LED light bulbs

jimjames · 22 February 2017 at 10:43PM

Martyn1981 wrote: »

I don't think that, so thanks for making my point, I'll carry on happily with my cheap and extremely agreeable LED's, since I can get about 3 for a fiver, and according to you (not me) the expensive ones will cost even more, for longer, each.

Guess it's horses for courses. Some people are happy to pay £100k for a car to get them from A to B. Others are equally happy to pay £1000 for a car that performs the same function.

I'm perfectly happy with my cheap LEDs and the light they give off and even happier with the energy/cost savings. As a photographer I'm quite aware of different colour temperature light and I've never thought LED light was an odd colour. I still think you'd struggle to find 1 person out of 100 who knew what CRI was but I'm happy to be proved wrong.

Martyn1981 · 23 February 2017 at 9:30AM

jimjames wrote: »

That's certainly not my experience. We've had maybe 1 CFL fail in around 10-15 years as I swapped the main ones over very early on and those are the ones that have highest usage and saved most money.

Got me thinking. I had 2 (out of 3) B&Q own brand fail, many years ago after about 2 yrs, so I took all 3 back and got my money back. I think they knew there was a problem and had discontinued them.

I'd also estimate another 2 have failed, and 1 that was in the house when I bought it but lasted another 10yrs.

Others have started to take longer to come on, and those are in my 'bathroom stash' to prevent nighttime blinding.

So excluding the dodgy ones returned, I suppose 3 dead and a couple of semi-retired over 20yrs. Excellent.

Oh and one 20W CFL that was removed 10 mins after install, as it made our eyes water. It was relegated to plug-in lamp with clamp for worklight use. I'd guess (in old money) that it was about 200W. I might go and dig it out of my light bulb tub, now I have a plug in monitor, and see what wattage it draws.

NigeWick · 23 February 2017 at 11:11AM

elstimpo wrote: »

Lifespan claims are usually completely false.

And your verifiable evidence for this is?

So far I have never had a CFL or LED fail on me. Our first CFL was bought over 21 years ago and I handed it on to one of our daughters when I switched to LEDs in order to reduce electricity usage even further.

NigeWick · 23 February 2017 at 11:12AM

almillar wrote: »

What lumens do they put out? What colour temperature are they? What is their CRI?
I bet they put out nothing like the quality of light of the incadescent or CFL bulbs they're 'replacing'.

Honestly, who cares as long as one can see well enough to do everything one wants?

almillar · 23 February 2017 at 2:20PM

Already given. B&Q, Screwifx, Home Bargains.

But you didn't read my reply then, did you? I told you that Home Bargains ones are junk. And I'll add to that - B&Q don't have £1.50 bulbs.

I've already listed them several times

You certainly did not! You listed a few shops! A Google link is not a list. I asked you, specifically, for a PRODUCT. That you MAY have personal experience of. You can't provide that, because you know elstimpo and I are right, it doesn't exist.

Not true. With incandescents you are mostly paying for heat, not light.

Semantics. You're paying for the light. The heat (yes, there's more heat than light) is a by product. Use the same argument for a car - do you buy it for transport or heat?

Is it really so difficult to ask for the same amount of light as what you are replacing?!

Loads of us are happy with our cheap LED's, saving money (MSE site) and energy (G&E board).

(UNSPECIFIED LEDs). If you want to be energy efficient, you'll buy an efficient LED. The cheaper, and older ones are less efficient. Its the difference between 4 and 6 watts, but still. I'm happy with my cheap LEDs too by the way, I'm just not spouting that they're exactly the same as incandescent bulbs.

LED's are now cheap enough to replace all the main lighting for just £20 or so

I'll bet your house is now less bright than it was before. If you're happy with that, fine. I admit I like a bright house, just stop selling them as like-for-like, as they have to be bought carefully.

They probably look at their colour things during the daylight hours. Most people use their lights at night for the main purpose of stopping their homes from being pitch dark

Candles should do the job then.

I'm glad elstimpo is here. He's a light snob, that's for sure, and of course, he's biased because he wants to sell lights, but if we all just sat here saying 'it's good enough' we'd never learn anything! Most people don't know or care what CRI is? Educate them. Ignorance is bliss.

they will certainly work out better value for money than those at 4x the cost,

Not better value for money, just cheaper. You don't seem to want to acknowledge the difference.

Lifespan claims are usually completely false

And your verifiable evidence for this is?

Ask the other way around - how did they come up with the claim of tens of thousands of hours? That time hasn't passed, and they made it up. Are you going to keep all your receipts for all that time?

Honestly, who cares as long as one can see well enough to do everything one wants?

I can't believe what I'm reading. Who cares how much light a LIGHT puts out? Isn't that its primary function?! Point being, taking out a 100W incandescent, and putting in one of Martyn's <UNSPECIFIED> £1.50 LEDs, will result in less light, probably a cool colour tone, and low CRI. Martyn claims you can fit these all around the house and save energy. True. But you'll have less, lower quality light.

Cardew · 23 February 2017 at 2:57PM

almillar wrote: »

But you didn't read my reply then, did you? I told you that Home Bargains ones are junk.

Not better value for money, just cheaper. You don't seem to want to acknowledge the difference.

As posted earlier: 'The problem many of us have is determining which LED lamps are high quality.'

It seems that you and elsetimpo's contention is that 'cheap LEDs are rubbish, expensive LEDs are high quality'.

You understandably question the claims of 10,000 hours life, 20,000 hours etc etc. How was this tested for expensive lights? Cycles of on/off? etc

EricMears · 23 February 2017 at 5:36PM

Martyn1981 wrote: »

I agree with Cardew's comment

Wow ! I bet that's a first

lstar337 · 23 February 2017 at 6:01PM

Martyn1981 wrote: »

But overall, have you considered how thin the ice is you are standing on, to base a whole argument on the fact that expensive LED's give off better light, whilst simultaneously arguing with those of us that seem unable to appreciate any difference.

Well my fancy colour change bulb that they seem to hate with a passion (because it's pointless) cost £60 so it should be freakin amazing right? I mean expensive = good by the logic posted earlier in this thread.

But I looked it up from Lifx and they say my bulb has a CRI of 89 from 2700K - 7000K. No doubt that is utterly terrible compared to the very high bar set in this thread.

silverwhistle · 23 February 2017 at 8:14PM

This has been an incandescent thread: more heat than light!:D

Frankly, to use the demotic, I couldn't give a stuff about CRIs as I only view the Old Master in the dining room by natural daylight and then cover it again with the curtain to avoid fading. When I install my LED floodlights I suppose I'd better be careful as I wouldn't want the wisteria to be shown in anything other than its full glory.

I've just realised I've got a few CFLs left, but as they include the shed and outside loo I don't think I'll bother putting in even cheap LEDs. When they go I obviously will, of the same cheapness and quality as my existing ones, which I've found to be perfectly satisfactory. To be honest I'm not sure where I got them all, and as for the idea that they'd be expensive enough to require keeping the receipts well, I don't think so, somehow.

Still, at least I now know what CRI stands for!

jimjames · 24 February 2017 at 2:10PM

almillar wrote: »

But you didn't read my reply then, did you? I told you that Home Bargains ones are junk. And I'll add to that - B&Q don't have £1.50 bulbs.

As per my OP, Screwfix certainly do have bulbs that are actually under £1.50. Last ones were £1.39. So far so good and have replaced 20 bulbs at the moment.

LED light bulbs

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