LED light bulbs getting better

savemoney

I would be pretty peeved off if they lasted that length of time although cheap for led bulbs who in there right mind is going to pay £20+ for some GU10 bulbs

flyingscotno1

jonesjw wrote: »

Also, please remember the electricity "WASTED" from a normal light bulb is in fact given off as heat. Which isn't waste for the 8 months or so of winter we have in the UK, as the heat given off replaces that you need from your heating system. Therefore, energy saving figures from light bulbs are over stated.:D

Only if people turn up and down their heating to compensate thou;)

Froggitt

savemoney wrote: »

I would be pretty peeved off if they lasted that length of time although cheap for led bulbs who in there right mind is going to pay £20+ for some GU10 bulbs

I would.

From memory, something like four or five hours a day of a 50W halogen is about £20 a year in leccy, and with dark winter early evenings coming up, its an investment. Would only do kitchen at that price though.....athroom lights not on as much, so will wait for price to drop.

May also try out an LED candle bulb at some point.

I think the other thread also said cheap B&Q LED bulbs were rubbish.

LightPlanet

I have an energy saver calculator spread sheet for lighting if anyone is interested. PM me your email address and I'll forward it to you. It shows return on investment depending on use patterns.
The other option to consider is replacing the light fittings with an entirely new fitting. LED units can now be obtained in downlighter format. You can get 950 lumens of perfectly diffuse light from 18w, so roughly equivalent to a 100w gls bulb. Can be ideal for bathrooms.

On the energy wastage issue, some energy is lost as heat - or used to heat the room - but energy is also wasted in producing light in the wrong parts of the spectrum. Incandescents are full spectrum light sources, so they produce UV through to IR. The unwanted light is also wasted energy.
The mass market LEDs currently available at low prices are using through-hole led's, which are really cheap, but not very efficient. They also have poor colour temperature and low CRI. Expensive, high performance LED lights use much more advanced surface mounted diodes which are sufficiently different to be almost a different technology. There really is no comparison.

savemoney

I dont dispute that but most people will never paid £20+ for one bulb, leds will never take off until price gets lowered and the light from them gets better

I just paid £65 last week for a LED evo56 security light it just about does the job but no way is it better than say a normal security light even at 125w version. I only bought it because my main concern was costs of getting a electrician, followed by environmental costs

But no way would I paid £20 for one bulb no matter what long term saving is let alone the quality of the product

Froggitt wrote: »

I would.

From memory, something like four or five hours a day of a 50W halogen is about £20 a year in leccy, and with dark winter early evenings coming up, its an investment. Would only do kitchen at that price though.....athroom lights not on as much, so will wait for price to drop.

May also try out an LED candle bulb at some point.

I think the other thread also said cheap B&Q LED bulbs were rubbish.

mech_2

Froggitt wrote: »

I would.

From memory, something like four or five hours a day of a 50W halogen is about £20 a year in leccy, and with dark winter early evenings coming up, its an investment.

You can calculate it. At 10p/kWh for electricity a 50W halogen for 4.5 hours per day for 365 days of a year would cost £8.21 in electricity. And a 7W LED (if that's the equivalent) would cost £1.15 for the same hours. Also you might need at least another pound to replace the reduction in heat produced during the heating season. So the saving might be around £6 using these assumptions.

Froggitt

Which is why I suggested that a discount code to reduce the price to as much below £20 as possible is required to kickstart this kind of premium priced product. Most people I guess will be looking for a payback in 2-3 years for this type of product on the grounds that they will be half the cost in a year or so.

Even at say £15, Im only in the market for four for the kitchen......bathroom and en-suite can wait until the price is a fiver as they dont get as much use.

Goecostore

LED bulbs are getting better and the higher price means more light but the costs are high, however if taken over the life cycle of a bulb they outweigh halogens by 10 times!!!

silverfoxuk

Thought this might be of interest. We have replaced our main ceiling lights in all rooms with energy savers that said were 'equivalent' to 60w incandescent, but we are unhappy that light seems less bright than normal 60watt. It would appear we are right....

UK transition to energy saving light bulbs is rocky

http://kn.theiet.org/magazine/issues/0920/energy-saving-bulbs-0920.cfm

This works out to a minimum CFL wattage of 16W to replace a 60W GLS and 26W for a 100W - around a 4:1 ratio. Other experts feel that even this is too optimistic. The Lighting Research Centre at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York recommends a 3:1 ratio: “You’ll still use only a fraction of the energy, while avoiding the possible disappointment of a dim lamp.”

So you need an energy saving bulb of at least 16watt to compare with the light output of a 60watt traditional bulb?

Also it appears these bulbs light output deteriorates over time:

Energy-saving bulbs 'get dimmer'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8367933.stm

Energy-efficient light bulbs lose on average 22% of their brightness over their lifetime, a study has found. In some cases they emit just 60% as much light as traditional models which are being phased out of shops, it says.
The study in Engineering and Technology magazine concluded that consumers were being misled by the bulbs' packaging.

baby_frogmella

Hi

I have these outdoor LED lights fitted outside my garage which look absolutely stunning when on but (surprise surprise) they don't give out much light. Has anyone come across any outdoor LED lights (same type) which look nice AND give out decent amount of light say equivalent to 60w bulb?