# LED Lighting for New House



## mkgrady (May 20, 2008)

I have a brother in-law that is getting ready to build a home in North Carolina. He wants it to be Energy Star Certified and is planning to use surface mouinted LED fixtures. The product he found is made by Seagull, cat # 14101s-14. The fixture can be surface mounted to a ceiling box or made to retrofit an existing 5 or 6 inch recess. The fixture is almost 8 inches in diameter and is 1-1/2 inch in height. This particular model has a white body that might help blend them in to the ceiling.

Anybody have any experience good or bad with the product? Can anybody suggest something better?

He is asdking for some help with the layout of fixtures but I know nothing about them. I suppose one of these in the center of each small room would be the way to go. That would include closets that would normally get a light fixture. In a large open area I guess I would suggest what I would normally suggest for recess lighting. The kitchen layout would be more of a challenge.

To me, lighting should be as invisable as possible unless it is part of the decor. I'm thinking having these fixtures is not going to be attractive especially in the kitchen/living room area (one relatiely large room) where numerous lights would be installed.​


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## mkgrady (May 20, 2008)

I've never had no response before. Any idea why? Am I in the wrong section?


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## rexowner (Apr 12, 2008)

i have gotten no response to some Q's - I figured it was either my bad
personality or more likely that nobody else had personal experience or
interest in the topic.

My response would be I would go for a lower color temperature because
most people prefer warm white, but that is a matter of opinion.

I have seen these devices online and in magazines, and don't have any
personal experience with them.

They somehow look cheap to me, so I would advise buying one, seeing
how I liked installing it and using it, and go from there.

HTH.


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

I tried to look up the fixture, but this is what I got

http://www.flixxy.com/seagull-and-cat.htm


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## wildleg (Apr 12, 2009)

ok, found em.

hard to tell what they would look like from the pic. expensive. definitely energy saving. also discontinued, according to the webpage.


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## Davethewave (Jan 6, 2012)

CREE makes a complete line of recessed LED products for retrofit in 5" and 6" recessed housings. You can dim them and they have a warm color temperature.


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## Faraday (Feb 29, 2012)

Only had slight issues with CREE; like two bad ones in 2-3 years out of about 100 installed (can light retrofits, 277 to 24). One turned pink, the other was way off in color (looked like 2300k or something, should have been 5500k).

Heat kills those things. Some of the lead-free solder has a lower melting point (some higher depending on alloy %) and when they get very hot, the joints either come apart or the parts slide around with gravity (Playstation 3, Xbox360 can be fixed sometimes with a heat gun & the unit set horizontally). 

I didnt see what caused the failure internally, they were under warranty from the supplier. They were about $65 each. Seen them cheaper on Amazon (120 to low v).


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