Dark winter

[BlasterBates]

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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

[mallisarealperson]

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?

[northernladuk]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57407233

I love the idea of LED but in my experience they are quite disappointing. How do others feel?

I have over 80 spots in the house and swapped all the halogens out for LED and they are great. No problems with them at all. That said they do fail a lot more than they say they do though. Replaced more than I thought I would have to in the few years I've had them through. Went from 2.4KW with the whole house on to 320W.

Choosing the right ones is key though and I think many people will make mistakes. There is such a bewildering array of white shades, lighting angles and positioning of LED element within the unit. It did take me a bit of time to get the ones I wanted. I have fairly low ceilings so if I got the ones where the elements are right up against the glass you end up staring right at the element so had to make sure the elements were up in the bulb to get the right ones. Also got a problem that the ones I have are now difficult to get hold of.

They do present a whole new range of issues but IMO swapping to LED was the best thing we did.

[mattster]

Ours are all LED so I've installed probably about 100 in the last 4 years as we changed over after moving. If they've come on an awfully long way, I hate to think what they were like before! I've bought no-name ones from Amazon, I've bought from online LED specialists, doesn't seem to make much difference. In my experience about 1/4 will just fail within a week or a month regardless. I don't know we have any remaining from the first batch, certainly not ones that are on regularly, which was 4 years back. In a couple of odd spots, I have filament bulbs that came with the house that are still working... not sure if it's just poor QC but the rhetoric "greener, cheaper and better" is perhaps scoring 1/3 so far

THe biggest inconvenience is they're always slightly different. I have 3/5 bulb chandelier type fittings and seemingly invariably, one bulb will go early. And then I can't find the same one - it'll be a different brightness/colour slightly and bug me. I think in future I'll buy 2X as many as needed... or try to standardise through the house better rather than different bulbs in each room

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.