LED bulbs keeps dying

[Actionmainly]

I have a five bulb light fitting in my living room. I previously had 5 energy saving style bulbs in it of which 3 died. I then replaced these over time with 3 LED bulbs which stopped working after about 6 months. I then put in another 3 LED bulbs and again they are now still working but the l8ght they are giving out is maybe about 80% dimmer than they were 6 months ago. The remaining 2 energy saving bulbs are still going strong.

I appreciate I am not buying the most expensive LED bulbs but I am wondering if I could be putting in the wrong type of bulb e.g. too powerful or too weak. The LED bulbs at the moment are E14 fitting 5.5W 470lm 47mA non dimmable. The energy saving bulbs are E14 7W 60mA.

I get that it could just be the bulbs are poor quality but regardless I would expect the LED ones to last longer than 6 months? That's 6 now.

 

[Iggifer]

What brand of lamps are you putting in? Where are you buying them from?
How much are you paying?

There’s not really such a thing as too powerful or too weak when it comes to LED lamps, other than the brightness of them. Any decent uk fitting will cope with any LED lamp of the correct fitment and voltage you put in it.

 

[Actionmainly]

Originally had energizer bulbs I think. The current ones are Luceco bulbs from Maplin which had good reviews.

 

[333rocky333]

Do these fittings have shades and what is the lamp orientation,Ie is the E14 lamp base at the bottom or the top when in the fitting, heat generated often causes premature failing.
I assume your not trying to dim them

 

[Iggifer]

Luceco are fairly decent - they're not top of the range but they're also not car boot quality.

Rocky might have a point. Heat may be your issue

 

[Actionmainly]

The centre of the fitting has about 30cm long arms which extend out to the bulb fitting. Where the bulb screws in is covered by frosted glass although it is not totally encased and the bulb itself has about 5-7cm space around it's circumference. The energy saving bulbs are hot but I would expect that. The LED bulbs ate not hot to touch although if I unscrew one the metal screw fittimg on the bulb is hot to touch. The bulbs screw in at about a 30 degrees with the bulb pointing down the angle i.e. towards the floor.

 

[jj4091]

Are you sure the bulbs are failing & it is not just a bad connection in the lamp holder. Have you tried removing & refitting?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Are you sure the bulbs are failing & it is not just a bad connection in the lamp holder. Have you tried removing & refitting?

Whssign

• Taylortwocities
• 16 Jul 2016

What he said

The screw-in lamp holders do get weak over time. Sometimes it is necessary to use long nosed pliers (power off!) and pull up the centre contact a bit.
LED lamps run on low current, so any bad connection will stop them working.

 

[ericmark]

I have the same type of bulb in same type of shade however the base of the bulb is at bottom so light is reflected off the ceiling, started in the room as new build 1979 with 2 x 100W bulbs (3200 lumen approx) around 5 years latter we had moved to three bulb fittings so 6 bulbs in the room at 60W each (4800 lumen approx) at 40W (2700 lumen approx) we found 60W a bit bright but 40W a bit dim. As we moved to energy saving we got 11W (3960 lumen approx) which never seemed bright enough and the bulbs stuck out of the shade so looked rotten, so moved to 5 bulb lamp holders and Philips 8W globe bulbs (3700 lumen approx) and the room really looked dim a huge disappointment. Then they started to fail, we had done two rooms so replaced 6 bulbs in other room with slightly physical larger bulbs from Home Bargains and used those removed as spares but still these bulbs which were claimed at our usage should last 10 years, after just 2 years of 16 bulbs just 8 still working. At this point likely three or four years ago Lidi were doing some 1.8W LED's I bought them to fit in reading lamps but while looking for replacements for living room put them in living room. I could not believe how bright they looked, so next time Lidi did bulbs got 8 x 3W that was all they had so around 2500 lumen. However like your self after they had been in a while they seemed dimmer so swapped and used the 3W in mothers house with smaller room and moved to 5W at home so 3500 lumen. I have not had a single 230 volt LED bulb fail.

However if I look at the history above at one point we went to 4800 lumen and now we have 3500 lumen which is about the same as those original twin 100W bulbs. When we dropped to 2500 lumen I think it was colour of bulb which made us consider they were brighter, and we found we needed reading lamps to read with but to walk around they were ample. In mothers house both down stairs rooms had changed from single light fittings to twin, one room has two 10W bulbs so around 1600 lumen about same as old 100W bulb and other room is 2500 lumen with 10 bulbs and it does seem we get use to the extra light and I would say look dimmer, however if I look at photographs taken the camera is using the same settings so I know really they have not got dimmer it is just me who sees them as dimmer.

The big problem is although I can get a 13W Philips bulb with either E27 or BA22d fitting with a 1521 lumen output which is nearly as bright as the old 100W bulb, one it is Philips and already bit buying Philips and two costs £8 each which seems rather a lot of money for a bulb. At 3.6W a candle LED bulb is just 72p (screwfix) so what I have done is use low wattage, but more of them. The whole idea of lighting seems to have moved to using more bulbs, and also more switching options, wall lights and ceiling lights on separate switches rather than dimming lights.

I do think LED lamps do dim with time, but if you buy same lumen as old tungsten as they settle down from original extra bright the lumen does seem to relate LED to tungsten, however it does not seem to relate CFL to tungsten.

 

[winston1]

LED lamps run on low current, so any bad connection will stop them working.

Just not true is it? The lower the current the higher impedance the circuit, so a poor connection will have less effect.

LEDs often glow dimly with no connection due to capacitive effects. This never happens with high current tungstens.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Maybe I should have said "lower current than tungsten and halogen lamps"

But thank you for another of your very helpful comments.

 

[Actionmainly]

I've tried the bulbs in the other holders but they do the same. The energy savers work regardless of where they go. Don't have any other E14 light fittings to check them with. I do have a similar light fitting in another room which has three BC fitting LED bulbs and they have been fine for over a year. Only difference is they point up.

Bit clueless at the minute. I don't wantbto just replace them for the same to happen again.

Is the answer to just go back to energy saving style bulbs?

 

[JohnW2]

But thank you for another of your very helpful comments.

I hate to have to say it but, on just this one occasion, I think it probably was a 'helpful' (at least, factually correct) comment, since, as was said, what you posted appeared to be the opposite of correct information ...

... as was said, I would have though that the lower the current being drawn, the less liklely would it be that a bad connection would cause a lamp/bulb to stop working.

Kind Regards, John

 

[bernardgreen]

the lower the current being drawn,

We could be getting into the area of wetting currents with some low power lamps.

Wikipedia saves my typing ;-- In electrical engineering, wetting current (sometimes also spelled as whetting current in archaic sources) is the minimum electric current needing to flow through a contact to break through the surface film resistance.[1] The film of oxidation occurs often in areas with high humidity. Providing a sufficient amount of wetting current is a crucial step in designing systems that use delicate switches with small contact pressure as sensor inputs. Failing to do this might result in switches remaining electrically "open" when pressed, due to contact oxidation.

( There are better sources. )

I would disagree that it applies only to "delicate" switches.

 

[Stefan888]

Hello , I am new to this forum but I would like to say that older LED lamps (starting in 2005 to 20010) were more reliable, only a few makers existed in the market, they were competing to make reliable led lamps. Now I can find led lamps even in the corner store with

Plastic housing (unacceptable)
Budget LED chips
Uncertified LED drivers
Most of the bulbs in the uk are imported from China without even basic certification.

To be honest I WEIGHT the led bulbs before I buy them. Believe it or not a quality LED Candles can be even 50gr heavier (still the same size, same lenght with the CFL) because they are made of solid aluminium casing.

Stef