I need to try and find some good LED retrofit lamps for the lights in my church. The building was built in 1991, so the 12 fixtures are currently incandescent. They are running as of now 75w bt15 halogens, which have been in there for years, but now the lighting needs to be upgraded because it is not sufficient. The new fixtures or lamps have to be LED, and they need to be dimmable and brighter than the 75w halogens. Below are two options I am considering:
 
This one is the first one I am considering. I would get the a60 16w 120v cool white, but it does not state if it is dimmable. Is it, and would it be brighter than the 75w halogens?

This one is available in wattages up to 25w, and it is also 120v and cool white, so it should be much brighter than the halogens. However, it does not state if it is dimmable either.

Here is a picture of one of the 12 lights that needs to be retrofitted:


There are also some outdoor PAR floodlights installed on the ceiling for some reason, and lots of R30 track lights. I have already found lamps for those since they aren't on dimmers, but can someone give me some advice about what to do about the lights shown in the above picture? if the ones on ebay aren't good, can someone find some good cool white dimmable LED lamps that will be much brighter than the halogens?

I need to try and find some good LED retrofit lamps for the lights in my church. The building was built in 1991, so the 12 fixtures are currently incandescent. They are running as of now 75w bt15 halogens, which have been in there for years, but now the lighting needs to be upgraded because it is not sufficient. The new fixtures or lamps have to be LED, and they need to be dimmable and brighter than the 75w halogens. Below are two options I am considering:
 
This one is the first one I am considering. I would get the a60 16w 120v cool white, but it does not state if it is dimmable. Is it, and would it be brighter than the 75w halogens?

This one is available in wattages up to 25w, and it is also 120v and cool white, so it should be much brighter than the halogens. However, it does not state if it is dimmable either.

Here is a picture of one of the 12 lights that needs to be retrofitted:


There are also some outdoor PAR floodlights installed on the ceiling for some reason, and lots of R30 track lights. I have already found lamps for those since they aren't on dimmers, but can someone give me some advice about what to do about the lights shown in the above picture? if the ones on ebay aren't good, can someone find some good cool white dimmable LED lamps that will be much brighter than the halogens?

Do NOT under any circumstances get LED bulbs from ebay.
They flicker, Are a shock hazard, And are very dim.
Only buy LED retrofit bulbs from the trusted brands.
Also make sure that there is a lot of airflow.
If you want to get one of the less common CCT looks, You likely have to go online.
Also, As a general rule, If it does not say if it is dimmable, Then it usually isn't.

What he said. eBay LEDs aren't to be trusted. Stick with name brands. Philips, GE, Sylvania/Osram, and Feit to start using LEDs for the first time. Never eBay special sales. Reserve those for after you're used to good LEDs and likes them. eBay LEDs will only disappoint 95% of the time. You'd end up hating LEDs even more if you went eBay first.

I was on the fence when it involved LEDs. If I had tried eBay LEDs first. I'd be likely to ended up hating them fiercely. Instead I got Philips and ended up liking them.

Can you suggest a good brand for lamps like this? I tried econolight but they don't have high wattage LED retrofits. The fixtures are also enclosed which opens a new can of worms.

Can you suggest a good brand for lamps like this? I tried econolight but they don't have high wattage LED retrofits. The fixtures are also enclosed which opens a new can of worms.

Try GE, Philips, And Feit.
Never heard of econolight.
The name brands (At least a little bit) know what they are doing.
Feit has a really high power bulb, But that might be too much.
If you want a middle ground, Try lighting sites like 1000bulbs.com

I found two Feit bulbs that might work:
http://www.feit.com/led-lamps/performance/performance_led/performance_led/a21/a-om2200r-led
http://www.feit.com/led-lamps/performance/performance_led/performance_led/a21/bpom100-850-led

My only concern is that the fixtures are enclosed, therefore lamp life might be shortened. Would this be a problem with these lamps?

I found two Feit bulbs that might work:
http://www.feit.com/led-lamps/performance/performance_led/performance_led/a21/a-om2200r-led
http://www.feit.com/led-lamps/performance/performance_led/performance_led/a21/bpom100-850-led

My only concern is that the fixtures are enclosed, therefore lamp life might be shortened. Would this be a problem with these lamps?

Another general rule, If it has a big heatsink (Which this does), Then it should be fine in enclosed fixtures.
It looks like your fixtures have more space than the usual enclosed fixture.

Another option if these fixtures are too hot is "Hacking" them to provide more airflow, Or get a more open, But good looking fixture.
Try putting a temperature probe in there, And see how hot it gets.

Well, you want rather high power LED retrofit and are wondering, why it is available only on sources like e-bay or so, why the reputable brands are not offering any?
Well, don't you think the reason could be just as simple as if something like that is just not technically feasible?

I'm afraid it will be the case of your requirements. As strong as a 120V 75W halogen (so about 1300lm or so) in a really retrofit form is just not feasible. The offered examples may work only in really open fixtures, not in these globes, there a 10W LED will be really the maximum such globes may support.

The reputable brands usually don't promise what they can not fulfill.
The cheepeese e-bay sellers just don't care. They just promise whatever you would like to have, regardless what is the real performance. Obviously what they deliver does not perform - either it is 3W instead of the advertised 20W, or they do put there a 20W ballast, but then it dies after a month or so. Both are coming from my experience (in that they meet my real expectation...).


When the fixtures are (and remain) enclosed, do not expect any LED above ~6..8W will survive there. Anything above that needs really an open fixture, where the air may flow freely - cold in, warmed up out.
Even worse when it is dimmable - as that means just extra power losses within the ballast, so causing even more problems.

Even with CFL's the experience in 230V area says, when you put in higher power than correspond to the equivalent the fixture is rated for (so if the fixture is rated for 60W, it means about more than 12W CFL), it will fail very soon. In 120V area it is even worse, because the 120V incandescents are more efficient, so the "60W" example correspond to about 45W 120V incandescent.
The simple technical reason is, the CFL's are thermally designed just to just stand the replacement of "equivalent" incandescent in most common fixture designs.

LED's are even more sensitive (or better to say more difficult to cool down - as the most sensitive part s the most dissipating one, the LED itself; with CFL the sensitive part is the ballast, but this dissipates barely 10% of the rated power input). The reputable makers know that, therefore they were so long reluctant to release anything more than about 4W with E27 socket - just because the 4W LED designs need 40W rated fixture and that was the minimum E27 fixture ratings in use. Only recently they have released equivalents to 60 or 75W incandescents - just because the required power for the LED's dropped to below 8W/10W and the thermal design get improved a bit, which means the 60W/75W rated fixtures may handle the dissipated power without exceeding the maximum temperature for the LED's.

We can only hope for more efficient LED lights.
Another problem is with the weight.
Why not use CFLs?

Definitely do NOT use those corn-cob LEDs from eBay. The filament ones would probably fare better, though I'm not sure about the high wattage ones. If you really want something dependable though, that Feit with the big heatsink looks like it would work. Also check these out...they will all be a cut above eBay. Try to get something with a large heatsink. Here is a cool white one that should work fine. If you want to pay a whole lot more for 400 extra lumens, look here.

We can only hope for more efficient LED lights.

The energy efficiency is already attacking 50% with already commercially available products, it already becomes the highest efficiency in converting the electrical energy into visible light of all light sources ever brought to mass market (LPS does reach 200lm/W, but because that is near the eye peak sensitivity, it does not need that much of radiated power - it means barely 40% of energy efficiency; the white light bears the penalty of quite significant amount of radiated power necessary for blue and red, where it does not generate much lumens, so the same energy efficiency means about 30..40% lower efficacy compare to the monochromatic yellow)...
I'm afraid higher efficiency may come only with reduced temperature. And that will exclude the retrofit types completely - with such small package the low operating temperature is just not achievable.

Why not use CFLs?

The same limits: If the globe is rated for 75W, you can not use higher than about 15W ("75W equivalent") CFL...
The halogen is really the highest output you may get from a given fixture rating - you may go with the real power really up to the fixture limit.
But the CFL's are at least cheaper, so their short life won't hurt that much. But the dimming requirement may become a problem: It means the CFL's won't be that cheap.

Definitely do NOT use those corn-cob LEDs from eBay. The filament ones would probably fare better, though I'm not sure about the high wattage ones. If you really want something dependable though, that Feit with the big heatsink looks like it would work. Also check these out...they will all be a cut above eBay. Try to get something with a large heatsink. Here is a cool white one that should work fine. If you want to pay a whole lot more for 400 extra lumens, look here.

The Feit lamps also have small cooling fans in them. I will also consider the lamps you posted above because I have heard good things about that company before.

Definitely do NOT use those corn-cob LEDs from eBay. The filament ones would probably fare better, though I'm not sure about the high wattage ones. If you really want something dependable though, that Feit with the big heatsink looks like it would work. Also check these out...they will all be a cut above eBay. Try to get something with a large heatsink. Here is a cool white one that should work fine. If you want to pay a whole lot more for 400 extra lumens, look here.

That 125W LED bulb looks good, And we have it in a table lamp, But it gets too hot to touch.
But it's surely bright!
Looks like a good fit.

Quote from: nicksfans on May 18, 2016, 03:28:03 PM

Definitely do NOT use those corn-cob LEDs from eBay. The filament ones would probably fare better, though I'm not sure about the high wattage ones. If you really want something dependable though, that Feit with the big heatsink looks like it would work. Also check these out...they will all be a cut above eBay. Try to get something with a large heatsink. Here is a cool white one that should work fine. If you want to pay a whole lot more for 400 extra lumens, look here.

That 125W LED bulb looks good, And we have it in a table lamp, But it gets too hot to touch.
But it's surely bright!
Looks like a good fit.

How long has it been in use?

Quote from: wattMaster on May 18, 2016, 06:24:27 PM

Quote from: nicksfans on May 18, 2016, 03:28:03 PM

Definitely do NOT use those corn-cob LEDs from eBay. The filament ones would probably fare better, though I'm not sure about the high wattage ones. If you really want something dependable though, that Feit with the big heatsink looks like it would work. Also check these out...they will all be a cut above eBay. Try to get something with a large heatsink. Here is a cool white one that should work fine. If you want to pay a whole lot more for 400 extra lumens, look here.

That 125W LED bulb looks good, And we have it in a table lamp, But it gets too hot to touch.
But it's surely bright!
Looks like a good fit.

How long has it been in use?

Almost exactly 8 months (Ordered 9/20/2015) and used at an average of 10 hours per day.
The brightness is virtually the same as when we got it.
Because of it facing up, It lights the room nicely.