Knackered flood-light

[steve_earwig]

In my Kitchen I've got 9 x GU10 50 watt dichroic downlighters

You need 450 watts to see in your kitchen? I suspect you won't need any additional heating in there anyway...

[Sonia406]

Interesting thread, my flood light also doesn't work... never has done since I moved in... I am hoping mine may just be a new bulb issue

[Welly]

You need 450 watts to see in your kitchen?

S'wat the House Builder fitted in 2003......then I fitted 5 more in the Hallway......and 33 upstairs! (although the upstairs ones are 12volt 20w each. Kinda like recessed downlighters

[Welly]

Interesting thread, my flood light also doesn't work... never has done since I moved in... I am hoping mine may just be a new bulb issue

They eat bulbs, and they're getting expensive now, always worth buying two so there's a spare. I found Amazon are good for spare blubs.

[steve_earwig]

You need 450 watts to see in your kitchen?

S'wat the House Builder fitted in 2003......then I fitted 5 more in the Hallway......and 33 upstairs!

Christ! I put 6 up in the kitchen here, not only do they blow continuously they get so hot the ceramic shatters and they're always a real nuisance to replace. At the moment I have GU10 2x3w LEDs over the sink (they stink) and a 50w E27 halogen temporarily lighting the main part of it. Where my wife works (the school) they replaced all the neon tubes with SMD LED ones and she reckons they work great, so I'm after one of them. If I can ever find somewhere that sells them This sort of thing http://www.ecovision.hr/index.php/hr/iz ... tegory/509

(although the upstairs ones are 12volt 20w each. Kinda like recessed downlighters

20 watts is 20 watts, so that's 660 watts - the equivalent of 11 60w bulbs. You have 9 bedrooms up there?

If I were you I'd be seriously investigating these LEDs. Don't look for power in watts, look for it in lumens.

[Welly]

You're right, I do need to reduce energy use, we're pretty good at NOT having the lights on but the tizzy bill is 'higher than average'. There's 8 along the Stairs/Landing, 4 x beds and 2 x bathrooms all with either 3 or 6 in each.

Trouble is I've now got 47 blubs to replace with LED's @ £4.50? each I know long-term I could recoup that but even so.....

[Bailes1992]

Trick of LEDs is not to buy the cheap nonsense.

Best bet is to buy off a company like UltraLEDs or simply buy the ones from tesco/Asda/B&Q or a general electrical wholesaler.

[Welly]

Trick of LEDs is not to buy the cheap nonsense.

I've just found that out; an Electrical Wholesaler wants £7.50 each (£350.00 for 47) the MR16 12-volters might need an LED 'driver' or converting to 240 volts with new lamp holders (loadsa work for me in the loft)

Think I'll just do the Kitchen as they're 'on' the most and see if me tizzy bill comes down.....

[scotty73]

Trick of LEDs is not to buy the cheap nonsense.

I've just found that out; an Electrical Wholesaler wants £7.50 each (£350.00 for 47) the MR16 12-volters might need an LED 'driver' or converting to 240 volts with new lamp holders (loadsa work for me in the loft)

Think I'll just do the Kitchen as they're 'on' the most and see if me tizzy bill comes down.....

Freaking hell, i got 9 50w hallogen spots in my kitchen and bathroom and been toying with changing them for led's and thought i had an headache.

I've had 3 in the bathroom for years that always seem to blow when i ain't got any here but the ones in the kitchen i fitted the 6 on a press on dimmer that hardly ever gets put on at full tilt and none of them have blown in over a year.

[Bailes1992]

You not only have to consider the fact that an LED replacement lamp uses a fraction of the power that a filament lamp does but also that an LED lamp should in theory never fail where as you may need to replace a Fillement lamp once a year!

They are maintenance free, use less power and massively reduce the risk of a fire as they give off much less heat and they put less strain on your household wiring!

[steve_earwig]

I was going to PM Welly but in the end I though it might be useful to others...

As a result of this thread I ordered up 3 of these to try http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-Gu10- ... 50082.html. I thought for 2 quid each I wouldn't be loosing much if they were rubbish, besides they could hardly be much worse than the 3 watters which were all I could find here (and damn pricey they were too ) I ordered up 3 'cos it gets cheaper if you do (and even cheaper if you buy more) and I get to have a spare.

They turned up yesterday (after a month, ah well, free postage ) I fitted one just to have a side-by-side but it was immediately apparent it pissed all over the 3 watter. It's gone from a little bit of assistance over the sink because the main light's behind you to not needing to turn the main light on. 3 watters, bin. In fact these are so good I might find the old main light that took 4 of them and put it back up.

So what I was thinking young Welly, is you could do worse than order up a few of these to try. Or some of these for upstairs http://www.banggood.com/MR16-6_4W-480-5 ... 72848.html (same power, same 5630 LEDs)

Or you could wait to see how long these ones last





*Yeah, I know it's from China but I'm pretty sure anything you buy like this from GB will ultimately come from there, plus paying their postage and a little bit of profit just for them. Besides we're not the ones to blame for the demise of UK manufacturing industries and the piss poor state of the economy, that's all down to shockingly bad politicians and greedy corporations, with help from their friends the banksters (such an appropriate name...)

[scotty73]

That's a good find i need 9 of those so was thinking of getting a spare so i priced 10 of them a few months back £5 a corner £50.

£19.76 through that link and they look the same.

[STALLED]

Are LED bulbs any good these days.
Last time I saw one in a domestic fitting was a few years ago and all they could muster was a dim blue light. It was in a kitchen and you certainly couldn't wash up by it.

Yes!

My folks have their whole house done in LED - looks fantastic! Cost per unit is much higher than a halogen downlight, but doesn't let off as much heat and/or consume as much power!

You can choose what "warmth" of the light you can have - probably was the wrong bulb!

[mjb]

In my Kitchen I've got 9 x GU10 50 watt dichroic downlighters and I am desperate to find an LED alternative that actually works properly. I tried just one a few months back; it was marketed as the 'mother of all LED's' and sported 4 x 'things' in a cluster anyhoo it was the usual light output you'd find in the Toilet of a Greek Taverna and it lasted 1 HOUR before we heard an impressive 'POP' and the smell of an electrical failure.

I've got 15 across my kitchen and bathroom, and the lad has recently started a phase of demanding they're on all the time

About a year ago I looked at the price of LED GU10s and decent ones were knocking in the region of £30 (x15 = £450 spending on a rental house? sod that!) so I tried some £5 jobbies from china via ebay. Got about 10 different kinds, and every single one of them failed within a month due to poor quality caps on the switching circuit. All but one of them put out bugger all light too, mostly in an awful shade of blue.

However, last month I saw Philips LED GU10s in Sainsbury's for £5. Grabbed a few and they're great. Slightly hotter (bluer) white colour than incandescents, but not too bad. They don't put out as much light, so I'm going to keep incandescents in a couple of tactical spots, but I'm going to be going back on payday to grab another 10. I trust Philips considerably more than I trust 5th generation chinese knock-off!

http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/s ... 4499630721

[steve_earwig]

Looks like you have to be logged in to follow the link Is this the one? Item code: 7645653 Philips Light Bulb Led Gu10 20W

I'd prefer Phillips too but these were so cheap I thought it was worth a punt to find out if they were rubbish or not. Not, as it turns out, but I'll only really be happy with them if they're still going in a year's time...