LED Lighting Lamp?

I have swapped the LED lamp into my table light, and put the CFL out of that into the central pendant fitting. I shall get a 6 Watt lamp for the centre as the 9 Watt is too bright for comfort!

I have three screw fitting ceiling lamps in the kitchen - two of which I have left blown - that can be replaced with lower powered LEDs. Also two in the bathroom, and one on the back hall.

In my sleeping space there are two bedside lamps and a main light. These will need new fittings as well as lamps, but can be left for now as they work for only minutes per day ...

ATB from George

George you can find these bulbs much cheaper on the Web. Start with Google and there are plenty of dealers offering good prices (and I don't mean eBay).

I bought my first from Wykes for £8 rather than £4 plus direct from Philips on the net.

Of course when I make the bulk order for the remaining seven, I'll buy from the least expensive source!

But I seriously recommend people experiment with one lamp, and see ... then decide ... 

They are alright! ...

ATB from George

PS: It is four miles [of seriously nasty roads] on the cycle to the Parcel Office, so it is worth four pounds to collect a lamp from 600 metres from my back door! As an experiment ...

ATB from George

What is the colour like?

Are they dimmable?

I do have various LED lights ( my current car has full LED headlights ) but not enough at home.

George

i have started experimenting with these and have had some good results and much prefer them over CFL's. You do seem to need to buy decent makes though.

I have found the Megaman bulbs really good. I started as you suggest with one as they are quite pricey. We had a spot light on our landing (screw fitting) and the CFL took ages to get going. I put a 7.5 watt spot in there and it now comes on instantly, just like and old fashioned incandescent bulb. It is quie bright, I think the 4.5 watt would have been sufficient. Whilst I chose warm white, the colour is cooler and more natural than the CFL bulb we had at the other end of the landing. I have now replaced that with another 7.5 watt bulb that looks just like a conventional light bulb.

Since then I have replaced 3 15w pygmy bulbs in a china cabinet with 2w, they light it up really nicely, better than the incadescent ones and it now doesn't seem extravagent to use them. I have also put a 7.5 watt Megaman in the table lamp and this is all we really need unless we are reading.

The biggest saving though has been in the kitchen. Here we had 9 20 watt low voltage MR 16 halogen spot lights. I have replaced these with 4 watt led's and the light levels are really good, slightly less spread than previously but very satisfactory. We normally only use 6 as they are on 2 circuits so we now can light the kitchen using only 24 watts rather than 120 watts previously.

I am tempted to change the whole lot over as the light is much nicer than CFL's which seem to go on for ever. In general it doesn't sense to do this until they expire.

Richard

I've been converting all the bulbs in our house to LEDs. You can certainly get dimmable ones but you need to ensure your dimmer will operate them correctly, some of the older designs of dimmers won't. Of course you pay more for them! I bought some of the first ones to be commercially available to fit in the spotlights over my stereo but they caused a faint buzzing through the system; the latest ones don't suffer from this.

The only snag is that LED equivalents tend to be larger and won't always fit into some light assemblies, so check their exterior measurements if that's likely to be a problem. You've got a choice of warm or cool light but unless you're wanting them for a laboratory stick with the warm kind. I've bee ngetting my LED bulbs from LED Hut, they seem very good, and you get a free packet of Haribo sweets with each order!

+1 tonym & trickydickie

I have dimmable LED lamps in all rooms even if the switch is not a dimmer (corporate standardization direction form the CEO) A big problem at the moment is finding a suitable switch to match the lamp. At the moment there are no regulations on this & although the manufacturers are playing catch-up, not all will work properly & so care is required.

George

Have you considered the power factor of LED v Incandescent lighting.

For those dimming LED lighting, this may be of interest. Claims to show dimmed LED uses more power than undimmed or at least a smart meter will record more power usage.

LED have a variable PF depending on how much they are dimmed,  but how it gets measured - or more importantly how much you pay is not so clear  

According to my not so "smart" 'lecky meter - my 8 x 5w GU10 down lighters shows 30w on maximum brightness but absolutely nothing fully dim  -  this is aprx 60% Lumens lower than full brightness on my light meter.   

How long do they last?  Has anyone had one burn out?

They're supposed to last a very long time. Something like 15 years. I'd guess the more expensive ones will do better. We only put LED in now.

I've read some failure "stories" on www but they all end up agreeing that best buy only reputable makes & avoid no-name cheapo's. 

But that aside most makes claim 20,000 a life expectancy and/or have guarantees of 2 or 5 years.

The GU10 5w that I have in various rooms are claimed to have a life exp of 40,000 hrs.  They have a 5 year unconditional guarantee & the lighting cpmy owner I bought them from has sold many thousands into the trade & says he has yet to have a failure of this make/model.  

I stopped using LED's because they didn't last as long as incandescent, although to be fair the light I used them in gets through incandescent bulbs at a fast rate.

I'm giving halogen a try at the moment.

I went back to halogen from LED as after a while they just became unacceptable.

I decided my eyes are far more important than saving a few bob on electric.

I have a halogen lamp that burns up 350 watts - best thing I've done and it has dimmers.

Interesting about the dimmers.

I don't have a dimmer, and the Philips lamp I fitted is non-dim-able.

When we had a new cold [minus twenty five degree, normally] store built at work a full LED lighting instaltion was fitted, and the new store is just as daylight! The mistakes when "picking" orders declined to virtually none when the new store with its good lighting was commissioned.

I decided to wait till LED lamps were available from mainstream outlets and from mainstream reputable makers such as Philips. In fact the Wykes store I bought mine from did not yet have the bar code loaded on the system, so it had to be entered as a manual code!

So far I really like the light in my living room it gives, and at nine Watts rating, using just one lamp, then I shall make a worthwhile saving in the dark winter evenings.

The next ones to change are three spotlights in the kitchen. Two of the current incandescents are blown, and I left them like that to save on electricity. So to fit three new LED types will improve the light and leave the consumption on par with the one incandescent!

I cannot see the point of changing in the bathroom though. Also the bedroom. These hardly run for long, and so can be left alone till replacement is a matter of the existing lamps failing.

ATB from George

That really surprises me Stephen, are you saying they were too dim ???

I can only guess you followed the "eq watts" guideline that LED lamps came packaged in.  That "watts" so called guideline was the prime cause of confusing & putting everyone off CFL's & now LED's.    

- watts is HEAT,  light is LUMENS

Most LED makes now have Lumen numbers on the box, this stnd is regulated & the numbers are accurate & within the voltage range will be the same lumens irrespective of supply voltage.

The minefield is how to compare to an incandescent that has variable lumens output depending on supply voltage.   I have a number of different tables who show lumens per watt that vary by up to 25%.  Its confusing for sure & I'm an electrical engineer.

In short I would not give up on them,  you might not have much choice in the future.  

Hi Mike,

No - it was the light spectrum more than anything, with LED's it's very limited.

Plus i found after a while especially with reading in particular I was getting head aches or if I was doing D.I.Y ect.....

These energy saving light bulbs are good in toilets or extremely small rooms but in average size rooms they just do not have the intensity or the right spectrum in my view.

With a powerful halogen it's feels like the sun has come out and it improves your mood.

Each to their own.

I have one halogen desk lamp and that thing gets definitely puts off some heat.

So do high intensity LEDs, they are not as efficient as some people believe.

There is something so right about old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs. I love 'em keep a good stock of them. 

I keep two Naim systems permanently powered-up; and my electricity bill seems pretty reasonable to me at under £1,000 per month.

Vagabonds and street urchins regularly berate me when I venture among them as 'Planet Destroyer' but someone has to keep the energy companies in profit. In my defence m'Lud, I don't run a dishwasher or a tumble dryer, or the biggest energy sucker known to man - a woman.

Just don't mention the A/C system!

John.

Replaced all of our incandescent bulbs a couple of years ago with CFLs. At that time, only directional LEDs were available, and they were very expensive. As choices have grown, and cost has come down, I will replace our CFLs with LEDs as they fail. Still waiting for the first failure though, and that includes four exterior light fixtures that have gone through two very cold winters.

Only downside I see to CFLs is that they contain small amounts of mercury, and so must be carefully recycled (and not just tossed in the bin) after they burn out.

Hook

Jeeze.....................

How do you manage to keep the bills THAT low ?

Over a two year period of direct debit payments - currently at £42 per month - I now have a balance with the energy company of nearly £300. They suggested a cut in my monthly payments, but I rejected this idea at this end of the winter season.

I suppose that my energy use is far below the average with a monthly gas and electricity bill of £42.

I intend to get this even lower with time, such as getting a more efficient fridge, when the current old one eventually expires.

Gradually switching to LED lighting is just part of my plan.

ATB from George

I would s**t in my pants if I got a monthly power bill of $1,000...let alone in GBP.

I average about $125 a month for a 1,769 sq ft home  - ranges from a low of around $90 in the months where I can run nothing (spring & fall) to near $200 in the height of summer & winter (gas and electric bills combined.)  I keep it at around 68 in the winter, and 78 in the summer.  (Wish I could reverse those!)

I currently use all CFL - simply because my electric company sent me boxes of them for "free".