Dark winter

[d000hg]

Don't know when you last tried LEDs, or which ones you tried, but they've come an awful long way. It is still true that cheaper LEDs (with cheaper drivers) can flicker, since they are just rectifying the AC without smoothing it - hence a 50hz or so flicker, which cna be noticeable because of the lack of persistence of LED light. Better LEDs smooth the current as well (I'm not an electronics/hardware person, but it is something like this), so you don't get the momentary drop in voltage as the AC switches. These LEDs don't flicker at all. Every bulb in our house is now LED, and although we do still have a few flickerers we will replace with better when the time comes. Don't buy the 10 year lifespan BS tho - ours seem to fail fairly regularly, but they are so cheap now I don't care.

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

[rik sherman]

I used to have halogen downlighters as my main lighting in the living room which after 2 years I changed to LED. The halogens used to fail regularly, I've not had an LED bulb fail in 6 years. Plus side have dropped from 300W to 24W, downside I need to put the heating on a bit more in the winter.

[mattster]

Don't know when you last tried LEDs, or which ones you tried, but they've come an awful long way. It is still true that cheaper LEDs (with cheaper drivers) can flicker, since they are just rectifying the AC without smoothing it - hence a 50hz or so flicker, which cna be noticeable because of the lack of persistence of LED light. Better LEDs smooth the current as well (I'm not an electronics/hardware person, but it is something like this), so you don't get the momentary drop in voltage as the AC switches. These LEDs don't flicker at all. Every bulb in our house is now LED, and although we do still have a few flickerers we will replace with better when the time comes. Don't buy the 10 year lifespan BS tho - ours seem to fail fairly regularly, but they are so cheap now I don't care.

[Paddy]

The problem is that some LEDs flicker and others don't. And it doesn't seem to matter where they're from - it seems to be the luck of the draw.

I replaced our bathroom neon tube with an LED light. It's great.

All LEDs lights flicker, some faulty ones flicker slowly.

[NotAllThere]

The problem is that some LEDs noticeably flicker and others don't. And it doesn't seem to matter where they're from - it seems to be the luck of the draw.

I replaced our bathroom neon tube with an LED light. It's great.

[Hugh Jardon]

In the words of Lennon & McCartney......

"LED it be"

[d000hg]

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?