Sources for and replacing halogen downlighters

[john]

The sprawling 10 bedroom retrobike mansion is a fairly new place and in common with many built in the last 15 years has a number of 50w halogen downlighters (12V MR16) in the bathroom etc. Nice and bright but not ideal when the kids leave them searing for hours at a time.

Thinking of swapping them for LEDs. Anyone recommend a source for the lamps and drivers? Know screwfix etc have them but sure there must be a cheaper specialist. Also anyone who has done this comment on how the LEDs perform and advise what colour temp you went for in the end?

 

[legrandefromage]

looking at replacing GU10s myself and have waited as not happy with any of the LED/ flourescent replacements so far.

http://www.lightingever.co.uk/salespers ... tAodgUgAAw

http://www.lightingever.co.uk/5w-mr16-l ... tAodMlAAdg

Just a few random search results

Ikea do some good LED lighting too

The thought never even occurred to me that they are AC current!

 

[The History Man]

as above. looked into this a whil;e ago and waiting for price drop and better light output/colour temp

and don't you mean bathrooms? Surely the butler would sort that.

 

[NeilM]

Colour temps of 6000K, dear god that must be horrible.

2700K is the equivalent of an old gls 'bulb' (incorrect lighting term, but if I say lamp no one knows what I'm talking about).

3500K is what most fluorescent tubes were the last time I had anything to do with interior lighting design.

So looking at what's available 3000K would give you a 'warm white' (proper fluor lamp term) colour, which I would have thought would be good in bathrooms, but possibly a tiny bit yellow for kitchens. I would want to see one in action, but 6000K strikes me as being a very harsh blue / white colour.

 

[MikeD]

Our whole upstairs is done with these:

http://www.downlightsdirect.co.uk/gu10- ... ition.html

with 3.5W 3000k bulbs. Been very impressed -- considering they're drawing less than 10% of the power of halogens they're very bright. Had no idea how many we'd need so erred on the side of caution, we've got 7 or 8 in the bedrooms and that's ample. The 3000k ones are described as "warm", although they're noticeable whiter than the crappy CFLs in the kitchen.

 

[hamster]

i started with LEDs about 7 years ago and am now on the 3rd / 4th generation. Buy from a big brand (Philips, Osram, GE) they are far better with safer drive electronics, better colour consistency and above all they keep their brightness. The cheap Chinese ones lose half their light output in the first 1000 hours.

 

[NeilM]

All light sources degrade over the first 1000 hours, and back in the day when I used to do design work, we would work out lighting levels after that 1000 hour point, based on lamp output data tested and released by the manufacturers. In fact, I think I still have some of my old lamp data books here somewhere.

 

[FluffyChicken]

Aldi Gu5.2 are nice and mine are pluging a way after quite a few month with no problems. Bright too.

For GU10 then the Homebase Dimmable 5W are what I ended up with, nice lamps, I don't dim but they where priced wrong muHAHAHA
Didn't check if they had 5.3's in but probably.


I've had plenty of others that blow, not bright etc. but these GU10 are the first acceptable ones I had. Warm White colour.

I had a lot of CFL GU10 and they are poor, slow start up, blow all the time etc. Don't bother now the LED at 5W are cheap enough.

Of course keep reciept as they have 3 to 5 year warrenties etc..

You do not need any special drivers (other than the 12V balast you'll already have for GU5.3 you have) just plug and play.


We do have some elaborate strip light setup and other patterns we are switchign to at work to replace out FT's, but probably out of the budget of a home user.

 

[hamster]

All light sources degrade over the first 1000 hours, and back in the day when I used to do design work, we would work out lighting levels after that 1000 hour point, based on lamp output data tested and released by the manufacturers. In fact, I think I still have some of my old lamp data books here somewhere.

All lights degrade throughout their lives. Incandescent lasted usually around 2000, hence the 1000 hour design point for an average. But they didn't lose HALF their output, unlike shoddily made LEDs. The good ones only lose around 5-10% in the first 1000.

The cheap ones skimp on heatsinks and the internal drivers run hot, with the lamp life also shorter.