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

Money_Grabber13579

prowla said:

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.

Another vote for Philips Hue but only because I wanted smart features and colour changing ability. Before that, I used Philips Master LED bulbs and they were brilliant too - very expensive at the time (not so much now, a few quid a bulb) but had no problems with reliability. I’d recommend Philips every time, whether it’s for smart or normal bulbs.

mersey

Home and Bargains led bulbs,no problems.

sammyjammy

I'm looking for new LED bulbs, I'm replacing a cheap environmentally friendly (at the time) bubb from IKEA, been in my landing light for over 20 years!  Typical has apparently given up whilst i am away for Christmas, its the only light I left on!

Herbalus

I find this thread curious. I’ve also never had an LED actually fail on me, and I’ve lived in my house for 8 years now. Downlights in kitchen and bathroom (Inceptor Micro LED Chrome Fire Rated Downlight 7W from The Electrical Counter, £12.74 plus vat) were installed 7 years ago (I have 11 of them), and all lamps are standard LEDs from Sainsburys I think. 

compared to that, my outdoor lights (in a covered passageway so never see rain) are using up my extant stock of halogen bulbs and I replace those every 2 years or so. 

ThisIsWeird

Herbalus said:

I find this thread curious. I’ve also never had an LED actually fail on me, and I’ve lived in my house for 8 years now. Downlights in kitchen and bathroom (Inceptor Micro LED Chrome Fire Rated Downlight 7W from The Electrical Counter, £12.74 plus vat) were installed 7 years ago (I have 11 of them), and all lamps are standard LEDs from Sainsburys I think. 

compared to that, my outdoor lights (in a covered passageway so never see rain) are using up my extant stock of halogen bulbs and I replace those every 2 years or so. 

I forwent (I had to look that up) my usual brand and grabbed super-cheapy, but 'branded', LEDs from Amazon for my kitchen fittings as I needed 7 of them, and non-dimming.

These, amusingly, blew at the steady rate of one per month, percussively, & quite dramatically. Bang, puff of smoke, and - if you were in the room at the time - the sensation of being shrapnelled. Didn't stop me getting my money's-worth, tho'. 

victor2

Herbalus said:

I find this thread curious. I’ve also never had an LED actually fail on me, and I’ve lived in my house for 8 years now. Downlights in kitchen and bathroom (Inceptor Micro LED Chrome Fire Rated Downlight 7W from The Electrical Counter, £12.74 plus vat) were installed 7 years ago (I have 11 of them), and all lamps are standard LEDs from Sainsburys I think. 

compared to that, my outdoor lights (in a covered passageway so never see rain) are using up my extant stock of halogen bulbs and I replace those every 2 years or so. 

Makes me wonder if the quality of the mains supply has something to do with the life of LED bulbs. They do have some electronics inside them. If this is sensitive to spikes that can occur, could that cause failure?
The grid itself is generally pretty clean, but appliances with not very clean switching might cause enough noise to damage the bulb circuits.

Jonboy_1984

Had some dimmable leds making a lightning style flash when turned off, turned out the older dimmer switch needed a minimum of 20w (or possibly 40w) draw across the circuit. When I took the socket off it was marked as 205-250v 20-2000w…and the 3*4w leds were insufficient for it.

On a separate circuit had three Tesco own brand blow within a year on a non dimmer circuit.

Otherwise not had any problems with any.

mumf

We use Osram/ Wilko. No problem. Had a rewire 8 years ago,and went LED. Best  ever. In that time,a couple have failed,but we have spares. And they use less juice. Simples! 

jamesperrett

The first LED bulbs I bought were GU10 bulbs from Ebay back in 2012. Most of them only lasted a few months (although a couple are still going). As they failed I bought replacement Meridian branded bulbs from Toolstation and I think all of them are still going. Since then I've replaced most of the bulbs in the house with Meridian bulbs and the only ones that have failed have been a couple in enclosed lamps where they probably got too hot.