LED light bulbs

Katykat

A few years ago I changed all our bulbs to LEDs. I got them off EBAY and I wasn’t too pleased with them. I got a mixture of warm white & cool. None of them gave off much light & the warm were, well, not very warm looking. In particular, the LEDs in the cooker hood looked as if they just weren’t on. I changed them all back to halogens, apart from a couple like the porch & utility room. Now, I’m getting more mindful of the cost and considering changing again. However, this time I want good quality bulbs. There is a B& Q near me & IKEA, other than that, it’s bargain shops. Which ones should I get to give me the best light. I have a mixture of different fittings ie GU10, spotlights & small screw caps.

Niv

I got mine form toolstation and they are fine, no failures some years later and the light levels are decent. I would not go for the 2w ones though as they can be a little dim for reading by etc

Grenage

I've used the LED Hut a few times; their service is good if you decide you don't like the bulbs.


We've got loads of LAP bulbs from screwfix; none have died in the two years they've been installed.

EssexExile

I have loads of B&Q, Homebase & CEF LEDs & they're fine. I always buy one, get it home to see how it is, brightness, colour, etc before buying loads to do a whole room.

missile

LEDs have improved, but avoid cheap bulbs off eBay from China.

Fire_Fox

Best?

Depends on room, light fittings, lamps, total wattage, personal opinion. Not being a 'clever c**t' , just my experience.

Disclaimer .... Wilko is my second home, it's a running joke.
If there was a natural disaster or war declared, I would probably decamp to my local Wilko store as my 'safe place'.

Wilko GU10 LED 5W silver lamps are as powerful as 50W halogens; six lamps in my internal hallway (9m2 in a strange angled comma shape!) are two years old and five are still going strong. Electrician suggests replacing ancient MR16 downlighters throughout flat with GU10 LED downlighters ... Hell yeah Wilko.

The one 'fail' Wilko lamp has been replaced with a V-TAC 5W LED (free from mate) which is horrifyingly WHITE in comparison. But equally bright.

This internal hallway also looked AWFUL with previous fittings : two MR16 50W halogen downlighters. DIM/ shady/ miserable to even pass through! Fittings and angles of lamps not brand obviously.

EachPenny

EssexExile wrote: »

I have loads of B&Q, Homebase & CEF LEDs & they're fine. I always buy one, get it home to see how it is, brightness, colour, etc before buying loads to do a whole room.

This is the best bit of advice you'll get OP.

It all comes down to personal preferences and what you want to achieve with lighting in a specific room.

Forget the wattage. The two factors you need to look at are the light output (Lumens or "lm") - the larger the number the brighter the light, and the colour temperature ('K') - the larger the number the whiter the light.

There are many sources of information on the internet about Lumens and K's. Once you've understood how this works the rest of the label on light bulb boxes starts to make sense.

So as EssexExile says, buy a bulb, try it, and if you like it then buy some more.

silverwhistle

Yep, they certainly vary! I have LEDs throughout but made a mistake on one of them and have an incredibly coool and bright bulb in my hall. Given I hardly ever use the front hall I've decided to leave it. It does the job, and I could now use the hall as an interrogation chamber. :-)

another_casualty

I would never buy lightbulbs from eBay . The best places to purchase imho would be specialist shops such as ryness, or where the sparkies go. In those sort of places , you get proper advice and know what's what . Posters on here give excellent advice also, as we know.)

PDC

Morrisons seem to be selling off their own brand ones at the moment, at least our local store has been. Had several baskets of them marked down between £1-£2.

I bought one to try as I wasn't that impressed when we first tried LED bulbs a few years ago but these gave out better light than our existing mixure of bulbs so I went back and got several more the next day. Might be worth checking your local store (though it was two weeks ago I got these).

Money_Grabber13579

Prior to adopting the Philips Hue system, I had started a systematic approach of changing all my GU10 halogen bulbs with Philips MASTER LED bulbs. They were pricy at the time but can not be purchased from Amazon at around 2.50 a bulb and during the 3 year period that I used them, I had no failures and they were equally as bright as the 50w halogen bulbs they replaced.