Newer ultra efficient LED bulbs

anon_ymous

Firstly, I wouldn't swap out the old ones for the new ultra efficient ones just yet because it probably isn't worth it, unless you're going say from a 100w T12 bulb to a 20W ultra efficient T8 bulb (and have taken into consideration that the expected lifetime will be lower due to not using it as designed) 

Some people may already be aware of these, but I think most are still not aware. Some people who are aware, are probably aware of the Philips "Dubai lamps " It appears that the current aim for A rated LED bulbs, is to push 230 lm/watt vs 110-130 lm/watt currently. 

They're well worth looking into, but only once your current light bulbs fail,assuming you've already got LED bulbs and their prices will hopefully also fall when your current bulbs die

As an aside, it's also worth looking at the efficiency of fridge freezers. Slowly, we're getting cheaper A rated fridge freezers on the new scale from manufacturers that aren't Samsung / LG. The price vs cost savings is slowly getting better too 

Equally, I've seen non American fridge freezers with a higher capacity (619 litres) like one made by Bosch that's D rated vs my Haier American fridge freezer, which is E rated and has a capacity of 537 litres

It's worth looking at regular fridge freezers given they might well have a higher capacity than the American ones, even though historically, American fridge freezers are known for their larger capacity

I knowingly bought the Haier though given that Curry's clearance meant it was just £700 vs £1600 brand new. I'd have bought the 685 litre one if I had the space

It's worth checking these stuff out, and then doing a bit of a calculation to see if it's actually worth it. I'd say that the bit above is probably more general advice too but if your lights are on 16/7, you might want to buy the ultra efficient bulbs and maybe give the older LED bulbs away on trashnothing.com or similar 

Raxiel

I think a lot of people don't realise how far energy saving lighting has come.

I recently got my parents to switch from their old CFL lamps to the filament LED's and they're much happier with them due to the tone of the light, the way they cast some light upwards like the old incandescents, and the fact there's no warm up period. The fact they use a lot less power is just a bonus.

They aren't like the Dubai lamps that have double the filaments driven half as hard, but it was still impressive how cheap they are now. They got a multipack of 6 for £14 and even swapped the lone LED they already had (an early CoB style) that was a bit less efficient.

I've personally replaced all my filaments with smart lamps (mine were E27 and parents wanted bayonet so I couldn't pass them on).

At full brightness they're not quite as efficient in terms of lumen/Watt, but we rarely need to set them higher than 50% and they are incredibly efficient when dimmed.

anon_ymous

Raxiel said:

I think a lot of people don't realise how far energy saving lighting has come.

I recently got my parents to switch from their old CFL lamps to the filament LED's and they're much happier with them due to the tone of the light, the way they cast some light upwards like the old incandescents, and the fact there's no warm up period. The fact they use a lot less power is just a bonus.

They aren't like the Dubai lamps that have double the filaments driven half as hard, but it was still impressive how cheap they are now. They got a multipack of 6 for £14 and even swapped the lone LED they already had (an early CoB style) that was a bit less efficient.

I've personally replaced all my filaments with smart lamps (mine were E27 and parents wanted bayonet so I couldn't pass them on).

At full brightness they're not quite as efficient in terms of lumen/Watt, but we rarely need to set them higher than 50% and they are incredibly efficient when dimmed.

I've got those Philips Hue (compatible) bulbs so far. Those are just F rated. I wouldn't ordinarily buy Philips Hue but realistically they're the only brand out there where smart light switches AND smart bulbs just work with each other flawlessly. 

That, and I've got an Ambilight TV so it's quite nice to have Philips Hue compatible stuff 

It'd be nicer still if those bulbs had "ultra efficient" versions 

[Deleted User]

A word to the wise. I have a houseful of LED downlighters installed by my builder. The LEDs are Chip-on-Board and each comes with a voltage adapter. The LEDs may be rated for 40000 hours use but the voltage adapters are not. I have replaced 3 in the past 5 years.

Spoonie_Turtle

Our house is currently half CFLs and half LEDs.  It's a slight niggle to me but not worth replacing the CFLs until they fail, as they only use about double the energy of LEDs (whereas halogen uses a lot more, about 70% of an incandescent - we did have one of those which I've switched).

bob2302

waqasahmed said:

It appears that the current aim for A rated LED bulbs...

I was looking at some bulbs a few weeks ago and they are all rated G and F these days.

These days, most of the time, I just have a single 11W(?) TCP smart bulb on. I use the TCP app rhythms feature to ramp brightness and colour temperature through 7 set points in the day. Over the course of an evening it's averaging only about 40% brightness. Throughout most of the night it ramps from 3% to 1% which is more than enough to avoid falling over the furniture if I fall asleep.

My parents used to have 2x150W table lamps on. That seems more like heating now.

anon_ymous

bob2302 said:

waqasahmed said:

It appears that the current aim for A rated LED bulbs...

I was looking at some bulbs a few weeks ago and they are all rated G and F these days.

These days, most of the time, I just have a single 11W(?) TCP smart bulb on. I use the TCP app rhythms feature to ramp brightness and colour temperature through 7 set points in the day. Over the course of an evening it's averaging only about 40% brightness. Throughout most of the night it ramps from 3% to 1% which is more than enough to avoid falling over the furniture if I fall asleep.

My parents used to have 2x150W table lamps on. That seems more like heating now.

150W. Ouch

My T12 bulb uses 100w. I've decided to go for the nuclear option and just change the room where that's in, to use dimmable spotlights instead.

Ultra efficient GU10s also already exist..
The newer stuff essentially halves your energy usage again, which is why unless you're using them 16 hours a day, it's unlikely that you'll save money by swapping them for the newer stuff 

anon_ymous

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Our house is currently half CFLs and half LEDs.  It's a slight niggle to me but not worth replacing the CFLs until they fail, as they only use about double the energy of LEDs (whereas halogen uses a lot more, about 70% of an incandescent - we did have one of those which I've switched).

I've got just three CFLs, and they're the tube lights tbf.

I think one is worth replacing for an ultra efficient one (Down from 100W to 20W), assuming I didn't go for the nuclear option

The other two are barely switched on, so it doesn't even matter that they're CFL

Spoonie_Turtle

waqasahmed said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Our house is currently half CFLs and half LEDs.  It's a slight niggle to me but not worth replacing the CFLs until they fail, as they only use about double the energy of LEDs (whereas halogen uses a lot more, about 70% of an incandescent - we did have one of those which I've switched).

I've got just three CFLs, and they're the tube lights tbf.

I think one is worth replacing for an ultra efficient one (Down from 100W to 20W), assuming I didn't go for the nuclear option

The other two are barely switched on, so it doesn't even matter that they're CFL

Yeah the only one that we needed to replace is 28W in the bathroom - doesn't sound horrendous, but through a variety of factors that's the room where the light is on the longest throughout the evening/night/early morning.  The people doing the wetroom will put in an LED, I don't know what power rating but it surely can't be 28W!

The other CFLs are all 11W where an LED would be 6 or 7W for the same lumens, and although some of those are used a lot - such as in the kitchen - the savings are still not worth premature replacement.

100W sounds ridiculous nowadays!  I hope you find a solution that works for you.

bob2302

Raxiel said:

I recently got my parents to switch from their old CFL lamps to the filament LED's and they're much happier with them due to the tone of the light, the way they cast some light upwards like the old incandescents,

I don't follow that, CFL, incandescent and filaments bulbs are, more or less, omnidirectional. It was the earlier "classic" LEDs that were directional. I preferred them for some table lamps as they diffused more light off the ceiling.

anon_ymous

Spoonie_Turtle said:

waqasahmed said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

Our house is currently half CFLs and half LEDs.  It's a slight niggle to me but not worth replacing the CFLs until they fail, as they only use about double the energy of LEDs (whereas halogen uses a lot more, about 70% of an incandescent - we did have one of those which I've switched).

I've got just three CFLs, and they're the tube lights tbf.

I think one is worth replacing for an ultra efficient one (Down from 100W to 20W), assuming I didn't go for the nuclear option

The other two are barely switched on, so it doesn't even matter that they're CFL

Yeah the only one that we needed to replace is 28W in the bathroom - doesn't sound horrendous, but through a variety of factors that's the room where the light is on the longest throughout the evening/night/early morning.  The people doing the wetroom will put in an LED, I don't know what power rating but it surely can't be 28W!

The other CFLs are all 11W where an LED would be 6 or 7W for the same lumens, and although some of those are used a lot - such as in the kitchen - the savings are still not worth premature replacement.

100W sounds ridiculous nowadays!  I hope you find a solution that works for you.

It is tbf. Realistically, the LED equivalent would be around 40W

It was already there when I moved in, and I figured my choice is to either buy a T8 bulb which does fit the T12 fittings albeit not as per design. (You can get T12 bulbs but they're CFL only, and realistically T12 bulbs are being phased out anyway ) 

OR get some spotlights in there instead. That's what I figured I'll do instead. The good thing however is that it's in the "utility" room, so that room is only used for eating food, putting the laundry on, or getting something from the fridge freezer

In reality, it isn't that expensive to have a 100w bulb on but that figure does bug me a bit, and again, T12 bulbs are going to be phased out anyway

The other tube lights are 20W and 40W. They're both in what's left of my garage