If you've been thinking about upgrading your recessed lighting cans with LED bulbs or LED retrofit kits, we have a fantastic, limited time deal on two kits, available only until we run out of current stock. They are both by TCP (a trusted lighting brand) and are 85 watt replacements (they use only 14 watts) -- this means they're brighter than traditional 65 watt BR30 bulbs found in many recessed cans and will really brighten up a room!

The difference between the two kits is simply color temperature. One is 2700K (similar to an incandescent light) and the other is only a little whiter at 3000K (similar to a halogen light).

If we still have one or both options, you can find them here. Their price at the time of this writing is $12.95. They're moving quickly, so we encourage you to act now if they meet your needs!

As we've written about before, LED retrofit or downlight kits are used to replace traditional bulbs with a flush look that eliminates any evidence of the recessed lighting can. You can see in the image here that the connector is screwed into the socket like any standard light bulb. The wire arms are then folded upwards on their springs as the fixture is slid into place. There may be a small bracket in the recessed can that holds the arms, and their pressure helps to hold the downlight in place, providing you with a beautiful look to your ceiling.

Just like LED bulbs are rapidly replacing common household bulbs, corn cob LEDs are quickly becoming the business choice in places where HID bulbs and high watt CFLs have traditionally been used -- high bay lighting, for instance, or in parking lot and street lights.

So-called "corn cob" LEDs (named for their appearance when turned off) bring the usual benefits of LED lighting to business settings: long lamp life and substantial energy savings, in spite of initial lamp costs. Most are designed, however, like other lamp styles: their diodes are placed on all sides of the lamp for light projection in all directions. When they're inside a fixture, however, this means some of the light is reflected from the fixture toward where it's needed.

In other words, even though the lighting diodes of LEDs provide directional lighting, the diode placement keeps all the light from being used directly. In some cases this may be useful in order to reduce glare. In others, though, more directional light may be preferred.

This is where multi-beam corn cob LEDs come in handy with a solution. While they initially look like any other corn cob lamp, they are designed with several separate panels that can open in order to provide multiple lighting beam angles (thus "multi-beam"). This allows you to spread out the panels and get either partial or fully direct lighting according to your needs.

In fact, the 30 watt multi-beam LED pictured here is only 7.5" when fully opened, allowing it to work in 8" cans commonly found in retail settings. This gives these businesses the chance to better light up their aisles and merchandise.

We also offer other multi-beam corn cob LEDs that produce even more light output for high bay settings in larger fixtures. So when you're ready to move from HID to LED, these flexible lamps can do more to meet your needs.

This article was updated on 10/24/17 to clarify that direct connect LEDs -- or LEDs that connect directly to ballasts -- do have drivers inside them, and these drivers are designed to work with the ballasts.

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As businesses continue upgrading from fluorescent lighting to LED lighting, one question sits at the crux of the upgrade: should you retrofit the lamps using existing ballasts, or remove the ballasts and direct wire the LEDs?

Here's what we mean:

As we discussed in our article, Replacing T8 Fluorescent Tubes with T8 LED Tubes, LEDs need something to safely modulate the energy running through them just as fluorescent tubes do. Fluorescent tubes use ballasts -- external to the lamp -- for this purpose and LEDs originally used something called drivers -- also external to the lamp -- which effectively do the same thing. (Many LED lamps still use external drivers.)

So originally to upgrade from fluorescent tubes, you would remove the old lamps and their ballasts; direct wire drivers instead of ballasts; and then connect the LED tubes to these external drivers. In the interest of making things simpler, manufacturers developed LEDs that could work directly off the ballasts that were already being used. No external drivers needed. (There is a driver inside the LED that works with the ballast; this must be an electronic ballast, and you still have to make sure LED and ballast specs are compatible.) Philips, for instance, came up with their InstantFit line of LEDs.

Many new LED tubes, however, come with integrated drivers, or drivers that are built in (much like the LED bulbs commonly used in homes) for direct wire purposes. These allow you to entirely remove old lamps and ballasts and connect the new LED lamp directly to the power source without a separate (external) driver.

In both instances, there are drivers inside the LED, one designed to work with electronic ballasts and one designed to work directly with the power source. [Article continues after image ...]

Sure, one look at our title and you might picture an LED driver holding up a bank. Or you might just wonder what we mean by an LED driver. So let us explain.

Every light bulb needs to control the electricity passing through it or the bulb will just die a quick death. Our old friend, the incandescent bulb (and its brother the halogen bulb) has a filament that provides resistance to the electricity. But other lamp types -- like fluorescent lamps and any kind of HID lamp -- have no filament, so they need another way to control electricity.

This is normally done with a lighting ballast, which the electricity passes through before entering the bulb. But many of the lamp types that use ballasts are getting replaced by LED bulbs. While some LEDs are now built to use an existing ballast, they originally used something called an LED driver that basically provided the same function. And many still use them.

In fact, if you've bought LED bulbs for your home, the same thing applies -- those bulbs just have the drivers built in, while other LEDs have external drivers that may run more than one lamp at a time. While the light function of an LED may last for years, drivers can give out much sooner. This is why we recommend name brand LED bulbs for the home, especially those with 25,000 hour rated lives. You can save a buck or so on generic lamps, but these are usually made with cheaper parts including drivers, so you'll more likely run into bulbs dying early.

So what does it look like when an LED driver goes bad? It is rare indeed to see them breaking the law with bank heists or anything similar. More likely, you'll just get a pulsing light like the one seen here.
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Now we can't say for sure that this pulsing light is caused by a bad LED driver. It's possible there's some other electrical problem, which is just one example of why the world needs electricians. They can assess and fix the cause of this. But we do know that the LED driver could be the source, and this at least illustrates the importance of quality components from driver (or ballast) to the light source itself.

Looking to green things up for St. Patrick's Day? What about green light bulbs for your garage and/or porch lights?

Whether you need traditionally shaped A19 green bulbs or those with a smaller candelabra base, Lighting Supply has a wide selection of green bulbs for your St. Patty merriment needs.

You can also choose by technology. We know that plenty of people choose green CFLs or green LEDs to save on energy when adding an emerald glow to the evening.

Wondering why green is associated with St. Patrick's Day? In one way it makes sense because Ireland itself is so lush and green, known poetically as the Emerald Isle. But it looks like the green of this celebration really relates to the 3-leaf clover, which St. Patrick himself was said to have used in his religious teachings.