[Closed] LED or low energy GU10s?

Just done this too. Needed 16 for our house. Ended up getting some from ebay, from China. Think they were about £1.50 each and £1 for postage. They are the smd (or similar) type, not the older style of led.

I think there are some that work with dimmers but the dimmer switch needs to be of a suitable type also....

HTH

Rick

They're still "getting there" IMO, although we had a couple of 7W GU10 warm white LEDs at work on demo recently that in terms of output were (finally) a good match for a 50W Halogen. The problem is that the colour rendering is still a bit strange - blues and lavenders "pop" brilliantly well, but reds and greens become rather flat and lifeless. These were also about £20 each, so I'd be looking at spending £200 on lightbulbs to do my kitchen and bathroom. That's a LOT of 'leccy....

The cheap bulbs with lots of leds in are ok, but don't project very well. I've got 6 in recessed spot lights in my larder ceiling which is only 6' high. Tried them in my normal ceiling lights but they were too dim. The expensive bulbs with brighter leds would be better, but i bet they're not economically viable.

i have two out of three in my kitchen as they are ok for background lighting but not for actual lighting.
I do have bad eyes though and require more light than most

I've got 9W Megaman fluorescent GU10s in my kitchen - they're bright enough but take an age to warm up. When they eventually die, I'll replace them with LEDs. I bought a 5W LED for my bathroom recently and it seems pretty similar to a 20W halogen in brightness. Have a look on Ebay.

Be aware that a lot of the LED or CFL (low-energy) bulbs aren't dimmable. We've been trying to do the same thing to replace the 9 50w GU10s in our kitchen and it's a bit of a minefield.

I bought [url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10-11w-GU10-6400K-DAYLIGHT-WHITE-LOW-ENERGY-SAVING-BULB-/180711582864?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&hash=item2a133fec90 ]these[/url] last year, excellent bulbs.
A bright pure white 6400 kelvin.

Fitted six of [url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-x-GU10-LED-BULB-COOL-WHITE-60-LEDs-SAME-DAY-DESPATCH-/170627226534?pt=UK_HomeGarden_Lighting_Lamps_Lighting_SM&hash=item27ba2cdba6 ]these 60 LED[/url] bulbs into my kitchen when it was redone. They work well. The light is a little strange being so white/blue/cool compared to the natural light, but it's fine for cooking with and all that. Fitted some of the 21 LED bulbs into the bathroom when that was done, and they aren't really bright enough.

B and Q were recently flogging off GU10 3.7W LEDs for £2 each - the "proper" ones, not the ones with lots of little LEDs. You may be lucky and still find a few in your local branch - I bought every one they had in ours. I reckon they're about the same as a 25W halogen even though they claim more, typically 35W.

Looking on the chinese import sites the going rate seems to be about £3 for GU10s or MR16s so I'm hoping retail prices come down soon. Once MR16s are down to around £3 I'll replace the 9 halogen bulbs in our kitchen, currently 50W each which is an obscene amount of electricity for lighting a room. Current retail price for direct replacement GU10 or MR16 seems to be about [url= http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/LTMR3WW.html ]£11[/url].

None of these work with a dimmer as far as I know - I've got rid of ours. If you frequently use the lights dimmed then maybe going for energy saving bulbs just isn't worth it as you're already using a lot less than the rated power?

.

I've got an LED light with a dimmer, the 3W LED looks identical to the one in a Deal Extreme torch I've got. It goes from about half power to full power.

In terms of output I agree with Rio: 3-4W LED = 25W halogen and I'll add = 40W filament = fully warmed up 9W low energy

I replaced the 12 GU10 Halogens with Megaman 11w bulbs last year. I reckon the 11w is roughly 40w halogen.
Cost a bit, but leccy bill instantly dropped by £40 a quarter.

They take about 30s to reach a decent output. Go for the warm white output.

Something else to consider is the warm-up time associated with low energys. If it's a room you flick in and out of occasionally for just a few minutes, which maybe the case with your kitchen while you pop in to fridge raid, or put the kettle on. You may not see very well for the first few minutes.

LED's are straight on or off as far as the eye is concerned. They are 'there' but you'd bee looking at expensive 7W +

a lot of LED's also seem to have a narrow beam angle though so won't light up as much of the room. I believe some of the SMD's are better at this though.

To dim either may require a specific low voltage range dimmer as both types of bulbs are highly sensitive on that front (but I'm not an electrician)

EDIT: I've run both in the past but have decided this winter to go back to Halogens as I realised with my indoor thermometer that over 30 minutes the Halogens would heat my kitchen up by over a degree C. (I'm on a green leccy tarrif so feel like I'm doing my bit). I reckon this is a good thing as the lights are only on when I'm in there, and the kitchen doesn't have any heating in it (even though it's a 70's GCH'd house) My theory is that I can then run my CH just that little lower and save a little on the more expensive gas bill.