Interesting. What happens after 15,000 hours? How do you avoid putting them on a joist? I think I would want one that could be installed before the ceiling with a replaceable LED bulb. Oh wait ... that's a regular recessed light.

I don't see where it says 15,000 hours? It states it has a 50,000 hour lamp life?

I'm not sure the advantage of these over can if you are in a new build situation anyway (where you can put your cans where you want).

Ok 50,000. What then?

17 years at 8 hours use per day...

I lived in my last house for 17 years and would have been annoyed. But then I had cans that I had never changed the old incandescent spots in so...who knows?

In my new home I have a mixture of bulbs in the cans, but they are all on the warmer side...2700 to 3000 k.

I like the light of the 3000 k leds.

I guess one of the advantages kirkhall is that less energy used equals less $ spent? It says 70% percent less, but who knows.

To build in my county you have to choose two energy saving measures out of about a dozen. This is one of them that I chose (it's the easiest) - that 75% or more of my interior and exterior permanently installed fixtures are either compact or linear fluorescent, or a minimum efficacy of 40 lumens per input watt. I am aiming for 100%.

I have a mixture of GU24 CF and LED purchased already, but hadn't purchased my recessed lighting and I came across these. They look easy to install and since my husband is going to install them (and he likes easy), they caught my eye. I'm not worried about the bulb life. I will never have them on 8 hours per day. Maybe 3. My husband says he's not worried about having to put in new lights 30 years down the road- so it doesn't bother him, it doesn't bother me.

One thing that I am worried about is the actually light output. I've read that sometimes 3000K varies from one manufacturer to another and I just want it to remain on the warm side. I don't want it to look like a night game at Safeco Field.

Thanks and I think I'm going to go for it and buy a dozen. Hopefully it will all work out.

We used a number of LED retrofits in standard ICAT cans. Three caveats:

ICAT cans are not enough if they go up into an attic. I built sealed boxes to cover mine to prevent heat loss.

I lost an LED light to a lightning strike, and it wasn't even on. Take that 50,000 hours with a grain of salt. Which leads to-

In 6 months time, they stopped making the first batch of LED's that I bought. The new ones were similar, but not identical, and were slightly different color temperature. LED's are still in rapid design change flux, and I can pretty much guarantee that the ones you install today will not be available 5, 10, or 17 years. By then, maybe there will be LED paint, and the whole ceiling simply glows (should I patent that idea?).

Recessed ceiling fixtures can usually receive removable LED lamps (bulbs). They have the same features as the integral units but the beam angle can be adjustable mechanically or with an internal reflector making it possible to light walls, etc. It is also possible to change the color temperature or use different kinds of lamps in the same room. LED light has a sharp cut off that creates an unusually strong shadow which is not comfortable for all people or in all locations. Design flexibility is more important to me than ease of installation.

There is more to getting away from recessed cans, than the bulb energy. As muchcreek points out, when installed in attic ceilings, they need considerable detailing to prevent them acting as little chimneys sucking the conditioned air out of the home. When used in numbers, they can put the top of the home under more negative pressure and make-up air comes from potentially unhealthy locations.

Sharp shadows and lighting qualities are more about the fixture design and color temperature. While some bulbs may fall short of the expected 50K hours, many will live far past it. LED tech is hard to keep up with but I think its safe to say that there will be many affordable options for changing bulbs and housings for regular J boxes in the future.

Ban the can

Recessed lights are evil

We used Philips SlimSurface LED lights in our vaulted ceilings. They are low profile, come in a choice of sizes, shapes, light temperatures and CRI's and seem to provide nice light. They are very bright and because the bulbs are not recessed provide a more even, less beam-like light than recessed fixtures. Our electrician mentioned he used J-boxes that have a little extra room for them.

We've only been in our house a couple of months and it's been summer so they haven't gotten a lot of use, but so far we're happy.