ericm Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Light newbie here, and already addicted, building my first spiral tree for next year and some arches, and curious about something.... Are LED's noticably different then incandescent lights in the display? I mean will people be able to notice a big difference between the two at night with everything lit up and moving? I have both types and want to know if they should all one or the other or if it doesnt really make a difference thanks.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grinch Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 If you have full wave LED lights, Personally I don't think anyone will notice but with that said I think the LED don't fade as well.I prefer the LED's just for the ease of not worrying about overloading circuits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Arch Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 IMO you can mix, just not in the same prop. As Grinch said, some of the dimming is different and would be real noticeable if were touching and dancing together. There's also like 15 colors of LED whites and I don't even like seeing them mixed in the same prop. For my display, I even try to keep the white LED's the same for all my props used. Gets harder each year as technology changes. So always buy extras. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Agreed, stick to the same flavor of LED's in any one prop. LEDs draw so little power and they are very nice colors plus, they look nicer than incans. However, that being said, incans still have a place in our displays depending on the usage. I use about %90 LED and the rest are incans. Currently incans on pre-wired on deer frames. I put them on the arches because I can fade them without issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I prefer LEDs by such a large margin there's not even a measurement for it. Colors? Nothing like 'em. There's something unmatched about such a vivid blue that will be EXACTLY the same non-faded color in 10 years, rather than ten days. Reliability? Nothing like 'em. It's beyond gratifying to not even need to plug things in each year to know they'll be working just fine. Replacement lights? Don't have any need for them anymore. Shimmer? Shimmers actually happen with LEDs. Incans just fade or dim. I didn't know what the shimmer command actually was until I used it on LEDs. Now it's an indispensable weapon. Fades? I've rarely had any issues with LEDs (But then, I've got practically zero inventory of retail-grade LEDs to begin with.) and for those rare times, a simple snubber solved everything. We've switched over to about 98% LEDs and I can hardly wait to dump the remaining incans and be through with those unreliable, dull energy pigs forever. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiplorenzo Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 The biggest difference between LED and Incan... The Electric Bill and more Circuits.. I used incans the first year on my deck line which has 16 panels... I blew the circuit.I changed them over to the Cool White LEDS... yes they are brighter, they fade twinkle etc (bought those at walmart) and they are a bit more expensive to start with, but they didn't blow the circuit. LEDs use about 1/10th the power of Incandescent. This years Displ;ay has 11500 lights on 2 circuits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 I use a bunch of BigLots LEDs and they fade just fine...or its the newer controllers are more forgiving! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmacw Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 The year we had a bad storm (in new england it's a few times each season) when I lost most my lights due to Icandescents losing half a string if just one burns out is the year I switched to LEDs and never looked back. IMO the LEDs are so much better than the Incans just as George had mentioned above.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Count me as another LED fan. Both my year round landscape lighting and the Christmas lighting are 100% LED. In my case it almost all RGB - a little hard to do in incan. The power savings is nice, but since it's almost all RGB, I did not have much choice. After dealing with LEDs, I find that incan white looks so dingy yellow, that I can hardly stand it. Colors in LED are so bright and don't fade after a year or two. Lastly, what are failed bulbs? The LEDs just don't fail - or hardly ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaeolien Posted December 20, 2014 Share Posted December 20, 2014 Most of what I have is LED as well. Just big box store brands. Big lots, HD, Walmart. First year animating the lights but have had a good size static display for the 6 years we have lived in this house. Some of the LEDs from Big Lots are still going strong today. I have a few incans on a few props this year that I built last minute and I just used what I had in the house but they will be changed to LEDs for next year. I'll be hitting my friendly Big Lots day after christmas and buying as much as the bank account will allow. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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