I have been thinking of replacing my fluorescent light (4ft) my first thought was halagen lighting about 4 bulbs should do, but I rather like the idea of the LED units you can now get. But on observing them lit up in stiores they don't seem anywhere near as bright as halgen or the old Fl. tube and even not as bright as standard bulb.
Anyone have any thoughts on this.
I looked at em but they don;t have the total power without using a lot - then its expensive.
If totally sexy appearance is not an issue, in a kitchen I'd go for ceiling mount luminaires with CFL bulbs.
| |I have been thinking of replacing my fluorescent light (4ft) my first |thought was |halagen lighting about 4 bulbs should do, but I rather like the idea of the |LED |units you can now get. But on observing them lit up in stiores they don't |seem anywhere near as bright as halgen or the old Fl. tube and even not as |bright as standard bulb. | |Anyone have any thoughts on this.
Wait another year or three, they will improve.
Kitchens need lots of light, especially if your knives are as sharp as mine.
One LED - the Kingbright type - will only give about 0.25 watts tops (if my calculator is true). To get some good light, you would need a few hundred LEDs, in clusters. Remembering that they are quite efficient, albeit directional - so ambient light will have to be sacrificed.
What does that mean? The same as a .25w bulb? draws .25W? a 100W bulb only 'gives' about a watt of light...
LEDS at 10% eff at - say 250mW input are then 25mW output..so 40 LEDS=100W light bulb?
Blasted calculator - it lied to me again - and to the Tax man - it's now in the bin.
Joking aside, LED's are designed for 'point' indication, and are not good for ambient light generation.
That's purely down to the built in lens rather than any intrinsic part of the design. Different angles are available - although of course it's unlikely there will ever be an omnidirectional type like a normal bulb. But several in the same unit could give the same effect.
I've tried a few white LEDs on the 'bench' and they don't really emit white light, more of a monochomatic effect. I found it a bit strange that there were so many LED lights in homebase that lokoed good but on close inspection provided very little light. Standing near them I could look directly at the source without blinking I couldn't do that with the more common and Halgen or other forms of lighting. I was just trying to imagine how much light an 4 or
6 way LED system would provide, didn't fancy the idea of buying a ~£40+ unit to find I'm still in the dark. :)cheers for the advice, even with a faulty calculator ;-)
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