Had to replace the CPC security 20W CFL today. I reckon it had done less than 1000 hours. Replaced it with a 15W from another manufacturer, have to see how that does. May have to consider going LED in the longer term.
LEDs also fail. I ordered a Mini Sun B22 about 10w bulb from Amazon. It failed not long after I bought it, so I complained and, I presume by mistake, was send two replacements in separate deliveries. This proved just as well as one of these replacements also died.
I am getting very good results with Philips LEDs - had some for several years and only one failed, which was on for extended periods.
LEDHut stuff seems good too - got a load that are now about 14 months old, no failures apart from 2 DOAs which were promptly replaced.
OTOH I have had some utter crap from other brands. So it does seem to be very brand sensitive. Not even "what you pay for" as whilst Philips are expensive, LEDHut are not.
I bought 6 x 60W equiv LED candle lamps for an elderly lady we look after sometime in the hope it would save her some electricity over the
360W (per chandelier) she was originally using. I don't think any of them lasted a year, and the last of the two extra lamps have also failed.She now has a hotchpotch of LED candle lamps in there as I have seen them on special offer and am trying a range to see if there actually are any good ones out there.
I also fitted a dusk_till_dawn LED lamp in the light at the front of her house a few months ago and that seems to be ok (for now).
We have a few here and one failed the other day and took the lighting MCB out.
I have had several of the earlier (multiple LED) worklights and nearly all have failed over time.
Cheers, T i m
I've had excellent life from the large globe ~9w Philips CFL's too though they're not exactly cheap. On about 8 hrs. a day for 3-4 years.
LED is much better for use outdoors. CFLs don't behave all that well at low winter temperatures unless they are designed for external use.
Odd. My candle style LED ones are still a random mix since I haven't settled on a specific model yet and still have some remaining CFLs to burn through but they are all working perfectly OK in free space.
Haven't had any bother with the cheapest Aldi/Lidl ones on special offer when the popular B22 ones have all gone.
Never seen that happen with an LED yet (although only had two fail so far - one PSU cap dried out, one LED fried).
Spotlamps used to take ou the MCB with monotonous regularity.
It is worth taking them apart to see how they have failed. You get a micro burn out on the failed LED die and can check them with a suitable diode multimeter range. My first LED bulb failure the long LED chain was perfect but the PSU had died. The second one an LED was stone dead. A screwdriver can be inserted under the plastic cover to prize it off. (dangerous voltages exposed if you run it like that)
There was a charcoal pinhole in the surface where the bondout wire came closest to the edge. Not obvious at first until you use a loupe.
Noted, especially when it's cold. Funnily enough daughter and I were working in Mums garage today and the fluorescent lights in there always take a while to start up. Could it just be the starters are 'non electronic'?
Yes, these are horizontal (raidially) , reasonably well spaced and in free air so I don't think it was overheating that was the problem. That said, the cooling fins on the LED candles would be sitting horizontally so ...?
Maybe these 60W equiv lamps were just being pushed too hard or of a poor design (just they were about the best price / wattage and shape I could find at the time).
Nor have we so far (also got some from Tesco and Homebase).
OK. I have had it twice now with LED but they could be 'cheap' units.
I've had the odd incandescent and CFL fail and typically just trip the MCB but that has been very rarely.
To be fair on one I stripped it was a load of dry joints on a poor PCB. On these candle LEDS it seems to be just one of the LEDs (4 in series) as if you power it from a bench PSU you sometimes see all the LEDs come up for a second then one start flashing the they all go out.
Ok.
Sure.
Which I use a lot these days. ;-(
I think I'll try to stick to known brands now as the prices are generally coming down across the board. At least there will someone to complain to when they die prematurely. ;-(
Cheers, T i m
The irony is that I have some original Philips CFLs in outside lamps which now have a 67% survival rate after >35 years! Not sure how much light output though! I could not believe how long I'd had them installed!
I had one (if that was the original CFL in a big glass 'jar') indoors on a time switch, probably 6pm till midnight every day. I wrote the day I installed it on the base and I think it was at least 15 if not
20 years old when it finally went.They don't make em like they used to. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
Yes. I had a CFL outside light on from dusk to 1 am all year round before our street lighting was improved. And that lasted its claimed life.
The only low powered CFLs I've had indoors are in cupboards etc so not used much.
The high powered ones I've had indoors have always failed very early. Same with LEDs.
How did it fail? I've sort of noticed that some of the ones that take a time to get full output can fail apparently in the driving part, not the lamp itself.
Brian
Its interesting that this happens,I've often wonderedhow large multi led devices conduct heat away, or how the electronic psu manages. If either are built to the usual crap standard as chinese phone chargers, then no wonder they fail! Brian
the ones that are don't behave well either IMLE.
NT
It should be about 50:50 but generally the PSU fails from the capacitors being too warm more often than not. Built down to a price from the cheapest components. They could be designed to last a lot longer but the market is initial price sensitive.
It's almost bound to happen with an all in one powerful units in a pendant fitting. Ie, exactly what they were meant to replace. The heat from the lamp rises into the electronics and fries them. The reason why you can't get a 150 watt equivalent. Or even a true 100 watt one.
It is one of the cons about such things that annoys me most.
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