For new construction I'd be looking at using ballasted pin-base CFL fixtures or integrated LED fixtures, which get around the lack of heat-dissipation of sockets that require self-ballasted lamps, since the inability to shead heat cuts into CFL & LED life.
The E26 won't be going away any time soon, but it is specifically designed to thermally isolate the bulb from the construction materials to limit the fire hazard, but that's the opposite of what you want for the heat-sensitive electronics in high-efficiency lighting. A large fraction of the cost of E26 base LED retrofits is all about the heat-sinking and air flow management to keep the light intensity & color from drifting with temp, and keeping the electronics cool enough to last. With a dedicated fixture the electronics heat is much more easily managed, since it doesn't have to be crammed into an E26 base.
GU24 has pretty much the same thermal story.
Some LED fixures simply get hard-wired into standard electrical boxes, and short of being hit by lighting you'll never have to replace it. Fixture-ballasted 2 & 4-pin-base CFLs are generally sold into commercial market spaces, but the pin-base replacement CFLs are available at box stores. Dimmable CFL fixtures require special (and expensive) dimmers, and there are competing standards just to make it confusing. Dimmable LED fixtures typically work with a range of cheaper dimmers designed for incandescent loads. For high-output dimmable downlighting, the 18W Cree KR series fixtures are pretty spectacular, but the lower power versions are also pretty decent. (I'm not sure what the street price on any of this is- it changes weekly.)
In any event, if you take the time to really DESIGN the lighting and use long-lasting dedicated fixtures it's usually not a huge up-charge, and you may go decades without having to replace one. Not so for self-ballasted GU24 or E26 retrofit versions. |