Any lighting experts here? Replace kitchen halogens with LED

[FluffyChicken]

Best thing is get rid of the Lv transformer and go with mains, it's a myth that LV downlight are more efficent than mains (ask any lighting designer!) Get some GU10 lampholders (no need to change the light fitting. Don't bother with LED's if you have the space above the light fitting, e.g not an enlosed type. Go for cold cathode or compact flurescent (CF) the best brand to look at are Megaman or Phillips.

It's not efficiency as you loose out on the 240V to 12V converter, the 12V do give a better light than the 240V though, that is better from my view point.

 

[hamster]

I went with LEDs 3 years ago - paid themselves back in 6 months on the electricity bill. A bit dim and purply.

Lest year I went with a second generation which were B+Q which are much better, more yellow and brighter. Actually I'm pleasantly surprised how good they are. I added a couple of the CCFL ones for critical task areas, e.g. over the sink.

The biggest problem with the cheap LEDs from China (tend to be ebay etc) is a 50% brightness falloff in the first 1000 hours or so.

 

[jez-4-bikes-max]

Aha!

I bought 100 quids worth of energy saving dimmable halogen Gu10s from my local lighting place. These are essentially like florescent strip lamps in a small coil and are slighgtly deeper than conventional bulbs.

They worked out at around 8 quid a pop.

They are pretty good- very white light though, bit wierd at first. Also my dimmer doesnt really like them

These are fine for the kitchen, but I need 18 for the living room and this could prove even more costly...

I would like to get dimmable, LED, yellowy light variants that cost less than a fiver a pop ideally.

 

[kaiser]

I've got the bulbs through, the second one with more leds is a pain in the arris to fit if you fitting is the clip type. Other than that there fine, they do have a bluish tinge as said. I'm going to order 2 more 20 led ones and replace 5 of my 9.

 

[orange71]

[keeping an eye on this]