Your experience of LED bulbs in the home. Good? Bad? Brands etc.

B0bbyEwing

When we bought the house I converted all the interior bulbs to LED over a short period of time. 

Thought process being they're cheaper to run & claim (keyword: claim!) to last a very long time. My view of what a very long time is is clearly different.

As I'm a bit [starts with A and ends with L and will likely be censored here], I mark the bulbs when they're installed. This one went on me yesterday. 



LumiLife from LED Hut so maybe some cheap product I don't know. Maybe this is what a LumiLife bulb should last for. 

Around the same year I bought a LED spotlight for the back garden. I need to get an electrician out because that's no longer working. I'm going to hazard a wild guess that it's the light unit and not the electrics, or at least in that case I hope it's the light unit & not the electrics, but if that's the case then that is also pretty disappointing. 

nofoollikeold

1. Similar experience. 
2. New lights some years ago with decent but expensive LEDs still going strong.
3. Other fittings with LEDs from own brand big name DIY supplier last a matter of months.  
4. Replacement Osram LEDs look to be lasting well.

B0bbyEwing

nofoollikeold said:

1. Similar experience. 
2. New lights some years ago with decent but expensive LEDs still going strong.
3. Other fittings with LEDs from own brand big name DIY supplier last a matter of months.  
4. Replacement Osram LEDs look to be lasting well.

Which brands have you had good/bad experience with? Good more important than bad, obviously. I know you've mentioned Osram. Any other brand that seems good or can they be good/bad in equal measures?

Out of interest, who do you use to buy your items?

fenwick458

https://youtu.be/klaJqofCsu4
If you are going to Dubai anytime soon stock up on these they last forever.
Philips just released a similar range for sale worldwide called the master range but they are not quite as good

FreeBear

I replaced a lot of my incandescent bulbs with cheap ones from Poundland - Have had one give up on me in 7/8 years. Lights in the kitchen have been LAP brand from Screwfix, and are still going strong 5 years on - Had one of a pair of integrated downlight fail that were sourced from Toolstation, so a little disappointed with that one. But in general, I'm happy with the working life of all the LED bulbs.

Typically using 65KWh per year on lighting (yes, have an energy monitor on the lighting circuit). The savings on electricity make up for the two failures to date.

goldfinches

I bought two boxes of the Sylvania brand 1521lm LED bulbs from Screwfix to put into my sockets that are on all day every day here in early Dec. 2019 and two of them have needed replacing just this month. The other six are still going strong which considering the price isn't bad value.
Sylvania ToLEDo BC GLS LED Light Bulb 1521lm 13W 4 Pack | Light Bulbs | Screwfix.com

ThisIsWeird

Since I have dimmers on most lights, I have used the Philips 'Dimtone' or 'Warmtone' bulbs and think they are spot-on. You cannot tell they are not filament bulbs as they dim naturally, becoming more 'orange' and warmer as they are turned down. I have pairs of wall lights on the same dimmer, and one still has the last remaining halogen bulb in it and a Philips in the other, but I cannot tell which is which in use.

I don't think one has failed yet either, and they've been fitted for years.

Keep an steady eye out on eBay and you can often get them for around £4 or £5 a piece (sometimes even less), but struggling to find them for that at the mo'.

prowla

I've put in Philips Hue lights in most of the house and the system works really well.

They're not the cheapest, though, and the setup required a hub, a number of remote switches (and fittings to site them over the existing wall switches), and a couple of sensors (so some lights come on automatically when entering a room).

The only room I haven't done is the lounge, which has a nice remote-control dimmer switch; I did try some Tesco dimmable bulbs there, but they seemed to only have three brightnesses rather than a full gradual range 0-100%. I'll probably convert that over to Hue too at some point.

youth_leader

Following with interest.  

TELLIT01

I've bought all mine from Screwfix.  I simply check the reviews, which do seem to be pretty honest on their site, and had no problems so far.

YBR

For low energy bulbs, the claims for thousands of hours working life generally come from laboratory testing where there is a very smooth supply. That, of course, is not the case in the vast majority of domestic settings. It also is for being continuously on; I gather switching them on and off reduces the lifespan.

I need to take a leaf out of OP's book as I've a feeling I'm getting very short lives from some bulbs/sockets but don't have anything you'd call evidence.