LED light bulbs getting better

elstimpo

stevehead wrote: »

I would go so far as to suggest that B&Q are doing untold damage to the widespread acceptance of LED lighting. If I bought one of their 8 quid LED's I'd feel mighty disappointed, wouldn't buy another one and tell all my friends that LED's are rubbish!

Nichia's are my fav Halogen replacements - gorgeous.

I completely agree, which is why my site will have to have video evidence of the quality of the LED's that will be on it. Thanks to B&Q and most LED's on the market, they are getting a very bad name and reputation.

LED IS the future of lighting and those who know what they are talking about and who only promote quality products must rise above the rubbish to prove it.

Froggitt

Looking for a load LCD GU10 50w equivalents to replace halogens in kitchen and bathrooms.......no idea where to start.

B&Q LEDs gave no indication of what they were equivalent to and went from about 3w LED to 30w LED.

Amazon, eg seller Leonlighting, offer either eg 78 little LEDs or 3 really big LEDs.

Deltech Mark 7 seem to get quite a good writeup.

What recommendations for a proper 50w equivalent.....not that bothered if the wattage goes upto 10w for a bright light, as its still an 80% saving.

And once Ive done the halogens, Ill do the candle bulbs, although I want those dimmable.

decsdad

Hi people,
We have about 90 GU10 bulbs in the house, seemed a good idea at the time, given that we haggled the builder for free electrical upgrades. And I was always hitting my head on the light fittings at our old house.
I recently changed the soffit lights to leds, the kitchen/family room(one big room, most used lights) to the energy saving gu10's, yes the ones that are too big for the recess, so they stick out a bit, not ideal but not too bad(wife doesn't quite agree), they are finished in chrome, the bit that sticks out. The lounge got led bulbs, we only use the room after the kids go to bed really to watch the tv, so can get away with it(dim and a slight blue tinge),. The rest of the house got 35w gu10s.

I will change the rest to energy saving ones when they get a bit cheaper and fit the recess.
I got the longer ones in tesco, they had put them in the wrong space on the shelf, hence wrong price, result.

I still need to find 5 ses candle energy saving bulbs if anyone can help there ?

thescouselander

prowla wrote: »

LEDs have pretty much taken over on bicycles now, out-perform hand-held torches, and appear in cars too.
It's only a matter of time before they're mainstream for household lighting.
Though you can't dim an LED, it would be possible to provide a dimming feature by having a cluster of LEDs and switching individual ones on/off to alter the collective amount of light being emitted.

Yes, very true. I just bought a new front LED light for my bike on Friday, I was surprised how bright it was. It can be dimmed too so the batteries last longer.

elstimpo

If anyone is looking for LED lights of any variant for their work or home, then may i suggest you wait until i have been on my Asia trip departing on the 17th November.

I have been to Asia on average 5 times per year for 10 years and have been constantly testing new LED technology during this period. The most important thing to remember is that there is an awful lot of rubbish on the market at the moment. Products that are simply awful are being sold by retailers such as B&Q and online companies. All standard energy saving bulbs are shockingly bad for the environment as they contain mercury and end up in land fill sites. They do not illuminate straight away and don't save as much power and energy as LED would. There are new regulations coming out soon to make sure packaging does not mis-lead customers and to make sure products are up to the quality they need to be.

The problem with most LED's is that they often say they are direct replacements for X watt standard bulbs. 90% of LED's i have tested come nowhere near the claims they make. The lumens are the real way to judge how well an LED will illuminate your home / work space, not the watts. For instance, there are 1w and 3w LED bulbs that are very good, but the only ones worth talking about will set you back, well from £30 per bulb upwards.

To this point i have not seen an LED bulb on the market under £20 that i would recommend to anyone. A factory i visit quite often in China and produces good quality products are now claiming they have bulbs in the £10 to £20 price range that are of similar quality to the more expensive bulbs on the market, so they have invited me over the test them and pass judgement. I'm truly hopeful they claims can be substantiated.

Standard Energy saving bulbs are still harming our environment in a severe manner and should be avoided at all costs.

To achieve the equivalent of 40w and 60w in LED requires 5w and 9w respectively. To achieve the same in a CFL requires 9w and 15w respectively when rounded up. The future LED figure is already being talked up to c.150 !

Hope this helps.

Froggitt

Let us know how your trip goes.

NeverInDebt

elstimpo wrote: »

Standard Energy saving bulbs are still harming our environment in a severe manner and should be avoided at all costs.
Hope this helps.

So is flying around the world and should be avoided at all costs

elstimpo wrote: »

I have been to Asia on average 5 times per year for 10 years

Froggitt

elstimpo - any views on these?

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http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170392347248&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150342107419&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Cardew

elstimpo wrote: »

Standard Energy saving bulbs are still harming our environment in a severe manner and should be avoided at all costs.

To achieve the equivalent of 40w and 60w in LED requires 5w and 9w respectively. To achieve the same in a CFL requires 9w and 15w respectively when rounded up.

An extra 4w or 6w per bulb is hardly earth saving. If each bulb is on for 4 hours a day you save 6kWh or 9kWh per year - say 60 pence or 90 pence per year.

Take a long while to recover the extra cost of the bulb!

P.S. See if those earth saving Chinese will shut down a couple of coal fired power stations while you are there;)

elstimpo

NeverInDebt wrote: »

So is flying around the world and should be avoided at all costs

I get this quite a lot and if you think it through your comment doesn't make sense. I was recently involved in some research for the Government as i am now the senior advisor to the Royal Institutes of Architecture for ethical lighting.

When you are talking energy saving solutions that could result in saving of billions of £'s and untold amount's of C02, not to mention the amount of hazardous waste that can be saved. My travels don't really come into question.

LED lighting WILL replace street lighting, all lights in homes and offices and factories. This will result in benefits so great to our planet and to our pockets that we cannot yet calculate it.

You have to crack an egg to make an omelette