Looking for LED track lighting that isn't too expensive

I would suggest buying all the track lighting components and build your lighting to fit the room. You're not going to find a "kit" per say to suit your needs. Buy the tracks, the light cans, and then you can pick whatever size and style of bulbs/LEDs that you want.

Jim, you could do what I'm doing and use regular track lighting with standard LED bulbs. Track is the stuff on the left of course.

 

Does it have to be LED?   You can get much better color from halogen.  I have a friend that does lighting professionally and told me galleries won't switch from halogen due to poor quality light from LED's.  Just thought I would share what I learned.

I do not like the heat from halogen.   I like how cool LEDs stay.  Its a fairly small room, 12x12.5 and it could heat up fast with a bunch of lights on.   

We used CFL flood lights. 5000K, dimmable, very bright clear light, no heat,  and still quite a bit cheaper than LEDs.

 I bought the LED lights from Home Dep that screw into the recessed cans in the ceiling. They have the beauty rings already part of them. The price keeps getting lower.

 I just bought a regular type screw in 60w equal in LED for $8!! There's a lot of good LED options now with color choice.

 

can't find the post with mine but here's something:

https://ogrforum.com/t.../train-room-lighting

 

You have to look at the CRI value besides the color temperature to know what your getting.

 

I'm using low voltage halogen on my new layout with bulbs with a CRI of 95.

CRI --- The Color Rendering Index (CRI) of a light source is a quantitative measure of its ability to reproduce the colors of various objects faithfully in comparison with an ideal or natural light source. There are high CRI led bulbs but they are expensive.

 

I use led track lighting.  Standard track with PAR20 or R20 fixtures and lights. No heat, no fluorescent flicker, and lots of light.  I also put led par30 bulbs in the ceiling cans. 

 

Go search for the stores that have Detroit Edison discounted led lights.  You can save quite a bit.

Dan

Dan you got that right

One thing you can do to save money and heat is mix light bulb types. Example, use 1/2 led and 1/2 halogen.  That way you get the benefit of both types.  You can mix led with florescent to get rid of the flicker.

Dan

I do not recommend mixing LED or incandescent with fluorescent lights if you are serious about photography. It may look good to your eyes but your camera cannot provide accurate color under these diverse sources.

We used these Light Cans ... just over $5. We got all the tracks, T's, and power terminals there too. Many of the lights cans limit you to the size of bulb you can use, usually a PAR30 is the biggest. These cans will hold up to PAR38/40 bulb which is a huge difference in the amount of light output.

 

On my switching layout I used these Light Cans  with halogen 75watt bulbs. I hate that setup. I can only go up to a Par30/R30 bulb and the heat from the halogens is intolerable in the room. I have 12 of them in that room and it's not enough light and way too much heat. That's why we went a different direction with lighting over at my Dad's house, to make sure we had enough light, it wasn't too hot, or suck up a ton of energy.

 

Anytime someone walks in the room at my Dad's house, usually the 1st comment is... Wow, it's bright in here! There's 30 CFL floodlights in there, and they are dimmable so full bright is when we are working on the layout. Also comes in handy for photography as no other source of lighting is needed for quality pictures in that room.

 

 

 

PAR 30 Halogen vs PAR38 Dimmable CFL

 

I used the ones on the left, do not like them at all. Very happy with the decision in lighting we used at my Dad's house...no regrets there. Although it was right around $1000 for all the lighting, but the bulbs were $20 each.

I just got "done" putting in track lighting and LEDs. Well, may be "done" is not the right word, as this is still a work in progress.

 

Since I painted my ceiling black, I went with black track and cans as well. I have to admit they are very well hidden in plain sight!

 

One thing I learned is to definitely plan ahead. The floods I bought are highly directional. So placing the tracks properly so I can get the light where it is needed is critical.  Place them incorrectly, and you will have no light, and or glare in your visitor's eyes. If you are like me, you will soon find out that you need more lights than you originally planned. That's Okay, as LEDs and CFLs use substantially less power. You are unlikely to overload the circuit.

 

I did get the 5000K LEDs, which are dimmable, and dimmers. What I found out is the dimmers do not completely go to dark. Instead, the lowest they will go is maybe 30% of full on. After that, its throw the switch to go to complete black. I'm a bit disappointed in that respect. However, at ~30% light, it's enough to see around the layout and still let the lighted buildings and signs show their stuff. (Now to get all those buildings and signs lit up!)

 

One thing to be aware of is the type of socket in the cans. I went with the standard US medium base. But at least one type I looked  at had the 2 pin twist European type. It pays to ask questions before you buy! I ended up paying more than I had originally planned, but everything went together as it was supposed to. The cheaper stuff just would not have worked.

 

Chris

LVHR

 

I am really debating If I should do this in my layout room.  I have a drop ceiling currently in there that I have to replace about half the tiles anyways.  Not sure if I can buy black tiles or should i remove them all and spray them black and brush the grid.  

IKEA

I was there last week with the wife.  Didn't even think to look!  Sucks its an hour drive but I will check them out.  

I painted mine. I had to access the loft above the room for a repair, so a good sized chunk of the tiles were already down. I went to one of the big box stores and bought the cheapest flat black they had. Turns out they had a sale going on, and their cheapest was a better grade than usual. I still took 2 coats (rolled) to really  do a proper job. I did the grid with a 2" roller. Blue tape and paper on the edge to the wall, then pull it before it dries. It was also a great time to finish the rough in wiring for the track lighting. I really need to shoot some pictures.

 

Chris

LVHR

The cheapest PAR30 dimmable led's in 5000k that I have found are $20 a piece. CFL's are around $9 in a dimmable PAR30 in 5000k. The CFL's still make some heat.

 

The hardware just isn't cheap. Laidoff's find on the cans is a good solution. I was able to get commercial grade tracks, connectors and fixtures from craigslist from a guy that rehabs retail stores. An 8' track with five fixtures and connectors was $35.($450 retail)

I have infiltrated my track lights with LED's.  First, they can be found fairly cheaply on eBay by buying directly from the suppliers in China.  I have found them all to be good to deal with, very reasonable if not free shipping, and fast shipping.  They can be communicated with with usually decent English.

I would definitely recommend the warm whites,  Even these are a bit off color from incandescents or halogens.  I have done this in sections with my wall displays.  The sections do not abut each other so you don't really see the difference side by side.  At first the color difference bothered me (as change tends to bother most of us), but I really don't notice it now.

Definitely get dimmable.  You can keep them on an un-dimmable switch, but then you always have a dimmable option.

The floods are more directed than conventional bulbs, but due to the low power consumption you have many more placement options. 

The LED's keep the power consumption lower.  I have about 40 fixtures so power consumption can matter.  Also, you don't have to be so concerned about over loading you wall switches (regular or dimmers).

On the layout I have mostly gone to the LED' with a few incandescents left for color balance in a few spots. I now have a small fortune in conventional bulbs left over, so I am still burning a few of them.

I too do not like that they only dim to about 30%, but, again, I've gotten use to it.  My layout lighting can still be seen, and they do maintain the ability to be turned off.

This has been my experience,

Alan

Moonman,

 

Where did you find the PAR30 dimmable led's in 5000k?  I've looked and did not find them.

 

Thanks.

CFLs do generate some heat, but very minimal. We have 30+ Par38s in the train room and the heat is not even noticeable. You can still put your hand on the bulb w/o a burn, even after a couple of hours at full bright.

I'm in the process of painting the [unfinished] ceiling black and love it.  As others mentioned, using black cans makes it all disappear.

 

I buy all my LEDs online - huge selection of CRI, color temps, beam choices, base choices, etc.  The DJ stage can fixtures (Musician's Friend) allow for insertion of photographic gels and scrims for diffusion and coloring.