LED Filament Bulbs - are they worth considering?

Michal53

I have been trying various LED filament-type bulbs, both standard and dimmable over the past 18 months. The manufacturers claim that these have "long lifetimes" and that they should out last their halogen and other low energy cousins. The LED bulbs are fitted at static locations, well away from any impact or vibration sources. These bulbs are not cheap, especially the dimmable ones. I have had several "early" and unexpected LED bulb failures within 6 months of their installation in both static and dimmable circuits. I have absolutely no problems with GU10 type LEDs which last for well over a year (in some cases over 5 years). The LED filament bulb fault/failure starts with an intermittent flickering soon followed by total failure. I'm going to stay with the GU10 LEDs which are working well but I'm going to back out of my plan to change out other lamp fittings and will stay with either the energy efficient halogen options or the less attractive low energy bulbs at locations where appearance is not an issue.

Other views or similar experiences on this topic would be appreciated.

Gerry1

Cap up: expect a tenth of the claimed life.  Cap up in semi-enclosed or enclosed fitting: reduces the life by another factor of 10.  The Osram 94W/100W equivalents are especially dire, I've had umpteen exchanged because of flickering, flashing and then total failure.

The good news is that overall they're usually still cheaper than tungsten, but you'll never get anywhere close to the claimed life, except perhaps in a table or standard lamp.

matelodave

We've been using the non-filament LED bulbs for around six or seven years and not had a single failure so IMO unless you specifically want the appearance of a filament bulb, just use the bog standard type. Ours are a random mixture of Poundland, IKEA and other indeterminate makes.. We don't have any filament types so can't comment on their longevity
Our LED GU10's which are in the kitchen and bathroom (15 in total) have all been there for over nine years - they were quite expensive at the time (about £6 each from LEDhut) but I reckon they've saved their cost, especially in the kitchen where the lights can be on for several hours a day - even at this time of the year

Norman_Castle

Any early failures I've had of cfl and led bulbs, one of each have failed early, have been traced to loose wires in the switch or fitting.

Michal53

Thanks Gerry1. Interesting. All of my LED filament bulbs are "cap down" or "cap diagonal". Lucky if I get 6 months lifetime. As suggested by you and others I'm going to switch back to bog standard halogen types where a filament bulb needs fitting. Also agree that the non-filament GU10 LEDs work fine with good lifetime - so far.
Thanks to all for your input.

matelodave

I don't use any halogen bulbs, just standard opaque LED lamps like this https://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/light-bulbs/cat8350001?calclightbulbtechnology=led&lightbulbtype=gls. or we've got some fittings which use multiple G9 capsule bulbs and even a couple of opaque candle shaped ones, including one that's mounted horizontally in an external bulkhead fitting that turns on and off at random intervals and has been doing so for around six years (IR detector which is affected by the heating unit or random cats, foxes or anything else).

Gerry1

matelodave said:

I don't use any halogen bulbs, just standard opaque LED lamps like this https://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/light-bulbs/cat8350001?calclightbulbtechnology=led&lightbulbtype=gls

Opal rather than opaque, I hope ! 

But your bill will be unnecessarily high.  An efficient 806 lm filamentary bulb will consume about 6W, but most on that page are 8 - 10W.

matelodave

Yes you are right, opal it is.
Actually we've only got one bulb, in an uplighter that's higher than 6 watts (I think its about 8 and is the one we use in the lounge), others are around 3-4w. Our GU10's are only 4w each and the six G9's are 2w so compared to the rest of our energy consumption the lighting is peanuts.
We do still have a three 11w CFL's in our hall which might get turned on once or twice a month for three or four minutes if we are looking for summat but as they hardly ever get used I havn'te bothered to swap them - I might one day but TBH it would probably take ten years to reclaim the savings even if they only cost me £1 each (It's also a bit of a faff to change the bulbs, more style than performance)

davetaller

matelodave said:

We've been using the non-filament LED bulbs for around six or seven years and not had a single failure so IMO unless you specifically want the appearance of a filament bulb, just use the bog standard type. Ours are a random mixture of Poundland, IKEA and other indeterminate makes.. We don't have any filament types so can't comment on their longevity
Our LED GU10's which are in the kitchen and bathroom (15 in total) have all been there for over nine years - they were quite expensive at the time (about £6 each from LEDhut) but I reckon they've saved their cost, especially in the kitchen where the lights can be on for several hours a day - even at this time of the year

Much the same experience as matelodave.
I have had the LED filament bulbs and also GU10s, and been really pleased overall. When I received the filament ones, about 3 years ago, I was not too aware of the colour rating that all LED bulbs have. They are much too orange for my taste.
Perhaps the filament type, can now be bought in a whiter colour!

MWT

davetaller said:

Perhaps the filament type, can now be bought in a whiter colour!

Yes, all the way from the 'warm' orange glow you dislike up to the 'blue' daylight equivalent.

Plenty of choice out there these days for different colour temperatures.

Carrot007

MWT said:

davetaller said:

Perhaps the filament type, can now be bought in a whiter colour!

Yes, all the way from the 'warm' orange glow you dislike up to the 'blue' daylight equivalent.

Plenty of choice out there these days for different colour temperatures.

I'm sure yellow is more like the old trad bulbs, certainly not blue. People moaned about the blue (I like it myself). But I tend to only buy wifi led's with adjustable colout temperature (which would be more helpful to say rather than (orange(yellow) and blue) and also adjustable colour. The bayonet ones have been great. The GU10's, iffy, but I can say that for all gu10's (other peoples milage may vary due to such is!)

I have one filament led. meh don;t really like em. OH does though! It has not failed yet in years though.