The other day (the day after Thanksgiving), we started putting up all the Christmas decorations inside the house. I put the tree up and then starting pulling out strings of Christmas lights. I quickly realized that most of last year's lights were no longer lighting up.
I spent too much time troubleshooting each string yet I was still unable to fix any of the faulty strings. We decided that perhaps this is the year to start replacing our old incandescent Christmas lights with LED Christmas lights.
I've been putting off making this switch to LEDs for two reasons. First, the first few years of LEDs were only available in cool white which emitted a color somewhere between blue and cool white. Those were a sickly color of blue and I didn't want my Christmas lights looking like that. The other reason for putting off this switch to LEDs was the ridiculously high price. Those early strings of LEDs were far too expensive.
This year, I had no problems finding more appropriately priced strings of LED Christmas lights. Plus, these strings of lights were being advertised as "warm white" which promises to be a more appealing color of light than the older bluish light. If they are actually a true warm white, then that would work. However, in my photography work, I've found that the specified color temperature of LEDs is far too often exaggerated. I'd have to check out these new LED warm white Christmas lights in person so we decided to head up to Lowes the following morning.
It was a nice morning which is exceptionally rare this year so I grabbed my classic compact Fuji X30 camera and my bag of medications and we headed out the door to make our way up to Burlington. I shot a few photos along the way and then again on our way back home...
This flock of birds flew overhead so I quickly pointed the camera in this location and snapped a photo of them. Unfortunately, this flock was in the process of abruptly changing direction so it looks more like a bunch of birds rather than a flying flock... still, I posted it here. You can also see some reflections off the window that I shot this photo through on the upper left side of the photo...
We were pleased to find that the Lowes parking lot looked relatively empty for Thanksgiving weekend during all the Black Friday weekend sales.
We easily found the sets of LED Christmas lights we needed. We then went outside to find some Christmas wreaths. We needed eight wreaths for the outside of the house so we grabbed the wreaths and then did a bit more looking around before checking out. We had absolutely no problem finding a cashier looking for something to do so that was a pleasant surprise.
Before leaving the parking lot, Sheila placed an online order at Jersey Mike's for a couple of sandwiches for lunch. We figured we would pick up our order on our way home. On the way, we stopped at LL Bean so Sheila could take a look at a sweater she's had her eye on for a while. She grabbed the sweater and added a new fleece blanket to her purchase and, once again, we checked out immediately. We were again shocked that the Black Friday weekend sales didn't cause long lines at the cashier. We then picked up our sandwiches and headed home.
I shot a few more photos from the car (shooting through a dirty windshield) during our drive back home...
I'm still getting used to this little classic compact camera but I'm really like it for short outings in our local area. I like the photos it produces.
The sandwiches were delicious too!
We spent the evening finishing our inside decorating. At this point, all we had left to do was the outside Christmas decorating...
POST EDIT: Sunday, November 26th, 2023 - We put up the Christmas lights outdoors today including all the wreaths for our windows and doors. (I'll shoot some photos of outside when we have a bit of snow on the ground and, preferably, while it is snowing and I'll share them in another blog entry.)
As I look out our living room window from the couch, I can see the wreaths and Christmas lights on the trash shed. The wreaths have the new LED "warm white" lights while the trash shed is lined with the older incandescent Christmas lights. The new "warm white" LED lights are definitely not a warm white color temperature especially when seen right next to incandescent lights! I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I am a bit disappointed though.
While the incandescent light strings have a soft, warm, yellowish glow to them, the LED strings are a bright white light leaning toward having a greenish hue. A true "warm white" would be at 2700K which is definitely into the yellow spectrum of light wavelengths. These strings of LED lights appear to be approximately 4000K which is definitely not a "warm white".
It is possible that the greenish tinge I am seeing is due to light reflecting off the green wreaths.
This is definitely a disappointment. At least the LED strings of lights are not so cool that they are leaning into the bluish color wavelengths. Regardless, this still is a big disappointment. It is enough of a disappointment that I will not purchase any more of these lights. Actually, I will not purchase another string of LED light sets until I am certain that what is classified as "warm white" is actually a warm, yellowish color temperature. Actually, I'd prefer strings of LED Christmas lights that emitted a golden yellow color which is a bit beyond the warm white wavelengths.
What a disappointment though.
Comments
Post a Comment