Finally!
http://www.cree.com/news-and-events/...13/march/bulbs
Will probably pick a few up when they arrive on the market.
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Finally!
http://www.cree.com/news-and-events/...13/march/bulbs
Will probably pick a few up when they arrive on the market.
Looks good. would have to order 1 to test the light quality before I commited though.
Yeah I was thinking that, but I've used some of Cree's high-CRI LEDs and find them OK, certainly better than CFLs.
Have a look at these
http://www.ledhut.co.uk/led-bulbs.html
(I've moved this to a more appropriate forum)
Cheers, I wasn't really sure what section to post in TBH.
They do look interesting, and seem to be well-received by customers, going by the on-site reviews. Still, they don't seem to be branded, and I wonder what light quality and longevity are like?
I've got two in my kitchen. They've been there for about a year.
The light is still bluer than tungsten (even tho warm white) but fine for kitchen or bathroom. They may have changed the light since. Want a pic side by side with Std GU10 ?
That would be great if you don't mind! :)
Been thinking about getting some LED lighting myself for a while, but the ones I've seen have been either very expensive (Phillips) or terrible.
As for CFL, they seem to be either dim or give out a ton of poor quality light.
I've found the LED Hut stuff to be very good. Just bought a torch for £1.69 !
Pic below. The LEDs are on the left. Whilst they appear much brighter to look at, the light thrown on the floor (as it were) is very similar in output to the GU10s.
I've uploaded this at max res, but it's only a phone !
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9381/img0156pd.jpg
Cheers, that looks a lot better than I expected TBH, might pick a few up.
I've been using GU10 LEDs for ages, and they really are impressive. Can't see it being long until they've totally taken over from traditional energy saving bulbs.
I'd try a couple first and see if you like them. Plus if you put the code ENERGY15 in the checkout you might get a 15% discount. If it's still current.
I've used led gu10s for a few years now. I've bought from eBay, typically 50-60led units in warm white for about 7quid each.
So while I realise I'm not buying brand names and not very expensive I thought I'd share my downsides:
1). Actually quite dim. Though the room is lit what appears to be brightly if in even partial shadow things are hard to see.... So not good as work lamps. It might sound odd, and would be easier to demonstrate but trust me. Perhaps this is just spotlights in general, but bear in mind room has 8 spots.
2). When one led blows... Lots/all fail. So i have a few bulbs with only 10% of the LEDs still working. And we're not talking monster hours here.... I'd say they are quite unreliable.
That said keep in mind honesty card above. Proper expensive branded may be much better.
Decent LED lamps use a few decent power LEDs, not a bunch of cheap 5mm LEDs. These ones tend to wire a load of emitters in series which is a poor idea.
I've just bought 7 for my kitchen (bought white initially, but changed them for warm white) and three for a bathroom. Only problem in the bathroom is that three doesn't give enough load for the transformer! (I think there is another thread about LED lights in here)Quote:
Originally Posted by watercooled
I can't comment on the internal wiring and whether it's a good idea or not, but I have bought both the few Crees and the ones shown in the link. Like these.Quote:
Originally Posted by watercooled
http://www.ledhut.co.uk/spot-lights/...smd-chips.html
As they say in the blurb, these are excellent as spots, but don't have the wide beam angle of the SMD type and are pretty useless for lighting a room. Also, none of these bulbs require a transformer.
These are the ones I use: http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/u10d24cw-...te-5w-55w.html
Mine aren't dimmable, but they look the same.
Not having the glass cover does seem to improve things, and it's not really necessary for LED bulbs.
Very similar by the looks of it. I admit to feeling good about saving 94w every time I turn them on.
I think I have 10, so yeah, it's a pretty substantial saving - 500W down to 50W.
Also, my hair has stopped catching fire.
I bought some el cheapo 4W ones from ebay, they're perfect for my usage and not one blown yet (B&Q ones I got, one died after a month) Are the branded ones that much better? Think I paid about £4 a bulb or something like that. They are 4 individual LEDs instead of the multiple little ones?
I did buy bright white and it made the kitchen look really strange so i popped them in the bathroom instead.
Power saving wise I've gone from 4*20W + 8*35W down to 12*4W (ie 360W > 48W) coupled with the fact my wife leaves all the lights on in the house all the damn time I figure they've paid for themselves pretty quickly!
Led hut is offering a 15% discount and a free torch for orders this weekend. The code is RUGBY15.
The wife wouldn't let me change all of them in the kitchen. She has Luddite tendencies that nicely counterbalance my 'OOOoh Shiney' response.
The ones people have posted are either power LEDs or SMD, I was referring to the ones mentioned by phil4, similar to the first picture here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GU10-20-38...item2320ce14da
Power LEDs really need a diffuser of some sort, they're a very intense 'point' light source so are very uncomfortable, possibly even dangerous, to view out of the corner of your eye. SMD LEDs are often designed to give a more diffused light. Both types are generally designed with heat dissipation in mind, and come mounted to heatsinks - an incan might be happy to bake all day, but LEDs quickly degrade at high temperatures and tend to send most of the heat back into the device, rather than radiate it along with the light like incans do. 5mm LEDs generally aren't designed with area lighting in mind, are fairly power/thermally limited and often use poor/cheap phosphors.
Light quality is a largely subjective thing, but cheap LEDs, regardless of claimed colour temperature, tend to have very poor CRI. Incans have a fairly linear ramp in wavelength output from red being highest, down to blues having a lower power. 'White' LEDs are actually blue LEDs coated with a phosphor. Cheap phosphors have very spiky outputs, peaking around blue and green and lacking a lot of red. Better quality ones have smoother outputs allowing colours to look more natural and are less fatiguing on the eyes. Fluorescents are also prone to poor quality phosphors. There's a reason supermarkets/restaurants have incan/halogen lamps illuminating food displays - it just doesn't look very appetising when it's illuminated by the low CRI halide lamps. Ever noticed how that chilli looks great under the halogens in the kitchen, but looks a bit grey on the table illuminated by CFL?
Yep. As I said, these are still bluer than I'd like. But when mixed in with the halogens it's acceptable. I'm still waiting for a true warm light that I can use anywhere. I was hoping that the newer stuff would be better.
I have some high-CRI LEDs from Nichia (don't think I've tried the ones from Cree yet) and they are pretty good, far better than we've come to accept from CFL IMO.
I'm not too keen on the LED Hut lights as they're not very bright. I think the Homewatt ones are better with much more lumens meaning more light.
As for the article on CREE LEDS, it seems they are remarkably good value given price, lumens and wattage. I'd probably buy one for the bathroom should it be release in the UK.
I was planning to get an LED hut one to try, but thought I'd ask about CRI first as that little chat box opened asking if I needed any information. The assistant asked if they could get back to me, so I provided an email address. I'm still waiting.
Actually they look exactly the same. Only homewatt is cheaper ! Thanks for that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Top_gun
http://www.homewatt.co.uk/GU10-LED/G...arm-White.html
http://www.ledhut.co.uk/spot-lights/...net-price.html
fekk... http://www.homewatt.co.uk/GU10-LED/G...ght-White.html
£30 a bulb and i need 11 for the Kitchen...
maybe if that was a tenner i would do the lot.
Perhaps looking at your electric bill may persuade to switch sooner!Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNz0
Not quite, take a look at the light output in terms of brightness before purchasing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Phage
why would my bill be a problem, i wasn't stupid enough to fit 50w halogens, it has 11w megaman CCFL's :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Top_gun
trouble is 3 years on they take a fair while to come up to full lumes.
Okay, in that case I'll take my comment back since you have CCFLs but my comment is valid for people still using halogens.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNz0
Yeah, I used to have those, they were a pain. You can get LEDs for much less than £30 though - I had half megaman and half LEDs until I got some LEDs of roughly equivalent brightness.Quote:
Originally Posted by GoNz0
the thing is i like and need the wide spread and 45w min equiv output :)
Then they're only £6.95 surely ?
http://www.homewatt.co.uk/GU10-LED.html
those type for £6 get slagged off on reviews for 50% failure rates :(
Ok - I'd not heard that. certainly mine are doing fine. Anecdotal I know.
As I mentioned earlier on in the thread, I've been buying these for ages:
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/media/cat.../gu1023wwd.jpg
5W=55W, 120 degrees, for about £8-9 each. Sadly the only ones still sold by that retailer are dimmable, but it looks like that's because they've been replaced by these now:
http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/u1027ww-l...-4-5w-60w.html
They're 4.5W=60W, but obviously I can't attest to their quality.
The ones I've been buying, I haven't had a single failure yet - hence why I don't need to buy these things any more :)
that will do me then, shall invest on pay day :)