LED replacement bulbs

I have had to replace a fitting for mother in law as the original lamps are replaced by LED lamps and the replacement is of a lower light output. She had a 3 stem fitting with 60 watt lamps but the replacements were so dim I had to buy a 5 stem fitting with LED lamps. She is almost 90 years old and the sitting room is in a mid terraced house with not very big windows and spends a lot of time there. Why can't I buy equivalant light output lamps as you put a lamp in to light an area like old 100 w lamps.

David

Without saying what wattage LED lamps you fitted it is hard to say but you can get the LED ones in varrious wattages 3, 4. 6, 8, 9 etc and as a general rule of thumb 1Watt of LED is equal to 10Watt in old money. Colour temp of the LEDs can also affect how bright they seem.

The design of the bulb can also make a difference depending on the style of the light fitting. Many led replacement bulbs have a blank section at the base, so the radiant arc is mainly upwards. Ok for pendants, but not so good for table lights, standard lamps and ceiling fittings where the bulbs point upwards. I’ve taken to using filament-style led bulbs which mimic old style incandescent bulbs and have a much bigger radiant arc. Last ones I got were 8 watt and are subjectively much better than 60 watt incandescent bulbs. A bit pricey, but if they last as long as advertised they will pay for themselves in power saving.

Dependng on the bulb size/shape finding ones with a decent wattage can be challenging. Finding them with both a decent price and with a meaningful warranty is even more challenging as is finding one's that last anywhere near the claimed lifespan.

You can buy LED bulbs that are equivalent to 100W and 150 W ... I had to fit them at my Mum's house

I got mine from Amazon

Dave

Recently bought 100w 240v Traffic Signal GLS BC -B22d Pearl. Packaging clearly state 'not suitable for

household illumination'. This statement satisfies european legislation. Work fine in my front room.

Regards, Lynne.

I bought LED 14W bulbs from ASDA. They give a light output like the 100W filament bulb. Colin

I've just bought some 106W halogen bulbs from thelightbulb.co.uk , equiv to 150W for a limited sight lady friend of ours.

So, if you look you can still buy proper bulbs.

Gentlemen,

I have a question please, I have as stated in a previous post, a 240VAC, 85 watt generator, LED lights would be good for a display but the generator is 60Hz not 50Hz, would these LEDs work with the generator.

Martin P

what does it say on the bulbs you want to use ?

the ones I have are for 220 - 240V 50/60 Hz

if they have a simple capacitive dropper the frequency will make a difference

as will the waveform sineousodal or stepped square wave

John

LED tend to be sold as watts & lumens.

60W tungsten is supposed to be around 800lumens

ikea claim their 1000L is 11watts but you have to get Edison screw lights

Screwfix claim 800L is 9w led or 60w tungsten the bulb fits bayonet and costs a tenner for 5

Edited By Dave Halford on 30/03/2019 21:02:27

In Sept 2017 I bought 3 off 18Watt 2700K LED lamps with a 5 year warranty and badged as Bell. These were described at the time as the brightest they had and yes they certainly are bright which was what we needed for the room they are used in. No idea what the lumens are.

Unfortunately, within a few months two of the lamps failed - intermittently flickering off. Both were replaced under warranty. Since then, no problems.

Peter G. Shaw

Edited By Peter G. Shaw on 31/03/2019 09:34:07

Necessity may require incandescents for some applications, but it is now downright 'anti-planet' to be wasting energy resources and adding more CO2 to the already over-burdened atmosphere!

I wish LEDs were a factor of ten better than incandescents, but unfortunately not that good (yet). If they were, then people ignoring a saving of 90% on their lighting electricity costs must be nuts!

LEDs are DC driven items (the word 'diode' gives a clue) so it matters not a jot what frequency a generator may be producing, as the voltage needs to be reduced to a very low level (forward voltage of a silicon diode junction is about 0.6V and if you want continuous light (as opposed to a 50 or 60Hz flashing rate) rectification is required.

Drivers for LED lamps have a current usage, too, of course. So purely DC driven LEDs are actually more efficient than those using mains derived power.

Spoke too soon didn't I - see two posts above.

Another of these high power LED's has failed, this time with a definite slow flash right from switch on.

Having done a small amount of reading, I am now thinking that the problem is one of heat in that the heat generated by the control electronics cannot escape fast enough. Interestingly, the same reason was given as a reason for early failure of CFL's, something we have experienced in this same light fitting and which was the reason for moving on to LED's.

Now I know some of you will now be thinking that maybe the fitting is at fault. From my reading, I suspect that it was originally designed for incandescents where the excess heat is to some extent radiated away. In any case, incandescents do not have electronic circuitry which may be damaged by excess heat, hence the excessive heat was immaterial.

Perhaps a new fitting, or maybe two, is on the cards.

Oh well, onwards & upwards.

Peter G. Shaw

Same here Peter - I replaced all our existing bulbs around the house with LEDs about a year ago. All have been fine except those in 'enclosed' light fittings (such as the kitchen) where three out of the four there have failed recently. I've concluded they (LEDs) need lots of ventilation & cooling. I was kind of hoping that being lower powered - they would run cooler - but apparently not cool enough.

Fortunately (?) I kept the all previous fluorescent (CFL) type bulbs from around the house and I've used those as replacements where the LEDs have failed & frankly they did seem to last longer. A backward step I'm afraid but it will have to do until I can replace the enclosed fittings for something better.

Regards,

IanT

.

The root of the problem with retrofits is, I believe, that the heat is emitted from a different location

• With an incandescent bulb, the base is cool and the filament is hot
• With an LED uniit, the forward emission is cool, but the base is hot

If the fitting was originally designed for incandescent, it may not be able to dissipate even the much lower wattage of the LEDs.

MichaelG.

A month or so ago my LED flood light in the workshop died, I pulled the little power supply out, and couldn't get a voltage from it. I replaced it with a transformer type wall wart, lights on all OK, plus I'v got rid of the RFI that used to upset the workshop radio. The new supply is same voltage, but rated at about double the current.

Ian S C

The LED power supplies generally use a DC-DC converter, and so are not very sensitive to mains frequency or waveform. But some of them (including I suspect some built in to bulbs) are very iffy - I had one, about the size of a boot polish tin, fail in my loft making a very loud brown smell - scary. But other than that I've had very few failures.

Temperature is the death of LED lighting. The hotter it gets the quicker they fail. The usual quoted lifetime is for an LED in isolation. Put two or three together and the lifetime plummets.

There are some very dubious Chinese LED lamps on the market too. They use poor quality LEDs. Buy a major brand LED lamp. At least you should get some recompense in the case of early failure.

Andrew

Roughly 10 year's ago I thought I'd go all LED when I built this house. I liked the look of the new (at the time) surface mounted diodes and ordered around 30 direct from China. Couldn't get them here! Posty didn't like it much as they were all posted individually! They were about £2 each delivered direct from Hong Kong, and to date they have performed perfectly. I hope I haven't spoken too soon! You must order the right colour though with LED's warm white or daylight. I find daylight are just too bright for normal use. Nowadays you can get dimmable versions, but I haven't tried those yet.

On the other hand I bought a 'dusk till dawn' LED bulb from Lidl's in November for the outside and put it in the outside lamp. It failed very quickly for some reason, so I called Lidl and they ordered another direct from Germany and that failed after about fortnight. They have just ordered another replacement under warranty too.

In Spain I buy all manner of LED bulbs from the Chinese Bazaars and they all work perfectly, and cheap. You can buy converters for fitting bayonet or screw type bulbs and that saves money too. Win win really.