LED vs incandescent lights - lumens and reliability

[newpoolj]

Hi all - I am planning a pool build and one local builder recommended a single Jandy incandescent white light which looks to be about 500 watts. That doesn't seem ideal nowadays, so I'm interested in white LED(s) instead, but Jandy doesn't mention what the lumens for their different lights/bulbs are. And a local friend mentioned they've had reliability issues with their colored Jandy LED bulbs, but I'm not sure if that's also true of the white LED.

Does anyone have thoughts or info on the brightness (lumens) and reliability of LEDs vs incandescent bulbs?

Thanks!

 

[ajw22]

Pentair provides lumens for their LED lights that you can find at Pentair LED Pool Lights - Further Reading

Jandy has an excellent LED Lighting Design Guide that gives guidelines for their light use but not lumens.

Many pool LED lights have reliability issues. Some are not repairable and need to be replaced when they fail.You have to research the reliability and repairability of specifc light models.

Incandescent lights are less cost and easily repairable.

 

[chiefwej]

My pool had a standard 110v, 500w incandescent light. About two years ago I replaced the incandescent bulb with this one. It is the brightest one I could find. It is designed for pool use and has a built in cooling fan. It has been reliable and is plenty bright. The biggest advantage is it can simply and economically be replaced, should it fail.

Amazon.com: TOVEENEN LED Pool Light 60W 5400lm High Brightness White Light 6500K Replacement for 500W Incandescent Bulbs in Pool Light (120V,60W): Home Improvement

Amazon.com: TOVEENEN LED Pool Light 60W 5400lm High Brightness White Light 6500K Replacement for 500W Incandescent Bulbs in Pool Light (120V,60W): Home Improvement

www.amazon.com

 

[BowserB]

LEDs are a modern innovation that we are glad was invented, but we wish they were more reliable. Other than LED "bulbs", which are easily replaced, LED fixtures are essentially money time bombs. We have two in the pool, and we use them very little. When they fail, we just won't have lights any longer. Same in our home, which is a 2016 construction with LED fixtures all over, including some on a 22 ft ceiling. In the past I've had conventional incandescent cans in the high ceiling of our last house. I put dimmers on all of them and they lasted 26 years--and were still working when we sold the house, as I almost never used them at full brightness. I have dimmers on some of our dimmable LED fixtures, but I have little confidence that the dimmers will extend the life of an LED, though, since the way a dimmer works on an LED is to rapidly cycle it on and off.

So much for my rant. Our pool builder offered the LED alternative, and given the difference in wattage, I took it. Energy usage is going to become more important in coming years, if a certain political party gets control, so anything you can do now to use less energy in the future, will likely pay dividends.

 

[Divin Dave]

Yeah, replacing those LED controllers and fixtures are expensive if they fail.

similar to chief, I replace my incandescent with an LED screw in type bulb. The LED is considerably less lumens. That said, its plenty bright enough to suit me. These screw in LEDs do come in color changing versions with light shows too.

you could easily install 2 incandescent and screw in a LED bulb for probable less cost as 1 LED system.