Incandescent bulbs: will be banned from sale in the UK from September 2018

ICBM

DefaultM said:

What are some good LED bulbs to buy? I don't even know what I've got in my house. Moved in 2 years ago and only one has blown so far.

All the ones I've bought from Toolstation or Screwfix have been fine - I don't even know the brands of most of them, apart from a big 13W Philips one (same as hywelg has I think) and a few GEs. All produce good light and none have failed. Some are at least 3 years old now.

The only problems I've had were with a batch of super-cheap no-name Chinese-made 5W candle ones I got off Ebay as an experiment. About half failed quite quickly, although the other half seem to have been OK so probably a manufacturing rather than design issue.

Gagaryn

revsorg said:

Philly_Q said:

I've got an Ikea uplighter in my living room which I gave up using because the bulb cost about £15 a time and never lasted longer than 6 months.

I must find out in there's a suitable LED bulb available for it.

I got one of these for my parent's uplighter.  Might be a different fitting to yours.  It needed to be a dimmable bulb.  The new LED is much thicker than the halogen bulb it replaced so I had to remove the reflector from the light fitting in order for it to fit.  Light quality is adequate and it hasn't blown yet.

Not surprised that you incorporated the hyperlink into your text when you look at the URL!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/anal-leakage/dp/B010L8N458/

revsorg

You can type anything you like in that bit of an Amazon URL so I believe you're obligated to make best use of it.

Philly_Q

revsorg said:

Philly_Q said:

I've got an Ikea uplighter in my living room which I gave up using because the bulb cost about £15 a time and never lasted longer than 6 months.

I must find out in there's a suitable LED bulb available for it.

I got one of these for my parent's uplighter.  Might be a different fitting to yours.  It needed to be a dimmable bulb.  The new LED is much thicker than the halogen bulb it replaced so I had to remove the reflector from the light fitting in order for it to fit.  Light quality is adequate and it hasn't blown yet.

Thanks, mine is a regular lightbulb fitting, screw thread I think.  I tried putting a normal bulb in it once but it blew immediately...

It does have a dimmer, not that I ever used it, so I guess that's a consideration.

Hopefully I've still got one of the old bulbs (or an empty box), I've no idea what they were called so if I can't find one there's little chance of finding the correct LED equivalent.

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

Thanks, mine is a regular lightbulb fitting, screw thread I think.  I tried putting a normal bulb in it once but it blew immediately...

It may have been a faulty bulb, since a normal 240V bulb would not be blown by any other type of lighting fitting, although it may not necessarily work. (The opposite is not always true.)

Hattigol

People are brand-specific when choosing light bulbs? For real??

fandango

Hattigol said:

People are brand-specific when choosing light bulbs? For real??

Maybe GE is to Gibson, what Philips are to Fender?

And yes, I am aware that GE have or have sold their lighting division. Portent?

DiscoStu

I switched mine to the Phillips 2700K ones and they're brilliant. Instant on, and a bright clear light like the bulbs of old. I used CFL for years which were shit. The Phillips bulbs are not shit.

ICBM

Hattigol said:

People are brand-specific when choosing light bulbs? For real??

All incandescents were much the same, but with LEDs it does make a difference, since there appears to be quite a difference in the quality of the light and the lifespan. Given that they're fairly expensive it's probably better not to spend money on crap ones.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

Philly_Q said:

Thanks, mine is a regular lightbulb fitting, screw thread I think.  I tried putting a normal bulb in it once but it blew immediately...

It may have been a faulty bulb, since a normal 240V bulb would not be blown by any other type of lighting fitting, although it may not necessarily work. (The opposite is not always true.)

I found the last bulb I had in my uplighter - it's an "Osram Halolux Ceram 64401 Eco, 100W, E27".  

https://www.any-lamp.co.uk/osram-halolux-ceram-eco-100w-e27

When I first got the lamp it had a different type of bulb, more of an oval shape rather than cylindrical, but they stopped making them and this one was suggested by a bloke in Ryness.  I see the energy efficiency rating is only "D".

revsorg

I have found Philips LED bulbs have a shorter lifespan than other brands.  I contacted their customer services last year because I had a sequence of their bulbs go in our porch within 7 months instead of the expected 15 years. Their explanation was that our semi sealed light fitting causes a slight increase in average temperature which is the enemy of the LED. I think they were bluffing.  I replaced it with an Osram bulb and it hasn't blown yet. 

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

I found the last bulb I had in my uplighter - it's an "Osram Halolux Ceram 64401 Eco, 100W, E27".  

https://www.any-lamp.co.uk/osram-halolux-ceram-eco-100w-e27

When I first got the lamp it had a different type of bulb, more of an oval shape rather than cylindrical, but they stopped making them and this one was suggested by a bloke in Ryness.  I see the energy efficiency rating is only "D".

Halogens are only a bit more efficient than standard incandescents. The "huge energy savings" claim is total nonsense.

Still, it's a normal 230/240V bulb so putting it in the wrong fitting would not blow it, unless it was faulty. The problem is more likely to be that 100W is too high a power for the fitting.

I have to say that after using LED bulbs in the 4W-13W range for a few years, I cannot contemplate the idea of wasting ten times that much power to provide light any more. Even 40W seems ridiculous.

exocet

revsorg said:

I have found Philips LED bulbs have a shorter lifespan than other brands.  I contacted their customer services last year because I had a sequence of their bulbs go in our porch within 7 months instead of the expected 15 years. Their explanation was that our semi sealed light fitting causes a slight increase in average temperature which is the enemy of the LED. I think they were bluffing.  I replaced it with an Osram bulb and it hasn't blown yet. 

I've found the same thing. Ive now had 3 Philips GU10 lamps fail in under 24 months. Given that they are at the expensive end of the LED market that's not great performance. I've had no issues other brands fitted elsewhere in my house in similar recessed fittings so the heat argument doesn't hold water for me unless the Philips are deficient in that regard.

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

Philly_Q said:

I found the last bulb I had in my uplighter - it's an "Osram Halolux Ceram 64401 Eco, 100W, E27".  

https://www.any-lamp.co.uk/osram-halolux-ceram-eco-100w-e27

When I first got the lamp it had a different type of bulb, more of an oval shape rather than cylindrical, but they stopped making them and this one was suggested by a bloke in Ryness.  I see the energy efficiency rating is only "D".

Halogens are only a bit more efficient than standard incandescents. The "huge energy savings" claim is total nonsense.

Still, it's a normal 230/240V bulb so putting it in the wrong fitting would not blow it, unless it was faulty. The problem is more likely to be that 100W is too high a power for the fitting.

I have to say that after using LED bulbs in the 4W-13W range for a few years, I cannot contemplate the idea of wasting ten times that much power to provide light any more. Even 40W seems ridiculous.

Didn't explain myself properly, this isn't the one which blew - this one lasted a few months, as usual, then died.  Then I tried a bog-standard incandescent bulb, that was the one which immediately blew.  I think the bulbs were always 100W.

I think I'll try one of these and see how it goes...

https://www.any-lamp.co.uk/osram-parathom-advanced-classic-e27-a-13w-827-matt-dimmable-replaces-100w

revsorg

If it's an uplighter then I'm sure that's an appropriate bulb - if it's mounted vertically.  It's just worth noting that one way LED manufacturers achieve a high lumen value is to make the bulbs more directional than an incandescent bulb which shines light in pretty much every direction apart from through the screw cap.  So on that Osram bulb it has a big plastic bit that holds the electronics but also stops light shining in that direction.  The newer sort of LED bulbs that have filaments that look a bit like a traditional bulb tend to have a throw of light more like a traditional bulb.

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

Didn't explain myself properly, this isn't the one which blew - this one lasted a few months, as usual, then died.  Then I tried a bog-standard incandescent bulb, that was the one which immediately blew.  I think the bulbs were always 100W.

Faulty bulb then. There’s no way to blow a mains-rated incandescent bulb with any supply of below that voltage.

Philly_Q

revsorg said:

If it's an uplighter then I'm sure that's an appropriate bulb - if it's mounted vertically.  It's just worth noting that one way LED manufacturers achieve a high lumen value is to make the bulbs more directional than an incandescent bulb which shines light in pretty much every direction apart from through the screw cap.  So on that Osram bulb it has a big plastic bit that holds the electronics but also stops light shining in that direction.  The newer sort of LED bulbs that have filaments that look a bit like a traditional bulb tend to have a throw of light more like a traditional bulb.

It is an uplighter with a vertical bulb, sitting at the bottom of a sort of frosted-glass bowl.

Thanks chaps, I've learned a lot of unexpected and useful stuff from this thread!

boogieman

The main difference with the cheap LEDs and the more expensive ones is most of the cheapies buzz like hell if you use them with a dimmer. The better ones don’t. I’ve been using Phillips 5w GU10s for the last 3 years: we’ve got loads of downlighters in the kitchen and none have blown yet. The light output is good too, not too harsh or that sickly yellow you got with the original eco bulbs. It’s something to do with the K temperature of the bulb but I can’t remember how it’s defined. 

exocet

These are the newer version of the Philips units that I bought. I have had a few failures with the earlier version although the light quality / colour temperature is very very good - couldn't tell the difference between them and the Halogen units that I replaced. Not cheap though...especially if they fail quickly. Perhaps they have now been improved?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Philips-Master-Dimmable-Halogen-Replacement/dp/B01LXC0O4X/ref=dp_ob_title_hi

fandango

What about some more success stories for lightbulbs that’s aren’t GU10?