Best LED GU10 Bulbs for Kitchen?

gazfocus

We've recently had a lot of work done in the house and we now need to sort out the lighting as we're currently using bog standard 50w GU10 bulbs that came with the fittings.

The main space we're looking at is in the kitchen. We've got Dark Grey cupboards and white worktops, the only natural light in the room is from the opening we've made into the conservatory (i.e. there are no windows in the kitchen).

So, I have a few questions.

1) As we have no natural light as such, do we go for the Daylight LED bulbs or will this be too harsh of an evening?

2) Will LED bulbs work 'as is' with our fire rated fittings or will I need to make any changes to them?

3) Can anyone recommend a good brand or retailer to get the LED bulbs from?

Thanks

Cornucopia

2) I changed from Halogen to LEDs (via CFLs) in GU10 fittings in my kitchen. I found that the Fire-resistant fittings were too short for both the LEDs and especially the CFLs.

What I did was to buy just the ring part (replacing dirty white with brushed chrome) from B&Q. These were only £1 something each. Then I reused the connector block and the GU10 socket from the original (by breaking them off from the Fire-resistant "can").

3) I got my LEDs from Ikea. They are okay, and the 400lm match the brightness of the original 35w GU10s quite well. Quite cheap at £4 each.

robrooo

I have both LED daylight and some kind of warmer LED lighting in my kitchen - I much prefer the warmer light.

(the warmer lights are LED ceiling lights, a mix and match set from B&Q, made by Diall, quite expensive (brushed chrome finish!) but have already survived being fully immersed when my bathroom above flooded; the daylight LEDs are Leyton Lighting linkable LED striplights under the cabinets).

gazfocus

Cornucopia wrote: »

2) I changed from Halogen to LEDs (via CFLs) in GU10 fittings in my kitchen. I found that the Fire-resistant fittings were too short for both the LEDs and especially the CFLs.

What I did was to buy just the ring part (replacing dirty white with brushed chrome) from B&Q. These were only £1 something each. Then I reused the connector block and the GU10 socket from the original (by breaking them off from the Fire-resistant "can").

3) I got my LEDs from Ikea. They are okay, and the 400lm match the brightness of the original 35w GU10s quite well. Quite cheap at £4 each.

robrooo wrote: »

I have both LED daylight and some kind of warmer LED lighting in my kitchen - I much prefer the warmer light.

(the warmer lights are LED ceiling lights, a mix and match set from B&Q, made by Diall, quite expensive (brushed chrome finish!) but have already survived being fully immersed when my bathroom above flooded; the daylight LEDs are Leyton Lighting linkable LED striplights under the cabinets).

Thanks for the posts. Ideally, I don't want to change the fire rated fittings as we paid extra to have these fitted only a couple of months ago. It's just frustrating that GU10 lightbulbs tend to last a few weeks if you're lucky.

In our last house we purchased some LED GU10's for our kitchen but I can't for the life of me remember what they were and there was more natural light in that kitchen.

gazfocus

Jackdonice wrote: »

...

Nothing like a bit of good ol' spam..

elstimpo

gazfocus wrote: »

We've recently had a lot of work done in the house and we now need to sort out the lighting as we're currently using bog standard 50w GU10 bulbs that came with the fittings.

The main space we're looking at is in the kitchen. We've got Dark Grey cupboards and white worktops, the only natural light in the room is from the opening we've made into the conservatory (i.e. there are no windows in the kitchen).

So, I have a few questions.

1) As we have no natural light as such, do we go for the Daylight LED bulbs or will this be too harsh of an evening?

2) Will LED bulbs work 'as is' with our fire rated fittings or will I need to make any changes to them?

3) Can anyone recommend a good brand or retailer to get the LED bulbs from?

Thanks

If you want it simply re-create the effect of a 50w halogen, then you need the right lumens, colour temp and colour rendering rating.

Pretty much every led spot from every single company will claim to replace a 35w or 50w halogen, and pretty much every single one cannot replace a halogen.

To be a genuine halogen replacement the LED needs to have a Colour Rendering Index (CRI) of at least 95 out of 100. A halogen spot or incandescent bulb will have a CRI rating of 100. Most LED spots and bulbs only have CRI of 80, so they are not genuine replacements.

The Colour Rendering Index is a rating out of 100 that defines how well a light source renders colour. The higher the score a light source has, the more efficient it will be at showing the true colours of objects in your home.

A low/medium CRI LED spot can be as bright as a 50w halogen and it can have a nice warm colour temp, but it won't render colour nearly as well as you are used to with a halogen.

Only you can decide if matching a halogens CRI is an important for you, but it's something you need to be aware if as nearly every LED company is misleading customers on this issues and it's important.

LED spots should work as is with your fire rating fittings as long as the LED you choose isn't too big for your fittings, which is a regular issue.

Also if you are looking for dimmable LED's then that can get quite complicated with regards to existing dimmers working.

I would recommend 2700k as the perfect colour temp for a kitchen - again matching the colour temp with CRI levels is a personal thing.


If you need anymore help then please let me know

Chris

jamesperrett

We've used quite a few of the 5W COB LED lights from Toolstation. If you didn't know better you would think that you are looking at a halogen bulb as they have a single LED in the middle with a reflector around it. The giveaway is the silver heatsink around the edge. The only problem is that they are slightly longer than a standard GU10.

I've also used a couple of their cheaper 5W GU10's recently which, as far as I know, are the same length as the halogen version. They don't look quite as good as the COB version but the light output is perfectly respectable.