B&Q LED GU10 bulbs

Hi,

Saw a pack of 4 LED GU10 bulbs in B&Q Peterborough for a tenner. The box seems to imply they equivalent to 35W. Has anyone tried them? I got some

9W CFL GU10s last month off ebay and was not impressed, are LEDs any better?

Steve

Reply to
Stephen Barnes
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Hi,

Saw a pack of 4 LED GU10 bulbs in B&Q Peterborough for a tenner. The box seems to imply they equivalent to 35W. Has anyone tried them? I got some

9W CFL GU10s last month off ebay and was not impressed, are LEDs any better?

Steve

Reply to
Stephen Barnes

Hi,

Saw a pack of 4 LED GU10 bulbs in B&Q Peterborough for a tenner. The box seems to imply they equivalent to 35W. Has anyone tried them? I got some

9W CFL GU10s last month off ebay and was not impressed, are LEDs any better?

Steve

Reply to
Stephen Barnes

LEDs are not as good at the moment, but there is no real reason for manufacturers to be holding back products. One i was impressed with was a normal looking bulb with a white coating on the inside and 3 uV LEDs. The coating glows a brilliant white. Philips make them. More efficient than fluorescent bulbs and only using 1 or 2 watts. They will not be sold until people have bought millions of stockpiled fluorescent lights. Low energy lighting is one reason our electric costs are now far higher. Electric companies were sick of not meeting projected income figures once people went energy efficient and used less. So to still make the same amount of money each year they put the cost of each unit up.

Reply to
Ian

Of course it had nothing to do with the more-than-doubling of the prices of coal, oil and gas, and the punitive levy on fossil-fuelled electricity generation to subsidise the ridiculously high costs of electricity generated from wind farms. No, it was all based on sales of low energy light bulbs.

What utter nonsense. ;-)

Reply to
Bruce

It's a lie at that price. They are equivalent to the same power of filament lamp which they are themselves. They will probably have a very narrow beam, and within that narrow beam, you might get the same intensity as you do from a 35W filament lamp, but of course the filament lamp generates that intensity over a wide beam, and hence much more light output.

You will also find they are a completely different colour, most likely a blue-white.

Many of these cheap LED lamps don't last long, either dimming or failing outright.

CFL's don't make good compact light sources.

There are some LED lights which might come close, but they won't fit into an existing GU10 fitting as they require a sodding great heatsink to keep the LED cool, and they cost a bomb, and again suffer from poor colour or low efficiency.

Commercially, small metal halide lamps are used for this purpose. They have a high initial purchase price but low running cost, and that's not a combination which seems to sell in the retail world.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Are you on a dare to see how much complete crap you can post to usenet?

Reply to
Steve Firth

Leds are not ready for prime time yet, they are overpriced and lack good color. Cfls in a warm white , not the older cold versions are best for long life, color rendition and cost. I would never buy an ebay flourescent cfl, old versions are not good in color and reliability

Reply to
ransley

Afraid I have to disagree. From personal taste, I very much prefer CFLs with a colour temperature of at least 3400K - possibly up to 6000K. In combination with a decent CRI, I am quite comfortable with these higher colour temperatures.

Also, the only place we have managed to source some particular CFLs is ebay. And that supplier and his products are beyond reproach. However, we have tried one or two ebay traders that have disappointed in service and product. So definitely a case for taking great care.

Reply to
Rod

In article , Andrew Gabriel writes

Indeed. Saw a room entirely lit using these the other day and not a nice experience. Very poor colour rendition.

They may be OK for accent or mood lighting, or for indirect lighting, but definitely not for general lighting.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

They are bloody horrible, IMO. I bought some about 6 months ago, and took them back almost immediately. The light they produce is an unwordly blue/white light which makes you feel queasy. I replaced them with 9W CFL GU10s which have been fine so far.

Reply to
Brian Whitehead

.> 9W CFL GU10s last month off ebay and was not impressed, are LEDs any better?

Hmmm ... I haven't had much luck with the CFL GU10s.

A couple of years ago I bought some "Pro Lite" ones from CPC. They lasted a couple of days in the kitchen (previously 5x50W GU10s) before SWMBO made me remove them. So they are in my study now. Horrible things - take AGES to light up.

A couple of weeks ago I thought Things Must Have Improved so I ordered another set of 5 from CPC - 11W ones this time. Just over £10 each. They did seem brighter than the last lot but still inadequate for the kitchen so I bunged them in my boy's light (4x50W GU10s normally). He does like leaving it on for hours and hours so I thought this could save a bit of doh.

One failed within a week. I sent that back for a replacement. BUT the evening after I sent it off, another failed. So I got them to refund the whole sodding lot. Incidentally they all seemed to have a rather nasty burning smell this time - maybe related to the quick failure.

Will give it a few more years!

Incidentally this latest lot were also "Pro Lite". I haven't tried the Megaman ones (mainly because CPC don't stock the full range) but maybe they are better? At around £10 per bulb it's an expensive experiment each time.

BTW there's something about this part of this thread that stops Outlook Express auto-indenting the original message. I had to hand add the ">"s.

Regards, Simon.

Reply to
Simon Stroud

Here's a clue ... not actually from B&Q but have you noticed the description on the Wickes GU10 LED ones?

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that special "ambient" word and the further admissions in the "product description". Doesn't sound like it's much use!

Regards, Simon.

Reply to
Simon Stroud

I tried them but did not find them suitable for the domestic environment.

The 'white' ones give a bluish light similar to moon light. So if you prefer lighting to give a warm ambience these are not for you.

LED lights are very bright to look at but do not illuminate the scene at all well, possibly because the light is only at one very specific wavelength. I would have thought they could have included a couple of red and green LED's to give a more balanced white but they didn't.

Roger R

Reply to
Roger R

My local B&Q has four GU10 LEDs for £10, but they are of the variety that changes colour every few seconds. They are in green cartons shrink wrapped in fours.

Are these the same ones? If so, I wouldn't touch them because of the changing colours.

B&W do pairs of "white" or blue GU10 LEDs (your choice) for £8.95, but my local store was out of stock.

Reply to
Bruce

Yuk. Any changing of colours ought to be done by a lighting tech/designer, choosing actual colour transforms and timing..

Those B&Q things sound naff!

Reply to
Frank Erskine

I think buyers might be put off by a kaleidoscope of different coloured LEDs, but that is probably just what is needed to produce a reasonable spectrum that approximates to "white light".

Reply to
Bruce

It's because there's so little light there. It's bright in the very narrow beam, but that very narrow beam means there's very little light there. You'll probably find they are 2W or 3W, and the total light output is about what you'd expect from a 2W bulb.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

To be fair, as there is little heat, what you would expect from a 2W CFL rather than incandescent but still not much!

Reply to
Bob Mannix

The efficiency of the cheap things you pick up in the likes of B&Q will be nowhere near that of a CFL. They are about the same as a filament lamp. There's little heat because

2W isn't much in the first place!
Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

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