LED downlights

[ppppenguin]

There are many LED lighting products on the market that make excessive claims for light output, light distribution and colour rendering. The sort of claim "equivalent to a 50W halogen" is what you often find and it's often completely spherical and plural Overclaiming like this gave CFLs a bad name too.

A couple of years ago I bought a number of these downlights: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/LTFRD12WW.html

There is no doubt that they perform well. Light output (at least the equal of 12V 50W halogen) and distribution is good, colour rendering OK though not quite up to halogen. But there has been a serious reliability problem. Of the 18 that I've bought, 2 were dead on arrival. 6 out of 8 that I fitted at a friend's house died after about a year and now some of the ones at my house are starting to die too.

Full marks to TLC for replacing the faulty units - they have a 5 year guarantee. This time around , although only 2 are giving trouble they offered to replace all 10, an offer that I'm accepting. I should get the replacements tomorrow and will return the old ones next week.


TLC admit that there was a large batch made with components that weren't adequately rated. Probably capacitors is my opinion. Many aspects of the design are right. Notably the electronics is in a separate box to the actual LEDs so the LEDs don't overheat the electronics. There is also ample heatisnking on the LEDs. AFAIK, current production is fine and they should last for many years.

They now have an even brighter version: https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/LTCFD12WW.html Though at that brightness you'll need to think carefully about how many you need. With a high ceiling you can put them further apart. Doesn't work with a low ceiling as the beam angle is too narrow. You'll just be using lots of them and dimmers. You might just as well have used lower power and cheaper fittings.

[Murphyv310]

Hi.
In all we have 16 GU10 LED lamps in the house. All were cheaper than the ones in the link Jeffrey.
I've consistently bought my lamps from CPC in the main as I have an account.
The ones in the Kitchen are 4.5 watts each, they are supplemented with LED strip lights under the units that I made up my self from a 10 meter LED roll. These can be cut and are easily soldered once the plastic covering is removed from the flexible print. I made a simple linear 12v PSU using a good old fashioned mains transformer rectifier, smoothing and discreet regulation. This has been in use now for 5 years and is 100% reliable. The strips are rated for 12v but I am running them at 11v, there is a tiny reduction in light output but I really think this has been the reason for the excellent reliability.
We also have LED BC lamps elsewhere in the house, in table lamps and fitted to the ceiling roses. Two bulbs stand out as excellent, the ones offered from Lidl on occasions, 10 watt in warm white and CPC's Pro Elec 12w 6000K. The Pro Elec is used on the top of the stairs for the safety aspect, light output is well in excess of a 100w incandescent bulb, its just a little too harsh though.
Overall I've had three LED failures in the last 5 years, these fortunately were older "bulbs".

[ppppenguin]

The 4.5W GU10 LEDs are fine but probably equivalent to only about 25W of 12V halogen. There is some merit in putting a larger number of lower rated downlighters in a ceiling, especially if the ceiling is quite low. This will give more even light distribution.

There's no doubt that LED lighting is getting better and better. I haven't used one yet but you can now get LED lamps that are sensible drop in replacements for traditional 100W GLS. In other words about 1300lm, warm white with decent distribution of light. Some are even dimmable though you really need leading edge dimmers for this. Leading edge dimmers are nicer anyway when they are suitable as they don't buzz.

The one place in the house where I'm still using incandescent lamps for a good reason is in my lounge where I've fairly recently put up some 1930s glass bowl fittings. Really want 150W bulbs on dimmers here so am using 105W halogens. These are the size and shape traditional 100W GLS and give a very nice controllable light, not far short of a 150W GLS. Can't easily do it with LEDs yet. Maybe a pair of 12W dimmable LEDs on a 2 way BC adaptor at some point in the future.

Next LED lighting project is the illuminated bench magnifier I mentioned elsewhere. I'll get 8x G4 LED capsules and arrange them where the old ring fluorescent used to be. 12V PSU in the box where the florrie control gear is. Seeing as something is duff, either the tube, choke or both it's worth doing the conversion. Flicker free, brighter than the florrie and instant start.

PS: These seem to be rather good value, seeing as you can pay this much for a single G4 capsule LED. The cob type seem right for the reflector assembly where the light from all sides will make a contribution. All the way from China.
http://www.lightinthebox.com/g4-3w-240-2...rrency=GBP&litb_from=paid_adwords_shopping

[Refugee]

I have for some time been pondering over converting the entire lighting circuit to low voltage with one big laminated transformer to feed the lot.
My home made offerings in low voltage are 24 volts and I have a 500VA laminated transformer in my box of bits to do it with.

[ppppenguin]

The order from Lightinthebox has just arrived. Sending date was 12/6 so that's not bad especially with xmas in the way. Not well packed but they'll have survived OK. Just tried one on a bench PSU. Just under 70mA at 12VDC. Claimed as 1W bulbs so that's close enough. Looks nice and bright with OK colour temperature. Won't be able to assess colour rendering until after dark.

I paid £4.20 for 10x including delivery which appears to have been via Deutsche Post. Gone up slightly now: http://www.lightinthebox.com/g4-3w-240-2...rrency=GBP&litb_from=paid_adwords_shopping

The main problem with Lightinthebox is that requests to stop sending marketing emails don't work. You can click on unsubscribe or change preferences on your account and it makes s*d all difference.

[ppppenguin]

The black plastic loop is from a useless indoor TV aerial. The 10x LEDs are cable tied to the loop which in turn is cable tied to the clips that used to hold the fluorescent. I reduced the voltage considerably for the photo but even so the camera was a bit confused. Difficult to assess the brightness but I'm sure it's at least as good as the original circular fluoresecent must have been. Total consumption not much over 500mA at 12V. Need to find a suitable transformer or wall wart. The LEDs are rated to run on AC or DC but I'd like to see if they flicker before comitting to AC. One of the little toroids I was advertising here might do just nicely. Otherwise a 12V wall wart which I'm sure I've plenty of in the stores.

[Yorkie]

In our kitchen we have four downlights which were fitted by the builders when the house was built in 1991.  They swivel like eyeballs, but we never adjust them. They use 60 Watt R80 spotlight reflector bulbs, which seem to last little more than a year and are becoming harder to find. I've attached a pic to show what they're like. The bezels are about 125mm diam, so I guess that the apertures in the hollow plasterboard ceiling will be about 100mm.  I've been considering for some time that it might be a good idea to replace them, but I was put off by a neighbour's experience - he fitted what I assume are CFLs, and when he turns them on they take several minutes to come up to full brightness, but the LED ones that Jeffrey bought would seem to be a suitable replacement for our aging R80s and would seemingly fit the apertures in the ceiling:

https://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/LTFRD12WW.html

Any thoughts anyone please?

[ppppenguin]

The LED downlights that I bought have an optional extra plate available so that they will fit the larger holes from R80 fittings etc. The standard plate is for holes that take ordinary fixed GU10/MR16 fittings.

[Terry]

... I've been considering for some time that it might be a good idea to replace them, but I was put off by a neighbour's experience - he fitted what I assume are CFLs, and when he turns them on they take several minutes to come up to full brightness ...

That was quite a problem with the early CFLs and possibly still is with some types but all the CFLs we've got in use here, from a variety of sources, are fine.

If in doubt, I'd canvas other peoples' experiences with different makes and types - assuming you still want to go down the CFL route, that is.

[ppppenguin]

Some CFLs are very slow. I've got some in my bedside lights where the slow start is pleasna on the eyes. The fastest I've seen are the Philips "Turbo". Or was it "Tornado".