upside down LED bulb?

Southend1

elstimpo wrote: »

You'd want to know the specifics about what gas(s) are used inside the product before you go near them. Different companies use different gases, some state 'patented gas', some with helium and others with all sorts of stuff. What happens if you drop one, what gas is released? The other worry would be the LED driver, it's going to be very very small so how does it work?

Lots of questions about filament lamps at the moment.

When you say all sorts of stuff what stuff do you mean?

I presume that in order to sell to the UK market these bulbs meet European safety standards?

poppellerant

Don't worry, LED bulbs don't need gas.

silverwhistle

almillar wrote: »

That filament bulb is 420 lumens -

That is pretty low, but on my desk here I've got a cheapish one from Lidl/Aldi? and it's 1055 lumens, warm white but in a screw fit.

The market seems to be changing all the time so it's probably a good idea to browse the websites of the specialist suppliers where LEDs are concerned.

almillar

I've got a cheapish one from Lidl/Aldi? and it's 1055 lumens

I think you've been lied to. Cheap and 1055 lumens LED doesn't go, for now.

elstimpo

Southend1 wrote: »

When you say all sorts of stuff what stuff do you mean?

I presume that in order to sell to the UK market these bulbs meet European safety standards?

I don't know, it's something i'm currently looking into.

I'd be gob smacked if half the LED products on sale in the UK actually have official & proper CE certificates and i'm not just talking about ebay, groupon type sellers either.

elstimpo

poppellerant wrote: »

Don't worry, LED bulbs don't need gas.

Filament LED bulbs do.

Southend1

elstimpo wrote: »

I don't know, it's something i'm currently looking into.

I'd be gob smacked if half the LED products on sale in the UK actually have official & proper CE certificates and i'm not just talking about ebay, groupon type sellers either.

So you suspect that they may have something toxic in but aren't sure? What makes you think that?

Cfl bulbs have Mercury in them but that didn't stop anyone buying them!

Southend1

elstimpo wrote: »

Filament LED bulbs do.

Why? Heat management perhaps?

Wouldn't it just be something like helium?

Jonesya

Some of the more expensive led bulbs closely match traditional bulbs light distribution, have a look at the Philips Master led GLS - the ones with the bright orange plastic lense, it overhangs the body to throw light down.

Nilrem

Southend1 wrote: »

So you suspect that they may have something toxic in but aren't sure? What makes you think that?

Cfl bulbs have Mercury in them but that didn't stop anyone buying them!

CFL bulbs typically have about two microgramms of mercury from memory, which is about what is allowed in fish that you eat

What worries me about a lot of chinese import stuff is how much of it is not tested to EU (let alone old BSI) standards, partly because from memory much of the onus on testing is left to the importer or manufacturer with little independent testing (TS are constantly on the back foot because they can't test enough, and tend to only test once there have been reported incidents).
Such self testing is fine for a big company like Asus, Antec, Phillips etc who have a reputation to uphold, and will be monitoring their manufacturers closely as they'll be around for years.
For a lot of stuff sold via ebay/amazon sellers/markets and small stores under their own brands it can be quite risky.

In the PC world there is a major issue with power supplies that don't meet the minimum standards for PC power supplies, let alone CE testing.

It's one of the reasons it's such a bad idea to leave cheap usb chargers etc plugged into the mains, a lot of them are not built with adequate safeties for when something goes wrong (and some are likely to lose the top half of the adaptor when you go to pull it from the wall, because they've used a cheap glue to hold the two halves together rather than a sonic weld, or screws).

I've noticed that the OSRAM bulbs I bought are massively heavier than the cheap Aldi/Tesco ones*, and despite claiming to have a lower light output than the Aldi ones, they seem to be about the same brightness.


*Mainly in the base, so I'm guessing that they've got a better heatsink than the cheap ones, as it's often heat that kills LED's.