Just last night I was looking at my considerable pile of t-10 base LED bulbs I bought over a span of 2 years, looking for one which was not only bright enough, but also not too blue in color. Of the 25 bulbs or so, none of them has seen much use.
While I do not like the blue tint, I am also not really fond of the warm white LED bulbs as their color is too artificial. They are also not quite as bright as the cool white bulbs and slightly less efficient.
Now realize any LED bulb in an incandescent fixture has a battle to fight. An incandescent reflector is designed for a pinpoint source of light radially firing 360 degrees equally, but when one puts an LED bulb into it, even a radially firing one, the result is usually less than expected, with most of the light coming from the LEDS facing the open space below, and the leds trying to use the reflector not seeming to do much of anything.
I'm not sure what it is about the quality of reflected light from LEDS, besides the filament/ emitter differences, but I kind of gave up on using a halogen reflector with an LED bulb.
What I have found works best for me is the Single emitter with a projection lens. These have the white light and the intensity I desire, and even though they poke out of my halogen fixtures and do not use the reflector at all, they are way brighter.
I've put my favorite bulbs into a 99 cent store gooseneck lamp and can aim the light where desired, and still have the light source shielded from my eyes.
One thing to be very aware of is that Lumens claims and wattage claims on Amazon and Ebay are rather ridiculous. Nowhere near the lumens claimed and the wattage is a 'halogen equivalent'. ' 50 watt' LEDs will likely draw under 10 watts, and their 1000 lumen claim might be around 650, for both bulbs combined if sold in a pair.
There are lots of people who are sensitive to LED light. They see it flickering and it can geve them headaches or make them feel woozy if moving around in their light.
Even if one finds an LED bulb they like, and decides to order more from the same seller, what arrives can be a different color and intensity. My experience was a crapshoot. I found 1 5 SMD t-10 LED I liked the color of, and the intensity of, but wanted a bit more intensity, so I stepped up to their 9 SMD led bulb, same seller, same name brand, installed it and it was no brighter, drew twice the current and was several degrees bluer.
Reagrding my Pile of t-10 LED bulbs I was staring at last night, I picked the two brightest to install into a dual halogen reflector, and played with the focus. Underwhelming to say the least. I then cut 4 more holes in the reflector and hot glue gun'd 4 more of the brightest led bulbs into it for 6 total, and wired it all up.
Certainly brighter, but honestly 2 of the Cree projector bulbs would have more light, more easily aimed where desired, and draw less current.
The Newest LED emitter is the 5730 and it is brighter than 5050 or the smaller ones more numerous and tightly packed.
There are huge amounts of warehoused old LEDS sitting somewhere in china waiting for the 'click order' button to be pressed.
they might be cheap, they might even be acceptable in some fixtures, but I think I'd spend more to get some more obviously recent offerings they employ 5730 chips, or ones which use a Cree emitter behind a projector lens.
Some of the LED replacement bulbs for car reverse lamps are hideously bright.
http://www.amazon.com/JDM-ASTAR-Ext...UTF8&qid=1447448959&sr=1-2&keywords=cree+1156
I would take the conversion to LED slower, buy and try some of them in the most used fixtures, rather than committing to a large purchase of an unknown entity and hoping for the best.
In many RV fixtures the flat panel LEDS which make no attempt at using a reflector have the highest rates of satisfaction and reviews.
http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Stars-11...pebp=1447449195214&perid=0DDY7MYCJGANMYF0FCPG
http://www.amazon.com/GRV-Ba15s-48-...7449290&sr=8-65-spons&keywords=LED+1156&psc=1
I really enjoy being able to control the light intensity. This device works great for LEDs:
http://www.amazon.com/Leegoal-LEDwh...qid=1447449383&sr=8-2&keywords=pwm+led+dimmer
The actual electronic guts of these take up very little room and I have relocated them into individual fixtures and use them to control one whole lighting circuit.
The electrical consumption when dimmed is significantly less at 80% brightness than it is at 100%.
Can't really stress how much I enjoy having them on a dimmer, wish I did it sooner now that the LEDs are actually bright enough to want to be able to dim them
