LED Bulb Thread

You need to be careful with the cool white bulbs, as there as two types... 4000k, which I think is a nice choice for a kitchen or bathroom, and 6500k, which is horrible! I recommend GU10 bulbs from Screwfix, who offer 2700/3000k, 4000k and 65000k.

I also have a question for my current project, a new kitchen/diner... the lamps that I quoted above are rated at 500 lumens each, or they have a cheaper option that is 370 lumens. Expect to have 10 spots in the kitchen and another 10 spots in the adjoining dining room. Is this difference in lumens significant?
 
There are some awesome cheap GU10's at ledhut at the moment:

https://www.ledhut.co.uk/spot-lights/gu10-led-bulbs.html

these in particular:

warm white, 500 lumins, narrow beam - £1.73. https://www.ledhut.co.uk/spot-light...light-70w-replacement-2700k-non-dimmable.html
warm white, 520 lumins, wide beat - £1.67. https://www.ledhut.co.uk/spot-light...-gu10-led-spotlight-wide-beam-warm-white.html

plus "Offer33" gets you 33% off and i think its free delivery. I just got 10 for about £11 delivered.
 
Stu said:
Is this difference in lumens significant?
Click to expand...
they can lie about lumens http://www.ledbenchmark.com/display.php?id=342&name=OSRAM+10.5W+LED+Star+Classic+A+100

also for bathroom/embedded spots, although i had linked some 120degree smd gu10's, last page,
just went for 40 because for the bathroom ones, the light front is embedded maybe 1/2" into holder so 120degrees won't get out, I think.

amazon have a 25% (one shot) discount on some gu10's and vendor reductions made these a £1 a shot
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MSAM1FQ/, hperikon have some great cri90's edison/bayonnet also on offer , hoping these cri80's will be ok .. 5year A guarantee
 
Be careful when buying cheap led lights. Especially it seems on the smaller kinds like G9.

Below the left one is awful, horrible strobe effect. The one on the right advertised as flicker free is great.

led_compare.jpg


Bad LED - Noticeable strobe effect moving arms and recorded changing shutter speed using my phones pro camera.


Good LED

 
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sityeuropa said:
Bad LED - Noticeable strobe effect moving arms and recorded changing shutter speed using my phones pro camera.
Click to expand...
have you found any more information from other folks who have seen same phenomena ? - is phone telling the truth ?

thinking about issue further from discussion on previous page
- the driver chips on these lights are pretty standard, so seems unlikely that they would have perceptible flicker for humans.
- the black bars in the pictures are a consequence of the phones rolling shutter, so even if it taking pictures at 960hz, within the ~10ms period for one frame, the top half of the picture was from the 0-5ms and the lower half from 5-10ms
The phone may try and compensate for this 'approximation' by motion interpolation between successive frames, and that may produce misleading results
 
jpaul said:
have you found any more information from other folks who have seen same phenomena ? - is phone telling the truth ?

thinking about issue further from discussion on previous page
- the driver chips on these lights are pretty standard, so seems unlikely that they would have perceptible flicker for humans.
- the black bars in the pictures are a consequence of the phones rolling shutter, so even if it taking pictures at 960hz, within the ~10ms period for one frame, the top half of the picture was from the 0-5ms and the lower half from 5-10ms
The phone may try and compensate for this 'approximation' by motion interpolation between successive frames, and that may produce misleading results
Click to expand...

It happens only on one bulb when changing my shutter speed. As you see it dimmer, this is me scrolling through many different shutter speeds.

My eyes are definitely affected from the bad LED bulb. I feel like I'm about to fall over when moving my head. It is very disorientating.

I don't get any weird phenomena from other bigger led bulbs.

Trust me its the bulb flickering. Obviously my eyes don't see the weird black bars lol, Its just an easy way to detect the light is not constantly stable.
 
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thanks for the video link, some 100hz ones as you say, .. so I'll stick with ones with a warranty of some kind.

looks like a standard for flickering may be with us soon
https://standards.ieee.org/findstds/standard/1789-2015.html
or oblige sellers to provide a flicker index
http://www.ledbenchmark.com/faq/LED-Flicker-Measurement.html

that would nail it - well the eu will adopt a standard, and who knows about UK Anno Brexit.


Has anyone found a uk/eu site that reviews leds like the au one http://www.ledbenchmark.com/display.php?id=356&name=Philips+Philips+7.5W+B22+LED+Filament
 
jpaul said:
also for bathroom/embedded spots, although i had linked some 120degree smd gu10's, last page,
just went for 40 because for the bathroom ones, the light front is embedded maybe 1/2" into holder so 120degrees won't get out, I think.

amazon have a 25% (one shot) discount on some gu10's and vendor reductions made these a £1 a shot
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01MSAM1FQ/, hperikon have some great cri90's edison/bayonnet also on offer , hoping these cri80's will be ok .. 5year A guarantee
Click to expand...


Amazon Sunday delivery ~£1/bulb
bathroomIP & kitchen ceiling fittings had bulb embedded by 1"/0.5", so for these I think did need 40degrees and 120 would not have 'escaped.'
that now fixes the bathroom 2.7k yellowness..
- existing b22 from them has done >4000 hours

43995450381_abd1fb1793_o_d.jpg
 
What do people make of these lights and this dimmer from Screwfix?

I need to replace nine downlights (4/5 spit across two switches) in the living room, which currently have non-dimmable daylight-white bulbs in them.

My main concerns are the lights not buzzing or flickering and having a good range of 'dim'.
 
they appear to be integrated bulbs with a 1yrear guarantee ? so not gu10's and might have to throw whole item.


just learned that maybe you have to stick with one brand of bulb in a room, otherwise may see annoying difference of colour .. obvious ?
I had mixed a cri80 with a cri90, both marketted as '4000k' ... maybe buying higher cri reduces mis-matching.
 
jpaul said:
they appear to be integrated bulbs with a 1yrear guarantee ? so not gu10's and might have to throw whole item.


just learned that maybe you have to stick with one brand of bulb in a room, otherwise may see annoying difference of colour .. obvious ?
I had mixed a cri80 with a cri90, both marketted as '4000k' ... maybe buying higher cri reduces mis-matching.
Click to expand...

You're right, I'd be replacing the whole unit(s) — the Screwfix ones are fire rated and I can't guarantee that the current ones are, so I don't want to just replace them with dimmable GU10s — but it does mean replacing the whole unit each time a bulb goes…
 
do you need IP65 ?
(have never researched it but) don't regular gu10 ones have fire resistance too and can be placed close to insulation, without the water-splash/dust reislience of IP65.
 
Irish_Tom said:
You're right, I'd be replacing the whole unit(s) — the Screwfix ones are fire rated and I can't guarantee that the current ones are, so I don't want to just replace them with dimmable GU10s — but it does mean replacing the whole unit each time a bulb goes…
Click to expand...

I'm looking at the adjustable version of these. In my calculations, these are pretty cheap compared to buying a separate fixing and dimmable bulbs, so the price will be comparable even if you have to replace 1 or 2 of these units. Also, integrated units tend to last longer on average, because the holder is made to specifically manage the heat of the integrated bulb. I think they look a little better too.
 
jpaul said:
do you need IP65 ?
(have never researched it but) don't regular gu10 ones have fire resistance too and can be placed close to insulation, without the water-splash/dust reislience of IP65.
Click to expand...
Good point, hadn’t really thought about the IP rating, just saw that they were fire rated.

The adjustable ones Stu mentions are IP20 but have the same fire rating. As these will be going in the living room, water resistance isn’t really an issue, and I do like the idea of being able to adjust them.


Stu said:
I'm looking at the adjustable version of these. In my calculations, these are pretty cheap compared to buying a separate fixing and dimmable bulbs, so the price will be comparable even if you have to replace 1 or 2 of these units. Also, integrated units tend to last longer on average, because the holder is made to specifically manage the heat of the integrated bulb. I think they look a little better too.
Click to expand...

That’s what I was thinking, and I’m tempted to go for the adjustable ones.
Just need to make sure they will fit to replace the existing lights.

Cheers guys, I’ll report back when I’ve figured it out.
 
Can anyone recommend some RGB LED bulbs that work with Alexa/Google (excluding Philips Hue, TPlink and Ikea's smart bulb).
There are loads on amazon, just wondered if anyone here had tried any of them.

cheers
 
topher said:
Can anyone recommend some RGB LED bulbs that work with Alexa/Google (excluding Philips Hue, TPlink and Ikea's smart bulb).
There are loads on amazon, just wondered if anyone here had tried any of them.

cheers
Click to expand...

Xiaomi Yeelight would be my choice. I don't have one yet, but have a couple on order.
 
Aliexpress is my go to right now. You should find them for around £15... normally a few pennies less, which is good for avoiding import duty. Make sure you choice the colour ones (purple band) and not the white only (yellow band).
 
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