LED light bulbs

buglawton

When we got the kitchen done I insisted on Philips LED lamps to light/underlight the glass fronted cabinets - I was thinking of those hot halogen bulbs in our cupboards being not good for the display drinks bottles there! But also very energy saving. They look just like daylight. So they contrast rather sharply with old yellow filament lighting elsewhere in the kitchen but I like them. We leave them on all the time on dull days as all 6 led units use a handful of watts.

But for main room lighting? What's wrong with conventional energy savers?

Steve_xx

buglawton wrote: »

But for main room lighting? What's wrong with conventional energy savers?

There's nothing much wrong with conventional energy saving bulbs, except that often as they get older they are slow to start. Also, these newer LED offerings use markedly less power. It seems that their output light levels are improving and so once the unit costs start to reduce it will probably result in lower operating costs.

deano72_2

Yorkie1 wrote: »

deano, did you simply put them in a light fitting which previously took standard GU10s, or have you had to get a new light fitting / transformer etc?

I had to remove the ringcover so now the dome bit of the lamp is exsposed but looks fine ( tracklights).They fit nicely in my downlighters & are about 6mm longer than the gu10

deano72_2

Ps gu10s dont use tfansformers

deano72_2

Pps they are quite a hard white light & i would say they dont mAke look the room cosey,so in the lounge i use phillips compact florescent 11w (they have the gu10 fitment) & there equivalant to gu10 50w & are softer light compared to led & also are dimmable to 3 stages,they are about 8mm & £15 each

sunshinetours

LED lights really at present only make any sort of sense in high use areas - like kitchen mentioned above where they might be left on all day for instance

We use 35W GU10's where possible and it would take some serious amount of time before any payback was achieved when we are looking at £15 + a bulb

Like all things I am sure they will both keep improving and come down in cost but until they do many will not bother

will-he-payitoff

Steve_xx wrote: »

I thought I'd try one of the LED bulbs and so did a quick scan on eBay and decided this one will do the job for £4. I ordered it yesterday and so it wont arrive for a while as it's coming from Hong Kong. It's a bit of an experiment really and although I have researched it a bit I can't work out the output watts easily:

Did you get any of these or the Lidl ones and are they any good?

Steve_xx

will-he-payitoff wrote: »

Steve_xx wrote: »

I thought I'd try one of the LED bulbs and so did a quick scan on eBay and decided this one will do the job for £4. I ordered it yesterday and so it wont arrive for a while as it's coming from Hong Kong. It's a bit of an experiment really and although I have researched it a bit I can't work out the output watts easily:

Did you get any of these or the Lidl ones and are they any good?

Yes it arrived from Hong Kong and it seems ok. The thing is that it has an E27 cap on it and so I'm limited to where I can use it. I have a three lamp track light in the kitchem and I've used it on there. The good thing about it is that it's immediately bright as soon as I turn it on, whereas the other two energy savers on the track take a while to warm up. I would say it's probably not as bright as the two energy savers but it is hard to tell due to it being a totally different colour light to the other two.

I might fit an E27 holder to a light in the hall and then test it out there.

patman99

The more expensive ones use CREE LEDs and are derived from stage and disco units. They have a superior lumens (brightness) rating to the ones with 78 LEDs crammed-in.
You just have to remember to order Warm White if you want 'yellow' lighting. Cool White is sunlight through a window.
They come in 45 deg. (normal GU10), 72 deg. and 120 deg. beam spread angles so you really need to read the specs before ordering.

Steve_xx

The problem is that there seems to be no reliable table for comparing the various types. With normal energy savers it's quite easy to see the equivalent output rating. I guess that the world of LED's is still evolving and that there are some that are better than others.