LED lights

[Phil Pascoe]

We're just moving house, and we're trying to minimise future bills. I have one dark room (in the middle of the house, with no natural light) where the lights will be on just about 18hrs a day, so I've changed the gu 10s (4 x 50w) for leds. These cost about £29 for 2x 3w plus 2x 5w. That's 16w instead of 200w. Yes, you read it correctly. I've just worked out that there's top side of 3.3kwhs per day difference - which, pricing electricity at 10p per unit, comes out at about £120p.a. DIFFERENCE!! That's just one light fitting, and the lamps have a life expectancy (which will be exceeded) of 35,000hrs., which way exceeds anything else... Now for the rest of the house. :lol:

 

[AndyT]

+1

I swapped the GU 10s in our kitchen for 3w LEDs and am similarly impressed. These are the newer sort with lots of surface mounted LEDs. They really are just as good as the 50 w halogens.
We also have some 10w replacements for ordinary GLS bulbs which are loads better than compact fluorescents. Well worth getting.

 

[sawdust1]

I like the heat the GU10's give off, in a house with no heating every little helps !

 

[John Brown]

I like the heat the GU10's give off, in a house with no heating every little helps !

If you have gas, I think you'll find it's a cheaper way to warm your house than electricity. So why not install gas lamps?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I like the heat the GU10's give off, in a house with no heating every little helps !

drove a mile and a half to a hardwear supplier for replacement lock, had three keys cut, then drove half a mile to buy the bulbs. The bulb I took with me as a pattern was still warm. :shock:

 

[cambournepete]

I've yet to find a LED light that emits a light that is acceptable to my wife and myself.
They tend to be too cold or not actually give off enough light.

I also doubt the longevity claims - sure, the LEDs might last 35000 hours but I bet the control electronics won't. Probably still save money though.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I think the manufacturers would be very brave/foolish to advertise a lifespan they weren't sure of. Mine were specified "warm light" - I can't see any difference in colour between them and the ones they replaced. Maybe technology is moving on quickly? I don't know.
They certainly make change from fluorescents everywhere.

 

[AndyT]

I've yet to find a LED light that emits a light that is acceptable to my wife and myself.
They tend to be too cold or not actually give off enough light.

I also doubt the longevity claims - sure, the LEDs might last 35000 hours but I bet the control electronics won't. Probably still save money though.

The earlier models - still available cheaply - used clusters of separate glass diodes. The newer ones have tiny, surface mounted LEDs in greater numbers and are much better. I borrowed some early ones on approval from our local shop but did not buy them. The new ones are much better.

 

[MMUK]

I've yet to find a LED light that emits a light that is acceptable to my wife and myself.
They tend to be too cold or not actually give off enough light.

I also doubt the longevity claims - sure, the LEDs might last 35000 hours but I bet the control electronics won't. Probably still save money though.

I think you'll find that the lifespan figure is a conservative one anyway. Generally speaking the figure given is only about 75% of the factory tested lifespan.

If you look at SMD LED strips, they give off masses of light. When I fitted them into my workshop to replace a 4' twin fluorescent, just two strips 2.5m long (total of 300 LEDs) gave out more light than the old fitting. Add to that the current draw of those two LED strips was less than 10% that of the fluorescent fitting. I used cool white strips as I find they make for better clarity in a working environment as opposed to warm white which is almost yellowish.

 

[tekno.mage]

I also doubt the longevity claims - sure, the LEDs might last 35000 hours but I bet the control electronics won't. Probably still save money though.

They don't. I've been using LED lamps for a while in a number of applications and have had several fail long before their stated lifetime was up. Some have had an LED or die failure, with others it was the control electronics. Some were cheap bulbs, some were very expensive (supposedly higher quality?) ones. Seems to make no difference as they are all made in China! Most of them also interfere with FM radio as well, which is an indication of poor design in the control electronics. It's a shame because potentially they could make very good low power and low heat light bulbs for some applications.

 

[bugbear]

[ Some were cheap bulbs, some were very expensive (supposedly higher quality?) ones. Seems to make no difference as they are all made in China!

There's more to an item's quality than country of origin.

BugBear

 

[RogerS]

I'm with Cambourne Pete on this. We did (eventually) replace the halogen bulbs in our kitchen with LEDs but not before buying all sorts of different wattages and colour temperatures to try and find one that we like. Although SWMBO is happy, to my eyes the LEDs she decided on are nothing like as good as the halogens they replaced and I always find myself turning on supplementary lighting.

The other recommendation I would make is that you buy a couple of spares of the same make because if one of those LEDs goes pop a few years down the line then you will have the devil's own job trying to find an LED that matches in terms of colour temperature, wattage and beam angle.

 

[whiskywill]

I think you'll find that the lifespan figure is a conservative one anyway. Generally speaking the figure given is only about 75% of the factory tested lifespan.

For that statement to be true, they would have had to test the bulbs for 5.3 years before putting them on the market. :shock:

 

[mind_the_goat]

Lifetime would almost certainly be MTBF (mean time between failure) rather than a minimum, so some will fail earlier, some later. As whiskywill pointed out the figures would have to be estimates, based on accelerated testing, which would involve, for example running at high temperatures, temperature cycling, switching on/off many many times, Another way to do it would be to calculate the combined MTBF combination of the MTBF for all the components that make up the lamp (which themselves may be estimates). Also the assembly itself could have a significant impact on lifetime.
Some manufacturers are now offering guarantees on their lamps, if you can be bothered to register them. The fact that a guarantee is offered might suggest confidence in the quality.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Update - pleased so far. I've just changed a few more, a couple over an area that is "mine", where I read, sort paperwork, do sudokus etc., so I put a different combination of colour temperature in - one 3000 warm, one 6000, I forget what it's actually called, but it's cold blue/white. I'm not there yet to try it, and I might yet reverse the 3w and 5w so the warm is the stronger, but it looks to be a good reading light. Just don't buy the wrong temperature white by accident. It's cut 300w to 24w in a room where the lights will be on virtually all waking hours, so it's got to be good.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

If they are anything like compact florescents, the 35000 hours is almost certainly "creative". CFL's commonly fail because of the integrated electronics, specifically the electrolytic capacitor inside them. Electrolytics with a life of 35000 hours are not common, certainly not in size that you can lose inside a lamp cap. 12000 hours is good.

 

[Ring]

In my kitchen I have florescent strip lights 4@900mm and 4@300mm they turn on with the light switch ,if I wanted to put ie leds that you can get in a roll 5 metres long I would need a power supply driver but when I get to the corner unit I have a space that my cooker/extractor are fitted then my other corner unit at other side of cooker would I need to fit another power unit there as well picking up the electrical feed then I have my window then more units so again I would need a power unit there as well, Does that make sense or am I thinking about this wrong . tnx
Jim

 

[AndyT]

The simplest option would be not to buy the 5m roll, but get LEDs designed to replace the tubes you have, just plugging in to the same fittings. Search for 'LED fluorescent replacement' to see the variety available.

 

[MIGNAL]

Just tried a Philips 5.5W Lidl special at £8. Having never used a LED light I couldn't resist. Even as the main central light in a Kitchen I'm impressed. Both the amount of light and the colour are better than I expected.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've just counted the 50w GU10s in the house we're now moving to. 25!!! that's amongst other lights. I dread what the electricity bill was. I've just looked on line for bulk buys - the older type ones are a bit cheaper, and I didn't realise how much difference in the angle of coverage was - it varies from 36 degrees to 120. The first ones I bought didn't have the angle marked on them, but obviously it makes a difference if they are meant for reading or more general lighting. There's even a remote control one that you can change the colour and make it pulse - one's coming for xmas for the boy's room.