Kitchen lighting, LED or Halogen downlighters?

Sues48

I am about to have a new kitchen fitted and want to change my current lights which are 6 20w low voltage halogen down lighters as they aren't bright enough. I had thought that we would just replace them with the 50w equivalent but my electrician has recommended these http://www.evoled.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_reviews&cPath=1&products_id=1&number_of_uploads=0 as an alternative however, they are over twice the price of the halogens.

Does anyone have any experience of the LEDs, are they worth the extra outlay? I understand that they are cheaper to run than the halogen lights.

Jonesya

The other option is compact fluorescent GU10 downlights, cheaper than the LED fittings at £10-£15 each but of course the bulbs don't last as long as LEDs and the ones I've used normally take a minute or so to get up to full brightness whereas LEDs are instant.

Tr1pp

what I have found with my experimenting with LED lights is that you do get a much better quality of light and you can get lights as bright as or very close to halogen.

the only problem is that LED spots have a more narrow beam angle of 30degrees as apposed to halogen which have 45degrees+. In effect this can make room seem darker as the light is not spread as wide on the walls or floors. you can get around this buy buying extra LED lights - I went from 4halogen to 6LED in my living room and that worked well.

Note: I have actually found some LED bulbs on TLC which state they have a 38degree beam angle - not too bad

If you do get LED make sure you keep the warranty for every bulb you buy, they claim to have a long life span but reviews still report lots of early failures and at about £15+ per bulb they arent cheap to replace

Sues48

According to the electrician the lights have a 7 year warranty, and that when they do go, it's not just a case of replacing the bulb, the whole fitting is replaced, this is one of the things which is putting me off slightly. He has quoted me £45.00 per light, hopefully in 7 years the price will have come down considerably?

Tr1pp

£45 per light sounds about right and a 7 year warranty very good.

It may be worth asking about the specs of the actual bulb inside the downlighter. I always suspect the bulb is never as good as one you could buy separately. no point spending that much money without getting a very decent bulb.

you could wait another year or so for the prices to go down a bit more - you need to work out how much the initial outlay is and how long it will take to offset that cost with the lowwer running costs of the lights.

sew_what

We've just installed LEDs in our new kitchen diner - 17 downlighters in a room 26sqr metres. The lamps are 6W GU10 stlyle and have a 38 degree beam - at just over 1m apart on the ceiling, the spread of light is fine at worktop & floor level (2.5m ceiling height)
I think we paid £8 + VAT each (from an Electrical wholesalers) and they fit into the standard fittings.
We went for warm white - which is a lovely soft light - we tested a pure white & the colour was much harsher. The great thing is we're lighting a large room on just 102W :-)

yangptangkipperbang

Tr1pp wrote: »

£45 per light sounds about right and a 7 year warranty very good.

It may be worth asking about the specs of the actual bulb inside the downlighter. I always suspect the bulb is never as good as one you could buy separately. no point spending that much money without getting a very decent bulb.

I have had Evoleds put into my kitchen, I paid £40 ea for 7 of them to replace a conventional fluorescent light.

They are a sealed unit so there is no way you can get change the "bulb".
They are excellent, instant full brightness and each unit is cold to the touch. The spread of the beam is more than adequate from a "normal" height ceiling.
Whether you will get your money back is debatable, they are just superb lights.

Tr1pp

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

I have had Evoleds put into my kitchen, I paid £40 ea for 7 of them to replace a conventional fluorescent light.

that is an amazing price for 7 units, ive not been able to find them for less £29 for a full bulb and fire rated enclosure

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

They are a sealed unit so there is no way you can get change the "bulb".

I wasnt suggesting the bulb be changed, my point was to see whether the "best" LED bulb could be bought seperatley. if it could then you could buy those instead and fit them as Sew What suggested in her post as I have done in my hall way, probably for less money.

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

They are excellent, instant full brightness and each unit is cold to the touch.

without trying to be too argumentative I have to disagree here. The best LED bulbs all come with some form of heat sink for a reason. I have a room full of Auraglow 7w LED bulbs which have a heatsink around them. While the lens on them only gets slightly warm the heat sink does get hotter. It can still be handled comfortabley(ish) but it does not run cold and neither has any other I tested before buying these. I would be amazed if ANY light source runs cold.

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

Whether you will get your money back is debatable, they are just superb lights.

If the unit fails within the warranty then they may not get a refund but they can get a replacement which I would imagine to be more preferable.

Sues48

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

I have had Evoleds put into my kitchen, I paid £40 ea for 7 of them to replace a conventional fluorescent light.

They are a sealed unit so there is no way you can get change the "bulb".
They are excellent, instant full brightness and each unit is cold to the touch. The spread of the beam is more than adequate from a "normal" height ceiling.
Whether you will get your money back is debatable, they are just superb lights.

That's good to know. How big is your kitchen please? I currently have 6 20w halogens in my kitchen which is approx 2mx3m,I am also having fluorescent strip lights under the wall units so am hoping that this will be more than adequate.

yangptangkipperbang

Sues48 wrote: »

That's good to know. How big is your kitchen please? I currently have 6 20w halogens in my kitchen which is approx 2mx3m,I am also having fluorescent strip lights under the wall units so am hoping that this will be more than adequate.

9 ft X 12.5 ft. I also have lights under the wall units but rarely use them. There is no ceiling light over the cooker as there is an illuminated hood.

Tr1pp wrote: »

that is an amazing price for 7 units, ive not been able to find them for less £29 for a full bulb and fire rated enclosure

I did say £40 EACH.............[/I]

Tr1pp wrote: »

without trying to be too argumentative I have to disagree here. The best LED bulbs all come with some form of heat sink for a reason. I have a room full of Auraglow 7w LED bulbs which have a heatsink around them. While the lens on them only gets slightly warm the heat sink does get hotter. It can still be handled comfortabley(ish) but it does not run cold and neither has any other I tested before buying these. I would be amazed if ANY light source runs cold.

As a retired Electrical Engineer I would agree that anything that consumes electricity generates heat - however a 7W Evoled runs "cold" compared to a 50W halogen or a 40W tube. The electrician lent me a fitting on a wandering lead to see what it was like in the dark. Even after several hours the unit was barely warm

Tr1pp wrote: »

If the unit fails within the warranty then they may not get a refund but they can get a replacement which I would imagine to be more preferable.

I was referring to recouping the costs in reduced electricity consumption not in the case of failure.

Sues48

Thanks for all the advise. Think I am going to bite the bullet and go with the LEDs, my current lights have got to go as they are a fire hazard so I may as well go with the new technology.