LED light bulbs getting better

Ben84

elstimpo wrote: »

Buy one of the most expensive LED's, at £70 ish and over it's lifetime i will save you significant money on your bills, energy, the environment and a lot of time over any CFC.

I cannot see one reason why you would want to stick with CFC's to save money? You'll only lose money with CFC's?

Very confused.

£70 for one single bulb is very expensive. Some rough calculations in my head suggest that I could buy a good CFL for about £5 and use it every day for several hours for the next 20 years before the total cost of bulb + electric reached £70. A 12w bulbs runs for about 90 hours on a single kW, so the £65 of electric will buy you a vast number of hours use.

It's just maths and comparison, but I don't see how the £70 bulb is looking like the affordable option, not even if it used zero electric to light up.

While I'm willing to pay more than most for a lightbulb, I bought some of the early energy savers for around £20 each (most are still working), I'm not convinced by the economic or environmental advantages of LEDs at £70 per light bulb. When you're considering hundreds of pounds to replace just the few most used bulbs in the average house, the money would be better spent on loft insulation or the cavity walls.

bigpaws23

Fascinating thread. I'm not very happy with CFLs and think LEDs must be the future technology for lighting but the price needs to come down dramatically to make them reachable for all. At the moment companies GIVE CFLS away for nothing; wouldn't it be great if they did that with LEDS!

I've been following this family who have been making their own LEDs to try and cut costs:
http://littlegreenblog.com/green-technology/energy-saving/leds-a-new-generation-of-lighting/

You can see some great lighting effects on this post too; I always thought LEDs were too directional; a bit like a reading light for normal use, but it appears not:
http://littlegreenblog.com/green-technology/energy-saving/quanta-leds-with-a-twist-of-decor/

Looking forward to that discount code, LightPlanet I would love to get rid of our CFLs.

mattpat

I am in the process of replacing all of my GU10 halogens with LED equivalents having researched the market and found that you can get nice warm colour temperatures of around 3000K with suitable brightness these days (provided you cough up the cash). It seems you get what you pay for.

I just bought ten of the Deltech 3W warm white bulbs from TLC (around £10 each) for my hall and landing having read some very good reviews of their bulbs, and I have to say they are fantastic. In my opinion they equate in brightness to a 20W halogen, which in my hall and landing is sufficient given I have lots of bulb holders quite close together. I'm guessing the bulb in each is of one of the new technology standards.

They would not be suitable in my kitchen given the holders are more spaced apart but having viewed the brightness and beam angle of the 5W version in the shop (consists of 3 LEDs, costs around £22/bulb), I think they will be sufficient (equates to a 35W halogen IMO).

I'm interested to know how lightplanet's 7W bulb compares with the Deltech 5W. Hmmmmmm going to PM him...

patman99

The only problem with the cheap LEDs is the angle of the beam, most are 72 degrees. This is due to the fact that they don't use refelectors.

At least they are now doing ones with a beam angle of 120 degrees like normal GU10s. As for CFLs they are fully recyclable (according to a lady from the Carbon Trust on an interview on BBC Essex a few months ago).

Froggitt

Just received Lightplanet's 7w GU10 (warm white) and the verdict is a big thumbs up!!!

Very similar colour, and very similar brightness to the 50w it replaced. Cant really tell the difference.

Only problem is the cost.....using calculations above, it'll take four years to pay for itself. Will they be half the cost in a year or two.....who knows.

Will I replace the rest of my kitchen halogens......dunno....the bulb is great though.

Antispam

That's the problem Froggit. They are far too expensive for most people. They will be cheaper in 4 years time probably a lot less, same happened with low energy bulbs even buying candle bulbs too years back they now much cheaper to buy, although some makes lie megaman are still pricey

Froggitt

Discount code posted here http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=27466541#post27466541

Every little helps!!!

elstimpo

Can someone explain where my post has gone. I just wrote a little report of my trip to Asia and it seems to have been deleted. I never mentioned my business once, in any way, i never mentioned any factory or manufacturers i visited.

I mentioned Cree and Philips products currently on the market. Which is obviously no problem.

Can someone let me know why a post i spent time creating to help inform was deleted.

Thank you

elstimpo

patman99 wrote: »

TAs for CFLs they are fully recyclable (according to a lady from the Carbon Trust on an interview on BBC Essex a few months ago).

A product that contains Mercury is fully recyclable ?

I'd be interested in having more info about who exactly made that statement and what the programme was called.

elstimpo

Ben84 wrote: »

£70 for one single bulb is very expensive. Some rough calculations in my head suggest that I could buy a good CFL for about £5 and use it every day for several hours for the next 20 years before the total cost of bulb + electric reached £70. A 12w bulbs runs for about 90 hours on a single kW, so the £65 of electric will buy you a vast number of hours use.

It's just maths and comparison, but I don't see how the £70 bulb is looking like the affordable option, not even if it used zero electric to light up.

While I'm willing to pay more than most for a lightbulb, I bought some of the early energy savers for around £20 each (most are still working), I'm not convinced by the economic or environmental advantages of LEDs at £70 per light bulb. When you're considering hundreds of pounds to replace just the few most used bulbs in the average house, the money would be better spent on loft insulation or the cavity walls.

CFL will not last 20 years. Not even close. A quality LED will last far longer than its advertised life span (poor products won't last anywhere near their suggested lifespan). You could be using a £14.99 4w LED.

Then there is the issues of Mercury in the CFL's which costs an absolute fortune to get rid of and usually ends up in land fill sites.

£70 for an LED bulb is in no way accurate but factoring all the energy and environmental costs into it, a £200 LED would save more money than a 1p CFL.

I have already had one post deleted tonight, i'm not sure why but i have a £14.99 4 watt LED coming to the market soon which is by far the best LED bulb i have seen. Its a direct replacement for a 40watt incandescent, it's the same size as the incandescent, it's light-weight and looks like a 40w incandescent. You can also drop it on its head from 20m and it wont break, shatter or anything. Stays in one piece.

I am not advertising my business. I am mentioning this product as its the first product i have seen at a great price which makes me think that LED is already the energy saving and environmental solution for lighting, on a mass scale.