Worth switching to filament LED?

Krakkkers

Is it worth switching from standard LED bulbs to filament LEDs on lights that are on for many hours at a time?
Anyone got experience with these new filament type LEDs?

MattMattMattUK

Krakkkers said:

Is it worth switching from standard LED bulbs to filament LEDs on lights that are on for many hours at a time?
Anyone got experience with these new filament type LEDs?

It will not save you any money over equivalent LED lights, filament LEDs are purely for aesthetics. 

Krakkkers

Ok thanks, i thought there were a little more efficient than normal LEDs.

km1500

https://www.fluxsmartlighting.com/blogs/news/filament-led-vs-normal-led-which-is-better

Scot_39

@Krakkers

You may have been confused by the new range of LED's - that are actually more efficient than older models.  Many of those I have seen were filament bulbs (perphaps an easier sell as those are alrready more epensive than normal ones from memory)

Osram Ultra efficient, Phillips Ultra Efficient ranges etc

That state use c4W rather than 8-10W for older LED for a 60W replacement or say the equivalent c12-15W CFL old style energy saving bulbs.

You can get conventional white style bulbs using the same tech.

How prices compare to others - not checked - but expect a premium - until tech leaks to others.

Gerry1

Scot_39 said:

@Krakkers

How prices compare to others - not checked - but expect a premium - until tech leaks to others.

Filamentary LEDs are rapidly taking over in the same way that the original LEDs replaced compact fluorescents.

Any purchase price difference will soon be outweighed by the savings on the bill.

Ectophile

Gerry1 said:

Scot_39 said:

@Krakkers

How prices compare to others - not checked - but expect a premium - until tech leaks to others.

Filamentary LEDs are rapidly taking over in the same way that the original LEDs replaced compact fluorescents.

Any purchase price difference will soon be outweighed by the savings on the bill.

I'm not sure about the "soon" if you're talking about the new ultra-efficient lamps.

If you replace a 6w old-fashioned LED with a 4W new one, that's saving 2W.  If the lamp is on 8 hours a day, then over a year, that's 5.84kWh.  At 23p/unit, that's £1.34 a year.

The first advert I found for the Philips lamps was £9.60 at Argos.

Krakkkers

I wonder where the limit is, how much of that 4w is light and how much is still heat?

MattMattMattUK

Krakkkers said:

I wonder where the limit is, how much of that 4w is light and how much is still heat?

The maximum theoretical efficiency of an LED is around 295 lumens per watt and that is around 43% efficient, most modern high efficiency LEDs on a 230v lighting circuit offer around 170-220 lumens per watt which is around 25-30% efficiency, efficiency is lower with older LED types and lower voltages, on a 120v circuit in the USA for example max efficiency is only around 100 lumens per watts and 15% efficiency. For comparison the best fluorescent bulbs hit around 100 lm/W at 15% efficiency, halogen reaches around 25 lm/W 3% and  and old style incandecent around 14lm/W at 2%.

bob2302

MattMattMattUK said:

It will not save you any money over equivalent LED lights, filament LEDs are purely for aesthetics. 

Unless something has changed since I last looked, filament LEDs are more energy efficient, but with a shorter life - the efficiency declines more rapidly with use. This is not just the new versions, I checked the lumens/W when filaments started to become mainstream.

Personally I don't like throwing out working bulbs without a better reason than chasing every diminishing returns on energy. What I do is replace them when they fail and mover them around to take advantage of the newer bulbs.

Grizzlebeard

If somebody's trying to be eco friendly I don't think It's worth throwing away and replacing a working LED (or CFL) bulb to replace it with a slightly more efficient model.

I'm of the opinion that more energy is burned in the manufacturing chain of a new bulb (from mining the minerals through to stacking on a shop shelf - and then disposal) than the bulb will use (or save) in it's lifetime.

(Absolute worst analogy for this phenominon is batteries: It takes many kilowatt hours to manufacture a battery that might give back 5 or 6 Watt hours.)