I do not know which LED replacement bulbs to buy :(

Jez

Jez

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Hi,

We are having building work done at our house, and as part of this revamp i would like to ideally move all of our downlights over to LED. We currently have around 80 downlights around the house, all running 50W bulbs. Potentially 4KW of lighting when they invariably get left switched on.

Anyway, are bulbs such as these to be trusted? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10X-Rotun...83?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&var=&hash=item2571daf59b

I really do not know what i am looking at. Those say they are dimmable and come in MR16 and GU10 fitting styles which is what our downlights are a mix of. Lighting is controlled with a mix of digital and analogue dimmers.

Any advice greatly received :)
 
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See this thread: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18457665&highlight=led+lamps

Cree are considered the best LED lamps, latest ones have a life of 100k hours, but beware a while back there where cheap copies of Cree on Ebay, those you listed seem rather cheap.
I know peep who bought Cree only for them to fail after a few months, that might be down to the higher wattage = more heat & light fitting used can't dissapate the heat, so the lamp overheats.
Also make sure your using a Trailing Edge Dimmer if you want to dim the lamps.

I have started using Megaman 6W GU10 LED Dimmable lamps, found them excellent.
 
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Jez

Jez

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Oh great thread, thanks :)

The whole trailing edge leading edge thing is my main area of concern, i have absolutely no idea what my switching is. The switching cost a fair amount so there is no way i wish to swap all of this out.
 

Jez

Jez

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I dont fancy PIR, not only am i not sure how they would integrate with my existing switching, it would be a lot of work adding PIRs to finished rooms.
 

Jez

Jez

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Replacing my existing digital dimmers is not happening, they all remote controlled and multi way dimming enabled etc. They cost a fortune too so i dont fancy scrapping them :)
 
Soldato
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Oh great thread, thanks :)

The whole trailing edge leading edge thing is my main area of concern, i have absolutely no idea what my switching is. The switching cost a fair amount so there is no way i wish to swap all of this out.

LED lamps can use a Leading edge or Trailing edge dimmers.

Leading Edge dimmer is more common, but Trailing edge dimmer is superior , but they cost more, offer more features like silent running,multi-way dimming & soft start.

http://www.downlightsdirect.co.uk/s...e-switches/trailing-edge-dimmer-switches.html

http://www.universal-lighting.co.uk/buying-guides/choosing_the_correct_dimmer_switch
 

Jez

Jez

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LED lamps can use a Leading edge or Trailing edge dimmers.

Leading Edge dimmer is more common, but Trailing edge dimmer is superior , but they cost more, offer more features like silent running,multi-way dimming & soft start.

They seem to quote as requiring trailing edge?

The good thing is that i *think* mine must be trailing edge, all of the non super basic dimmers seem to be?
 
Soldato
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The link I gave, all dimmers are LED compatiable.

http://www.downlightsdirect.co.uk/s...e-switches/trailing-edge-dimmer-switches.html

I qoute the from their site.

Trailing edge dimmer switches have a much lower load than leading edge and inductive, usually as low as 10W (or 2.5W for LED). This allows dimming of low energy lights such as LED and CFL that have considerably lower loads. Trailing edge technology provides a smoother dimming function and because it contains no transformer or coil, they are virtually silent. No buzzing whatsoever!
 

Jez

Jez

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I have digital multi way dimming with different fade out periods and set light mood modes etc, nothing like that stuff above. Those are just cheap basic standalone switches, i wouldnt want them here, they have no control :)

I guess i need to find the manufacturer of my switching and contact them and see what they say.
 
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Having initially tried some of the cheaper eBay bulbs, I purchased one of the SimplyLED NxtGen bulbs, and the difference was night and day. The cost however is significantly more, but the build quality, and light output was far superior.

Unfortunately the MR16 bulbs cant be used with a dimmer, but the GU10 can.

I spent £100 on them which I thought was reasonable, given the 5 year warranty, not sure I could bring myself to spend over £800 like you'd have to.
 

Jez

Jez

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When you say the MR16's cannot be used with a dimmer, i assume you mean that brand exclusively? :) The cheap eBay link lists MR16 dimmable.

I think the first port of call is finding out whether my switching will even work with all of this.
 
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When you say the MR16's cannot be used with a dimmer, i assume you mean that brand exclusively? :)

I think the first port of call is finding out whether my switching will even work with all of this.

If you have two way switching, you can use a dimmer at one location & a ordinary switch at the other.
You can't use two dimmers together with LED lamps.
 
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Jez

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If you have two way switching, you can use a dimmer at one location & a ordinary switch at the other.
You can't use two dimmers together.

My particular dimmers support up to 7 slave dimmers in a loop so up to 8 dimmers total per master switch. In some cases i have 3 way dimming in place. Different brands differ, i have seen up to 20 way dimming available. I just dont know which technology the master module employs (trailing or leading).
 

Jez

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All of my MR16 transformers will be <2 years old (this is when we took on the house so everything is newer than this). I wonder how they will fare :p Replacing the fittings isnt really an option, there are probably 40 of them in place.
 
Soldato
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My particular dimmers support up to 7 slave dimmers in a loop so up to 8 dimmers total per master switch. In some cases i have 3 way dimming in place. Different brands differ, i have seen up to 20 way dimming available. I just dont know which technology the master module employs (trailing or leading).

Using dimmers with LED lamps is totally different to GU10 lamps & dimmers.
Got a Varilight catalogue, & they state only one dimmer in a two way switching with led lamps.

See this link: http://www.varilight.co.uk/products/vdim.html
 
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