LED bulbs

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MiniSun High Power 11w LED BC B22 SMD GLS Energy Saving Long Life Bulb -

Pendant LED bulbs tend to shine downwards. Unlike tungsten or CFLs they don't send much light towards the ceiling.

I have private code that compares lamps, allowing for brightness, cost, pow er, and life. The current best of those for lumen-hours per pound that I h ave personally seen (not necessarily seen working), is Tesco LED, £8, 10 A, 806 lm, unspecified life, IIRC 100,000 cycles. I might buy one. I have done no measurements.

Not sure LEDs are going to be any better in this respect. Had a 240v one which went bang in a spectacular fashion.

No

They prefer base down as long as the enclosure allows air to move through. Base up is OK IME in a fairly open fitting - might be less good in an enclosed one.

Philips LEDs are top class - good life, warm light and they vary from "true" GLS and pretty bright to GLS+++ (extra long) and mentally bright.

However they are not cheap. But IME they seem to last.

Crompton (compton?) - blew one of theirs (out of 1) in < year. I write the dates on the side when I install them. Don't touch.

The "TCP" brand that Homebase sells seem quite good (testing one now in candle/SES format). Cannot say how good the life is as I've had it for

Megaman aren't bad for the money.

I would avoid any other names unless someone explicitly vouches for them here - there is a LOT of crap being sold.

Base down is generally better for them. Base up heat rises and cooks the electronics - especially in closed glass globe type shades.

The main thing is that they do need a bit of airflow around them so like CFLs they don't like being fully enclosed.

Good price - probably a bit on the bright side if the OP has become accustomed to the notional CFL incandescent "equivalent" wattage. I got caught out by my first LED bulb being too bright for its location being a nominal 60W equivalent that really was a true 60W incandescent output!

Is one such although £1 more expensive (and £1 more is dimmable although I have no experience of them on dimmers). The models available seem to change almost every time you look for them.

They are distinctly more directional with can make the walls appear darker in some sort of light shade.

The new ones do.

Was going to say the same, they usually still have a SM supply in them. There are some Youtube videos showing comparisons and teardowns of LED lamps. Which are interesting.

Well, I'm not a great light user these days, obviously, but many people seem to not like leds due to their tendency to be very directional. It might well be that different choices of design for each situation you describe might stop this being a problem but certainly some types of wall light that emit light in all directions work better with cfl or ordinary bulbs than with leds. And what makes you think that led bulbs will fail any less smelly than cfls? grin. Brian

CPC have these on offer ATM

I've not seen an LED where base up versus base down would make any difference.

The cooling fins are not normally oriented for horizontal operation, but even that probably makes little significant difference.

I have a few TCPs which have been running a while. If you have a Homebase nearby which is closing down, they're all 30% off.

IKEA have a large ES globe one which is also quite good.

If you mean the daylight bulbs. I did my house in them 4ish years ago. Some have gone but not many.

I like daylight bulbs because I can actually distinguish colours properly which I couldn't with standard yellower CLFs.

Buy from a supplier with a five-year warranty, then you can send them back if they don't last.

Can you name any?

Being able to distinguish colours is more to do with the spectrum of light than the base colour temperature.

The snag is that to provide a reasonably continuous spectrum with both florries and LEDs tends to reduce the efficiency. It comes for free with halogen.

With tube fluorescent, it is possible to buy specialist tubes that are very good indeed - they are used for film etc lighting.

Thank you - I did not consider the *supplier* might have such a long warranty...

ledlam

Sainsburys, Wilko's Phillips £7.99

Well I don't know the science all I know is that I appear to see colours much better with Homebase "TCP" daylight bulbs than I could with non daylight CLF bulbs. I accept black body radiation bulbs should be better for colour but haven't been able to test it for myself.