LEDs or fluorescent light

[chrysanthy]

what's your choice after incandscent lamp phased out?

[crossy]

what's your choice after incandscent lamp phased out?

Anything the shops'll sell me!

We've currently got a mix of halogen, energy saver, fluorescent and LED lights. The halogen ones are supposed to save power (quoted as 30% less than the normal incandescents they replaced) but I don't find them that long-lived.

The energy savers are a mixed bunch. Spent extra for some "warmer" fast start bulbs and they're actually quite good. The rest suffer from the common it-takes-an-age-to-start feature. One incidental benefit though is that because these run cooler they're much easier to change (little wait time for a fitment to cool), and I've got one of the conventional energy savers in my garage inspection light and it's very good. Oh, we also got some candle type energy savers - they actually look really good in some of the light fittings we have

Got three LED bulbs in a "feature" fitment in the kitchen - we deliberately got a mix of white and these fancy colour changing bulbs (both Phillips make), all on GU10 plugs. The mix of bulbs is really quite an appealing effect - and the light is okay*. These also run cool and, according to the energy monitor we've got, use sod all power. Alas one of the bulbs we had failed after 2 weeks - so there goes Phillips' claim of a 10 year life! When I said the light was "okay", it's just sufficient for "mood" lighting, but you wouldn't want to cook by it - think 40W bulb!

The one fluorescent tube we have is in the kitchen. It's an old T12 type model and it's now getting hard to find replacement tubes for this (local B&Q warehouse only stock T8 bulbs and fitments), so at some point I guess we'll end up replacing it - especially as the diffuser's badly cracked.

Personally I suspect that the incandescent-replacement halogen bulbs will also get increasingly difficult to find and we'll be left with the combination of fluorescent tubes, LEDS and increasingly better "energy saving" bulbs (which are also fluorescent tubes). I read something recently that the current "energy saver" bulbs are just a stop-gap and that eventually we'll all be using highly efficient LED-based technology.

[shaithis]

I don't know what it is about the LED lights but I seem to go through them like nobodies business. I absolutely hate them because of it. I also find that once one light goes, the rest in the lighting fixture will go soon after.

The CFLs, I find a bit hit-and-miss. The best ones I've had were really cheap ones from Maplin.....but I still find one-in-four seem to have a very short life.

[broom1]

There is a useful cost assessment of LED tubes to be found here:
http://www.ohmsandwattsservices.co.u...saving_led.php

[ristac]

Take a look at the LED lights made by Cree. I have been looking for a replacement for my GU10 bulbs for quite some time and I can finally say that I have found a bulb that is actually brighter than my old 50watt bulbs. I am using a 9watt Cree LED (3x3w) and very impressed with results.

[jetfire]

this is a white cfl 60w i think

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Fireflies.

They give me a warm buzz.

[1stRaven]

We are just about to start the move to LED light in the office. Going to be removing the older 4 strip lights and go to led panels. Been testing a few out and the general thoughts that the white leds are much nicer as a daylight bulb but make the place feel cold so we are looking to fit a mix of the warm and cool white systems.

[ash42]

I prefer LEDs.
I just love its advantages.

[tomkent45]

LED bulbs lasts up to 10 times as long as compact fluorescents, and far longer than typical incandescents. LED light bulbs use only 2-17 watts of electricity (1/3rd to 1/30th of Incandescent or CFL). Take a look at the comparison between the different types of energy savings light bulbs.

http://eartheasy.com/live_led_bulbs_comparison.html

[wasabi]

I've fitted a lot of GU10 LEDs in the house ranging from ~ Lidl own brand (1.8w, but 3 light our 3m porch quite well), to 5x 3w 6400k in a kitchen fitting to give it a daylight colour. Had to go to ebay for the 6400k ones, but I'm fussy about the light colour and hate the standard warm white in most areas. ebay direct from Far East has been a bit hit and miss quality-wise, but still way cheaper than buying direct.

CFLs are a bit slow to start and not so good in spotlights I find. I do doubt the massive energy saving of LEDs though - you need roughly 2/3 as many watts to get the effective same light I find as a CFL, so it isn't in any way the big eco-win of say jumping halogen to CFL. For spotlight fittings though, LED every time.

[ash42]

^^ very informative.
longer life time = more savings in the long run

[KeyboardDemon]

I think LEDs aren't quite there yet, but given time I'm sure they will be able to produce a good quality light that rivals the output of a 100 watt plus standard bulb and use less than a tenth of the power without some of the issues such as short life span that have already been mentioned above..

[pJenny]

I would like to go for LEDs ofcourse, cost effective, energy efficient and long life ..all boxes ticked

[Bambooz]

For those having problems with LED lights, the solution is simple: don't buy the cheapest crap you can get

I've learned that the hard way. The really cheap stuff (especially the kind you find on ebay etc. with 30+ tiny regular 3mm LEDs) overvolt the LEDs to make them brighter. The trade-off? They run quite warm and brightness falls down into nowhere after a few months or they simply die and stop working completely.

I took a bunch of these apart (easier than it looks most of the time) and a lot of them have very crude electronics in them. Protection circuitry? Nuh uh.. that stuff costs money. Some of them even lack a fuse (silkscreened on the PCB, but just a jumperwire in there instead)

If you want them to last, get brand name stuff and look around for recommendations on LED forums (yes.. those exist).
PS: go for warm-white LEDs (or CCFLs for that matter).. the cheapos commonly use cold-white (blue-ish) LEDs cause they're cheaper. Gives the whole room a cold feeling like regular flourescent lamps (the kind you'd find in a garage). Doesn't do your mood any good in the long run

[pJenny]

I have just bougth few of Mirrorstone brand. they look great and are doing well..