LED Bulb Thread

Yeah, it's those ones, though I bought the 5W ones as the 4W weren't on offer at the time. I haven't noticed any problems with the beam being narrow - they're lighting our kitchen and bathroom just fine. A lot brighter than the halogen bulbs they replaced.

Not sure if they're dimmable or not. Not something I looked at.
 
The_Abyss said:
Are they these ones? http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/tcp-led-gu10-non-dimmable-bulb--4w--35w---2-pack-194014

They look like that have a very narrow beam - more of a spotlight?
Click to expand...

250 lumens....... Might as well light a match and hold it up at the ceiling ;)

If you want truly decent and complete LED fittings then you really should look here:

http://www.ecoledlight.co.uk/downlights/

Truly astonishing quality, massive outputs and designed to just be incredible light fittings.

Whilst LED GU10s have their place, you're still putting a random3rd party bulb into a random fitting that were not designed explicitly to work together. They don't look good at all, lumen output from these brands downright iffy at best or not as much as they say it is and the lifespan will be a hell of a lot less than a decent fitting.

They are great for a cheap fix to lower your bills, but if you're doing a house refurb then please consider spending a bit more for something like the ECOLED fittings. I'm currently fitting out most the house with these and they really are better than they look.

Check out Pistonheads as Guy is on there, always offering great advice on lighting and happy to chat about your lighting situation and in the market for some decent kit :D
 
Anyone able to offer a little advice for an idea I've got?

After getting LED lights of some sort put in the bathroom last year I've been wanting to change the lighting in the dining room to something similar.

The lights in the bathroom are a fairly bright/harsh colour which probably wouldn't suit for dinner but I do rather like that lighting for playing boardgames!

Is it possible to have some sort of switchable LED that can change between temperatures? Or would it be easier to install different bulbs in different fixtures and run them separately?

That probably sounds better in my head but hey ho :p
 
I tried taking pictures but it doesn't do justice to how well these Samsung led gu10 bulbs are that I got for the bedroom and bathroom. The bedroom has a really cosy feel now and the 2700k 3.3watt bulbs go well against magnolia walls and white ceilings.

The bathroom has 3 bulbs and the light isn't as dim as I thought they would be as they are only 3000 kelvin, maybe it's because the tiles and ceiling is white.

I got the bulbs a while ago as I saw them on hukd's from cpc for £1.35 each, they have gone up since then.

These are what I got:

http://cpc.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/s...estType=Base&partNumber=LP08245&storeId=10180

And

http://cpc.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/s...estType=Base&partNumber=LP08256&storeId=10180
 
Selekt0r said:
I recently changed the old 12V halogen under-cabinet lighting in our kitchen to some 5630 LED strip (from ebay :o). The LED strips themselves are great, however I'm less convinced with the LED drivers which came with them as switching on the lights (which come on with the main ceiling lights) randomly trips the MCB on our consumer unit - probably once in every 20-30 occasions.

A bit of research appears to indicate that a lot of LED drivers have a high 'inrush' (i.e. current surge at switch-on), and can trip a 6A Type B MCB - particularly if multiple drivers are used on a switch (my installation has two).

The drivers which came with the LED strips are definitely el-cheapo (laptop charger-style) ones like this:

http://www.thehunthouse.co.uk/images/LED_driver.jpg

** Please don't hotlink images **
** It's not hotlinked - that's a stock image uploaded to my own webspace... :) **

I could probably resolve the issue in by getting a sparks in to change the MCB to a Type C, but as an alternative, can anyone suggest some better LED drivers which are don't have a high inrush?
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For anyone who is interested I have replaced the el-cheapo ebay LED drivers with some decent ones which are specified as 'low-inrush' and it appears to have fixed the problem :)

http://www.meanwell.co.uk/led-power-supplies/pln-60-12.html

I bought them from an Electronics supplier which I'd not come across before - Mouser Electronics ( http://uk.mouser.com ) who are U.S. based - although they do list a UK office address/phone number. The drivers were around half the price of any UK supplier I could find (including the likes of Farnell), and Mouser provided free Fedex international shipping from their warehouse in Texas with guarantee of no Duty/Customs fees (guess I could have been stung for VAT but wasn't :D) and delivered in under 48 hours!
 
Psymonkee said:
Anyone able to offer a little advice for an idea I've got?

After getting LED lights of some sort put in the bathroom last year I've been wanting to change the lighting in the dining room to something similar.

The lights in the bathroom are a fairly bright/harsh colour which probably wouldn't suit for dinner but I do rather like that lighting for playing boardgames!

Is it possible to have some sort of switchable LED that can change between temperatures? Or would it be easier to install different bulbs in different fixtures and run them separately?

That probably sounds better in my head but hey ho :p
Click to expand...

They're quite expensive, but LIFX lamps will do what you require and more! They have launched some GU10 variants but I'm not sure how accessible they are in this country at the moment.

I'd assume there are comparable products out there, but unfortunately I am not aware of their names!
 
We've just had 6 LED downlighters fitted as part of a kitchen refit. They are dimmable and I've fitted a Varilight trailing edge dimmer which works well and gives a nice range of light levels.

However, there is a noticeable flicker on anything lower than full whack. Is this an issue that could be resolved with a better dimmer (the varilight one is only a stop-gap as we're having brushed stainless switched - finding a dimmer in the right finish is another issue!) or different bulbs? Or is flicker just something that we'd have to learn to live with (or not)?
 
you should have got an instruction sheet with the varilight that allows you to change the driver modes by doing a combination of on/off up/down with the dimmer switch. have you tried the different modes (seem to recall there were 2 or 3)?
 
I've tried mode 3 which is the 2nd trailing edge mode. They didn't dim as much and the flicker was more noticeable. I'll be honest, I didn't try mode 2 as it's a leading edge mode and I didn't think it'd work. I'll give it a try this evening though.
 
Just installed some Aurora M10 units in my bathroom. Honestly the closest to perfection I've seen in an LED - plenty of options for colour temperature, features, bezel colours, beam angles etc. And you can buy a trimless option which always looks fantastic. They come with a great connector as well so you don't need to buy a bunch of boxes to wire them up.

Worth every penny. My new go-to option, replacing Photonstars offerings.
 
Caged said:
Just installed some Aurora M10 units in my bathroom. Honestly the closest to perfection I've seen in an LED - plenty of options for colour temperature, features, bezel colours, beam angles etc. And you can buy a trimless option which always looks fantastic. They come with a great connector as well so you don't need to buy a bunch of boxes to wire them up.

Worth every penny. My new go-to option, replacing Photonstars offerings.
Click to expand...

Had a quick look at them and they look really nice. No drivers etc. Where did you find the best deals? Do you know if they need a special led trailing edge dimmer with everything being onboard?
 
Psymonkee said:
Anyone able to offer a little advice for an idea I've got?

After getting LED lights of some sort put in the bathroom last year I've been wanting to change the lighting in the dining room to something similar.

The lights in the bathroom are a fairly bright/harsh colour which probably wouldn't suit for dinner but I do rather like that lighting for playing boardgames!

Is it possible to have some sort of switchable LED that can change between temperatures? Or would it be easier to install different bulbs in different fixtures and run them separately?

That probably sounds better in my head but hey ho :p
Click to expand...

Sui said:
They're quite expensive, but LIFX lamps will do what you require and more! They have launched some GU10 variants but I'm not sure how accessible they are in this country at the moment.

I'd assume there are comparable products out there, but unfortunately I am not aware of their names!
Click to expand...

LIFX are a total rip off IMO

what you want is Easybulb... I have dozens of them now, the coloured ones... but they actually do a bulb that does exactly what psymonkee is wanting:
http://shop.easybulb.com/easybulb-white/
http://shop.easybulb.com/easybulb-white-remote/

they change from cool white to warm white and you can get them in many fittings, including GU10 :)

*I don't have any easybulb white's, just the RGBW ones, which are superb*
 
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