LED bulbs – rippoff?

[HowiParticipant @howi]

just remember folks, led bulbs use aprox 1/10 of the electricity that filament ulbs do.

Anyone still using filament bulbs these days needs their bumps feeling.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

Varying results.

On the “get what you pay for” side, cheap LEDS seemed to fail, initially by flickering (suggesting the bridge rectifier partially failing) to others bought, more expensively, from supermarkets or household supply store, which have lasted well. Only one failure after having converted the whole house to 9 or 11W LEDs. (So has the LIDL strip fitted above the lathe)

The life quoted for any lamp is probably based on only being switched on once and then left to run.

The start up surge for a filament lamp, or a fluorescent is sure to shorten life.

But, yes, I so think that they are over priced. The reduction in energy cost has the be the offsetting factor, so that, hopefully, they pay for themsleves over the course of their life

Howard

[File HandleParticipant @filehandle]

Not only do some bulbs fail they take the light fitting with them. One of ours did this costing £70 to replace the fitting. That would pay for a lot of extra electricity for a filament bulb. it is still in the loft, I may buy the bits to repair it at some stage. that bulb hadn’t had a lot of use as it is used for less than an hour per day and had been in place for a max of 2 years.

 

[Howi]

On Howi Said:

just remember folks, led bulbs use aprox 1/10 of the electricity that filament ulbs do.

Anyone still using filament bulbs these days needs their bumps feeling.

Just did a quick calculation. The filament bulbs that we have in the loft (effectively free) would be cheaper to run up to 6000hrs. as some of the LED bulbs are not making it to this length of time it is not so simple. Plus if I take into account that writing off a £70 fitting due to an LED failure, I recon if we continued to use filament bulbs we would have saved money!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

It seems to be highly dependent on the luminaire.

Touch wood, I have only had one LED bulb fail in the last two or three years, a 100W equivalent in a down-facing glass shade that doesn’t have any vent for warm air to escape upwards.

In a previous home similar arrangements with poor cooling have also led (see what I did there) to early failures.

That said, recent purchases seem to be brighter and more reliable than the LED bulbs of several years ago.

Neil

[noel shelleyParticipant @noelshelley55608]

File handle Please tell HOW an LED which runs much cooler than an incandesent bulb base could have destroyed a fitting ? It was not uncommon for 100w bulbs to cook the phenolic base and the bayonet ring would come out, not seen an LED do this. Noel.

[File HandleParticipant @filehandle]

It was an ES fitting, but something clearly badly overheated at the end of its life and destroyed the fitting.

[Mark RandParticipant @markrand96270]

Might have been loose in the fitting, leading to poor contact/oxidation/heating/loss of temper in the contact.

[Howi]

On Howi Said:

just remember folks, led bulbs use aprox 1/10 of the electricity that filament ulbs do.

Anyone still using filament bulbs these days needs their bumps feeling.

Think I qualify. LOL.

LED’s  are ok for low background lighting, however when you’ve a job to do, Decent bright lighting helps~particularly as you get older as most odf us are prone to doing.

Having an interest in both Astronomy &  silver halide Photography, light is very impotant to me &  i probably notice the QUALITY of light more than the average person.

I never liked CFL’s or even halogen for that matter.

Bottom line is LED lighting just doesn’t light the same as tungsten, poorer quality of light IMHO.

How much of your total energy bill is for lighting purposes anyway? Not a very high percentage, particularly for those of us who were brought up with “turn that light off when you leave the room!!!” drummed into us.

I’d sooner pay a little more to see what i’m doing clearly. Though obviously natural daylight is best, though a little lacking this time of year.

Even those superbright LED floodlights that require sunglasses are not a good light to work under.

LED’s a ripoff? Not really.

One more point to note is that whilst the tungsten, glass etc of a broken traditional bulb are a low toxicity hazzard for disposal & in theory the materials are infinitely recyclable.

Not sure exactly what toxic waste lurks inside a broken led bulb, but i’d wager they are considerably less enviromentally friendly to dispose of or try to recycle.

That’s progress for you.

[Martin KyteParticipant @martinkyte99762]

As I mentioned, for lighting kitchens or benches etc you need led panels. You get a 2 foot square of even light emission. They are designed to replace fluorescent fittings in office and work spaces being designed to integrate with the suspended ceiling tile size.
regards Martin

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

My family could never understand that lights could be switched off as well as on. Before CFLs came in they would sometimes blow the 7A circuit breaker on the lighting circuit. All youngsters left home now, and we are almost universally LED, but I do need a local spotlight when doing anything detailed.

[samuel heywood]

On samuel heywood Said:

On Howi Said:

just remember folks, led bulbs use aprox 1/10 of the electricity that filament ulbs do.

Anyone still using filament bulbs these days needs their bumps feeling.

Think I qualify. LOL.

LED’s  are ok for low background lighting, however when you’ve a job to do, Decent bright lighting helps~particularly as you get older as most odf us are prone to doing.

Having an interest in both Astronomy &  silver halide Photography, light is very impotant to me &  i probably notice the QUALITY of light more than the average person.

I never liked CFL’s or even halogen for that matter.

Bottom line is LED lighting just doesn’t light the same as tungsten, poorer quality of light IMHO.

How much of your total energy bill is for lighting purposes anyway? Not a very high percentage, particularly for those of us who were brought up with “turn that light off when you leave the room!!!” drummed into us.

I’d sooner pay a little more to see what i’m doing clearly. Though obviously natural daylight is best, though a little lacking this time of year.

Even those superbright LED floodlights that require sunglasses are not a good light to work under.

LED’s a ripoff? Not really.

One more point to note is that whilst the tungsten, glass etc of a broken traditional bulb are a low toxicity hazzard for disposal & in theory the materials are infinitely recyclable.

Not sure exactly what toxic waste lurks inside a broken led bulb, but i’d wager they are considerably less enviromentally friendly to dispose of or try to recycle.

That’s progress for you.

Well! No! actually, you even mntion the solution yourself, that daylight is better.

Tungston bulbs generally come in one flavour apart from expensive phot floods.

LED bulbs come in all variations of white from yellow(ish) to blue(ish) and even some ridiculously expensibe “daylight” LED’s.

I think you have convinced yourself that ‘new fangled’ LED bulbs are not for you.

However! each to his own, if we were all the same, life would be boring.

Have a nice Christmas and lets hopr Santa brings you lots of LED bulbs.:-)

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Just worth noting that the term CRI is worth reading-up about

Colour Rendering Index describes how closely the light from an LED approximates that from a Tungsten Filament Lamp.

It’s more complicated than might first be assumed, but things are improving.

MichaelG.

[Howi]

On Howi Said:

On samuel heywood Said:

On Howi Said:

just remember folks, led bulbs use aprox 1/10 of the electricity that filament ulbs do.

Anyone still using filament bulbs these days needs their bumps feeling.

Think I qualify. LOL.

LED’s  are ok for low background lighting, however when you’ve a job to do, Decent bright lighting helps~particularly as you get older as most odf us are prone to doing.

Having an interest in both Astronomy &  silver halide Photography, light is very impotant to me &  i probably notice the QUALITY of light more than the average person.

I never liked CFL’s or even halogen for that matter.

Bottom line is LED lighting just doesn’t light the same as tungsten, poorer quality of light IMHO.

How much of your total energy bill is for lighting purposes anyway? Not a very high percentage, particularly for those of us who were brought up with “turn that light off when you leave the room!!!” drummed into us.

I’d sooner pay a little more to see what i’m doing clearly. Though obviously natural daylight is best, though a little lacking this time of year.

Even those superbright LED floodlights that require sunglasses are not a good light to work under.

LED’s a ripoff? Not really.

One more point to note is that whilst the tungsten, glass etc of a broken traditional bulb are a low toxicity hazzard for disposal & in theory the materials are infinitely recyclable.

Not sure exactly what toxic waste lurks inside a broken led bulb, but i’d wager they are considerably less enviromentally friendly to dispose of or try to recycle.

That’s progress for you.

….Have a nice Christmas and lets hopr Santa brings you lots of LED bulbs.:-)

I hope not!~ i’ve a whole boxful of redundant ones. 🙂

On Michael Gilligan Said:

Just worth noting that the term CRI is worth reading-up about

Colour Rendering Index describes how closely the light from an LED approximates that from a Tungsten Filament Lamp.

It’s more complicated than might first be assumed, but things are improving.

MichaelG.

Ahh…. a man who knows his stuff! That’s a good point Michael.

 

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

No real failures as yet.  The two LED tubes – one in the kitchen and t’other in the workshop have been a revelation.  Kitchen light gets turned on/off whenever not present (not like the old flurry-escent that took ages to strike, was less bright, took an age to warm up, used far more leccy and had several replacement tubes in its 25 years).

The fluorescent tube in the utility (the old kitchen) has likely never been changed – or only once – in nearly 50 years).  Always strikes quickly, even when cold, and has only gone through just a few starters in that time.  Not used much, these days  Go figure!

I have a 20W lidl flood, on a PIR timer, for entry to the workshop which has a dodgy driver – it flickers or goes dim when it warms up.  Apart from that most of the LEDs around the house (uppers or downers) have been satisfactory.  Main room lights are not so bright (low wattage) but are supplemented by localised lamps as/when necessary.

The two from lidl, a couple off ebay, a couple from Morrisons and the rest are from my local hardware store at about £1.50 a go (marketed as ‘Status, I believe).

I’ve had more trouble with LED torches over the years.

 

 

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