Are interior LED bulbs any good?

JustAnotherSaver

I haven't done any price comparison so i don't know if they save you money over the long term vs halogens or not. I never actually ran halogens in the house because my experience of LED bulbs were that they lasted longer then normal bulbs in the car. When i got the house i just bought a full set of LED bulbs throughout going warm-light where needed and daylight where needed.

Have just changed a few bulbs in recent months. At the base of each bulb i put in the fitment date and some of these are only lasting 4 years where others are looking like they're on their last legs after 3 years. It's not even like these particular bulbs are on all day every day either. I don;t know if it matters but they're in the kitchen/diner so i don't know if grease is kicked up with the steam/condensation and has a detrimental effect on the bulbs. I'm just long shotting it now. Some of the bulbs are directly above where cooking would be whereas others are at the opposite side of the room.

What's your experience of running LED bulbs long term? Worth it? Cheaper? Or are they overrated and dear?

flashg67

I haven't worked out the exact costs, but I haven't replaced an led bulb for about 3-4 years. The only one I had a problem with was in a bathroom - so probably steam etc. I replaced the fitting with a waterproof one and been ok since. Not having to keep a stock and change them regularly is a bonus for me, especially as the price has dropped so low now anyway.

DiddyDavies

I have 16 LED downlights in my kitchen (fitted about 3 years ago) and I've not had a single failure to date.
I fitted these to replace MR16 halogen lamps that were constantly failing (either the lamps themselves or the connectors breaking due to the heat).
I've also got 10 LED candle lamps in my living room (fitted about 2 years ago) and I think that I've had 3 of them fail since fitting.

grumbler

LEDs are much more energy efficient.

In terms of money, LED bulbs are efficient if they last as promised. The diodes do last long, but the built-in voltage transformers are very unreliable, especially in small bulbs like G9. I think, this depends on the brand and, hence, the price. 4 years, IMO is good for the bulbs produced 4 years ago. I think, reliability keeps improving.

Jeepers_Creepers

If you are talking about 'normal' GLS-style bulbs, I'm a huge fan of Philips' 'WarmGlow' ('SoftTone') range, and they can be found for a reasonable price on places like eBay - around £4 a pop if you buy a few. (Also available in 'candle'style)

They dim exactly like filament bulbs, becoming warmer as they dim*. Just brilliant. I don't think I've had one fail yet either, and I must have fitted my first ones 3, 4+ years ago.

I don't know if the quality of filament lamps have been going down recently, but before fitting these LED ones, they'd pop very regularly, even - especially - halogen types.

(*Use 'trailing-edge' dimmers)

Money_Grabber13579

The longevity of LED bulbs will very much depend on the brand. Cheap and nasty LED bulbs don’t have sufficient heat sink capacity to direct heat away from the electrical components and the end result is that they get fried.  I’ve had Philips Hue bulbs fitted to my entire house since December 2017 and have never had a failure yet. Before that, I had a set of Philips (non smart) bulbs fitted in some locations in the house and never had a failure of them either.  Yes, they were expensive, but the electricity savings very quickly made up for the cost of the bulb and I haven’t had to buy twice (or more).

Jeepers_Creepers

I have to say the single biggest reason I went 'LED' was because I was getting really peeved by the rate the filament bulbs were blowing at. I was incandescent.

If it wasn't for the Philips WarmGlow range, tho', I wouldn't have changed since normal dimmable LEDs simply give out less light when dialled down, but still emit at the same 'colour', so you end up with small white sparkles like a series of torch bulbs instead of the natural warm glow of a cool filament.

They're greeeeatt I tells ye.

Grenage

We've used cheap LAP filament-style edison LED bulbs for all our lamps, both dimmable and non - no failures in the last 5 years.

However the G9 bulbs we've used in our kitchen are a different story; they seem to last a few months before one flickers and dies.

fenwick458

10 years ago LED bulbs were £10 and not as good, and in very few situations it was still worth it. 5 years ago it was about 50/50, I haven't bothered doing a calculation for anybody in the last few years, at that point it just always a was worth it to switch to LED
1, just buy branded bulbs that come with a 2-5 year warranty, keep the receipt. very rarely have to claim but the fact that they come with a warranty normally means they will last
2, companies selling halogen/incandescent bulbs now give you absolute zero warranty, and they are getting worse. there is no quality control, and there is no investment in the production to improve this so i'ts never getting any better. 
3. Don't buy the absolute cheapest LED bulbs you can find, they are that cheap for a reason
this is for traditional BC/ES/GU10 bubs. 
filament style is a newer technology and is still improving, still a high failure rate and still expensive but coming down fast
small capsules like G4/9/12 are still dodgy, they have to be made to much tighter tolerances to work, so only expensive ones seem to last. however, when you consider that the type of lights these are installed in have on average 5 of them, using halogen for these will use more power

Morrigan_2020

My house was fully rewired and all new LED lights fitted in Feb 2016.  All still going strong, no problems at all. Changing halogen spotlights with those fiddly little metal brackets was the bane of my existence before that, so I’m totally happy! 

Ectophile

I use cheap own-brand lamps (B&Q, Tesco and Lidl so far) as a replacement for halogens.  They don't last forever, but they don't blow often enough for me to consider it a problem.  They are so cheap that I keep spares.

The higher power LEDs need good ventilation, or they overheat and fail early.  Fire rated ceiling lamps are fully enclosed, so there's nowhere for the heat from the lamp to go.