Review Of Lighting

[securespark]

I have decided to look at my lighting to see what I can do to reduce both impact on the environment and the bills.

I have 47 light fittings (including 5 table lamps).

Everyone keeps banging on about how much can be saved with LED's, but at the price they are, I'm not yet wholly convinced.

I have some light fittings in the house that (save for replacement) cannot be "reduced" in terms of wattage, ie 2D fittings, fluorescent fittings that have the lowest wattage of lamp in them already.

These total 661W (although I could reduce the 8ft twin in the garage to a single tube each, in which case, it would be 461W).

The others are all BC fittings, save for one 500W flood.

Most already have CFL's in.

If I change these BC lamps to LED's (and the outside flood to a low energy model), I would reduce my total lighting wattage from 1829W to 873W.

I also have two broken fittings I intend to replace with low energy fittings totalling 32W.

An impressive saving.

However, the cost of parts would be: £412.20

I'd be tempted to replace each failed CFL with an LED lamp as they pop off, but I have a cupboard full of CFL's in the garage...It'd take years to do that!!

Would you replace the whole lot with LED's and be done?

 

[Monkeh]

I'd not bother touching a thing until LEDs become cheaper and more reliable (most are nasty, cheap things which don't last or look good).

At the end of the day, your 1.8kW with everything turned on is a drop in the ocean compared to the daily usage of one small factory.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I have some light fittings in the house that (save for replacement) cannot be "reduced" in terms of wattage, ie 2D fittings, fluorescent fittings that have the lowest wattage of lamp in them already.

You can get LED replacement 2D and tube lamps.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Presumably not all the lights are on all the time, so start with those you use the most.

And ditch the 500W flood for something useful like a 70W sodium.

 

[Spark123]

8ft flouro tubes are getting harder to get hold of and more expensive, last one I bought was knocking on £20

 

[securespark]

I'd not bother touching a thing until LEDs become cheaper and more reliable (most are nasty, cheap things which don't last or look good).

At the end of the day, your 1.8kW with everything turned on is a drop in the ocean compared to the daily usage of one small factory.

Thanks. The lamps I'm looking at come in at 17.11 INC dreaded each for 11W GLS type LED - Megaman dimmable. The first price I got quoted was 24 something without VAT....

Ban, thanks, I'll look at LED 2D's.

And Owain, 70W sodium is good, but might nark the neighbours. No restrike issue, though.

123, yeah, I bought some replacement 8 foots last year and they were from WF, good trade discount, £17 excluding.

 

[333rocky333]

Cef have 2d Led lamps on display and they look good, however i cant vouch for there reliability
Theres a building near me with them fitted outside i will try and get a pic one evening

 

[chapeau]

The lamps I'm looking at come in at 17.11 INC dreaded each for 11W GLS type LED - Megaman dimmable. The first price I got quoted was 24 something without VAT....

We just got a load of GU10 Megaman LED's downlighters installed into our kitchen after a recommendation from our sparky. The colour of the light and the look of the bulb passed the mrs' test (the type of LEDs you get in B and Q are just rubbish, she refused to even consider them). They look just like a halogen which other LEDs do not. The Megamans don't run hot at all which is what kills LEDs, in fact they are quite heavy with the heatsink. They are about a tenner each on the net, non dimmable, but that doesn't bother us.

He also installed some of those LED strip lights under the wall cabinets and they are pretty good to. Spendy, but a good light and evenly spread unlike the spotlights you get under there.

Also just to see what they were like, I also bought a couple of LEDs off eBay (shipped from china) for a couple of quid each and they were absolute carp. Complete rubbish. Lasted less than ten minutes.

Payback time is easy to calculate. No doubt LED prices will drop significantly over the next few years. I would recommend the ones we have got (with the proviso that we have no longevity evidence). Maybe get a couple and test them.

 

[ricicle]

And ditch the 500W flood for something useful like a 70W sodium.

Just remember the sodium light will not be able to give you regular on/off switching cycles like a TH lamp. If it is for security purposes maybe think about LED floodlighting - there are several around claiming to give output near to TH lamps of a couple of hundred watts. I have seen some pretty good ones.

 

[securespark]

Thanks, guys.

333, will nip in and look, but at CEF's prices...well, they have to pay for their personalised reg's. Nobs...

Hatman, have you got the url of the site you got yours from?

rice - what brand was the one you looked at?

 

[ricicle]

I,m not sure of the make of the ones I saw in action at our local sports centre but it was similar to this

Their GU10s are pretty good so I would imagine the floodlights are as well.

 

[RF Lighting]

I fitted a 10W LED floodlight at the back of my brothers house. I think it was about £30 from toolstation. It's switched by a couple of passives, so discharge wasn't an option. I don't really like PL floods as they take too long to light up especially in this cold weather, so I thought I'd use him as a guinea pig for LED!

It's not quite as bright as a 150W halogen flood, but lights all the back yard up perfectly well.

Depending on how much light you need / how big an area you might want to look at a 30W LED flood.

To give you an idea, my brothers back yard is about 6m x 6m, and the flood is mounted about halfway between the ground and first floor.

 

[Scoby_Beasley]

Fitted some of those Celsian 35W to a new build in the sticks. Four on the Dormers, three on the (four car) garage.

Lets just say it's a good job the house is no closer to Newcastle airport than what it is!!

 

[timbim]

Those LED floods (small source, with reflector) are extremely powerful. From experience, 10W on one of those is around 100W-150W halogen, although with a very different colour temperature.

Can be got on eBay for around £10 for a 10W unit, although you may well find that those units don't carry the approval marks you might hope for.

Stay away from the units rammed full of individual LEDs. They're nothing like as good.

 

[chapeau]

The lamps I'm looking at come in at 17.11 INC dreaded each for 11W GLS type LED - Megaman dimmable. The first price I got quoted was 24 something without VAT....

We just got a load of GU10 Megaman LED's downlighters installed into our kitchen after a recommendation from our sparky.

...
...

I would recommend the ones we have got (with the proviso that we have no longevity evidence). Maybe get a couple and test them.

So the first one started playing up last night.

Was coincidently at a pretty large lighting shop in town today and mentioned this to the guy behind the desk. He says he has GU10/MR16 LED bulbs manufactured specially for him in China so he can specify the parts etc. His take on Megaman is it's not known what LED chip they actually use and as he suspects it's a cheap one, he's not a fan. His LEDs, he claims, have a top notch chip in them. He says he has shipped 6000 out via Internet and not had one return yet.

So picked a few up, tenner each, looked really good in the shop, will replace a few halogens and see how they go.