MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Not been a thread on this for a while so how are people getting on with their LED halogen replacements? I've got in the region of 50 to replace eventually but probably 20 to do pretty soon.
I'm changing from 12v MR16 (50w generally) to 5w 240v GU10 to keep it simple - what LEDs have you found that produce a warm light?
i havnt found any yet ....
but i can live with clinical white light - especially in the bathroom and the utility room. for the power savings when going from 9 x 50watt halogen to 9 x 4 watt LEDs
My LED beyonet light bulbs seen to produce a much warmer lighting tone though - they are osram.
I got a halogen LED replacement in the kitchen when one of the halogens blew and it's a nice warm light; very similar colour to the halogen.
It was from B&Q, in purple packaging, the brand perhaps called Diall? It's a 6.5W and is easily as bright as the remaning 50W halogens. Thinnk it was about £12.
One of the other ones failed recently and my other half replace it with a cheap Osram one (way too dim at 1W, but she wasn't sure what to get). it's a really white light; horrible for the kitchen, so it's coming out soon, once I get round to stopping off at B&Q and getting one of the above bulbs.
Ooo can I step in and ask a question about Compact Fluorescent GU10 lamps.
Have a number of these in the kitchen and a couple are failing. Wondered if you can get led replacements that might be brighter than the current lamps but my google skills are failing me.
Should I just stick with the compact fluorescent lamps? Thanks and sorry for slight hijack
Megaman 6W dimmables in warm white are an excellent replacement for halogens. I've got one room with 9 lights - 8 LEDs and 1 halogen, and most people can't spot which one the halogen is.
That said, they're no good if you actually want to dim them: they go a horrible grey colour, rather than the nice warm glow of halogens.
Yep. Homebase (unbelievably) have an excellent GU10 LED replacement, 5W in neutral white. Two for £11 and really good value for money. Don't go for a colour temp higher than 4000K, it'll drive you nuts.
LED Hut have some good deals at the moment too, though you're looking at spending £10-12 per lamp.
Trying to decide between this:
http://www.ledhut.co.uk/new-4-5-watt-gu10-cob-bulb-wide-beam-angle.html
and this:
http://www.ledhut.co.uk/new-5-watt-gu10-led-bulb-wide-beam-angle.html
Im a big fan of Deltech warm white GU10s.
the 5W triples have a good spot, colour and brightness. Not cheap though.
http://www.ledbulbs.co.uk/shop+by+brand/deltech+led+store/deltech+led+gu10+range%09
im very much a fan of SMDs on the halogen replacement - the lights far to directed out of optical bulbs i found - just dont think they have the space to get the optic round enough to give a good throw. bright halo - no wide beam.
SMDs manage the wide part better
CFLs should never have been invented - horrid horrid things. heat up times measured in weeks before you get a light that you can see with - only thing i like about them is that they are good for when you wake up for aclimatising to light again first thing in the morning so we have them in the bedroom
I got some cheep Chinese ones from ebay (12 for less than £30). I wasn't expecting them to be great or last too long, but wanted to try them out before spending a lot more on a reliable brand.
The light isn't as warm as the halogens but by no means too clinical and is easy to live with. None of the leds have expired in 18 months so I'm happy with my return given they were to cover 11 50w halogens. I think they are 4W or similar.
63 halogen fittings (50W each) replaced with 4.5W B&Q own brand (Diall) which were on a 3 for 2 for ages.
MR16 so the halogen drivers got changed for LED drivers which added £3.25 a go.
It's lovely having a cooler, more daylight like, ambience - I find halogens really waxy now. Added advantage is if your having a nice candle lit dinner, the light is spectacularly different.
Am I the only one who actually likes the cooler light from LEDs?
Yo - Flaperon - thanks for the tip on the Homebase ones, just changed 9 in our kitchen/living room over to them.
Light output is great, and I'll take them with us when we move out; should save me changing bulbs in the next year or so!
Slightly cooler colour temperature than the Halogen bulbs they replace, but very livable and going from 9*50W to 9*5W sure will save some money [and is just better in terms of resource/energy use too]. Easily as bright.
Pic attached [grumpy girlfriend behind rabbit hutch 😉 ]
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
Some ghostly faces in the top left of your window gofasterstripes...
o.O
I've tried maybe 6 different types over the years & then found these.
Great colour (not a harsh white), great spread. I bought more to complete the rest of the house.
Not many reviews on Amazon UK, but take a look at Amazon de.
Using about 25 Megaman 6w. Working perfect so far after about 10 months. In many ways prefer the light to the old 50w, cleaner, crisper light. We recon they have already paid for themselves and some!
6W kosnic, about £7 plus VAT.
Go GU10, ditch the transformer and swap the lampholder. Better constant current/voltage.
3000 warmwhite
4000 coolwhite
6500 daylight
Dimmable LEDs about £12
6W kosnic, about £7 plus VAT.
i'm another Kosnic fan, try you local wholesaler, they should be able to get them.
anyone seen any e14 golfballs that are not astronomic - im hesitant to spend 12 quid each - need 4 - got 2 x 28watt halogens out in the kitchen so its like walking into a cave at the moment. 🙁
Kosnics provide good light but the ones I had a few years ago had an iffy transformer / rectifier design and broadcast huge amounts of interference. Basically, if you had an FM radio within 300 feet your days of Radio 4 were over.
We changed for these recently, and are perfect replacements. Tone just right and direct fit in any holder. And only £9.98 for 3!
I could do with dimmable 'normal' bulb replacements. Got halogens atm. Needs to be 60 or pref 100W equivalent.
dont you find it a bit urm - dark scottyjohn ?
i fitted a 1.4w then opted to take it back and buy some real bulbs. it was like holding a candle up to take a leak.
havnt seen any 60/100watt equivalents yet but i think youd melt your retinas when i see my 20watt EQ osram led in the hall -although probably because we were used to those awful CFL things we had.
20W equivalent is the same regardless of the technology, that's the whole point of labelling them like that. It's just that some crappy CFLs take ages to warm up.
colour temp plays alot in the "feeling" of light though - i know the theory behind "labeling" but its like the lumen war and the elastic tape measure IME
CFLs even when warm give off a really orangy light which looks dull for a given watt.
i tried expensive and cheap CFLS - all a bunch of shite and take for ever to warm up. only rooms i like em in are the living room in the standard lamp for ambiance and the bedroom in the roof and bedside lamps so my eyes dont get shocked by PBW light.
We've got CFLs in the kitchen that are almost blue. So it does depend. I've got a variety of CFLs and some of them come on full power immediately. However they aren't well labelled so I can't tell you what brand they are. Our house was fitted with some of those lamp units that have the starter internally and the 'bulb' you fit is just a tube with contacts - they are generally much better, but one or two of the others are good too.
I'm sure if someone made a lamp that was as bright as a 100W filament lamp they'd find a way of labelling it as such, instead of putting 20W equivalent on it 🙂
hey im not saying its brighter than a 20watt or as bright as 100watt im just doubting your need for anything brighter unless its a massive room.
I have 6 of the Homebase 2 for £11 GU10s in my kitchen, replacing 35W MR16 halogens. They are brighter than the halogens, and not overly cold. Had to get rid of the transformers but it wasn't exactly a hassle.
Well it's a fairly big room and we usually light it with a 7W CFL standing lamp on one side, but sometimes people need to do detailed work or have lots of light, and the 'big lights' need to come on. We tried dimmable CFLs when they were new and really expensive, and they kept failing, something to do with crappy dimmer swtiches I presume but I couldn't find anything that seemed any different or better quality.
So, for someone who's just starting to look at LEDs as a replacement for 10 MR16 halogen bulbs in my kitchen where do I start?
Bulbs appear to have anywhere between 3 and 60 SMDs in them.
Would something like:
60 3528 SMD LEDs
Base: MR16
Input: AC 220V
Power: about 4W
Luminous flux value: 280LM-300LM
Color temperature range: Day white(6000K - 6500K) Warm white(3200K - 3500K)
be OK?
Can I just replace the bulb only, or do I need anything else?
Can I just replace the bulb only, or do I need anything else?
If your 12v transformers are electronic, then you will need to change them for LED drivers. It's a pain in the proverbial when trying to replace mr16's, because of transformer/dimmer issues and a [u]reasonable quality LED[/u] rated at 5Watts is really only equivalent to 35Watt halogen, and they are more expensive than GU10 equivalents, and even more expensive when you add the driver.
As a commercial installer, we have found the megaman 7Watt Gu10s are very good for retro fits.
20W equivalent is the same regardless of the technology, that's the whole point of labelling them like that. It's just that some crappy CFLs take ages to warm up.
except some CFL's are very very optimistic. Had to go up one full incandescent equivalent with CFL in my bog, cos they were so dim even after 20min warm up. think it was megaman, btu can't be sure. 3sec switch-on delay too, even with a fast starter.
on the bright side 😉 there's no chance of hurting eyes if you get up for a leak in the middle of the night
Got GU5.3 fittings everywhere. Think I'll probably swap them one by one to GU10 LED. All stuff that fits in to a rail though, so that'll all have to go, along with filling holes and repainting ceiling.
Can anybody recommend a dimmable GU10 at a reasonable price? Seen these from Homebase [url= http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=176475 ]http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=176475[/url].
Well today I bit the billet and bought 24 x 5w bulbs from ledhut. They had an extra 20% off code running which helped but it still cost £240!
Tomorrow I'll give a couple a try and see what the colour is like and get back to you - they can alway go back if not good.
😯 do you live in a football stadium?
Or maybe he's growing....tomatoes?
Hmmm - low energy use, small heat signature.
Hmmmm.
molgrips
noticed on LED hut - they have a 100watt EQ led bulb - its 26 quid though.
do you live in a football stadium?
Thankfully not 🙂
Landing/stairway = 9 lights
Hall/dining room (one big room really) = 13
+ a couple to get the lowest bulk order price
The main room to do is the kitchen/breakfast room which is 18 lights, half of which are on a lot. Problem is that these light fittings are not open backed (MR16 bulb plug directly into the fitting) so I need to decide whether I'm going to change all the fittings or try to adapt them for GU10s.
Is the advertised wattage/equivalence numbers on the packaging accurate on LEDs?
Is the advertised wattage/equivalence numbers on the packaging accurate on LEDs?
The equivalence numbers can be optimistic, particularly on the ebay specials.
I find a 6W LED to be very close to a 50W halogen, but I've seen 3W and 4W LEDs sold as "50W equivalent".
i find them to be fair bright but where they lose out imo is beam spread - seem to be very focused.
Right well my order from LED hut has arrived and I've just spent a happy couple of hours replacing existing halagen GU10 bulbs and converting 12v MR16 bulbs to GU10.
My initial thoughts? Wow - nice and bright (360 lumens/bulb)and a nice colour too. In two bathrooms a couple of lights had blown 12v transformers so I've replaced a with the 240v GU10 LEDs and I can't tell the difference between the halogens and the LEDs.
Expensive but very impressive indeed and I'm happy.
[url= http://www.ledhut.co.uk/new-5-watt-gu10-led-bulb-wide-beam-angle.html ]I got these LEDs[/url]
I need G9s for the living room. They also can't be to wide. The best option I've seen is these.
But I'd rather by from the UK
A slight hijack
I have a load of Kosnic LEDs to get rid of. They are all 4.5W and I think warm white. Both GU10 and MR16, I'll check later. Going for much cheapness. Couldn't get credit for lamps and the customer wouldn't pay. About 100 plus lamps.
And some random LED tape and drivers.
For the past year I've been fitting Lunmineux LED lamps, and havent had a failure yet. Must have fitted 100+ now. £7 +vat singly.
All at 4.5w, availble in 3 colours, warm white - direct replacement for halogen colour, cool white and daylight.
http://shop.newaveelec.co.uk/lumineux-241651cx-45-watt-led-gu10-cool-white-lamp-37-p.asp
I did a big office foyer, and they wanted a sample before changing the lot. I fitted one, they couldnt tell the difference between new and old. I could, as when I pointed it out, the LED has a far wider beam, but the same brightness and colour.
The best thing to do with 12v ones is to throw away the transformer, and just fit a 230v lamp fitting in its place. £1.50 or cheaper each, far better than replacing horrible transformers every few years, and ensures compatability with LED lamps.
Ive just replaced the horrible Minisun LED's in my kitchen with the B and Q Diall version. A much better colour, but not a very wide beam. Happy though.
Oldgit YGM
fyi - playing with energy monitor last night - 5 LEDS 4.5watts in my bathroom as expected using alot less energy than the single CFL energy saver beyonet in the hall - giving alot more light - thus confirming that CFLS are crap :d
my kitchen still has 4 50watt halogens in - using more power than the rest of my house lights all in.
think i can justify the cost of outdoor LEDS - 30watts are about 100 quid a pop- the amount of time i spend outside under the lights in winter - they will pay for them selves in a couple of years at the rate it was flicking the dial round last night.
you might think you cant justify the cost but youll be surprised how quick youll gain it back.
got 2 small g9s from ledhut for a small doorway lamp fitting - onl;y 1.5watt mind. the big 4.5watts didnt fit but its just for seeing where to put your key in the dark.
5 LEDS 4.5watts in my bathroom as expected using alot less energy than the single CFL energy saver beyonet in the hall - giving alot more light
How does that work? Was the CFL using a lot more power than it said it would, the LEDs using a lot less than they said they would, or is it difficult for a meter to tell accurately?
We still have a fair few CFLs around the place which I haven't been too bothered about, but I'll move them up the list of priorities if the difference is that much!
id imagine it was the CFL using more than it says - probably just during the turbo warm up period or what ever but none the less was nearer 40watts - its a diall 20watt rated traditional bulby looking type out of BnQ - gives off horrible light for actually doing anything and takes a fair bit to warm up.
all the other values on the meter were as expected so i have no reason to doubt this anomaly.
i like CFLs in my bedroom as its easy on the eye when you wake up and it graduually gets brighter 😀
The CFL I had in my bedroom used to flicker and randomly flash when [u]OFF[/u]. Philips or Osram, forget which. 100W equivalent to replace a 60W incandescent.
Need to suss out the best way to change that. Got some proprietary 220V AC power rail across the ceiling there. Can probably fit GU10 and power from that rail.
Well, after yesterday exploits I'm now a man posessed and keep thinking about how wasteful the halogens are in the kitchen!
Just summoning up the courage to spend another £200 + VAT 🙁
I know that feeling...
Are the ones that you've done so far on a dimmer? If so, what are they like dimmed?
No dimmer as yet. The next load are going into the kitchen and breakfast room the latter has a dimmer so I'll need to get a new dimmer also [sigh]
Sharkbait - just wait till all you have left are a pair of 500watt halogen floods
Thats my situation now. Both them goin full bore is painful to watch.
Hehe. I'm just trying to decide if it's worth replacing the lights in the bathrooms as well. They're not on as much by a long way so the repayment time would be long - but then everything would be the same.
I got some of the Homebase ones and used them with my trailing edge dimmer.
You don't get the decreasing colour temperature that you get when you dim halogens though i.e. you won't get that really warm yellow/orange colour just before they turn off. In fact they don't go nearly as dim as the halogens before they just abruptly turn off.
They work OK for the purposes of changing the intensity of the light, but I'll be keeping my solitary halogen uplighter for "mood lighting" purposes 🙂
Word of warning be careful with pir sensors. Apparently cheap ones cant be used with led lights - i just found outthe hard way.
Cheap pirs allow current leakage- not enough to trigger a halogen - but enough to dimly light an led bulb or make it flash.
Back to drawing board....
I just bought 7 of [url= http://www.simplyled.co.uk/led-spotlights/gu10-led-bulbs-240v/gu10-led-nxtgen-series-iii.html ]these[/url], in the warm white colour, 4 for our bathroom and 3 for our kitchen. So far very impressed by brightness, spread and colour of the light they emit. Feels much more like daylight than it did with the old halogens.
I bought two 6.5W Dial GU10s from B&Q, I may sell them though, they are a bit too bright and spot-like for our kitchen.
Anyone interested?
This makes quite a good read.
Out of date already though! I got a new 5W from LEDhut and I'm very pleased indeed.
It's tough trying to figure out what to get though, and as the tech is continually improving there's always going to be something better in 6 months time. Just go for the best you can and forget about them. One thing that is important is the warranty - LEDhut give a 5 year warranty, so if/when an LED dies it can be replaced with the latest and greatest.
just fit the one that meets your needs - no need to play the lumen war in your house.
i think we have reached a point where reasonable priced replacements for halogens are readily availible - people gripe at the cost of an LED bulb - then you show them the maths and they nod - but they still dont get it - they just see the expense of buying the bulb at the moment.
alanl - MemberFor the past year I've been fitting Lunmineux LED lamps, and havent had a failure yet. Must have fitted 100+ now. £7 +vat singly.
All at 4.5w, availble in 3 colours, warm white - direct replacement for halogen colour, cool white and daylight.http://shop.newaveelec.co.uk/lumineux-241651cx-45-watt-led-gu10-cool-white-lamp-37-p.asp
I did a big office foyer, and they wanted a sample before changing the lot. I fitted one, they couldnt tell the difference between new and old. I could, as when I pointed it out, the LED has a far wider beam, but the same brightness and colour.
The best thing to do with 12v ones is to throw away the transformer, and just fit a 230v lamp fitting in its place. £1.50 or cheaper each, far better than replacing horrible transformers every few years, and ensures compatability with LED lamps.
Great recommendation by alanl. I tried the Homebase ones but they were too white and narrow. I've now got 2 Lunmineux white warm LEDs and 4 halogen in the kitchen and you just can't tell the difference.
http://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-gu10-led-reflector-lamp-with-reflector-330lm-5w/91534
Just fitted these and their GLS equivalent around my house, bit early to say what they're like reliability wise (although they have a two year warranty) but the gu10s are a perfect match for a 'good' 50w gu10 colour temp and beam spread seems identical - ok so I haven't had the photometer out, but I changed half the room at a time an couldn't spot a difference...
Just waiting for a decent SES golfball retrofit now then I'll be totally incandescent and cfl free - except for the remote control bedroom dimmer circuit which hasn't yet caught up!
Is it ok to put loft insulation down straight on top of LED downlighters?
No unless they are specifically designed to be covered. You can buy aftermarket cages for some models that lift the insulation.
Are you talking 'proper' LED fittings that don't have replaceable lamps?
No unless they are specifically designed to be covered. You can buy aftermarket cages for some models that lift the insulation.
Are you talking 'proper' LED fittings that don't have replaceable lamps?
After a fruitless visit to Ikea, where the GU10's have been out of stock for months I got 4 225 lumen ones from B&Q.
replaced 4 no. 35W halogens and the LED's are noticeably brighter. I'm pleased, which is nice.