good energy efficient lightbulbs to replace my 50w halogen spots?

They can make torches / bike lights with super bright LEDs but all the LED spots I’ve seen are really dull and wouldn’t provide enough light to find my proverbial ar$e in the dark.

Put a transformer on your spots and you can run 20W lamps which are just as bright.

Stu – having done a load of research into LED GU10s for my barn conversion (see recent thread) – there are some good Halogen replacement bulbs out there, theyr just hard to find – I tested 20 different ones and settled on 4 models.

They do cost a lot (some of the ones I got cost £25+) but they save massive amounts of money over their lifetime.

For bright replacements I recommend
Decor 7W GU10 Quadruple High Power LED – Warm White (7 Watt GU10 LED)

for warmer colour, lower power these ones have turned out well to:
Deltech Triple High Power 5W GU10 LED (5 Watt)

from here:
http://www.energybulbs.co.uk/products/LED+Light+Bulbs/High+Performance+LEDs/High+Performance+GU10+LEDs

I thought this was going to be about stairs.

I thought this was going to be about tyres.

I thought this was going to be about irish beige cotton.

They still seem to be stupid expensive. £24 per bulb makes it cheaper to go about and buy new lights that can take golf-ball-style energy efficient bulbs.

I’m presuming the price will plummet in a year or two once the technology has trickled down.

I got 3 of these for $7. They run very cool, and are bright enough for my small galley kitchen. Highly recommended if you’re not lighting a big room.

Cheers for the replies – those £25 look great but needing 4 it might be a touch on the pricy side.

The room isn’t that big, probably about 8′ x 12′ but it does need to light it up well enough to stop me chopping my (or the kids) fingers off

II thought it was going to be about tyres as well.

“I tested 20 different ones and settled on 4 models.”

**** me what an exciting life you must lead 🙂

indeed 😉

But when you’re buying 100+ new bulbs that can cost between £3 and £25 and last upto 50,000 hours you dont want to be committing to any lemons do you?

Stu – if you dont need a spot light then you might find the Megaman CFLs give better light/£. BUT you MUST check the form factor of your GU10 fitting as the CFL units can come up quiet deep because of the ballast.

EDIT: Like these:
http://www.energybulbs.co.uk/products/Energy+Saving+Bulbs/Energy+Saving+GU10+Bulbs/Megaman+11+Watt+GU10+with+PowerLENS+(11W)+15,000+hours/3664892577

They are a bit slower to fire up though, but the light is nice.

what stoner says – We have been using those in a Kitchen for 3 years – like all the megaman CFLs they are slower to warm up than some CFLs, but good colour and longevity. You can get them with a custom GU10 fitting and we tend to get them from TLC who are fairly cheap. They are a good replacement for standard GU10s or Halogen 35 or 50W 12v spots for downlighting.

I think I have those megaman ones. They take frigging ages to warm up and half the time you don’t even notice you’ve flicked the switch at first. Not happy.. I’ll be getting 4x 3W LEDs as soon as they drop below £25 each!

BTW the best Ive found for simply flooding light around are these fellas

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180516866480

I have them in the utility room. They are instant on, huge flooding – there’s no optical control to the LED chip. With no “glass” over the chip it also means there’s no colour control so Its a very white light (but not blue).

Ive got one of those megamans next to one of th 7W LEDs. Just turned them on and timed from cold how long it takes until the CFL is as bright as the LED, its about 2 minutes.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t have checked them out, I’m just saying it can’t have been a very exciting week for you:)

2 minutes is a long time tho when you just want to walk into the kitchen and grab something. Sometimes it really is still dark when you flick the switch. V annoying.

Ooh those look good on ebay stoner, cheaper than the single ones.

Have you got any experience of replacing the little halogen ones with two wires instead of a connector? May be G4 but I thought they were 240V.. could be wrong tho.. for my cooker hood.

little halogen ones with two wires instead of a connector?

eh? the MR16 12v ones? How do you mean?

I agree with CFLs. Its why I havent used them – I just have the two I bought for testing and am using them amongst a dozen LED units.

I do have CFLs (E27) in wall lights which is fine.

do you mean G9s?

those floody ones really burn your eyes if you look at them. If anyone managed to fit some kind of cluster collimator to them theyd be awesome.

G9 perhaps.. the 240v ones. You can’t get energy saving ones of those can you?

EDIT: Wow, looks like you can!

yep, you can get LED ones

but youd need to check form factor closely as I think theyre a fair bit fatter.

Im thinking about getting a few for some office lamps I have. G9s are pretty much the most inefficient bulbs going and they blow very very often IMO.