We have 12 halogen spots in our kitchen ceiling and want to change to dimming Led to cut energy usage. There seems to be a few types of Led, SMD ones being alternatives as well…

Can anyone shed any light on watts the best solution and possibly where to get them… needing 12 so its quite an investment.

Thanks

Rick

of the ones i’ve tried, GU10 LEDs are all hopelessly dull compared to 50w halogens anyway, so dimming them will be the least of your worries. They also (in my experiance) put out a much bluer white which isn’t as nice in most places

Dimming LED GU10s are still a bit bleeding edge. They are very expensive and its not easy to be confident your set up is right, until you’ve committed £200-300 on the bulbs.

SMDs can be very bright but have almost not spot effect (not that most LEDs have much of a spot effect). They are great for casting tons of light around an area like a workshop or utility room, but I think aesthetically they arent great in a kitchen. They are also usually “Daylight” coloured (warm white LEDs are usually coated to bring the temperature of the colour down which also reduces the Lumen output)

You will need to get the RIGHT dimmer for your bulbs. 12x 7W rated bulbs is only 84W on the circuit. Some dimmer switches have minimum loads of 40-60W, so you might be right on the functional edge with 5W units. A low power dimmer switch may be needed. You may* be able to add a halogen bulb to the dimming circuit to up the load, but I dont know whether the two types of bulb might interfere with one another.

You will also need to check the form factor of the bulbs with your light cans – DImmable GU10s are often much larger than the halogen GU10 bulbs that they replace (in depth, not circumference)

For kitchen Id look to a minimum of 5W, or probably 7W warm white.

These 25deg ones at energybulbs look very good with a reputable brand, but they are pricey. I bought over £1000 of LED bulbs from energy bulbs and they were very helpful.

http://www.energybulbs.co.uk/products/LED+Light+Bulbs/Dimmable+LED+Bulbs/Philips+Dimmable+MASTER+LED+7W%3D50W+GU10+Warm+White+25%B0/1549605479

£32+ish for 10+

LED Lighting

Thanks Stoner, really helpful.

The dimer switch seems to be a simple turn the knob type….

Its a bit of a gamble as a lot of money to get started with these.

I was building a new house so committing to it was a little easier psychologically, but practically to make it moreso I bought over 20 different GU10 bulbs of varying manufacturers, and technologies and made a dummy rig to get a feel for the output of each one. I have 3 different bulbs in the house, I think totalling about 150+. They range in price from £25 to £4.50 and output from 2.5W to 7W. And Im very happy with them. Good colouring, and plenty of light. Never have wanted for more light.

Even with all the lights on in the house (including wall mounted CFLs) total light draw would be less than 600W. Most winter nights, total light draw is probably closer to <100W. Over time, at 10-15p/kWh, the bulbs will pay for themselves when compared to Halogen.

Later adopters will get even better tech products than I could and for better prices. Arguably I was forced to buy into the tech probably a few years too early, but Im OK with it.