Dark winter

[d000hg]

I agree with most of this - they either fail early, or carry on (maybe even to the quoted lifespan?). Some brands are evidently much worse than others, and QC seems to be lacking everywhere. Probably the better solution is high quality separate drivers, but all of ours are "all in one" with integrated drivers. They are certainly better than they were, and much cheaper, so I don't worry too much about longevity - I've certainly never tried returning an early failer, although probably should have. The flickering/non flickering is resolved with more expensive units, and completely solved again with separate, decent drivers. It's getting to the point where it seems to me which should have a separate 12v DC circuit run for lights, and even other gear, since so much runs on it. Not sure how feasible that is, but at least that way you could run a very high quality DC driver and not duplicate that (probably in a cheaper/worse way) in just about everything you own.

Interesting to talk about dedicated drivers, but can you buy 'normal' bulbs low-voltage or just little spots?
I don't see much difference on expensive VS cheapo bulbs though. Often it's one in a pack flickers, or hums, and the rest are OK. Had that even with a decent low-voltage driver, too.

One thing I had never realised is how hot the things get. LEDs are talked about as being so efficient but actually still produce a load of heat, and it's in the base of the bulb not the glass part. That can't be great for longevity

 

[d000hg]

Are LED bulbs the ones that take a while to reach full brightness, causing some people to leave them on rather than use when needed?

No that's some horrible old-fashioned low-energy tech... man those are depressing when you turn them on!

 

[NotAllThere]

All LEDs lights flicker, some faulty ones flicker slowly.

Or irregularly. I've added the word "noticeably" to help your comprehension. Recently bought ones have been much better, but still a small portion are fails.

No that's some horrible old-fashioned low-energy tech... man those are depressing when you turn them on!

They're fluorescent and also being phased out.

 

[DoctorStrangelove]

All your lightbulbs are belong to us.

I've got boxes and boxes of proper tungsten light bulbs and CFLs by the dozen from the last time this nonsense happened.

 

[d000hg]

They're fluorescent and also being phased out.

Indeed. On the plus side you can get LED replacements for tubes which seem good, fitted a couple in our under counter lights.

 

[mattster]

Interesting to talk about dedicated drivers, but can you buy 'normal' bulbs low-voltage or just little spots?
I don't see much difference on expensive VS cheapo bulbs though. Often it's one in a pack flickers, or hums, and the rest are OK. Had that even with a decent low-voltage driver, too.

One thing I had never realised is how hot the things get. LEDs are talked about as being so efficient but actually still produce a load of heat, and it's in the base of the bulb not the glass part. That can't be great for longevity

Yeah, don't quote me on that as if I am any sort of expert, because I'm not. I just assume that if you buy HQ drivers from somewhere like Meanwell, they would have to be better than whatever gubbins they manage to insert into a £4 bulb unit, and since you need to drive a lot of LEDs it would seem to make sense to install just a few big drivers (one per set of bulbs, I guess) than to replicate (and need to replace) the same tech in every bulb? It was presented to us as an option when we had the kitchen done, I can't rightly remember why we didn't go for it. Of course it needs to complete rewire above the ceiling so we are kind of stuck with what we have now for a while.

 

[BlasterBates]

I now have led. The modern led bulbs are no different to halogen bulbs. I don't notice any difference.

 

[Scoobos]

I also went full LED - using Osram bulbs from Argos (other stores are available). I've found them to be just as good and like how I can choose "colour tints" too. So far, in 3 years - 1 has failed out of maybe 20 or so.

 

[_V_]

As long as you avoid the unbranded super cheap Chinese marketed crap, LED bulbs I have do not flicker in any visible way, are super bright (too bright in some cases) and last many years before replacement. Why anyone would use anything other than LED is beyond me, and govt should have banned anything using more than 5w power years ago.

Be glad when all heating and lighting is super low energy and from renewables only. Anyone who isn't thinking of joining XR anyway, deserves to be put to sleep to save the planet.

 

[d000hg]

As long as you avoid the unbranded super cheap Chinese marketed crap, LED bulbs I have do not flicker in any visible way, are super bright (too bright in some cases) and last many years before replacement. Why anyone would use anything other than LED is beyond me, and govt should have banned anything using more than 5w power years ago..

5W? Do you like living in gloom or are your rooms very small? My office has 3 9W LEDs in...