I bought some LED bulbs

Ben84

I thought I'd share my discoveries as LED bulbs are still something of a novelty and not many people have seen one in person to decide if they like them or not.

I bought a box of the Philips Master 12w, which are designed to replaced 60w filament bulbs and details about them can be seen better on their site:

http://www.philips.co.uk/l/lamps/led-lighting-systems/led-lamps/master-ledbulb/929000182502_eu/

My impression so far is very good.

They are heavier and a different shape to a normal 60w bulb, but they're the same length and just fit within the footprint of a 60w bulb, so should work in any fixture previously using a 60w bulb. So far I put one in the table lamp I use for reading and another in the ceiling fixture in the bedroom that is used often.

The first thing I noticed when I turned it on was a very small fraction of a second delay, then it was lit up full brightness. It's very bright and although I have no lab equipment to test, I don't believe it falls short of its claim to replace 60 watt bulbs. I sat in the dark and swapped between the two a couple of times and it looked the same to me. Also, so did the colour of the light. Despite the odd yellow plastic case the light is warm white when turned on, just like the frosted filament bulb it replaced. Distribution is even (apparently one of the major technical hurdles for LED bulbs trying to replace GLS bulbs) and it doesn't flicker at all. It's a really nice light to read by, as good as the halogen GLS it replaced.

It can also be dimmed. It dimmed smoothly from full brightness down to very low. Unfortunately, the inline dimmers I have cut out at this point (even with filament bulbs) so I couldn't test any lower. It also appears to change colour temperature as it dims, like the filament bulbs.

So, I'm very impressed with them so far. Cost is something of a negative, but they do claim to last 25 years so provided they live up to the claim I won't be lightbulb shopping for a very long time. You could of course make similar electricity savings with CFL lamps, but I have yet to find CFL lamps that dim well (these dim really well in comparison) and I prefer the light quality from these bulbs by a significant amount too.

savemoney

I was looking at some myself other day some ses e14 candle if I go for 4w ones its still less lumens than my energy saving bulbs plus the expense of getting led £10+ for what 3w saving compared with 7w energy saving. I need 5 in all for candle holder. It will take fair while to recover the expenditure

I cant really see the need to get them given they often lower lumens that CFL's, costs a lot more and for halogen you need a led driver

Ben84

savemoney wrote: »

I was looking at some myself other day some ses e14 candle if I go for 4w ones its still less lumens than my energy saving bulbs plus the expense of getting led £10+ for what 3w saving compared with 7w energy saving. I need 5 in all for candle holder. It will take fair while to recover the expenditure

I cant really see the need to get them given they often lower lumens that CFL's, costs a lot more and for halogen you need a led driver

They are more costly, but these ones do offer lumen output similar to CFL. The major benefit for me is that they're dimmable and have very good quality light. Some CFLs claim to be dimmable, but my experiences with them were not great.

I got them on a good offer which helped a lot. For my most used table lamps I predict breaking even in about 18 months through energy savings (compared to 42w halogen GLS bulbs).

I'm not sure what this LED driver is? These ones have just plugged in to my normal 240V bayonet sockets and work fine. Any electrical equipment they need is built in to the bulb.