LED Christmas lights - not very cheery are they?

FX_Munkee

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I think you ought to obtain planning permission to put lights outside your house, the cost of application would be 1 year's council tax, and if granted, the fee for putting them up would be another year's council tax on top of what you paid for the application. If you're willing to deface the environment the least you can do is pay into the public coffers for the right to do so. (And if you were caught doing it without planning permission, the automatic fine would be 3 year's council tax)

I have visions of you going full Basil Fawlty when the carol singers turn up at your door, complete with backing track on (low bitrate) MP3.

Phil_aka_Pip

FX_Munkee said:

I have visions of you going full Basil Fawlty when the carol singers turn up at your door, complete with backing track on (low bitrate) MP3.

lol! never had 'em at the door of my present house

Rocker

Why complicate things by mentioning a door? We simply lower the drawbridge and raise the portcullis to let visitors in...

tampaxboo

i have only ever had the oldschool classic tungsten christmas lights. pretty soft golden candletype bulbs (not flashing, that's cheapo style). but once i started getting hardcore migraines i had to give them up, much to my sorrow. any unshaded bright light can trigger one (and then i'm wrecked for ages).
i've seen the LED ones at friends and in workplaces and shops and they look bloody horrible. really icy piercing bluewhite light. not very home friendly in my opinion. clinical.

on a similar note, i only have tungsten bulbs in my flat. i abhor LED and similar ECO bulbs. a brutal quality light and some even flicker (not good if you are migraine-inclined)
tungstens don't last as long but i buy a 12 pack for a fiver (60w/100w) and that lasts a good year or so. well worth it. tungsten bulbs are happy soulful lighting. LEDs are morgue light.

another really important thing is that ECO bulbs are totally un-ECO nuclear waste dumps once they break. you can practically eat a tungsten bulb. just glass and iron. read the official disposal instructions for ECOs and you will never want one in the house again, especially if you have kids.

RandallFlagg

What cPhil_aka_Pip said:

FX_Munkee said:

I have visions of you going full Basil Fawlty when the carol singers turn up at your door, complete with backing track on (low bitrate) MP3.

lol! never had 'em at the door of my present house

What cell block are you in?

Nitefly

Rocker said:

Why complicate things by mentioning a door? We simply lower the drawbridge and raise the portcullis to let visitors in...

... and then set the hounds on them!

richardhomer

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I think you ought to obtain planning permission to put lights outside your house, the cost of application would be 1 year's council tax, and if granted, the fee for putting them up would be another year's council tax on top of what you paid for the application. If you're willing to deface the environment the least you can do is pay into the public coffers for the right to do so. (And if you were caught doing it without planning permission, the automatic fine would be 3 year's council tax)

Or failing that, straight to prison for 50 years....

Nitefly

richardhomer said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I think you ought to obtain planning permission to put lights outside your house, the cost of application would be 1 year's council tax, and if granted, the fee for putting them up would be another year's council tax on top of what you paid for the application. If you're willing to deface the environment the least you can do is pay into the public coffers for the right to do so. (And if you were caught doing it without planning permission, the automatic fine would be 3 year's council tax)

Or failing that, straight to prison for 50 years....

50 years?  Pah!  Hanging's too good for 'em!

ICBM

tampaxboo said:

i have only ever had the oldschool classic tungsten christmas lights. pretty soft golden candletype bulbs (not flashing, that's cheapo style). but once i started getting hardcore migraines i had to give them up, much to my sorrow. any unshaded bright light can trigger one (and then i'm wrecked for ages).
i've seen the LED ones at friends and in workplaces and shops and they look bloody horrible. really icy piercing bluewhite light. not very home friendly in my opinion. clinical.

Why get bright white ones? Mine are red, orange blue and green and have a nice warm light.

tampaxboo said:

on a similar note, i only have tungsten bulbs in my flat. i abhor LED and similar ECO bulbs. a brutal quality light and some even flicker (not good if you are migraine-inclined)
tungstens don't last as long but i buy a 12 pack for a fiver (60w/100w) and that lasts a good year or so. well worth it. tungsten bulbs are happy soulful lighting. LEDs are morgue light.

another really important thing is that ECO bulbs are totally un-ECO nuclear waste dumps once they break. you can practically eat a tungsten bulb. just glass and iron. read the official disposal instructions for ECOs and you will never want one in the house again, especially if you have kids.

Sorry, this is just wrong. You're probably thinking of the first generation of 'low energy' bulbs - Compact Fluorescent (CFL). These were horrible, certainly - poor light, flicker, short lifespan and contained a lot of noxious materials including mercury, so had to be disposed of as toxic waste.

LED lights are not the same thing or even 'similar' at all, they simply have a few solid-state components in them. Totally safe, nice light, very long lifespan and far more energy efficient than filament or CFL even if you include the manufacture and recycling cost.

tampaxboo

ICBM said:

tampaxboo said:

i have only ever had the oldschool classic tungsten christmas lights. pretty soft golden candletype bulbs (not flashing, that's cheapo style). but once i started getting hardcore migraines i had to give them up, much to my sorrow. any unshaded bright light can trigger one (and then i'm wrecked for ages).
i've seen the LED ones at friends and in workplaces and shops and they look bloody horrible. really icy piercing bluewhite light. not very home friendly in my opinion. clinical.

Why get bright white ones? Mine are red, orange blue and green and have a nice warm light.

tampaxboo said:

on a similar note, i only have tungsten bulbs in my flat. i abhor LED and similar ECO bulbs. a brutal quality light and some even flicker (not good if you are migraine-inclined)
tungstens don't last as long but i buy a 12 pack for a fiver (60w/100w) and that lasts a good year or so. well worth it. tungsten bulbs are happy soulful lighting. LEDs are morgue light.

another really important thing is that ECO bulbs are totally un-ECO nuclear waste dumps once they break. you can practically eat a tungsten bulb. just glass and iron. read the official disposal instructions for ECOs and you will never want one in the house again, especially if you have kids.

Sorry, this is just wrong. You're probably thinking of the first generation of 'low energy' bulbs - Compact Fluorescent (CFL). These were horrible, certainly - poor light, flicker, short lifespan and contained a lot of noxious materials including mercury, so had to be disposed of as toxic waste.

LED lights are not the same thing or even 'similar' at all, they simply have a few solid-state components in them. Totally safe, nice light, very long lifespan and far more energy efficient than filament or CFL even if you include the manufacture and recycling cost.

re christmas lights, i still don't like them even in colours. just an icy hard quality about them even through a filter colour. re lightbulbs, maybe i was muddling. the ones i meant are the ones that look like kettle elements. when they first came out council tenants on the estate where i used to live got a six a pack free as part of some eco initiative scheme. my mum opened them up and we marvelled at the newfangled wondrousness of them. then we read the instructions and it said if ones breaks clear all living things from the environment, spray with water, put on rubber gloves, put in a sealed bag and take to the nearest designated disposal centre. my mum is an earth mother type, so that already upset her. then we put them in just to see what they were like and they were freaking horrible. the room was dark for aeons, then a grisly mortuary cold light sucked all the homely golden glow feeling out of the kitchen. so those ones. one night then we went back to tungstens. LEDs i use in effects so i know they are realtively safe, but even if they are safe they are still not a nice light for reading or home vibes. prison floodlights, ok.

tampaxboo

tampaxboo said:

ICBM said:

tampaxboo said:

i have only ever had the oldschool classic tungsten christmas lights. pretty soft golden candletype bulbs (not flashing, that's cheapo style). but once i started getting hardcore migraines i had to give them up, much to my sorrow. any unshaded bright light can trigger one (and then i'm wrecked for ages).
i've seen the LED ones at friends and in workplaces and shops and they look bloody horrible. really icy piercing bluewhite light. not very home friendly in my opinion. clinical.

Why get bright white ones? Mine are red, orange blue and green and have a nice warm light.

tampaxboo said:

on a similar note, i only have tungsten bulbs in my flat. i abhor LED and similar ECO bulbs. a brutal quality light and some even flicker (not good if you are migraine-inclined)
tungstens don't last as long but i buy a 12 pack for a fiver (60w/100w) and that lasts a good year or so. well worth it. tungsten bulbs are happy soulful lighting. LEDs are morgue light.

another really important thing is that ECO bulbs are totally un-ECO nuclear waste dumps once they break. you can practically eat a tungsten bulb. just glass and iron. read the official disposal instructions for ECOs and you will never want one in the house again, especially if you have kids.

Sorry, this is just wrong. You're probably thinking of the first generation of 'low energy' bulbs - Compact Fluorescent (CFL). These were horrible, certainly - poor light, flicker, short lifespan and contained a lot of noxious materials including mercury, so had to be disposed of as toxic waste.

LED lights are not the same thing or even 'similar' at all, they simply have a few solid-state components in them. Totally safe, nice light, very long lifespan and far more energy efficient than filament or CFL even if you include the manufacture and recycling cost.

re christmas lights, i still don't like them even in colours. just an icy hard quality about them even through a filter colour. re lightbulbs, maybe i was muddling. the ones i meant are the ones that look like kettle elements. when they first came out council tenants on the estate where i used to live got a six a pack free as part of some eco initiative scheme. my mum opened them up and we marvelled at the newfangled wondrousness of them. then we read the instructions and it said if ones breaks clear all living things from the environment, spray with water, put on rubber gloves, put in a sealed bag and take to the nearest designated disposal centre. my mum is an earth mother type, so that already upset her. then we put them in just to see what they were like and they were freaking horrible. the room was dark for aeons, then a grisly mortuary cold light sucked all the homely golden glow feeling out of the kitchen. so those ones. one night then we went back to tungstens. LEDs i use in effects so i know they are realtively safe, but even if they are safe they are still not a nice light for reading or home vibes. prison floodlights, ok.

sorry for no page breaks etc but comments being yellow and weird.

Phil_aka_Pip

Just as a matter of interest, are there any nasty chemicals involved in the manufacture of LEDs or do they require mining of rare elements in places where exotic animals or tribes live?

ICBM

tampaxboo said:

re lightbulbs, maybe i was muddling. the ones i meant are the ones that look like kettle elements. when they first came out council tenants on the estate where i used to live got a six a pack free as part of some eco initiative scheme. my mum opened them up and we marvelled at the newfangled wondrousness of them. then we read the instructions and it said if ones breaks clear all living things from the environment, spray with water, put on rubber gloves, put in a sealed bag and take to the nearest designated disposal centre. my mum is an earth mother type, so that already upset her. then we put them in just to see what they were like and they were freaking horrible. the room was dark for aeons, then a grisly mortuary cold light sucked all the homely golden glow feeling out of the kitchen.

Correct - those are CFLs. Horrible things - they were promoted as the first solution for reducing energy consumption, but they were very much a backwards step - in every other way they were worse than filament bulbs.

LEDs are a *totally* different technology - the only thing they share in common is that they are also 'low energy'. In fact, they're far more efficient even than CFL. Do not confuse the two, they are not the same at all.

tampaxboo said:

LEDs i use in effects so i know they are realtively safe, but even if they are safe they are still not a nice light for reading or home vibes. prison floodlights, ok.

LED lights give a really nice light, if anything better than filaments, and good ones also don't even have the residual 100Hz flicker that filament lamps do (although nowhere near as bad as CFLs).

I can understand why you've been put off low-energy lights by the CFLs (I was), but you really should give LED a go - I've now converted my whole house and I would not go back to filament bulbs, even though I did after trying CFLs.

LEDs also use around a *tenth* of the electricity for the same light output, so you really will notice a reduction in running cost.

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Just as a matter of interest, are there any nasty chemicals involved in the manufacture of LEDs or do they require mining of rare elements in places where exotic animals or tribes live?

No more than effects pedals or mobile phones, or any other standard solid-state hardware.

Bridgehouse

Just got a set of LED Edison bulbs for outside. They are definitely warm light and cheery

Phil_aka_Pip

ICBM said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Just as a matter of interest, are there any nasty chemicals involved in the manufacture of LEDs or do they require mining of rare elements in places where exotic animals or tribes live?

No more than effects pedals or mobile phones, or any other standard solid-state hardware.

But (presumably) because they are made in huge numbers they must place large extra demand on the supply of the semiconductor material?

ICBM

Phil_aka_Pip said:

But (presumably) because they are made in huge numbers they must place large extra demand on the supply of the semiconductor material?

Quite likely, although I'm not sure how much extra demand given the size of the global semiconductor industry anyway. They also have a very long life, so replacement manufacture is minimised compared to other types.

Bear in mind that Tungsten extraction is not exactly environmentally benign either - it's a metal which is found in small quantities, so has a high waste/yield ratio when mining, and is very energy-intensive to refine because of its extremely high melting point.

randella

Bridgehouse said:

Just got a set of LED Edison bulbs for outside. They are definitely warm light and cheery

@Bridgehouse I like those, where did you get them?

Bridgehouse

randella said:

Bridgehouse said:

Just got a set of LED Edison bulbs for outside. They are definitely warm light and cheery

@Bridgehouse I like those, where did you get them?

Local garden centre. It looks like you can get them on line if you search for "Edison led lights"

midlifecrisis

Jesus prefers LEDs

randella

Cheers @Bridgehouse - I did gave a quick poke around but my search returned mostly results from the US, or indoor ones. Think I've found some now though. I was at our local garden centre yesterday buying a tree, it was like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Nothing like these though, maybe in the summer. I prefer to have a look at some things before I buy them.

I think I'm done with lights today though, Christmas or otherwise. 

A quick job this morning to stop a draught excluder sticking turned into a mammoth effort of removing the front door, planing it, repairing the frame and rehanging it. 

During which time I noticed a lightbulb had gone in the hallway. Closer inspection revealed that the previous owner of the house (we bought in the summer) had secured a steel and glass light fitting weighing about 3kg to a lath-and-plaster ceiling with two small wood screws. Only one of which was holding, and not very well. 

Trip to Screwfix in the snow. Toggle fixings. Drilling.  Swearing. Painkillers for the front door episode. Tea. More swearing. 

At least now I don't have either a draught or a potential lawsuit from a comedy visitor/light fitting on head scenario. 

So I suppose that's something.