LED Bulb Thread

Just had my delivery from LedHut of the 4.5w COB's in Warm White. Slightly disappointed by light output, website has them at 360lm but box and bulb are 320lm and seem that way.

Probably going to send them back and swap to the 5w (although not COB) versions and move to daylight from warm white!
 
Participant said:
Website has them as 320lm:



Top right.
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Good spot! I'd missed the warm white being only 320 and assumed they were all 360! I'm growing to like the light a bit more now, I guess it's just the cost and knowing they'll be there a while if I don't get it right!
 
numnutz said:
Good spot! I'd missed the warm white being only 320 and assumed they were all 360!
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It is a bit sneaky really, making the headline lumens figure the brightest version of the bulb rather than the one you're looking at.

I have those in warm white in my kitchen and bathroom and to my eyes, they're pretty bright coming from 50W halogens. When I switched them on for the first time, it was a bit of a 'wow' moment, as geeky as it sounds. The quality of the light seems really good.

What did you swap them with, or was it a brand new downlight installation?
 
Participant said:
What did you swap them with, or was it a brand new downlight installation?
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Swapped out some old 50W halogens. The light output seems very 'clean' and replacing the 36degree beam angle with the 90 offered by these has made it a much more uniform light. I'm going to order some daylight ones too, and just try them out for comparison.
 
So I've purchased my first house, and I want to overhaul the house with new LED bulbs. But need help on a few things. There dimmable switches in the main bedroom, kitchen/diner and living room. Now I'm not fussed on dimmable, so is it just a simple case of getting a standard on/off switch to replace the dimmable switch? And is it then just a case of replacing the bulbs with LED bulbs?

Here is what I've picked so far on a room by room basis:

Main Bedroom:
https://www.ledhut.co.uk/led-bulbs/r50-reflector/new-4-6-watt-r50-reflector-led-bulb.html - Warm white option with dimmable option (I could keep the dimmable switch for this room?) (x4)

Bedroom 2
https://www.ledhut.co.uk/led-bulbs/b22-led-bulbs/7-watt-b22-high-output-standard-shape-led-bulb.html - Just to replace a standard bayonet bulb within a shade. (x1)

Bedroom 3
Need a new light fitting - recommend me!

Bathroom
https://www.ledhut.co.uk/spot-lights/gu10-led-bulbs/new-3-8-watt-gu10-led-bulb.html - Simple replace for exisitng GU10 bulbs (x5)

Living Room
Spec me light fitting! Has dimmable switch, but would like to swap for normal on/off switch

Dining Room
Spec me light fitting! Has dimmable switch, but would like to swap for normal on/off switch

Kitchen
Spec me light fitting! Has dimmable switch, but would like to swap for normal on/off switch

Thanks for your help!
 
LED bulbs (except the very new filament type) are highly directional in light output. Personally, I'd stick to non-LED in regular fittings for now.

Always go for COB GU10's - they are far superior to the older SMDs. You can always dim them down to the desired level.

Very few dimmers will work well with just 4 x 4.6W output. Make sure yours is one of them (check minimum load rating).

For your light fixtures - just stay away from capsule bulb holders (G4/G9/etc) and stick to traditional socket sizes for the widest choice of decent bulbs.

GU10 spots work well in a kitchen but only if they are positioned over the counters. If using a central fixture, your own body will cast a dark shadow over any worktop you're stood against.

Congrats on your first house btw :)
 
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Thanks for the reply!

So these COB GU10's would be better for the bathroom?
https://www.ledhut.co.uk/spot-lights/gu10-led-bulbs/new-4-5-watt-gu10-cob-bulb-wide-beam-angle.html

I suppose the main rooms that need LED bulbs are the Bathroom, Living Room and kitchen for now, as they will be on the most. What solution could I address for the Living Room and Kitchen as they both have central fixtures? Also we are having 2 lamps in the living room (a floor lamp and a table lamp), is it pointless putting LED bulbs in these? They will be used more than the ceiling light...
 
rossk26 said:
So I've purchased my first house, and I want to overhaul the house with new LED bulbs. But need help on a few things. There dimmable switches in the main bedroom, kitchen/diner and living room. Now I'm not fussed on dimmable, so is it just a simple case of getting a standard on/off switch to replace the dimmable switch? And is it then just a case of replacing the bulbs with LED bulbs?

Here is what I've picked so far on a room by room basis:

[[/snip]]

Thanks for your help!
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I'm going through a similar thing my self at the moment but it's a bit of a nightmare to be honest!

I'd advise to buy a few at a time instead of all at once as some bulbs definitely have a different character to others; which you may or may not like- you don't want to end up with 50 bulbs you hate!

the superior 6watt COB GU10's I have from light rabbit have a very very nice quality of light to them, compared to the 60 SMD's I have from the same place which are a tad whiter but have that green cast that is very unfortunate. I have a number of IKEA LED's too; I quite like these; they're very warm and replicate soft/diffused glass incandescent bulbs quite well; I think they're decent value too.

dimming is a problem as I'm finding out at great expense. I bought 10* dimmable superior COB gu10's from light rabbit and have them set up as 4* on one fitting and 6* over two fittings. I've tried a varilight trailing edge dimmer and it can't really handle only having 4 bulbs in one fitting; it doesn't do well with the 6 either. I think if there were 10 or so on the dimmer it would be okay but until then it's just flicker mania!

on LR's advice I bought 2* Aurora retrofit dimmer modules (the green ones) and they're terrible! there's no way they add up to their own specs for running x amount of LED bulbs; replace one with a 50watt halogen and all the trouble goes away (still buzzy though)

in short; I don't think we're quite there with dimmable LED's unless you have 10 or more to a switch; even then they become very strobey when dimmed.

to replace a dimmer switch with a standard on/off switch will cost you about £2! so I'd save yourself the bother and do that instead.

as for fittings; as much as I hate these spotlight bars; I also dislike paying over the odds for fittings; so when it came to swapping the manky 50watt fittings from my kitchen I opted for these:http://www.screwfix.com/search?search=luno from screwfix which will amaze you over how nice a light fitting you can get for your money...[upon getting that link I realise that they have jumped up in price quite a lot over the last week or so - they were £12 for the 4*bar and about £7 or £8 for the 3*fitting :S weird.]
 
Ok this is all starting to help! Thanks guys.

I think I'm definitely going to change the light switches in the living room, dining room, main bedroom and kitchen back to non-dimmable.

These are my thoughts now for the following rooms:

Dining Room:
This light fitting above the dining table - http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/00125811/
With this light bulb - http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/10266693/

Kitchen:
This light fitting as recommended by R B Customs - http://www.screwfix.com/p/luno-4-light-spotlight-silver-effect/47946# (I can get 20% off the price too :) )

Or this one - http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/70257191/ (is 5 spot lights an overkill?)

With these bulbs - https://www.ledhut.co.uk/spot-lights/gu10-led-bulbs/new-4-5-watt-gu10-cob-bulb-wide-beam-angle.html
 
Go for 6W COBs in kitchen/bathrooms. You'll appreciate the extra light power. The Lightrabbit one RB mentioned is good and Superflare also do a decent one with a slightly wider spread at the expense of the bright directional spot.

Exposed bathroom bulbs should be rated for use in bathrooms due to steam / humidity / moisture. If it doesn't mention it in the specs, assume it isn't suitable.

I'm running 4 x 6W COBs at the moment in my kitchen from a central fixture and it does a brilliant job (except for the body-shadow issue I mentioned earlier). The shadow issue can be mitigated with under-cabinet lighting I guess. I know it's not an issue on my hob where I use the light from the extractor fan above it. I'm going to be replacing my central fixture with downlighters soon for better worktop lighting.

Light fixtures are a personal taste thing so get whatever you like. Anything without a transformer should be fairly reliable and as mentioned before, stick to standard bulb sizes.

I'll mention though that if you get a downwards facing light fixture, you'll be able to see the bulb (I mention incase you get ugly bulbs).

CFLs still offer a decent energy consumption drop over halogen/incandescent and can go much brighter than LEDs can right now. They are also Omni-directional unlike LED so more suited to table lamps and chandeliers etc (until filament LED bulbs become more popular).
 
For a kitchen with GU10 recessed spots, would it be better to go with bulbs with a wider spread or more focused? There's probably going to be about 10 of them, plus a couple of under-cabinet lights.
 
R B Customs said:
I've tried a varilight trailing edge dimmer and it can't really handle only having 4 bulbs in one fitting; it doesn't do well with the 6 either. I think if there were 10 or so on the dimmer it would be okay but until then it's just flicker mania!
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That's a shame as I can't think of any dimmer with a lower minimum load rating. You should look into adding a dummy load / dimmer bypass to make up the difference.

TheVoice said:
For a kitchen with GU10 recessed spots, would it be better to go with bulbs with a wider spread or more focused? There's probably going to be about 10 of them, plus a couple of under-cabinet lights.
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Unless your kitchen is massive, it sounds like focused will be better for you. What's the gap between your spots? If less than 90cm I'd deffo be looking at focused.

If you haven't put them in yet, consider reducing the number of spots and going for wide-angle. Unlike other bulb sizes, LED GU10s can be far better than their halogen equivalents so you don't need as many. If using a dimmer, make sure the load will be high enough.
 
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Thanks a lot for that. The fittings have been ordered but exact placement hasn't been decided yet; was hoping to get that done yesterday but the electrician went out to his van and never came back so a replacement is coming today apparently.

Now that the new counters and units are in it should be easier to get an idea of where the lights should go. It's a fairly long room hence the 10, the idea was going to be to have them split into a set of 6 and a set of 4 so that the entire room isn't flooded with light when it isn't needed, but now I'm wondering if that's overkill as it is.

It's one of those things that's quite hard to decide when we've got no idea what sort of light we'll be getting, if it ends up feeling too dark and shadowy it'd be a disaster but at the same time, it doesn't need to feel like a brightly-lit showroom.
 
I have these in my bathroom and Kitchen. They could be a tab brighter but all in all I am actually happy with them. I went for Cool White which I wasn't happy with at first but now I am used to them.
 
Got these in my kitchen, my first go at LED;
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B006UR5IUY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I'm happy with them, though I do sometimes think I catch them flickering in my peripheral vision.

Does anyone have any recommendations for a 80W bayonet replacement for my living room light (potentially a couple of other rooms)? I've got a 20w energy bulb in there currently, but the light quality is pretty poor.
 
rossk26 said:
I'm considering "Daylight" for Kitchen/Bathroom and "Warm White" for all other rooms...
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Yeah, that's the next quandary I have! I was thinking warm white for the kitchen and daylight for the utility room but I'm not sure.

This was all much easier when all you did was buy a bulb and that was that. :D
 
I couldn't live with cold white personally and swapped to warm white. Even some of the warm white LED bulbs aren't that warm. Check the colour rating - 2700k is warm, 3000k not so much. None are as warm as halogen.

There's no substitute to buying a sample to try out.

I agree, LED bulbs can be a complex topic - especially dimming them.
 
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