Are LEDs a big con?

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I would agree I also have problems with G9 LED, but rest the main advantage is they never seem to fail, had one which replaced a fluorescent tube fail and some really cheap toys from pound world 0.58W G5.3 MR16, other than those no failures, that is over now 4 years, never used halogen, still have a stock of pearl tungsten bulbs, but only use is to keep beer warm when brewing, and at moment don't need that much heat so using a 11 watt CFL.

As @AndyPRK says most my lamps from B&M or Home Bargains some were from Lidi, the odd one (fluorescent tube replacement) from Screwfix failed. I will admit they don't on balance save energy, however oil is cheaper than electric, so they do save money, but the thermostat had to be changed for a programmable type as want the temperature higher in the evening and the radiant heat from tungsten bulbs heats the body but not the air, so does not work the wall thermostat, so means near instant night time comfort temperature rise as you enter a room and switch on lights, which is not affected by air changes, ideal would be LED in summer and tungsten in winter, but since lights used less in the summer tungsten lights are really energy saving, but don't save money as gas and oil cheaper than electric.

I have never liked quartz bulbs, one is the danger all quartz bulbs have to have a glass to stop hot bits dropping on carpet, and also glass to stop the harmful rays from them, also you want a defused light so unless the glass is pearl then it needs a globe over the bulb to disperse the light, quartz lights 25 foot or higher are OK but not really for in door use, seems some one conned the government into allowing them.

I found the so called energy saving bulbs, were not as bright in the same fitting as tungsten, so to swap had to change light fittings, also they are directional, so the single 100 watt pearl tungsten bulb in living room has been changed for a chandelier with 8 x 6W LED bulbs with base at bottom shining up onto a white ceiling to give a good spread of light, so 100 watt replaced with 48 watt, that is not what the charts say is required as equivalent, but the single 100 watt bulb was not really good enough anyway, but I don't have any 150 watt bulbs.

Some rooms have been straight swap, previous owners had quartz bulbs everywhere, still a few kicking around, and I have such a stock of tungsten bulbs and the rooms where not changed are not used much, so likely now wait until tungsten stock used up.

As to your post, transformers do tend to buzz, but whole idea of the transformer was to allow the bulb to use a thicker filament so they last longer, and in the main transformers were replaced with electronic units which also regulated the average voltage as quartz bulbs must run as a set temperature to have a reasonable life, so should not be dimmed, and the regulated power supply (electronic transformer) often has an output in the kHz range and a minimum output, so in the main not suitable for LED one because of the frequency which can cause radio wave transmission and also LED's don't use enough power, and also the switch mode power supply can interfere with the pulse width modulated driver built into the LED bulb, so if extra low voltage LED lamps are used, either a toroidal transformer or a DC supply needs to be used. Many LED lamps are marked 50 Hz.

I think anyone claiming LED or CFL are energy saving should be reported to trades descriptions as they are in the main only energy saving when used outside or in the summer, but they are money saving and maintenance saving, I remember when we had all tungsten once a fortnight I needed to change a bulb some where, I bought packets of 10 mixed bulbs 40, 60, and 100 watt and had a cupboard with spare bulbs and fuse wire, as when they failed often there was ionisation (the big flash) which could rupture the fuse, even worse when I moved to a MCB, quite common for a failing bulb to trip the braker.

Once one has had LED's for a few years you forget how bad it was, I fitted loads of dimmer switches back in the old days of tungsten as the bulbs lasted longer (except for quartz) they have all now been removed, and look back on it as a 70's fad.
 
I know i am now tempting fate, but all the led bulbs in my house are from poundland. apart from two that didnt work from the start i havent had one failure in three + years.
 
Wondered what people in the trade reckon. Am I just unlucky or is this "thousands of hours" claim nonsense? Any advice where to get good ones... Ours are mostly b22?

3 -4 years ago I replaced all of my in regular use lamps with LED versions, about 10 or 15. We don't make much use of the centre ceiling lighting, so those were left as bright CFL's. No point in replacing lamps which are only on for a matter of minutes per week. We used to have two 150w flood dowlighters in the kitchen (bad idea), I replaced those with 18w LED floods (an even worse idea. I have since (6 months ago) replaced the pair of downlighters with a pair of mushroom shaped 18w LED fittings, these have made my kitchen light, bright and very well lit. The changes have made a worthwhile difference to my consumption, but I have had one failure.

That was a very cheap corn-cob lamp I bought specially for a lantern style fitting which illuminates part of my drive. That is powered by a solar clock, so on from dusk until dawn. It lasted 12 months before failing and I replaced it with a more standard LED bulb, which has been fine ever since.
 
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Reading other replies it does seem it is the expensive lights which fail, cheap it seems is good with LED! Only bulb/tube other than toys which I have had fall cost around £20, the 5 foot LED tube to replace the fluorescent, only reason I did not use a fluorescent is could not find a 65W fat fluorescent tube, and the thin 58W did not last, needed the ballast changing and I was too lazy to remove the fitting and put a new HF electronic ballast in it. I could by pass the ballast without removing the fitting.

Second tube much cheaper still from Screwfix seems to have lasted, but not my worry any more, son has that house. He moved in when Coronavirus started to isolate from rest of family as he has to continue working, once scare is over rest of his family will join him and he will sell his house, but work on both houses are near stop now, as non essential stuff is getting harder to safely get, and paint is not essential.
 
Most things are, there are some exceptions (bigger radiators, etc) but you can click and collect most things. It is for "Essentials" supposedly, but it doesn't really work in their favor to be knocking items off peoples orders because they dont think they are "essentials", even the government has conceeded that if a store is open its going to be selling anything it has in stock. I'd class lights as esstential anyway, people cant be expected to sit in dark for weeks!
 
Maybe they relaxed it... When they initially brought in the changes it seemed most things were omitted. I'll have to check again.
 
Am I just unlucky or is this "thousands of hours" claim nonsense?

My LED bulbs are all OK except where I’ve put them in bathroom ceiling downlighters. These old fittings don’t seem to have anything above them (I didn't fit them!) and the back of the bulbs gets buried under the soundproofing material from the void above. I believe that as a result they overheat and die.

(LEDs don’t get as hot as halogens, but they need to be kept cooler, so they need just as much ventilation.)
 
I know i am now tempting fate, but all the led bulbs in my house are from poundland. apart from two that didnt work from the start i havent had one failure in three + years.
Anecdotes are anecdotes, but ...

... having had early disappointments (early failures) with expensive major-brand LED lamps, for the last several years I have only bought "the cheapest (and nastiest?) I could find" - and, I have to say that, other than for a few very early failures (within the first few hours/days), most are still working fine after years.

Horses for courses, I suppose.

Kind Regards, John
 
My LED bulbs are all OK except where I’ve put them in bathroom ceiling downlighters. These old fittings don’t seem to have anything above them (I didn't fit them!) and the back of the bulbs gets buried under the soundproofing material from the void above. I believe that as a result they overheat and die.

(LEDs don’t get as hot as halogens, but they need to be kept cooler, so they need just as much ventilation.)
Many LED lamps seem to have about 1/3 (or more) of the "body" occupied by "power supply" equipment and heat sinks, indicating that the are going to dissipate a (possibly) significant amount of heat.

However, LED lamps with what I may call a "LED Rod" (or "filament") construction have all the "electronics" contained in the "base" (B22 or E26), indicating that not much heat is produced.
While most of these lamps seem to be designed to look like ancient Edison "carbon filament" lamps, there are some which are "frosted", so that they appear much like an incandescent lamp. (Unfortunately, these "frosted" LED "filament" lamps seme not to be as common as they were even 12 months ago?)

Whenever I have placed a LED in an enclosed fitting I have used one of these types and, so far, have not had any failures.
 
I forgot to mention in my earlier post, that 5 years ago I converted all 16 of my tourer caravan's interior lights to LED too. These were 10w halogen downlighters in eyeball fittings. All running on 12v battery/PSU, so the idea was to reduce battery power and waste heat from the lamps. I have had no failures, just a few problems with the sockets failing to make proper contact with the pins of the LED lamps - caused by oxidation due to the heat from the previous halogen lamps.
 
The main problem is people do not want to pay for expensive lamps that will last a long time. Secondly, most tend to be retrofits that aren't any good for the thermal performance that's required to keep the LEDs cool enough for long service life.

The manufacturers are simply putting out the type of devices there is a demand for.
 

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