Completed switch to LED bulbs

AndyPK

CFL's can be slow to warm up.

GU10 not available in CFL AKAIK

nigelbb

JohnB47 wrote: »

I'm not criticising, I've gone for LEDs for most places around the house but I think you are optimistic about breaking even so soon.

It will be more like 3 years at 3 hours 'on' per day. Still worth doing of course. Just fit and forget. Watch out for those ones fitted in places which don't allow a good flow of air around though. In my experience, those are the ones that fail after a year or so - heat kills 'em.

What heat? I still find it weird that my bedside lamp with an LED bulb replacing the 40W tungsten is now cool to the touch.

BTW My payback time should be a lot shorter as I bought similar bulbs for similar light fittings from Amazon for about £2/bulb. They are not dimmable but as I have no dimmer switches that is not an issue.

Just checked & the price is now even lower at £7.98 for six bulbs i.e. £1.33 per bulb https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0171UOM6Y/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

cranford

My biggest LED problem was my dimmable floor standing mother and child uplighter which was on for about 14 hours every day during the winter. Over 2,500 hours using a RS7 118 linear halogen bulb rated at 230 watts. You can find LED replacements for these bulbs but I was not sure if they would work with the existing built in dimmer. So I opted for a new LED mother and child version with a built in 30watt light which I found for £68. No way of replacing the bulb though.

Savings on electricity will be more than £60 per year on this one change.
I still have the original floor lamp in another room so any suggestions for converting?

Froggitt

sevenhills wrote: »

Surely very few people who keep an eye on the cost would still be using incandescent bulbs, most would have moved over to CFLs.
The saving from CFL to LED can be around 10%, only worth doing when the CFL bulbs fail.

I wanted a "decorative" filament bulb, dimmable. Rules out CFL.

O_O

I've also just finished switching over the fittings in my flat (rented). Most were old 50W halogen downlights so were burning through the power and you could really feel the heat that they were giving off!

I've swapped out 16 of these with new LED 5W equivalents which came to £30 (more expensive than I was hoping for but decided to get bulbs with a lower beam angle in the living room which cost a bit more).

Doing a bit of quick maths I'm expecting these to pay back in the next 4 months or so which is a pretty sound investment! Much better than keeping £30 in the bank anyway!

Mister_G

cranford wrote: »

My biggest LED problem was my dimmable floor standing mother and child uplighter which was on for about 14 hours every day during the winter. Over 2,500 hours using a RS7 118 linear halogen bulb rated at 230 watts. You can find LED replacements for these bulbs but I was not sure if they would work with the existing built in dimmer. So I opted for a new LED mother and child version with a built in 30watt light which I found for £68. No way of replacing the bulb though.

Savings on electricity will be more than £60 per year on this one change.
I still have the original floor lamp in another room so any suggestions for converting?

I think that eBay may be your friend. I put in R7S 118 LED dimmable and it came up with 3131 results. 230W halogen replacement may be a struggle though.

Cardew

Nobody seems to have raised the problems with dimmable lights and the need to get compatible dimmer switches fitted; plus the cost of dimmable bulbs.

Firstly, you need to make sure you have a compatible dimmer switch. It’s likely that if you’re upgrading from traditional halogen or incandescent bulbs to LED, your current dimmer switch won’t be compatible.
So, we’d recommend getting a specialised LED-compatible dimmer switch to allow for a smoother, quieter and flicker-free performance.

Also many people have the MR16(12v) halogen downlighters. I have 20 x 35w in my kitchen. It ain't a simple job to sort out the transformers to replace those with LED.

matelodave

Cardew wrote: »

Nobody seems to have raised the problems with dimmable lights and the need to get compatible dimmer switches fitted; plus the cost of dimmable bulbs.





Also many people have the MR16(12v) halogen downlighters. I have 20 x 35w in my kitchen. It ain't a simple job to sort out the transformers to replace those with LED.

I just binned the transformers and changed the lampholders so I could fit GU10's.

It's an easy job and and the lampholders are really cheap.

It's easier of course if you live in a bungalow and can get at the lights from above.
It may not be so easy if all the lights and wiring are in the ceiling void between two floors and there's insufficient slack to pull the transformer out

Biggus_Dickus

cranford wrote: »

My biggest LED problem was my dimmable floor standing mother and child uplighter which was on for about 14 hours every day during the winter. Over 2,500 hours using a RS7 118 linear halogen bulb rated at 230 watts. You can find LED replacements for these bulbs but I was not sure if they would work with the existing built in dimmer. So I opted for a new LED mother and child version with a built in 30watt light which I found for £68. No way of replacing the bulb though.

Savings on electricity will be more than £60 per year on this one change.
I still have the original floor lamp in another room so any suggestions for converting?

I replaced the R7s filament uplighter in my mother/child light in August 2017 with a dimmable 15W LED. It works (and dims!) fine,...no buzzing or flickering etc.

They are available in cool-white or warm-white for under a fiver.

edit: forgot to add: the LED tube is much bulkier than the original R7s filament bulb.

AndyPK

what on earth is this "mother/child light" people are talking about ?