Electricity standard

[lovingit]

For the guys and girls who know electricity, I am looking at some LED bulbs on ebay to replace some halogen bulbs that went out for exterior spotlighting.  They are MR16 12v 20w size.  The ones sold on ebay from China are saying "bulbs will not work for AC 110v and AC 220v"  What does that mean?  I think USA is 120 or 220 or 240, can't remember exactly.

Also the current halogen spread is 12 degrees and these LED ones are 40 degrees.  Will it look funny for tree lighting?

 

[daedalus]

Household electricity is rated at 120V AC.  Some large appliances like electric water heaters, air conditioners and electric ranges have dedicated 240V AC circuits. 

The bulbs you're looking at may be rated for 12V DC, but what are they installed in?  Does the lighting system have its own transformer to convert the 120V AC voltage to 12V DC?  Any sort of transformer should have a label that states input and output power (volts and amps).  Are you sure the bulbs have identical bases and are even physically interchangeable?  That's usually the first indication.

40 degrees is drastically different than 12 degrees.  Depends on what you're lighting and the distance between light and object.  If you like your light at 12 degrees, I wouldn't take a chance on 40.  Not only will the beam width be different, but the amount of light per area will be less for a wider beam, given the same power output.

 

[peppy]

For the guys and girls who know electricity, I am looking at some LED bulbs on ebay to replace some halogen bulbs that went out for exterior spotlighting.  They are MR16 12v 20w size.  The ones sold on ebay from China are saying "bulbs will not work for AC 110v and AC 220v"  What does that mean?  I think USA is 120 or 220 or 240, can't remember exactly.

Also the current halogen spread is 12 degrees and these LED ones are 40 degrees.  Will it look funny for tree lighting?

The actual size should be MR16 G5.3 or something like that which indicates the spacing of the pins on the bottom (what you showed were the voltage & power ratings for it).

Your landscape wiring is coming from a transformer that provides the 12V so you should be all set in that regard. With LEDs you'll draw less power so no issues with transformer handling the load.

Make sure to order a lot of spares since QA is practically nonexistent on those Chinese LED bulbs. There are usually a few duds.

One last thing that matters a lot is color temperature. If you get 6000K you might find it too harsh (or love it - really depends on the person). I'd rather pick something below 3000K if I can.