Dangerous LED Lamps

It's interesting you should post this. I had one of my 3w LED GU10 bulbs start to flash on/off in the bathroom, and after disassembling it to look at how it was made I have decided to bin them and replace with megaman or similar LED GU10s. The construction and risk of the heatsink becoming live is shocking.
 
There's not really much trading standards can do if they are being shipped from China by a Chinese supplier.

If there are any UK places that are dropshipping them or reselling then there's a huge amount of liability they are exposing themselves to.
 
Hate eBay stuff from china, I just 4x mr16 that were meant to be equivalent to 70 watts with 500 lumens, there are dimmer then the 35 watt halogens I took out, and one was faulty from new
 
I don't buy cheap tat that runs off the mains for this reason. If I have to prove a concept for whatever reason using some eBay special then I use a power supply I have kicking around rather than the noisy, badly made things that stuff is usually provided with.

It's just not worth getting a shock or burning your house down over a power supply you can replace with a known-good one for £5.
 
amigafan2003 said:
Trading standards can't do anything about items you buy from China direct.

Our trading standards don't operate in China btw.
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No, but they can seize goods that are dangerous from UK sellers.

So, you can report a problem to Trading Standards about these lamps & details where they obtain from.
 
Business Man said:
What about customs, surely they can seize these bulbs ?
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Customs can only ever search a tiny percentage of consignments! If you can smuggle in truck loads of people right under their noses what chance do they have have of intercepting a box of dodgy light bulbs??:(

Trading standards can't do anything about items you buy from China direct.

Our trading standards don't operate in China btw.
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Globalisation! Don't you just love it!

Nowadays anybody can be an importer and there is no realistic way of exercising any realistic control over it!
 
That video is full of BS

Firstly, it is irrelevant if it is inserted a different way around as the 240v AC is fed through a bridge rectifier, this gives something like 300v dc to the circuit, which is then dropped across the resistor and led chain.
At no point are you touching 240v Live.

Secondly, that shiny layer on the back of the led substrate is electrically isolated from the LEDs on the other side, it is meant to touch the aluminium heatsink so as to transfer the power dissipated by the LEDs, at no point is that heatsink going to be at live potential.

It's not the best design and the LEDs are going to burn out fairly quickly (no current regulation), but these things are for shoving into ceiling mounted fittings, not licked by disabled orphans.

What people should be buying at the ones with the tiny square transformer inside, usually yellow. Those are the regulated and fully isolated designs.
 
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bitslice said:
...these things are for shoving into ceiling mounted fittings, not licked by disabled orphans.
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Haha!

I've only had one LED bulb fail on me, I bought it from LED Hut, and they shipped me a new one out next day. I don't know what the problem was - it didn't light up when the power was turned on, but then flashed on and off for a few seconds when switched off.
 
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