GU10 /LED question

Dawning

I have 8 GU10 lights in kitchen/diner, and 4 in the bathroom.
I know that the LED are expensive initially, but are cheaper to run.

So I'm wondering, as the GU10's need replacing, can I replace them one by one with an LED, ie can an LED work with GU10's, or would I have to change all 8 to LED at the same time?

penrhyn

GU10 Halogen can be replaced on a one by one basis.

rogerblack

You can replace them one by one.
The most important thing to understand is that you don't care about wattage.
A 7W LED, and a 2W LED may produce the same light output, with the 7W one just being very, very inefficient.
The number you care about is lumens - and indirectly lumens per watt as a performance.
Halogen gets about 14lm/W - normal CFL about 60, and the best LED - over 100.

penrhyn

FWIW I have bought a few of these 5 watt GU10's they give a good light with a wide spread. To early to tell if they will last forever though!!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-Life-Lamp-Company-replacements/dp/B006UR5IUY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1373018848&sr=8-1&keywords=long+life+led+gu10

The light output compares favourably with a 35 watt halogen.

matelodave

Ideally you should change all the lights on the same circuit at the same time as halogens do have a tendency to trip fuses/circuit breakers when they die putting spikes on the circuit and possibly frying the LEDs.

We got 10x 4watt warm white (320lumens) from LEDhut last year to swap out our 10 x 50watt halogens in the kitchen - brilliant (pun intended).

They have a wider beam angle than the halogens, so the light spread is more even, they appear to be as bright, they obviously run cooler and they save me 6p for every hour that they are on (that's £40-£50 a year depending on your tariff and how long the lights are on)

Jamie_Carter

It is also worth remembering that LEDs give a much whiter light, so it might look strange until they are all changed.

matelodave

If you go for the warm white version they aren't very different from halogens - the cold white can be a bit stark.

We've got white LED floodlights, only 10watts but they are extremely bright and look like arc lamps, fine outside but I wouldn't want them indoors