LED Bulb Thread

I would like to find some LED replacements for my 8 x 75W GU10 63mm bulbs we have in the kitchen. These are £4-5 a pop each anyway and the LED ones I have found are about £11, however I can't seem to find any dimmable ones?
 
I managed to get some discontinued Philips LED bulbs for 90p each recently (as opposed to £11 normally). The normal ceiling light LED bulbs are impressively bright, also got a few smaller ones for lamps. Two for a floorstanding lamp and a couple for normal table lamps. The ones in the floorstanding lamp are great and brighter than the CCFLs I had in there before, but I find them a bit too dim for the table lamps. Still, I'll find other uses for them.

They're still a bit too pricey for a lot of people but I think as the prices come down a bit closer to the normal CCFLs (say around £7 or so) people will be more convinced.
 
So what's the best GU10 bulbs?

My Halogens are all 25° beam angle (that's quite narrow/focused I believe from a quick Google), and I've got some fixtures with 35W Halogens and some with 50W halogens. The LED replacements would need to be the same size as the Halogens as the fittings can't take anything longer.

Oh and I don't need dimming at all :).

Google found me http://www.simplyled.co.uk/GU10-LED...50-430-Lumens-50-watts-equiv_A11B6Q.aspx?nh=1 which are 60 degree and 410 Lumens, but TBH I know nothing about comparing LEDs!
 
Westyfield2 said:
So what's the best GU10 bulbs?

My Halogens are all 25° beam angle (that's quite narrow/focused I believe from a quick Google), and I've got some fixtures with 35W Halogens and some with 50W halogens. The LED replacements would need to be the same size as the Halogens as the fittings can't take anything longer.

Oh and I don't need dimming at all :).

Google found me http://www.simplyled.co.uk/GU10-LED...50-430-Lumens-50-watts-equiv_A11B6Q.aspx?nh=1 which are 60 degree and 410 Lumens, but TBH I know nothing about comparing LEDs!
Click to expand...

I tend to be a bit weary of the bulbs (and torches) that contain loads of LEDs as opposed to just one (or a few) decent LEDs, but in fairness those look pretty good.
 
mark66 said:
I would like to find some LED replacements for my 8 x 75W GU10 63mm bulbs we have in the kitchen. These are £4-5 a pop each anyway and the LED ones I have found are about £11, however I can't seem to find any dimmable ones?
Click to expand...

These are one of the best if not the best pound-4-pound dimmables imho

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GU10-MR16...ng_SM&var=&hash=item256ab2e274#ht_5516wt_1164

Bought 10 of them a good few months back and they are working great, nice build quality as well :-)


Hikari Kisugi said:
Shop in Hong Kong, how do you know what you are getting?
Is cree a type or a manufacturer?
I do not want dimmable, but these work fine in no dimmable transformers also do they?
Shame delivery is weeks away.

Where do you see the mtbf figures for those bulbs also, is that on packaging or the web advert?


Ah i see the expandable thingy with the info.
S its is 3*3watt, so twice the energy of the bulbs i bought, the bulbs that are already as bright as i need. Okay.
Might give this place a shot for a few bulbs, amd some other places too, but I liked the very low usage of the ones I bought.
Click to expand...


Because I know what genuine Rotundity Cree led's look like and I took one apart when they arrived :-)
Well it actually draws only 5.5-6.5W to power them, fair enough if they are bright enough, however I would be inclined to chuck a dimmer on and run them <100%!
Not only do you then have the flexability to adjust brightness but the LED's will almost certainly then out-last you as the 100k MTBF is based on them running @ 100% load/heat :D
 
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C.R.A.Z.Y said:
These are one of the best if not the best pound-4-pound dimmables imho
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GU10-MR16...ng_SM&var=&hash=item256ab2e274#ht_5516wt_1164
Bought 10 of them a good few months back and they are working great, nice build quality as well :-)
Because I know what genuine Rotundity Cree led's look like and I took one apart when they arrived :-)
Well it actually draws only 5.5-6.5W to power them, fair enough if they are bright enough, however I would be inclined to chuck a dimmer on and run them <100%!
Not only do you then have the flexability to adjust brightness but the LED's will almost certainly then out-last you as the 100k MTBF is based on them running @ 100% load/heat :D
Click to expand...

Would they be suitable in halogen sites that are external, under eaves and the front door area of the house?
I figure I might buy a batch of ten, as they seem to be about £34 if it is the same type of bulb, as it is certainly the same seller.
Two colours, i assume warm and clnical as others have described?
 
Anyone got a picture of them running and a link to the versions they are using?

Seeing them on up close is one thing, and lighting up a room to a decent level is another! I've tried numerous times to buy from eBay and all the ones I've gone through have been terrible :(.
 
I went to B&Q as a result of this thread and nearly bought their own brand LED GU10's, but as others have mentioned above, they are quite low power (something like 1.4W), whereas there are other higher power versions available elsewhere.

So I came back home and had another look on Ebay, and eventually ordered a 10 pack of Rotundity CREE GU10's for £45 delivered. Have to wait for them to arrive now and see what they're like. :)
 
Vampire said:
So I came back home and had another look on Ebay, and eventually ordered a 10 pack of Rotundity CREE GU10's for £45 delivered. Have to wait for them to arrive now and see what they're like. :)
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What room are they for and which ones did you go for, Cool or Warm?

Worried that Cool for a kitchen may be too cool, but Warm to soft!
 
They do seem to be coming on in the last few years these lamps.

I remember buying a few and them costing an arm and a leg and not being that bright. I tried replacing the ones in my last flat in the kitchen and Mrs S hated the light they gave off. SHe said it reminded her of being in a toilet in a Scottish night club / hospital where they had put up lighting so as to stop people injecting themselves. Had to agree that the light was rather wishy-washy when compared to the standard halogen lights.

Am thinking of getting a few again juts to see what changes have been made. At present kitchen has a 4 lamp strip that takes MR16 lamps and two recessed MR16 lamps that are either side of the cooker extractor hood. I did get some LED replacements for the cooker hood light (ses candle) and have been impressed with those. Is a very similar light level compared to the incandescent / halogen ones that were fitted but the big positive is that we can leave them on and they don't heat up the hood to melting point like the previous lamps.

Quick question as have a brain fart day today.....are all MR16 lamps 12VDC? seem to think they are but cant for the life of me remember
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
Would they be suitable in halogen sites that are external, under eaves and the front door area of the house?
I figure I might buy a batch of ten, as they seem to be about £34 if it is the same type of bulb, as it is certainly the same seller.
Two colours, i assume warm and clnical as others have described?
Click to expand...

Yeah they will be fine outside but obviously if they are going to be in direct contact with rain then they need to be housed in a suitably IP rated fixture.
Actually they should last longer outside due to the fact they will run significantly cooler.

I'd always go for the warmer colour temp as even then they are slightly whiter than filament lighting, unless of course you want a much whiter light.

Yes MR16 is an Ultra-low voltage (12v) fitting
 
CCFL bulbs were meant to be long lasting but most break in a couple of years anyway by which time youve lost the receipt and a replacement is 1/4 of the price you paid so you take it up the Ronson.

Not convinced LEDs will last the time they state - mainly due to on / off cycles, brown outs, voltage spikes/surges and what not damaging the PCBs in the bulbs themselves.

That said Ive run LEDs for over a year in the kitchen and they are good.

They do make cups of tea look slightly green (same with cold meats) and there is a strobe effect that you can notice (like when I drop a sweetener into said cup of tea, you see it falling downward in a strobe way).
 
mark66 said:
What room are they for and which ones did you go for, Cool or Warm?

Worried that Cool for a kitchen may be too cool, but Warm to soft!
Click to expand...

I think I ordered cool, tbh I just wanted "bright" and didn't think about the colour. :o

It's for the kitchen and the lounge.
 
We just had LED panels fitted into our new shop. Not only are they 80% energy efficient, but they also look the part and are much more convenient than standard light fittings. They are a thin easy to move panel which look up-to date.
 
I looked at some of these over the weekend. The current LEDs I have are quite dull (around 85 Lumen) but the ones are saw in a retail shop this weekend were around 350 Lumen but cost around £12 each with a reported saving of around £2 a year compared to a traditional 25 watt bulb.

Since traditional what bulbs are only a few quid in cost then it would take 5 years to break even, assuming they don't break in that time.

I still can't quite work out why we are encouraged to use these to save money when they don't really make viable cost sense.. Unless I'm missing something.
 
The LED bulbs I have came with a 10 year gurantee. So it's reasonable to assume they'll last at least 5 years and hopefully more. A 5 year payback on an investment is not too bad in my opinion.

I think the economics can also be quite a bit better. I live in Scotland where in the winter the light is very limited. I have a lot ot 50w GU10 fittings in the house. I estimated that in some rooms the light would be on 6 hours a day on average throughout the whole year. A typical old fashioned 50w GU10 would cost £14 a year to run, an LED would be around £3. Roughly paying back in around a year. I think the economics fall apart if you have conventional pendant fittings, as standard low energy bulbs are so cheap. But in some rooms pendants are not appropriate, or the cost of ripping out an ill advised recessed light for a prendant would be too high.

I have a mixture of pendants and GU10 recessed lights at home. In a large room with decent ceilings, pendants are the way to go. But some rooms would need too many light sources to be lit effectively with them. It all depends on the room shape, natural light souces and aesthetics.

EDIT: This assumes I've done the maths right!
 
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C.R.A.Z.Y said:
These are one of the best if not the best pound-4-pound dimmables imho

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GU10-MR16...ng_SM&var=&hash=item256ab2e274#ht_5516wt_1164

Bought 10 of them a good few months back and they are working great, nice build quality as well :-)





Because I know what genuine Rotundity Cree led's look like and I took one apart when they arrived :-)
Well it actually draws only 5.5-6.5W to power them, fair enough if they are bright enough, however I would be inclined to chuck a dimmer on and run them <100%!
Not only do you then have the flexability to adjust brightness but the LED's will almost certainly then out-last you as the 100k MTBF is based on them running @ 100% load/heat :D
Click to expand...

Are they the same size as normal GU10's?, most LEDS seem to be different shape and I need to stick 20 in downlighters so need ot know for sure
 
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