Where are we up to with LED halogen replacements?

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 😉 ]

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.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00AF7PE18/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?qid=1381726133&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

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!

http://www.diy.com/nav/decor/lighting/light-bulbs/led_bulbs/Diall-LED-1-4W-GU10-12418960?skuId=12939666

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 reasonable quality LED 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 http://www.homebase.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=110&storeId=10151&partNumber=176475.

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.