Just seen for sale light bulbs for the house, each one consisting of 15 of those LEDs. They are going for about £6 each and are rated at 2500 hours lifespan.
Anyone any experience of these....advantages and disadvantages?
Are you sure that you've not missed a 0 off the end.
LEDs are supposed to last for years, even with regular use.
What type of fitting are they?
tim
Well yer bog standard tungsten bulb generally has a 2,000 hour life so sick squid for an extra 500 hours is not very economic...
Sure you don't mean 25,000 hours, most specs I see for LED lamps quote around 50,000 hours.
tim.... (tims_new snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk) wibbled on Monday 24 January 2011 10:42:
No so with the ones in lamp applications. They run hot which shortens the life considerably. How long depends on whther they used decent quality LEDs (eg Nichia, Luxeon, Cree and a couple of others) or some s**te cheap chinese rubbish.
My experience with anything costing 6 quid involving LEDs has been the latter - watch them start to burn out one by one after a month or two.
Cheaps LEDs are even worse than cheap CFLs...
Well, you've given almost no info on what you're talking about but at £6, almost certainly completely useless.
You have to get up nearer £100 to get anything viable at the moment.
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you can get a six led torch from the 99p shop, and this is only three times as many leds.
you have given no information about the £100 one...for a house light bulb ??
This Osram 12W LED (claimed 60W equivalent) is over £50 including VAT:
Richard.
When you press the switch, the light comes on.
Some CFLs reach full brightness nearly instantly (we've got one in our downstairs loo and you don't really notice any delay).
Richard.
As a matter of interest, do you remember which brand they are, and what type (pencil or squiggley)?
Ta,
downstairs loo and you don't really notice any delay).
the room actually goes darker!
That's why you don't see them in houses. You will find them in some commercial premises where the cost of a light fitting (even an expensive one) is often insignificant compared with the total cost of the refurbishment.
Basically, I'm just saying the price mentioned by the OP is about an order of magnitude too small to be anything worthwhile, and anything worthwhile will be too expensive for most homeowners. That's why LEDs have not entered the home yet for general lighting. They are either too inefficient or too expensive. Most of the multi-LED MR16/GU10 format ones are about the same efficiency as a filament lamp (way worse than a fluorescent). Given they can't be more than 3W because that will cook the LEDs, you'll get no more than 3W equivalent of light from them, although it will all be concentrated in an intense
6" circle on the floor underneath, if that happens to be useful to you. You'll also find many of them dim and die within a few thousand hours, and the expected life quoted on the product was completely wrong.Philips have come out with a range of 2W (IIRC) retrofit LED candle lamps. I think they're around £20 in the shops, and at 50 lumens, equivalent to about a 10W mains filament lamp, and life same as a top spec CFL (although a CFL would be twice the light output). That's about as good as you can get in an LED product which is anywhere near consumer pricing levels at the moment.
I have one of these...
Even allowing for the narrow beam (which is what I want for reading in bed) it's very much brighter than either the 7W CFL that was in there before. This isn't entirely guesswork; bouncing it off the ceiling it lights the room up considerably more than the wife's identical lamp with the CFL in it and I tried it against the tungsten just now and it's not as bright - but not that far off - and only using 7.5% of the power.
So bright, in fact, that I'm thinking of using a gooseneck and a single LED. Perhaps one of these...
Life span - don't know yet, I've not had it long.
I'm pretty sure it's a helix, and it might be this: Pro-Lite Plus SCR-11W. I've just checked one from my spares box and it lights quickly.
Richard.
I had a play with an Ikea solar powered desk light. I was impressed by the light output, less so by the price. These units use an LED SMD array. SMDs are getting more common. I see several automotive applications using them and the light output is very good. I'm surprised that this technology only seems to be entering domestic use in minor applications.
Thanks - I'll check them out.
Where do you get them from. I've done a quick search and can't find any UK retailers selling these bulbs with BC fittings.
I've got some 4-5W LED lights that seem almost as bright as the original halogen lights. They're much better than CFLs and, if they last as long as they claim, will be cheaper overall. The are about £15 ea. IIRC.
I only know of one modern CFL (not one make - one lamp) that does not light immediately - it is one a friend got sent free by her gas company. It used to take about 15 seconds to give any light, although has got a lot quicker with use.
I have bought a variety of types and makes, including Tesco 10p lamps. They all light immediately, although not at full brightness, which can take a few tens of seconds.
Colin Bignell
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