LEDs vs Flouros

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Some may just prefer the better light quality provided by halogen and be willing to pay for it.

[Mark]

Was it mounted differently? I just wonder whether the electronics overheated.

Agreed. However almost none of my LED lights lasted to break-even point. Therefore I have gone back to incandescents for the time being.

[Martin Brown]

No same downwards pendant and in a spacious glass fibre resin cylinder shade with plenty of free airflow (of the sort popular in the 1960's).

I converted to LEDs for replacements about a year ago after I got a reduced pair of el cheapo Edison screw 7W ones from Aldi/Lidl £5. They are still going and in less airy fittings so it is luck of the draw.

The only problem I have had with LED vs CFL is that at the same power rating the new LED bulbs can be too bright downwards and dark ceiling. Whether you find a dimmer ceiling acceptable is a matter of taste.

[Tim Watts]

On Thursday 16 January 2014 10:30 Fredxxx wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Reactive dropper - like a resistor but efficient (V and I are out of phase across the capacitor so develop no real power, ie no heat).

[Martin Brown]

Whilst you can do that to extend the life of a filament bulb (for a suitable chosen and rather large capacitor or more easily a series resistor) I don't see how it can possibly work for a switched mode PSU device that starts by rectifying the mains and then regulating it for a constant current drive across a fixed voltage LED.

You might just be able to cheat old style electricity meters with the I-V phase shift but the LED lamp will draw the same power either way.

CFLs and LEDs die because the capacitors in them dry out or deteriorate. CFL tubes eventually give up the ghost, but bare LEDs will outlive the their control electronics by years provided they are properly cooled.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you wish to extend the life of a filament lamp significantly where the actual light output isn't an issue, a diode is the easiest way. However, the efficiency drops alarmingly.

[meow2222]

It reduces LED current, thereby greatly extending LED life, at the expense of lower light output.

I assumed the LED light used a CR psu, if its sm then it might or might not work

I doubt that

it cant do so with a series cap

This is a bit of a myth. Lighting LEDs are pushed hard, and often fail totally or dim greatly.

NT

[meow2222]

True in 120v land - here you get heavy flicker on most lamps

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Only placed I used it was with two spotlight lamps which were creating a decorative effect rather than 'useful' lighting. No flicker with them. On

240v.

[Mike Lane]

On Jan 15, 2014, Jim Hawkins wrote (in article ):

I got one of these leds a few months ago: It's claimed to give 1163 lumens, which is pretty good at 106 lumens /watt. It's offered with 5 years warranty and 90 days money-back. Quite expensive though!

[polygonum]

Described as warm white - is that accurate? (I really don't want an emulation of a 2700 yellow lamp.)

[Alan Braggins]

I don't suppose you know of a BC equivalent? (Assuming B&Q have the same range as last time I looked, when they didn't have BC.)

[Mike Lane]

On Jan 16, 2014, polygonum wrote (in article ):

I don't know, my colour vision isn't wonderful but it looks fine to me - very bright, much the same as an old style 100W incandescent. It's certainly no more yellow than the eco fluorescent bulbs I have elsewhere in the house

[polygonum]

[PeterC]

BTW, I'd read that any decent LED has CRI of at least 80% but never really noticed. T'other day, looking at the card for the wheely bins using a CFL I really couldn't see the difference between black and blue (green was OK - combination of eyesight, v. small symbols and the mid-blue of the bin being dark blue on the card). The CFL is rated at 880 lumens and is actually very bright in a small hallway. Moved under a 250 lumen, warm white, LED and the difference in colour was obvious - so much so that I could see it without glasses.

[polygonum]

I'd go along with halfway decent LEDs being not too bad - but I very much prefer living with lighting in the 3500 to 5000 range.

Some LEDs seem to follow tungsten filament lamps with an excessively yellow output. But others, even though claiming a low temperature (typically 2700 to 3200 sort of area) are very much less yellow.

Having gone through a number of CFLs and eventually finding a very few which were acceptable, after too many disappointments, will need to do the same for replacements.

[PeterC]

Well, the LED isn't too yellow - about 3000K at a guess (one of Aldi's second batch a few weeks ago - I was a bit worried about 250 lumens from 3W though). )

Seems to be the case here with Aldi's.

I bought a shedload of Philips Genie when they were 10p in Morrisons. Take a bit of time to warm up from about 12C but then seem very bright.

The LEDs from Ikea seem OK (but they're only in a couple of outside lights as they're SES and ES).

I'm not going overboard on LED yet as I consider them to be inefficient. Having said that, the 250 lu lamp seems brighter, pro rata, than the 11W CFL that also seems bright.