Having read other threads, it seems I'm the only person left still using mainly traditional incandescent light bulbs.
We have one room, usually used by son playing PC etc., with two freestanding lamps, each using a 40w clear golf ball bulb, small screw cap E14 fitting. Just used my last spare bulb. Replacements are about a pound at the local shop, or half that price via eBay, ten off.
So, were I to buy LED bulbs instead, which type? Looking at eBay, the range is vast, with wildly varying prices.
Not at all. ~50% of the lamps in my house are still GLS, either because they're on dimmers or because I can't get a CFL that will fit in the fitting. I haven't even looked at LEDs yet.
It does look like LED prices are falling to merely outrageous from extortionate, but since I'm planning to move in the next few months, I'll wait until we're in our new house.
I'm quite impressed with the LED lighting recently installed in our local Sainsbury.
If you decide to stick with incandescents, beware the cheapo types: I posted my experience here a little while ago - in essence, the E14 cap design ensures that when the internal fuse blows, an arc forms to the cap, blowing holes, sometimes melting the lampholder, and often dropping trips.
I went for a compromise of cfl lamps for my inlaws' fittings, and have had no trouble since then.
The Philips bulbs like this have quite a good light distribution and give of a warm light more like an incandescent bulb.
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The MiniSun bulbs like these are cheaper, the light comes from the top of the bulb and is much colder. Not much light goes to the ceiling if used in a pendant light fitting.
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I use B22 fittings!
There is a YouTube teardown video showing the light distribution of the Philips bulb.
With tungsten, you had two choices for any given form factor/power: good quality and likely to blow early.
LEDs are a minefield. You can get:
a) Shite light output;
b) Bad colour temperature and.or CRI;
c) Works/not works with your dimmer if any;
d) Crap life;
e) Blows up (as in goes up in smoke).
This is why I stay away from non name crap.
Now: IME,
Avoid Crompton - they die early;
Philips are bloody good in all respects, except they are expensive. But they do a very high output BC/ES bulb which can be useful in niche cases.
TCP (an actual brand, but sold a lot by Homebase) seem OK - but I had one that did not like being dimmed.
LEDHut (as many here will recommend) - I have 4 R63 spot lamps and they are brilliant. Twice as bright (subjectively) as the incandescants they replaced. Slight lag when starting, but that's OK, it's about 1 second.
Had a couple of ES GLS bulbs from them too - seem good.
One of the R63's came duff, but they sent out a new one without fuss straight away so I say their guarantee is actually worth something. I did not have to faff sending the old one back.
Good point - thanks. I'm tempted to stick with what I know, and I do like to support our local ironmonger who is finding times very tough.
OT, but he stocks so much stuff in a shop that has probably not changed in fifty years. Think 'fork handles', but less organised :-) Even large tins of paint are within a pound of the sheds, and the sheds are
Extremely useful, thank you, but 12 quid a bulb? I suppose I should calculate how long such a bulb would need to last, before paying for itself. Quite a long time, I suspect.
You can get some colour changing LED bulbs in that fitting, he may like them as he can change the colour and/or brightness to fit his mood.
For plain LEDs I have used Ikea and Lidl and they are OK, but make sure there is plenty of ventilation in the fitting and shade because LEDs do not like it hot.
As a (very) rough example lets assume you pay 12p per KWh and run the lamp for 4 hours per day.
A 75 watt tungsten bulb would cost 4 * 0.075 * 12 = 3.6 pence per day. A 13 watt LED would cost 3.6 * 13 / 75 = 0.624 pence per day. So that's a saving of 2.976 pence per day. The payback period for £12.65 would be 12.65 * 100 / 2.976 = 425 days or about 14 months. After that you'll be saving about £10.80 per year for as long as the bulb lasts - which will almost certainly be less than the
Cromptom had a factory in Doncaster. Then all of a sudden the factory changed its name to Cooper Menervier and now it says Eaton - and Eaton are the old MEM.
I suspect their LEDs are a badge job. It wasn't just one - I had at two and both died in short order - one in less than a year. I forgot who I bought it from.
I was suspicious of LEDhut as they only sell their own brand, but I have to say, I am quite impressed so far.
I tried the MK "LED specific" dimmer, with some LEDHUT dimmable GU10s,
it flickered while being turned up/down it buzzed too much for my liking it sometimes went into "shutdown" mode
It was OK if the LEDs were swapped back for the halogen GU10s, so I ended-up sending it back to Amazon.
Later, I tried the Varilight LED Grid dimmer, with an MK grid plate/yoke and it is silent and dims smoothly, you can put it into a programming mode by twiddling its knob in a certain pattern, to enable leading/trailing mode and smooth start if it somehow detects the wrong type of lamp, would buy again ...
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