Phillips LED downlighters

missile

aliasojo wrote: »

missile..are you replacing in order to have cheaper running costs?

Yes :beer:

missile

iamcornholio wrote: »

Have you tried any of these LED's in your home?

The light from these is very white, stark, cold and just plain hideous. And I'd question the claims of having the same light output as 35w halogens too.

Not sure about alternatives either, as all the current LED technology is more or less the same - rubbish for home use

I believe LED technology has moved on and bulbs are higher output and you can choose the temperature to give the desired colour.
Yes, I do have some low powered GU10s as mood lighting in an alcove. They are cool white and as you say not really powerful enough. I have some low powered ones in my cooker hood and they are warm white, similar to halogens.

aliasojo

I've just tried the calculator thing in the link above, estimated costs for my kitchen lights at present..£75 per year, compared to £13.61 for energy saving jobs. :eek:

Missile (or others who are doing similar) please keep updating, I think I need to look seriously at this subject, our electricity costs are huge. Thanks for the info and links so far.

turbobob

missile wrote: »

Anyone tell me what 150 lumens is equivalents to? i.e. 35w 50 w halogen?

240v halogens should produce about 16-20 lumens per watt. So 150 lumens will be a lot less than 35-50w halogens.

Bear in mind that LED's are quite directional, giving out a very intense light directly in line with with them, but hardly any at wider angles. I could imagine it looking very strange when used as a main lighting source. Perhaps buy one or two for testing before you commit to replacing them all?

I'd be interested in this as I have a lot of GU10's.. Have you considered other types of energy savers instead of LED's, like compact fluorescents? E.g. something like this http://www.bltdirect.com/product.php?pid=237

missile

turbobob wrote: »

240v halogens should produce about 16-20 lumens per watt. So 150 lumens will be a lot less than 35-50w halogens.

Bear in mind that LED's are quite directional, giving out a very intense light directly in line with with them, but hardly any at wider angles. I could imagine it looking very strange when used as a main lighting source. Perhaps buy one or two for testing before you commit to replacing them all?

I'd be interested in this as I have a lot of GU10's.. Have you considered other types of energy savers instead of LED's, like compact fluorescents? E.g. something like this http://www.bltdirect.com/product.php?pid=237

Some LED bulbs have narrow beam which would be unsuitable for me, others are wider. Phillips claim more lumens per watt for their LEDs.

It really is quite confusing and some manufacturers do not give out all the info and those that do do not explain it very well.

I have considered those.

It is quite an investment (for me!) like your idea of testing to see if they are suitable.

George_Bray

missile wrote: »

I would like to replace 35 off halogen 50w GU10 downlighters with LEDs. I am looking at Philips bulbs > http://shop.philips.co.uk/servlet/ControllerServlet?Action=DisplayProductDetailsPage&Locale=en_GB&SiteID=rpeeub2c&productID=170037100

I found to my cost that not all white LED GU10 lamps are the same. The character of the light differs from type to type, depending on factors like K 'temperature', lens type, number of LEDs and whether a diffuser/frosted front is fitted. I urge you to buy one or two lamps first to see if you're happy with the light. Try various types. I settled on GU10 bullbs from Lidl, of all places, that I'm very happy with, as a replacement for quartz halogen.

missile

Can you remember which bulbs you got from LIDL ?

gavinp

We have recently been experimenting with different GU10 bulbs on our upstairs landing and are using these LED ones now which are very bright and have a wide beam:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/GU10-Led-Light-Bulb-80-LEDs-not-78-WHITE-3w-50w_W0QQitemZ320491842933QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item4a9ecd6d75

We have also tried some 21 LED versions from another supplier a couple of months ago which were too dim and some 11 watt energy savers which were OK but not as good as the 80 LED ones.

They have only been in use for a couple of weeks so too early to comment on long term reliability but they seem well made so I am hopeful..

Thanks

Gavin

Scoobs72

A 35w halogen gives out about 500 lumens. Trying to find a LED GU10 that matches that is difficult, though not impossible. Look very closely at the lumen output of any LED GU10 (if it isn't quoted walk away) along with the beam angle and k rating. Anything with a Cree chip is a good place to start, especially the Cree MC-E chips, although even then there are big variations in lumens per watt because of the different 'bins'.

The best I have found so far are the 7Watt ALT LED Aurora V3s. 355 lumens, 2850-3000K, although the beam angle is a very wide 120 degree, so it is very non-directional, contrary to what turbobob says above. Price is very high, around £25+VAT each. They are available from Lightplanet, though not listed on the website, only the V2 is.

Due to the wide beam angle (versus the existing 35W halogens which have a beam angle of about 45 degrees) it's a bit difficult to say how close they are to 35W, but overall I'd say there's very little difference.

Personally I am probably going to wait another 12 months. A year ago I bought a Zenigata based GU10, which at the time was class leading. The reality was the so-called '35W replacement' with 170 lumens (for the warm white version) was less than a 20W halogen GU10. Also watch out for lumen output being quoted for the cool white versions, not the warm white. The cool whites will give +30% of a warm white version. What may be 300 lumens cool white, might be 220 lumens warm white.
Give it another 12 months and things should improve further - at the very least the Cree based GU10s will get cheaper and more powerful.

George_Bray

missile wrote: »

Can you remember which bulbs you got from LIDL ?

They are complete swivel downlight sets (chassis and bulbs) at 3 for £12.99, I think. The box reads:

"Energy-Saving Panel mounted lights - includes 3 energy saving bulbs 20 LED GU10."

Lidl had them in last month and most stock may have gone by now. I only bought them for the bulbs - still a fair price, especially because I could have taken them back if hadn't liked the character of the light, but I do. They cast a pleasant shadow on anything on the tiled floor, whereas my previous LED lamps cast an awful dull glow with no shadow - just unpleasant diffuse light. The Lidl lights are only 1.2w whereas the others I had were nearly 2w. You'd think the Lidl lights would be duller at only 1.2w, but they're not.

There's sure to be loads of other bulbs around, just as good as the Lidl ones - it's simply a question of finding them and trying them out in your own room.