We had our kitchen redone about a year ago, and for the lighting we used spotlights. We're finding that the bulbs don't last long. Every couple of months a bulb goes (we have 8 spotlights).
I like the spotlights but I'm fed up with changing the bulbs. Should they really last such a short time, and are there alternatives?
Simon,
you don't say what kind of spotlights you have - mains or low voltage, halogen/non halogen, or even compact fluorescent or LED, so it's not possible to say.
As a rough guideline, the average lifetime of incandescent light bulbs is about 750-1000 hours. If you have eight of them, and they fail randomly, you expect about one to fail every 1000/8 = 125 hours. If you have your spotlights lit for 2 hours a day, that equates to
125/2=62.5 days - which is almost exactly one every two months.It is possible to buy compact fluorescent replacments for standard incandescent spotlights. These can last up to 10 times longer, so in principle, you would then be replacing one every 20 months, and saving electricity to boot.
Regards,
Sid
I bet they're GU10s!
On 26 Apr 2006 13:56:35 -0700, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com had this to say:
I've had six GU10s (as well as a 100W GLS in a globe luminaire) in my bathroom for about 3 or 4 years now, and have had _one_ failure.
Incandescent GU10s have an expected lifetime of 3-5000 hours, so on average, with 2 hours per day use, you expect the average lifetime of a single GU10 to be 5000/2=2500 days, which is just under 7 years. Assuming random failures, you (Frank) would expect around 1 failure per year on that usage.
1) You may be being lucky, or you may be running them for less than 2 hours per day. My bathroom lights are on for considerably less time per day then my kitchen lights. 2) You may be running your GU10s below their rated voltage - it doesn't need to be much, as bulb lifetime varies inversely at approximately the sixteenth power of voltage. Assuming the GU10s are manufactured to assume 240 volts, if you were running them at 230 volts, their lifetime would be doubled, but they would only be providing 85% of the light output.The OP may be running European incandescents on UK voltage. This halves their expected lifetime. As far as I know, incandescent lightbulb manufacturers still have to produce different variants for the UK market and the rest of Europe, due to the voltage difference.
Cheers,
SId
Yes. Low voltage spotlights. Instead of an average life of about 300 hours, they have an average life of about 3 years..Leastways mine do.
Mains voltage halogen spots are without doubt the most expensive form of lighting ever created for domestic use.
AND the low voltage bulbs are (less than) half the price..
Ive had about 10 Newye and Eyre 50W 12v bulbs in this house, since 2002, and in that time only one has gone. These are 4+_ hours a day bulbs in usage terms.
The six that came with another pair of lights have died and all been replaced however.
They cost about 20 quid, though.
On Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:48:00 +0100 someone who may be "Dave Plowman (News)" wrote this:-
Between £10 and £20 depending on the precise model. Well worth buying as the incandescent ones fail, they pay for themselves many times over during their lifetime.
The only one I've seen anywhere near that price is the GE Genura 23W R80. OTOH, it is the only CFL spotlamp (floodlamp really) which gives the same light output as the 100W lamp it replaces. (Actually, it gives out slightly more light than a UK 100W R80 lamp.)
A friend of mines been there done that, running cost of his lights was couple of quid a month in replacement bulbs.
First thing to try is an electronic limiter/starter, I am sure he got his from tlc-direct and that improved things, far less blown bulbs.
Finally he replaced the whole lot by 12V spots and associated transformers and that was in 2003 and not a single bulb failure since then. My house built in 2000 has 27 12V halogens in various rooms, all still original bulbs.
Yes - although it takes some time to get up to full output. I've got one lighting the keyboard. Bought from B&Q. Very much colder than an incandescent, though, if that matters.
On 27 Apr 2006 07:23:24 GMT someone who may be snipped-for-privacy@cucumber.demon.co.uk (Andrew Gabriel) wrote this:-
I have one over my kitchen sink and it is excellent. Task lighting is one of the few things where a spotlight can be of use in a kitchen.
Pack of 6 RO80 for 23 quid. Sounds interesting. I've got dozens of this size in flush downlighters.
In the kitchen I've used mains halogen replacements which look like large LV types and are very nice.
When they first came out, they were available in 3000K and 3500K, which are too high a colour temperature to blend with filament lamps. However, I've seen them in 2700K colour temperature more recently, which is the same as a filament lamp. So check the colour temperature on the lamp you buy if this is important to you.
long cable of marginal size. The few volts dropped gives the filaments an easier life. Usual caveat, don't blame me if all hell breaks loose when you do it.
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