, other than just buying one and trying it.

My current plans are just to install some fixtures that have air gaps for circulation, so I can use the Phillips LED bulbs (omnidirectional, not directional like the Ecosmart ones). I'm going to install one of these tomorrow and see how we like it. In case the URL doesn't work right, this is a "Project Source 2-Pack White Ceiling Flush Mount" from lowes.com.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_394606-43501-87822-01_0__?productId=3745415

Based on my experience with these lights, we are just on the cusp of these becoming mainstream and common. I've been buying these because they are subsidized, but electronics always gets cheaper over time, and within a couple of years or so LED lights should be cheap enough without subsidy that everyone starts buying them. (Even without the subsidy, they make sense long-term versus incandescent bulbs. If you have incandescent lights, consider LED rather than compact fluorescent.)

P.S. I haven't bought these, but I wish the office where I work would buy them. These are Cree replacement lights for standard fluorescent fixtures. Some companies are making LED lights that are the exact size of a T8 fluorescent bulb, with matching pins; for $60 or $80 or so each bulb, you can replace fluorescents (but you must rewire the fixture to bypass the ballas

I originally found them at Office Max. Later Home Depot started carrying them. Other stores may carry them now. They're $5-$6 for fifty 8" long strips. That's 10-12 cents apiece, and being velcro they're much more versatile than traditional plastic cable ties. You just tear one off, wrap it around the cable bundle, and the velcro sticks to itself - takes just a couple seconds. If you mess up, it's velcro so you just lift it up and try again. No need to cut them or fiddle with a knife to release them like you do with plastic cable ties. They come with a little hole at one end if you want to affix it around a single cable for a more permanent (but reusable) installation.

I use em for network cables, video cables, audio cables, wrapping cables around ducting, hanging a picture frame on a fence, everything. I've used one to hold down a broken switch on a kitchen faucet. Heck, I've used them to create a hanging cradle to isolate HDD vibrations and noise from a computer case. They're very handy.

1) Take excess power cords and shorten them to length. I have a bar power strip at the back of my desk and I shorten my power cords to length with plugs.

2) Use velcro straps and cable ties to keep cables neat, coiled and short. Bundle cables together that are going the same place. Use expandable braided sleeving where possible and be sure to melt the edges where you cut it so it doesn't fray.

3) Make your own ethernet cables and cut them to length. Color code and/or label them if you have more than a few.

4) Use a universal docking station if you have to something like a laptop that needs to be unplugged regularly.

5) Cordless mouse and/or keyboards are nice but if you have corded versions coil the cables and use the shortest path you can manage.

6) Use raceways and conduit if running cable any distance.

7) Use devices with short cables and extend them rather than using a longer cable than necessary.

8) Use patch panels and wiring closets or buy a small server rack on caster wheels if you have a lot of computers and limited space.

1) Take excess power cords and shorten them to length. I have a bar power strip at the back of my desk and I shorten my power cords to length with plugs.

2) Use velcro straps and cable ties to keep cables neat, coiled and short. Bundle cables together that are going the same place. Use expandable braided sleeving where possible and be sure to melt the edges where you cut it so it doesn't fray.

3) Make your own ethernet cables and cut them to length. Color code and/or label them if you have more than a few.

4) Use a universal docking station if you have to something like a laptop that needs to be unplugged regularly.

5) Cordless mouse and/or keyboards are nice but if you have corded versions coil the cables and use the shortest path you can manage.

6) Use raceways and conduit if running cable any distance.

7) Use devices with short cables and extend them rather than using a longer cable than necessary.

8) Use patch panels and wiring closets or buy a small server rack on caster wheels if you have a lot of computers and limited space.

That particular link doesn't work for me, but the point does stand. Velcro ties are the way to go.
I've got these Velcro cable ties from Home Depot. 50 8 inch Velcro Ties Though at $5.27 each you can definitely find better deals. But being able to just walk in and buy them without waiting for shipping is worth it for small jobs.

If you want to be really fancy then I would also get some kind of way to label or at least mark your cables on both ends. It really does pay off when you have to move, or fix something. My wife went through our entertainment center and labelled all the cables with some blue painters tape and a sharpie. I'm glad for that every time I have to go back there and mess with something.

velcro cable ties

Whoa, dude, are you made of money?!!

You can get 45 feet of Velcro ties for like $3 over in the garden center.

Looks like someone confused Velcro the company with Velcro the "stuff". 45 feet of that and not an inch of it will stick to any other... You can get velcro the stuff at HD but dont bother with the garden variety (hah) get the version in the electrical/electronic aisle. It will run you closer to $6: find it here

velcro cable ties

Whoa, dude, are you made of money?!!

You can get 45 feet of Velcro ties for like $3 over in the garden center.

Looks like someone confused Velcro the company with Velcro the "stuff". 45 feet of that and not an inch of it will stick to any other... You can get velcro the stuff at HD but dont bother with the garden variety (hah) get the version in the electrical/electronic aisle. It will run you closer to $6: find it here

velcro cable ties

Whoa, dude, are you made of money?!!

You can get 45 feet of Velcro ties for like $3 over in the garden center.

Paint your wall with magnetic paint and ground it.

http://www.homedepot.com/buy/rust-oleum-specialty-30-oz-black-flat-magnetic-latex-primer-223081.html

Is there yet a way to tell at time of purchase whether a CFL bulb is going to warm up in an acceptable time?

This is why I subscribe to Consumer Reports. They do all of this testing for me so I don't have to do it myself.

I've had excellent results with EcoSmart soft white bulbs (sold only at Home Depot). If you time it right you can get them for $1 for 4 bulbs in my area. That's cheaper than the old fashioned incandescent bulbs! Honestly, as long as I don't have them on a dimmer, I can't tell the difference.

I don't have a house so I haven't looked into all of the details. So I'm wondering. How many kilowatts does a house use at any given time? From what I can tell the average is around 1.3 kw (958 kWh per month divided by ~720 hours). That's divided over 24 hours so I'm sure when people are awake in their house that it's more.

Home Depot sells 280-watt solar cells for $448. They have a 25 year warrant on >80% power output.

By my calculations 20 would cover roughly 420 square feet. That would cost about $10k and yield as much as 5.6 kw. So I'm wondering how much you can sell your surplus back to the grid to help pay for when you might need to draw more? I'm thinking during the day when at work you can sell your surplus. At night and when it's cloudy you'll have to buy back from the grid. How much is installation and can it be done yourself? Is there other equipment (mounting, wiring, transformers?) and/or associated labor that makes it so expensive? Getting a peak of 11.2 kw for $20k and 840 square feet of real estate seems like a lot of electricity unless I missed a decimal somewhere.

My knowledge on the matter is limited to just quick Google references. Given people are not even spending $450 to add one of these each year I know I'm missing something.

Unfortunately not. Storm shutters are expensive

They don't cost much more than the decorative non-functional shutters that people place next to their windows, and you can usually get a discount on your insurance too.

One example that's cheaper than most decorative "shutters":
http://www.homedepot.com/Doors-Windows-Exterior-Shutters-Storm-Hurricane-Protection/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbtoj/R-202387798/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&superSkuId=202974261

While not the best protection at that price, it's surely going to be better than plywood and nails.

The question is, how good is it?

Surge protector Fraud Alert: The maximum allowed energy of the $30 surge protector, 560 joules, is tiny. It seems that the manufacturer is taking advantage of the ignorance of most people and Home Depot about electricity.

A joule is 2.78 x 10-4 Watt-Hours of energy. Calculating the maximum energy allowed by the surge protector: 2.78 x 10-4 * 560 = 0.15568 Watt-Hours. That means the surge protector can protect against a 1,000 watt surge for 0.00015568 hours. If I calculated correctly, that is 1,000 watts for 0.560448 seconds. More realistically, a lightning strike would cause at least a 10,000 watt surge. The surge protector could protect against that for 56 milliseconds, a trivial amount of time. I've seen lightning strikes that lasted more than a hundred milliseconds. The current in a 10,000 watt surge at the rated 175 volts is only about 57 amps. If you want to protect against a more realistic 570 amp surge, the protector will last only 5 milliseconds until it explodes.

The surge protector linked may just have 3 small MOVs.

Some surge protectors give no indication or inadequate indication when they have burnt and stopped protecting. The linked description says, "LED indicates operational status". For you to know if the device is working, you must check to see if the LED is lit. That's not convenient if it is installed in "service-entrance locations".

The Home Depot web page to which you linked says,
"36,000 Amp maximum
20,000-volt maximum surge current".

The "maximum surge current" listed is said to be 36,000 amps, but that is for a minuscule amount of time. Volts are not current; saying "20,000-volt maximum surge current" is ignorant.

Translation: The CEO of Home Depot has no technical knowledge and should be replaced immediately. If I were CEO of Home Depot, one of the first things I would do would be to make sure all the descriptions were accurate; I would not allow sneaky, tricky product descriptions.

I guess these must illuminate with the same luminescence as the sun at their ultra high 13 watts?
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202668646/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=LED+lightbulbs&storeId=10051

Unless your dealing with medical equipment or servers don't bother with some expensive custom solution.

This isn't an expensive custom solution. It's becoming more common in new construction. Home Depot has several models to choose from, some as low as $30.

The question is, how good is it?

Unless your dealing with medical equipment or servers don't bother with some expensive custom solution.

This isn't an expensive custom solution. It's becoming more common in new construction. Home Depot has several models to choose from, some as low as $30.

The question is, how good is it?

A lot of these bulbs do come with multiyear warranties. Phillips has a 6 year warranty on these bulbs according to home depot:
http://www.homedepot.com/buy/electrical-light-bulbs-led/philips-12-watt-60w-equivalent-a19-ambient-led-soft-white-light-bulb-dimmable-117236.html

And the good news is ... they seem to last longer than the CFLs. I was an early adopter (curiosity mostly), and in my home that was a torture test for CFLs (I have only a few CFLs that have made it over two years so far), I have several LED bulbs and zero burnouts so far.

If our original poster has a spare $2500 for such a cabinet, he neglected to mention it. Such racks are for conference rooms or demo areas, where server cooling is needed but server noise has to be minimized, and they're quite expensive.

For roughly 1/10 the price, he can get http://www.homedepot.com/Storage-Organization-Commercial-Grade-Storage/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc1vZbduzZ12l3Z12l4/R-202361005/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=shelves&storeId=10051, and fill the rest of the space with coolers filled with reasonably good Scotch, or maybe several bad women for the housewarming party.

They claim a 20 year lifetime at 4 hours/day, but how bright will it be after 20 years? LED's reduce their light output over time, and the end of life is based on some loss of brightness (30% loss?), so that 60 watt bulb may be more like a 40 watt bulb by the end of its lifetime. And based on previous LED lights I've seen, I'm skeptical that it's really equivalent in brightness to a 60 watt incandescent bulb in the first place.

Did you really just compare an LED to an incandescent lightbulb and then complain that the LED will lose 20% of it's brightness over 20 years?

I'm trying to wrap my head around this. By the time I was five years old, I had already noticed that new incandescent bulbs of the same wattage were visibly twice as bright as their still-running but months-old neighbors in the same fixture. Human perception of brightness is approximately logarithmic (though I cannot find any suitable citations for this, brightness perception is also time- and context- sensitive and a source of very focused study), so if it was visibly twice the brightness, it probably put out 3x - 4x as many lumens. This is how incandescent bulbs have always worked.

Let's summarize:
Incandescent: 50-75% loss of luminosity over approximately 6 months.
LED: 20% loss of luminosity over approximately 240 months.

Also, you are "skeptical that it's really equivalent in brightness to a 60 watt incandescent bulb in the first place". According to "The Nature of Light" a typical 60 watt bulb puts out approximately 870 lumens when new. According to Home Depot this bulb puts out 940 lumens when new. These are verfiable numbers, and government regulated in the USA. This works out to 94 lumens per watt, 1 watt short of the theoretical maximum for black-body radiation. Other LEDs put out higher (sometimes significantly so) lumens / watt by sacrificing color quality. I have a $30 flashlight with 110 lumens per watt; and according to this article the maker of that LED ("Cree") built a 231 lumen per watt LED last year.

The amount of "it's new, it's regulated, it's obviously all a lie" in this thread is really quite astonishing, even by /. standards...

Their ads claim that it has similar efficiency to a CFL, but that is far from true for the CFL's one finds at Home Depot or similar.

The company's VU1 is 600 Lumens and uses 19.5 watts. (ref: http://www.jetsongreen.com/2011/11/vu1-esl-r30-light-bulb-lowes.html ) This comes out to 30 Lumens per watt.

A typical under $4 CFL from home depot puts out 1500 Lumens using 23 watts for 65 Lumens per watt or more than twice as much light for the same input power. (ref: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100686995/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=100%20watt%20cfl&storeId=10051 )

If you can't quite make the leap to the Nest, and what you really want is the ability to run the thermostat from your smartphone, 3M makes a nice WiFi Thermostat that you can pickup at Home Depot for under $100. I was motivated by laziness to switch out my old programmable thermostat for the 3M one a few months back. Yes, it's not as cool as the Next, but you can switch it into away mode from anywhere you can get online if you forget when you go on vacation. The 3M thermostat uses Radio Thermostat Company of America's WiFi module and software interface. I haven't read into it much, but it appears that the API is open so you can in theory write your own software to control the thermostat in the event of the company going under and their web services disappearing.

radiothermostat is $100 and is wifi enabled, open source code to drive it.
http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202352449/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=3m-50&storeId=10051

Sorry, but that is just not correct. I have tried replacing just ONE incandescent flood with a modern, dimmable, Philips-branded, CLF in a track with 4 bulbs. I immediately lost all X10 communication with that fixture. This was just last year. I don't think the technology has changed much with CLF.

It is extremely frustrating. I hate X10, but there are a few places in the house where I absolutely need it and there is nothing else on the market that will work as a substitute.

LED is not quite there yet.. but it is very close. If it will work with X10, I can get the color I want (soft white), and the spread I want (a very even flood), I will try it out. This is the closest I have seen yet:

http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical-Light-Bulbs-LED-Light-Bulbs/Philips/h_d1/N-5yc1vZbm79Z15bZ1z0z043/R-202673214/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 (Philips AmbientLED 13-Watt (65W) LED BR30 Light Bulb Model # 414904)

Looks like a well designed bulb that will fit, be on instantly, have enough brightness (finally), and a decent diffuser. However, it is still too cool (blue). If I am going to try a $40 bulb (when I will need from 8 to 20 of them, depending on how far I want to go) it better be a PERFECT replacement!

Look better, then (like at Amazon and Home Depot): dimmable LED bulbs.

I've just redone all the floods in my house with them. They're pricey ($40/bulb) but they'll recoup their price in about 3 years of my current usage and last at least a decade.

In typical 2-story U.S. homes, there's structural steel in a few isolated places -- a beam or two in the basement, perhaps another beam and a column in the garage. .

I'm pretty sure the complaint is referring to steel studs which are common nowadays in new homes.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?keyword=sledge+hammer&selectedCatgry=SEARCH+ALL&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053&Ntpc=1&Ntpr=1

To protect against this there is this little device that costs less than $5 at a hardware store. If you are getting pulled over by a cop you could activate this device thus making you not in violation of any law

Your claims that CFLs ($2.85) are 10-15x more expensive than equivalent incandescent ($1.27) bulbs are grossly exaggerated.

BTW: on a side note the CFL brand I linked to (EcoSmart) are quite good. Two years now, nearly every bulb in house never had to replace a single one, light output pleasant to the eyes.

Your claims that CFLs ($2.85) are 10-15x more expensive than equivalent incandescent ($1.27) bulbs are grossly exaggerated.

BTW: on a side note the CFL brand I linked to (EcoSmart) are quite good. Two years now, nearly every bulb in house never had to replace a single one, light output pleasant to the eyes.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Navigation?storeId=10051&N=542325+90401&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&cm_sp=Electrical-_-LightBulbs-_-CatHighlights-_-Incandescents
Philips
60-Watt Household Incandescent Light Bulb (4-Pack) (E)*

Model 374843

$1.27 (via internet- more expensive in stores).

So 30 cents per incandescent. (maybe 40 cents in stores).

You are someone that has been fooled by propaganda. I hate to tell you, but you are believing a pack of lies

First, there are fluoresent dimmables that do work. They are rather expensive - around $10 a bulb.

Second, you can also get LED light bulbs. They are VERY expensive, ($40 a bulb) but work very well in dimmer outlets

Third, you can buy Halogen incandescent lightbulbs They are cheaper than fluorescents, with zero problems dimming, the same shape as you 'normal', the same kind of light as 'normal', have no mercury, but are effecient enough to qualify under the new law. As you appear to be rather easily fooled by propaganda, for your convenience, here are two links:

Link to Philips page explaining the bulb

Link to Home Depot where you can buy the lightbulbs in question.

Maybe I'm nuts, but last time I checked my local store still had plenty of incandescent bulbs for sale. Wait, I can check.

Nope, not nuts..

If there was a ban on these things, it doesn't appear to be working.

or drive to your local home depot...

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100087664/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

Um, I already do this. My iPhone is part of it, as are other remotes. Nearly all the things I use with iOS also have, (or are in beta) for Android versions. As others said, somethings just shouldn't be remote controlled, (IE bathroom lights....) almost everything else is remote. Pretty much all garage doors have had remotes for ever. I would like to see these iOS enabled. For room fans and lights, no need for everyone in your house to need their smartphone with then like an ID badge. This works well. If you lose, or can't find the remote, the wall switch can be used to reset the fan to off, with the light to full on; http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100629205/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 A/C control, works with iPhone and has a web interface for programing. You can also "bump" the temperature from your iPhone; http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=202352449&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=202352449&ci_src=14110944&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googlebase-_-D26X-_-202352449&locStoreNum=218 A/V control. Full web-interface, full iOS app. They recently also made a native port for Android; http://thinkflood.com/products/redeye/ AppleTV has a native iOS (only) app, but my redeye can control it anyway. I don't know much about GoogleTV, but I assume they have, (had?) one also. A the hospital they have a big push to move things to be accessible via iPads.

Um, I already do this. My iPhone is part of it, as are other remotes. Nearly all the things I use with iOS also have, (or are in beta) for Android versions. As others said, somethings just shouldn't be remote controlled, (IE bathroom lights....) almost everything else is remote. Pretty much all garage doors have had remotes for ever. I would like to see these iOS enabled. For room fans and lights, no need for everyone in your house to need their smartphone with then like an ID badge. This works well. If you lose, or can't find the remote, the wall switch can be used to reset the fan to off, with the light to full on; http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100629205/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 A/C control, works with iPhone and has a web interface for programing. You can also "bump" the temperature from your iPhone; http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&productId=202352449&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&ci_sku=202352449&ci_src=14110944&cm_mmc=shopping-_-googlebase-_-D26X-_-202352449&locStoreNum=218 A/V control. Full web-interface, full iOS app. They recently also made a native port for Android; http://thinkflood.com/products/redeye/ AppleTV has a native iOS (only) app, but my redeye can control it anyway. I don't know much about GoogleTV, but I assume they have, (had?) one also. A the hospital they have a big push to move things to be accessible via iPads.

Those only cost $6 at Home Depot