changing halogens to energy efficient SMD - few questions

[wigwam12]

In the house I have just purchased there are LOADS of halogens everywhere.
I would like to swap these out for energy efficient SMD ones.
Have a few questions please:

They are a mixture of GU10s and MR16s in the various rooms:
MR16s in the kitchen/bathrooms and study
GU10s in the hallways.

Will I be able to swap in SMD MR16s or will it involve updating transformers?
(will I just have to suck it and see?)

For the bathroom ones will I have to get glass-covered SMDs? (currently the one over the shower is sealed the rest are in normal enclosures and are standard halogens hence have a glass front.
Non-covered SMDs seem aplenty on eBay but the glass-covered MR16s look to be much more expensive.

Finally can anyone give me any insight in the "colour temperature" of warm white vs "pure white"?
I understand warm is better for bedroom/living room.
was thinking of "pure" for the kitchen and probably bathrooms (I am possibly wrongly thinking pure will give a "brighter" light)?
What about hallways?

Thanks

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

Your transformers will need to be LED completable.
Warm white are normally a yellowish type of white, the cool whites are blueish kind of white. Then daylight white, which is closer to white than the others.
http://www.led-lighthouse.co.uk/warm-white-natural-or-pure-white

Any fitting in rooms of high humidity, should comply to part C of the building regulations.

 

[RF Lighting]

It will depend on the type of transformer installed as to whether it will require replacing. If it's an old wire wound type it should be ok. If it's a newer electronic type, it will probably require replacement.

The enclose type of lamp will most often be required to prevent the passage of moisture into the roof space above the light.

I personally would go for warm white everywhere. The pure or cool white lamps seems a very harsh light to me, but you do get more lumens-per-watt with cool white.

Be very careful buying the lamps off ebay as there's a lot of chinese rubbish on there that will put you off LEDs for life.

Stick to a known brand such as philips and expect to pay around £5-£10 per 6W to 8W lamp

 

[wigwam12]

Thanks guys.
I will be trying to do this slow and steady.

The wires to the MR16s are a mixture: old wire type in the bathrooms and kitchen and newer looking "cord" type in the office conversion.

Noted re Ebay - I was planning to stick to ones advertises as CE compliant and thet are still loads cheaper than the £8+ I see elsewhere?

Re enclosures - in time I do plan to have all the bathroom and kitchen enclosures swapped out but right now they are the ones that are held in with the circular coil. Seem to have been okay for the previous owner and me so far.
But does it mean I should NOT get any uncovered SMDs for these areas then?

 

[RF Lighting]

It's the ones with cooling fins like below you can't use as warm moist air will get through the fins into the roof void.

You should use solid lamps like this:

I forgot to say, you need about an 8W lamp for a similar light output to a 50W halogen lamp.

 

[wigwam12]

Useful to know - thanks I will ai for that wattage.
So would something like this (no fins but no cover) be okay?
View media item 54242

 

[RF Lighting]

From a moisture POV, they will be the same as your existing glass lamps, so should be ok. Not sure what they'll be like for light output though.

 

[wigwam12]

I will make sure I get the ones with high 5050 SMD density and at least 400l

 

[RF Lighting]

I've not tried that type of lamp, so if you don't mind, please report back and let us know what you think of them.

 

[wigwam12]

Will do!

 

[OwainDIYer]

Noted re Ebay - I was planning to stick to ones advertises as CE compliant

"CE" means "Chinese Export"

 

[wigwam12]

I've not tried that type of lamp, so if you don't mind, please report back and let us know what you think of them.

I sent the warm whites one back as they were not bring enough.
Have bought 5 of the 8W LED as above to try and will also buy an SMD Day white one to assess its brightness

 

[RF Lighting]

What wattage were the warm white ones?

 

[wigwam12]

7.5W
I do think the Day white might be brighter but these are not as bright as normal 50w halogens and were a little too yellow.

I am worried though the day white will have too much of a bluish twinge
On eBay I just cant find any Natural white or cool white (in the ~5k range)
Elsewhere prices are pretty steep.