LED tech development could revolutionise lighting industry

[HEXUS]

These new LEDs require just one layer of material in production, rather than five.

Read more.

[Saracen]

Well, that looks promising.

Unfortunately the LED bulbs are quite a bit more expensive than we have got used to spending for these consumable items. Also, if you can find cheaper LED bulbs, they may not produce the light hues you like.

I just put some in the lounge, at £20 each. And optimally, I needed four. These were bayonet-fit direct replacements for conventional incandescent bulbs, but as they're on a dimmer switch, most LED bulbs, and CFl's, aren't suitable.

My problem was a very suspect, strangely behaving dimmer switch. From a power meter I have on the household supply, I noticed that I was using about 40w MORE juice with that switch off, than I was on, but low, say 5-10%. So, 40-50w approx, every hour, day-in, day-out. It adds up.

But I still wanted the dimmer capability. A direct switch replacement was off the order of £40 (double-gang dimmer) so I put in two BC-fit LED bulbs instead, but they are Wifi-dimmable via a little handheld remote, so I replaced the wall dimmer with a simple double-gang on-off switch.

My overall, whole house average daily consumption dropped by about 20%. Before, my daily usage was typically 10-12 units, depending on washing machine usage, what cooking equipment was used, etc. After replacing switch and bulbs, typical daily usage is 7-9 units, once or twice hitting 10 units.

So replacing that dimmer switch, and four 60w incandescent bulbs, with two dimmable LEDs, two CFl, and a simple £2 MK double-gang switch, knocked about 20 of my annual leccy bill. Flippin' 'eck.

Most of the time, we use one of two light fittings, that being the one now with the LEDs. Occasionally, when we want very bright lights, we'd use all four, but many days, probably many weeks, go by without using the second pair at all, hence using CFl not another £40 worth of dimmabke LEDs. But at that 20% saving, I reckon the reduced leccy bills will oay for the bulbs in a few months, and certainly, less than a year.

Oh, and their party trick? We can change colour temp on those LEDs by remote, too. Not colour (red, blue, mgreen, etc) but colour temp, as in cold-blue to warm-yellow. We use them on max yellow for 'normal', probably because we're used to it, but I go much cooler for reading, computer use, etc.

My only real gripe is at £20 per bulb, plus a few quid for his and hers Wifi remotes, they ain't cheap. But they're great to use. So if this new tech drops the price in future, so much the better., Just be careful to pick the right colour temp if they aren't adjustable.

EDIT - to clarify, these new bulbs of mine are ONLY dimmable via the remote. They are NOT compatible with conventional dimmer switches. I don't know how they work, but assume each 'bulb' has numerous fixed-output LEDs, and when you dim, you're switching off a fixed number at each stage, so each individual LED is either on, or off, but the effect in the bulb is to dim it. How they change colour temp, dunno. But it works. Maybe a similar trick, with either cool or warm, or a mix, being used.

EDIT 2 - A Wifi bridge is also apparently available, allowing them to be controlled via smartphone app, etc, but I didn't bother with that.

[3dcandy]

Would be great if they can bring these to market quickly. I do love LED's and they have a better hue to me than CCFL's. Looking forward to what this brings

[CampGareth]

We've just replaced about 15 GU10 halogens and maybe 5 screw fitting CFLs with LEDs. Of course we were doing it for the utility mostly, 3 x 20W halogens in a bathroom isn't that bright but the LED replacements are more like 60W equivalent each for 9W power draw at the wall. Cost a couple of hundred to do but so worthwhile and it's always satisfying to replace a poor old CFL putting out 45W equivalent for a 100W equivalent LED that draws the same power.

Haven't had enough time to see the effect on the electricity bill but it's gotta be good and we get more light! Only downside is it'll take 1500 hours for the LEDs to be better value than the bulbs they replace, we're gonna have to take them to our next flat to get our money's worth!

[3dcandy]

We've just replaced about 15 GU10 halogens and maybe 5 screw fitting CFLs with LEDs. Of course we were doing it for the utility mostly, 3 x 20W halogens in a bathroom isn't that bright but the LED replacements are more like 60W equivalent each for 9W power draw at the wall. Cost a couple of hundred to do but so worthwhile and it's always satisfying to replace a poor old CFL putting out 45W equivalent for a 100W equivalent LED that draws the same power.

Haven't had enough time to see the effect on the electricity bill but it's gotta be good and we get more light! Only downside is it'll take 1500 hours for the LEDs to be better value than the bulbs they replace, we're gonna have to take them to our next flat to get our money's worth!

Take them with you? I'd be expecting them to last 10 years

[Saracen]

Take them with you? I'd be expecting them to last 10 years

As would I. I hope.

That was a factor in using straight BC-fit bulbs that fit in existing light fittings rather than having to replace the fittings.

[Lowe]

I was an early adopter of LED bulbs. There's only 3 light sources in the entire house which aren't LED - and those are fluorescent tubes. I'm considering changing those, but haven't found one I'm happy with yet. We've seen a modest drop in the energy bills, so I'm not sure I've broken even yet, but on the upside I've never had one fail.

[Hicks12]

So many developments in LED. My dads firm have pretty much spent the last 5 years developing a new process method which results in 90% of the max power output with the similar efficiency but at 70% of the cost.

Got Philips and other firms on board so we should see this in the next year or two and maybe this other advancement will be out by then so we could see reallyncheap LEDs

[GoNz0]

Well, that looks promising.

I just put some in the lounge, at £20 each. And optimally, I needed four. These were bayonet-fit direct replacements for conventional incandescent bulbs, but as they're on a dimmer switch, most LED bulbs, and CFl's, aren't suitable.

My problem was a very suspect, strangely behaving dimmer switch. From a power meter I have on the household supply, I noticed that I was using about 40w MORE juice with that switch off, than I was on, but low, say 5-10%. So, 40-50w approx, every hour, day-in, day-out. It adds up.

But I still wanted the dimmer capability. A direct switch replacement was off the order of £40 (double-gang dimmer) so I put in two BC-fit LED bulbs instead, but they are Wifi-dimmable via a little handheld remote, so I replaced the wall dimmer with a simple double-gang on-off switch.

My overall, whole house average daily consumption dropped by about 20%. Before, my daily usage was typically 10-12 units, depending on washing machine usage, what cooking equipment was used, etc. After replacing switch and bulbs, typical daily usage is 7-9 units, once or twice hitting 10 units.

So replacing that dimmer switch, and four 60w incandescent bulbs, with two dimmable LEDs, two CFl, and a simple £2 MK double-gang switch, knocked about 20 of my annual leccy bill. Flippin' 'eck.

Most of the time, we use one of two light fittings, that being the one now with the LEDs. Occasionally, when we want very bright lights, we'd use all four, but many days, probably many weeks, go by without using the second pair at all, hence using CFl not another £40 worth of dimmabke LEDs. But at that 20% saving, I reckon the reduced leccy bills will oay for the bulbs in a few months, and certainly, less than a year.

Oh, and their party trick? We can change colour temp on those LEDs by remote, too. Not colour (red, blue, mgreen, etc) but colour temp, as in cold-blue to warm-yellow. We use them on max yellow for 'normal', probably because we're used to it, but I go much cooler for reading, computer use, etc.

My only real gripe is at £20 per bulb, plus a few quid for his and hers Wifi remotes, they ain't cheap. But they're great to use. So if this new tech drops the price in future, so much the better., Just be careful to pick the right colour temp if they aren't adjustable.

EDIT - to clarify, these new bulbs of mine are ONLY dimmable via the remote. They are NOT compatible with conventional dimmer switches. I don't know how they work, but assume each 'bulb' has numerous fixed-output LEDs, and when you dim, you're switching off a fixed number at each stage, so each individual LED is either on, or off, but the effect in the bulb is to dim it. How they change colour temp, dunno. But it works. Maybe a similar trick, with either cool or warm, or a mix, being used.

EDIT 2 - A Wifi bridge is also apparently available, allowing them to be controlled via smartphone app, etc, but I didn't bother with that.

if you have a standard dimmer it is called a leading edge and will not play nice with LED kit, you need to replace them with trailing edge dimmers if you decide to use them in the future. But they never tell you that or you may just go and buy wifi/ir operated dimming ones from another maker

[big_hairy_rob]

I replaced the 8 50W halogens in my kitchen for LED around 2 years ago. In the time that passed I would have needed to replace most of those bulbs (some twice) and the fuse box will have been tripped multiple times.

Since then I have noticed a significant drop in my energy usage, however there were two unexpected side effect; The amount of light generated (due to the disbursement) is much, much smaller, leaving more dark spots; secondly, the kitchen is now much colder, most notably around head level.

Am I really bothered? No! The light is good enough and then money I've saved for switching has more than paid for the cost of buying the bulbs. There's probably even enough left over to buy a lamp for the few dark areas to use for reading....

[Saracen]

if you have a standard dimmer it is called a leading edge and will not play nice with LED kit, you need to replace them with trailing edge dimmers if you decide to use them in the future. But they never tell you that or you may just go and buy wifi/ir operated dimming ones from another maker

I'm no expert in domestic lighting, and there's nothing on the old switch to indicate either way, but as the switch is ancient (nearly 30 years) I would indeed assume trailing edge. Also, due to the consumption even with lights turned OFF, it's either faulty or a very poor design. So I started from the position of wanting that switch changed anyway. Of course, the remote fimmer also means we can tweak lights without getting out of chairs to do it, which is vonvenient if you want, for example, to read something on paper, while lights are dimmed gor TV watching.

Either way, I'm very impressed with the LED bulbs, not least because of adjusting colour temp for current need.

[Saracen]

..... The amount of light generated (due to the disbursement) is much, much smaller, leaving more dark spots; secondly, the kitchen is now much colder, most notably around head level.

....

Good point, and it reminds me. The bulbs I'm talking about are considerably more directional than the old incandescent, of CFl. The LED bulbs I have have an output angle of (IIRC) about 140 degrees, compared to more like 270 degrees for incandescent or CFl. They are therefore optimal when pointing down.

In my case, however, the light fittings angle the bulbs about 30 degrees above horizontal, so a fair bit of the light we get, even on full, is reflected from the ceiling, and thus diffused by that. It suits our need, as it happens, and the store warned of us of that 'aspect' before we bought. But it might make them wrong for some purposes.

[Saracen]

Oh, and the bulbs I'm talking about, if anyone's interested are the "Dual White" LED-ligic bulbs from Batterylogic. Delivery and service from the shop was also first-rate.

[Percy1983]

I have replaced all the bulbs in my house with LEDs and gone 'day white' (6000-6500k) for the whole house.

I will say I love how whites are now white day and night.

In my case I have gone with cheap LED bulbs (china no brand stuff) and most used COB lights which are perfect replacements for halogens.

Main savings as follows:
From room 100w > 15w
Kitchen 350w > 60w
Bathroom 150w > 27w

Rest of rooms similar drops, not had a single bulb failure yet and I am talking £1-£2 each (eg 6w GU10 COBs £1.80 etc)

The energy saving are significant as is the bottom line on my energy bills (bulbs have already paid for themselves many times over).

But if this helps make the process chesper then happy days all round.