LED light bulbs

A question about : LED light bulbs

Does anyone use these in their home? What are they like? Are they any good? I want to try one, as the yellow energy saving bulbs make me feel sick. We got some Philips Eco ones from B&Q a few weeks ago which are fine, but they no longer sell them. But the LED ones are quite expensive if i find I don't like them. If I do try one, which one would I need to get if I need as much light as a 100 watt regular bulb gives out?

Best answers:

• Are they spotlights? and will they need to be dimmable?
• What do you mean by spot light? No, they don't need to be dimmable.
• You will struggle to find a 100W equivalent LED bulb as LED's that powerful are extremely expensive. Lightplanet.co.uk import a 60W equivalent (in their view anyway!) which looks the same shape and size as an old style lightbulb for about Ј15 which might be worth a try. They also have a choice between a warmer light colour and a colder daylight colour.
• I've just bought a pile of GU10 and E14 (read: small edison screw types) LEDs for our house - around Ј4-5 each off ebay (and a couple of other internet retailers). They're around 40W with 120 degree beam. I have a couple of samples, one of them Ј12 which is generally better (nearer 50W), but the bang-for-the-buck for me in my situation was the 40W ones.
  I have seen similar type bulbs with E27 screw threads on (i.e. 'normal' size screws), but haven't looked for bayonet fitting ones as we don't have any of them in the house.
  lustrumlight have an '60W' E27 bulb for Ј7, but wouldn't recommend them 100% as I thought the guys customer service was a bit short and curt when I emailed a couple of questions (and didn't answer the question I had asked). Though I did initially buy a '40W' e14 bulb that I am happy with, and the delivery was good.
• I bought some LED bulbs a few years ago now as replacements for haologens but they were absolutely abysmal. The light was really blue and really dim and made my kitchen feel more like a nightclub than a kitchen. And the bulbs were something like Ј11 each! Never touched them since, but I should imagine technology has moved on.
• I thought I'd try one of the LED bulbs and so did a quick scan on eBay and decided this one will do the job for Ј4. I ordered it yesterday and so it wont arrive for a while as it's coming from Hong Kong. It's a bit of an experiment really and although I have researched it a bit I can't work out the output watts easily:
  https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...E:L:OU:GB:1123
  I've just had an email from Lidle shoing these LED's which are on sale there from Monday 24 January:
  https://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg/l...ndex_17284.htm
• There's a few threads on the ethical moneysaving board.
  Those lidl ones are only 25W equivalent. Can get much better off fleabay (and UK sourced) for that price.
  p.s. dander - yes they are much better now. I might have a couple of the ones you have from a couple of years back. They're awful! New ones are very bright, some of them have nice wide beams, and are cheaper. It's a shame you can't get the good ones in the shops, they all seem to be online at the moment.
• iv got 6w osaram x3 on a track (gu10version) led in one bedroom & gu10 50w x3 on a track inthe other bedroom..when i stand on the landing i can see into both rooms & the the one with led looks alot brighter & a nicer light..but the @ Ј25 per lamp they aint cheap but with leds you get what you pay for either in effectiveness or longer lasting
• deano, did you simply put them in a light fitting which previously took standard GU10s, or have you had to get a new light fitting / transformer etc?
• When we got the kitchen done I insisted on Philips LED lamps to light/underlight the glass fronted cabinets - I was thinking of those hot halogen bulbs in our cupboards being not good for the display drinks bottles there! But also very energy saving. They look just like daylight. So they contrast rather sharply with old yellow filament lighting elsewhere in the kitchen but I like them. We leave them on all the time on dull days as all 6 led units use a handful of watts.
  But for main room lighting? What's wrong with conventional energy savers?
• Ps gu10s dont use tfansformers
• Pps they are quite a hard white light & i would say they dont mAke look the room cosey,so in the lounge i use phillips compact florescent 11w (they have the gu10 fitment) & there equivalant to gu10 50w & are softer light compared to led & also are dimmable to 3 stages,they are about 8mm & Ј15 each
• LED lights really at present only make any sort of sense in high use areas - like kitchen mentioned above where they might be left on all day for instance
  We use 35W GU10's where possible and it would take some serious amount of time before any payback was achieved when we are looking at Ј15 + a bulb
  Like all things I am sure they will both keep improving and come down in cost but until they do many will not bother
• [QUOTE=Steve_xx;40346450]I thought I'd try one of the LED bulbs and so did a quick scan on eBay and decided this one will do the job for Ј4. I ordered it yesterday and so it wont arrive for a while as it's coming from Hong Kong. It's a bit of an experiment really and although I have researched it a bit I can't work out the output watts easily:
  Did you get any of these or the Lidl ones and are they any good?
• [QUOTE=will-he-payitoff;41184822]
  Quote:
• The more expensive ones use CREE LEDs and are derived from stage and disco units. They have a superior lumens (brightness) rating to the ones with 78 LEDs crammed-in.
  You just have to remember to order Warm White if you want 'yellow' lighting. Cool White is sunlight through a window.
  They come in 45 deg. (normal GU10), 72 deg. and 120 deg. beam spread angles so you really need to read the specs before ordering.