LED lightbulbs can save you hundreds in energy bills

[adam2]

There are a number of good qaulity LED light fittings intended to replace flourescent lamps. And an awful lot of cheap rubbish that is most unlikely to repay either the purchase cost or the embodied energy before failing.

It must be remembered though that good modern flourescent lamps on electronic ballasts and in well designed fittings are highly efficient.
Replacing them with cheap LEDs can be a backward step.
Replacing them with good LEDs will save energy, but not that much.

The real savings are in replacing incandescent with LED and in replacing old flourescent fittings with new, or possibly with LED

I wonder how many 5 foot, 65 watt "quickstart" flourescent fittings remain in use ? millions probably.
Each useing 80 watts or more for a light output that could be achieved by a modern fitting useing little more than half that.

The manufacture/import of these lamps is being banned, and judgeing by the howls of protest a lot of people still want them.

How many 80 watt mecury lamps remain in use ? (90 or 95 watts with ballast losses) they could in most cases be replaced with 30 watt CFLs.

[DominicJ]

LEDs dont require a hasmat team when they break though....

[woodburner]

They work better as spots, only lighting the area that needs lighting (big efficiency savings to be made here).

Instead of lighting the house, make use of the spot lighting limitation of LEDs and use head torches instead. That way you will be lighting what you're looking at, and the rest doesn't matter.

[revdode]

I've just been reading about LED lifespan and it's apparently ludicrously long. So who knows, maybe a home made led panel will still win out on the cost? They have to be well ventilated though to allow for heat dissipation.

When we launched our first serious LED spot we were predicting around 70k hours of operation before 10% of the populations lumen output reduced to 70% of the initial value. Years have passed and we are now estimating a little over 260k hours for the same fixture... oops!

In a well designed fixture or retrofit lamp LEDs designed for lighting have a ridiculously long life and great performance. The problem is some fixtures and retrofit lamps are using low end LEDs (designed for back lighting applications on screens) without taking care to make sure what they need to do to secure reliable operation.

[clv101]

The problem is some fixtures and retrofit lamps are using low end LEDs (designed for back lighting applications on screens) without taking care to make sure what they need to do to secure reliable operation.

This begs the question, as a consumer, how do we tell the difference between good and bad quality LEDs?

[adam2]

There is no simple and reliable way to tell good from bad.
Cheap is probably bad, expensive is often better, but expensive might just be the same rubbish sold at a higher price.
Well known brands such as osram, philips, GE, slyvania, are probably better than obscure imports.
A long warrenty is a good sign, but only if from a reputable firm that will still be around to honour it.
If the lamp gets too hot to touch, then that is not a good sign.
LED technology is improving rapidly, it is already the most efficient light source for small scale applications, and is starting to displace flourescent and discharge lamps.

There are already people "fighting to save incandescent lamps", it wont be long until CFLs attract similar attention !

Beware of inflated claims and ambitious salesmen.
Government departments in particular are liable to be taken in by salesmen who promise vast savings by replacing good flourescent with bad LED.

[revdode]

The problem is some fixtures and retrofit lamps are using low end LEDs (designed for back lighting applications on screens) without taking care to make sure what they need to do to secure reliable operation.

This begs the question, as a consumer, how do we tell the difference between good and bad quality LEDs?

It isn't easy. I don't have quite the faith in brands shown by Adam2 along with internally developed solutions and products I know a lot of major multis buy in technology to fit the lower end of the market so even with a well known brand you could be getting something coming out of one of the better appointed tin sheds of China.

If you are lucky the supplier will state who makes the LEDs, there are some good easy to recognise brands for example with high brightness LEDs Cree are about the best. LG or Citizen both produce great LED arrays, and LG produce great mid power LEDs although trade off life span for convenience and price but the life is still way over 25k hours of operation.

The norms are coming, I think next year we will have proper standard for performance as well as safety and this should start to clear the market a little although it will also squeeze a lot of the little guys out and push prices up as the cost of qualifying a new solution is crazy.

One key pointer if you see a cluster of T1 type LEDs move on.

I've bought a couple of Osram LED replacements for MV Halogen and these are great. Very cool operation, I think based on something like the LG 5630 package (mid power) but great light quality and so far good reliability. I also have a couple from Philips, unfortunately let down by overly pink light color (aiming for Halogen they seem to have veered off into the territory of the GL lamps that used to make fake fire effects in old electrical fires) and a body shape that seems not to fit in a lot of the fittings in my house but so far very reliable. If you stick with lighting companies you will probably be ok as they are notoriously conservative and really some of the precautions we have taken in releasing LED products isn't entirely rational.

Mostly I collect products coming out of our laboratory, they are cheap and so am I.

[RenewableCandy]

And in a rare phenomenon, RC changes mind about something...

Yesterday I located a pack of 4 LED replacements for GU 10 which came complete with a Lumen and Watt rating. It looked good, and I know from hereabouts that Technology Marches On in this particular field so I bought them (but carefully kept the receipt!). They were called MiniSun (made in China, imported via Manchester, so possibly not a good combo!) and cost only 30 quid for 4, so, about the same as I paid for the CFLs 4 years ago.

They are rather good(!) and much brighter, at 5W, than the 9W cfls they replaced. The said CFLs were beginning to go a bit dim. A couple (out of about 20) seem to have expired altogether, hence the hunt for replacements.

[Tarrel]

We have 5W GU10 replacements in our k*tchen / dining room / hall (10 of them). They've saved 450W of power and, as RC says, they are brighter than CFLs.

Even better, we have 2.5W LEDs in Mother's new studio. These have a colour temp. of 2700K, so very similar to tungsten lighting.

Highly recommended.

[therabble]

I have 6 x 3w cheapo eaby "warm white" leds in my kitchen - 18 watts in total, I upgraded from 4 x 50watt halogens so I save 182 watts in total. I had to increase the number to get a better spread of lighting but i'm happy with the light levels and colour.

I've not replaced a kitchen bulb for at least 3 years and it's one of the areas of the house that is lit the most often.

[jonny2mad]

Just wondering what about using led christmas lights you may see in the jan sales ?

http://www.ivillage.com/ways-decorate-h ... 316#509315

[Catweazle]

On a slightly retro subject, I have absolutely shed loads of brand new CFLs of various types, bought VERY cheaply in bulk and available VERY cheaply too, if anyone is interested. Brands are mostly Osram and Sylvania. I'm talking about £1 or £2 each for many of them because they basically cost me peanuts.

If you guys don't want them they're going on eBay after Christmas when the post gets back top normal.

Sorry if this contravenes forum rules, but in defence this could be a real money saver for members.

[biffvernon]

I've got a couple of hundred "40W" equivalent CFLs that were given to us as a not for profit organisation by another not for profit that had given up trying to give them away. Any ideas?

[kenneal - lagger]

We're getting through the last dozen or so CFLs which we bought some time ago and are now going over to LEDs, so sorry both. Having been using CFLs for nearly forty years now, we thought it time to upgrade to the new technology and dump the old one. I know that some people still see CFLs as new technology so you might find a retard or two to get rid of them onto.

[Blue Peter]

Any LED experts any idea what I might use to replace these.

We have a couple of rooms with lighting units containing 3 and 5 of these bulbs (with, unfortunately, dimmer switches). They seem to be very bright - 630 lumens - which makes it hard to find a lower energy alternative,


Peter.