LED's - pleased with them

Over the past few months, I have been gradually swapping some of the most used lamps over to LED versions. 3.5w for those areas where a bit of background light is needed, leaving 20w CFL's in place where occaisional bright lights are needed. 2x 3.5w LED's to replace a 38w double D CFL which originally illuminated the drive and is on a solar clock.

My latest change has been to swap some ancient kitchen ES downlighters. When I originally installed these I intended them for 100w ES reflector flood lamps. These tended to be in use much of the day, when the kitchen was in use, so they needed frequent replacement, expensive and were a large consumer of watts. Several years ago I replaced them with

22w CFL's but due to the recessed fitting, the light was never that good, so I ended up supplementing it with a concealed 70w tube.

I recently ordered up some 12w ES LED flood lamps hoping they might provide a better light, better economy and last longer. I don't yet know about the 'lasting longer', but they provide a much better, more even light and brighter light than either the 100w floods, or the CFL's gave. In addition, due to the overall lamp swapping - consumption has gone down quite markedly.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield
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The only problem that I've had is with the angle of beam coverage. We have GU10 mini reflector lights in the bathroom (three aimed vertically downwards through different parts of the ceiling) and in the kitchen (five on a horizontal strip so each one can be aimed individually).

When we changed from tungsten to LED we found that there were dark patches in between the areas lit up by each lamp, and a much sharper cutoff at the edge of the beam.

If GU10s could be made with a wider beam coverage and a softer edge to the beam, they'd be even better. We've got used to the ones in the kitchen, though when we have the kitchen cupboards changed I might see it we can have small LED lamps fitted under the cupboards to provide more light on the work surfaces in addition to the overhead spotlights.

Reply to
NY

If you don't mind mixing the sort of lamp in the fixtures you can use the rather too well collimated LED spotlights for task lighting and the standard shaped ordinary bulbs for a more diffuse general lighting.

Some corn on the cob type work well for ambient lighting in spotlight type fixtures or the ones with a flat disk emitter covered in LED.

Worth experimenting to get the best lighting for the kitchen usage.

Reply to
Martin Brown

I'd be surprised if any LED gave a better beam pattern than tungsten. Perhaps you were using spots rather than floods before?

But they do - finally - seem to be producing LEDs which give a nearer equivalent output to what they claim.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The problem is matching the colour: LED lights are daylight coloured and tungsten lights look horribly dingy alongside them.

Yes. Part of the problem is getting a wire to any other fittings that we may put on other parts of the ceiling - it would mean clearing furniture, and lifting carpets and floorboards upstairs to run additional cables to new holes in the kitchen ceiling. Like many 1930s houses, it just has one light fitting in the centre of each room.

Reply to
NY

No, they are not these days. a complete range of color temps is available

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

LEDs can be any colour you like. The most efficient ones tend to be rather blue - but daylight they most certainly ain't. Most are available in so called daylight and warm white now.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

What flavour did you buy?

Reply to
Clive George

NY formulated on Friday :

Not true, LED's come in a range of colour temperatures now. The E27 R80 ones I bought for the kitchen were offered as warm white or white. I got the white ones, so as to match the existing concealed 6 foot tube's colour.

In the rest of the house, I have used warm white and all dimable.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Dave Plowman (News) submitted this idea :

The original lamps were definately floods, we have a few spots bought in error still in the cupboard - which were found to be useless for the purpose. As (temporary) replacements, I sought out the longer ES CFL's, because lacking reflectors, the fittings absorbed all the light if they sank all the way into the fittings.

As said, that was intended to be just a temporary solution, until I decided how to move forward, but these LED floods seem to solve the issue completely and for not a lot of cost or effort.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

It happens that NY formulated :

These LED lamps are E27 R80, in a high ceiling and the spread seems to be pretty good. I bought these for the kitchen..

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I bought the 3.5w BC and SBC LED lamps from BHS at 50p each in their closing down sale. Enough to do the whole house, or at least the lights which are usually used most for long periods and a few spares.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

The only LEDs I have been really impressed by so far are these:

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They have pretty much the same radiation pattern as a GLS lamp, comparable brightness, and for once, a reasonable CRI.

(normally I am very fussy about the light quality from LEDs - many of the "warm white" ones appear slightly greenish, or have a noticeable discontinuities in their spectra - these pass close enough for Tungsten to my eye).

Reply to
John Rumm

I achieved a temporary diffuse beam on an LED lamp with a piece of milk bottle. The permanent version was a piece of roughened acrylic cut to fit in the bezel. Hopefully that's UV safe (it's sold for greenhouses and the like).

Theo

Reply to
Theo

En el artículo , NY escribió:

Try a couple of Megaman ones. They're a little pricier than the others, but look good. The light quality is indistinguishable from halogen (perhaps very slightly warmer), and the lamp has a clear diffuser lens which gives the light spread you want.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

120 degree GU10s are available - Amazon, ebay and TS, depending on what outpuy and colour temperature you want. I tend to avoid the very high outputs for GU10s (and G9s) as they don't have much area for dissipation of heat; candle etc. of the COB type are better in this respect.
Reply to
PeterC

One thing I'd like to know is this. Do the led units employ some kind of switch mode power supply, and if so, how badly designed are they?I'm looking for lights that I can suggest to neighbours that do not put out gross hash and interference when they are turned on in the evening. I'm not sure if the current issue is from cfls or leds, but they are far worse than ordinary bulbs obviously. Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

For the omes that look like old cage filament lights, the LED strings contain 40-50 LEDs in series, some are just driven by a bridge rectifier, no smoothing capacitor and a constant current chip.

Reply to
Andy Burns

I don't know what beam angle your LEDs are but FWIW I've found those with 120 degree or wider better in those circs - assuming glare ain't going to be a problem.

Reply to
Robin

Ah. Sorry.

I must read the whole thread before posting I must read the whole thread before posting I must ...

Reply to
Robin

If the aim was even lighting, the originals should have been installed at a spacing which gave just that. Changing to some sort of 'all round' bulb in a fitting designed for a reflector bulb which gives a defined beam is going to be a compromise. As is fitting any bulb with a different beam pattern to the original.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

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