Halogen ban

[Craig]

Anybody here spot that halogen lamps are banned as of now? With strip fluorescent lights to follow.

The aim, according to the Government is to reduce greenhouse emissions, and save customers money.

Let's unpack that. The ban on halogen and strip lights will reduce emissions by 1.26 million tons per annum, or 1.26/70 tons per person per annum = 0.018 tons

Current greenhouse gas emissions in the UK, 6.8 tons per capita. So banning these lights will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 0.26%.

Plus halogen lamp manufacture is mature, and cheap to manufacture. LED replacements have hidden energy cost in manufacture - semiconductor clean rooms and hazardous chemicals such as arsenic, gallium and indium.

And of course they are (currently) 5x the price of the halogen lamp.

Craig

[Murphyv310]

I wonder if that's across the board.
I see car halogen bulbs going up in price or even getting harder to obtain.

[ppppenguin]

50W halogen costs about £1 and last 1000hr during which it uses 50kWh. About £7.50. Total £8.50.

LED equivalent costs about £5, uses less than 10W, lasts 25000hr+ So for 1000hr it costs 20p for the lamp, £1.50 for electricity. About £1.70 total.

6 of them in a kitchen burning for 2000hr per year. LEDs save you over £80. Plus less hassle with lamp changing.

I've been using LED downlights to replace halogen since they were way more expensive than they are now. They've earned their keep many times over.

For floodlights with linear halogens the sums are similar.

I don't like burning money, which is what halogen lamps are doing.

Fluorescent tubes are fragile and contain mercury. Though they are fairly efficient. Commercial users have already mostly abandoned them. LEDs are cheaper to run and the re-lamping costs are much lower. I've got a few fluorescents in the garage and loft areas. The tubes will last a long time yet and get replaced by LEDs when I run out of spares. Which may not be in my lifetime.

[Murphyv310]

I've been using LED since moving here in 2006. I've had two failures but within weeks of purchase. Did upgrade some LED spotlights a year ago with ones that used less power and gave considerably more light. There is only one filament bulb in the house and its in the oven!!

[ppppenguin]

I'll up the stakes to 2 filament bulbs! One in the oven, the other in the microwave. Though the latter need not be filament as it's outside the cavity.

Actually there's a 100W GLS in a rarely used inspection lamp too. I've got a box of assorted filament lamps. Some are in a lamp limiter.

There are even a couple of horrible CFLs lingering in rarely used places.

For lower power LEDs you can't beat Poundland.

I've had some early LED failures. These were on some expensive fittings supplied by TLC wholesalers. They were replaced without question, along with all the others I had from the same batch. They acknowledged a manufacturing batch fault and did the right thing.

[BusyBee]

I did hear that they were being phased out some time ago. These days I prefer LED's but, although I haven't looked recently, it has sometimes been difficult to find high output types. I have come across failures too but luckily not recently.

Tracy

[ppppenguin]

Apart from online, I've found that B&Q stock a good range of LED lamps. Including plenty that are the true equal of 100W GLS.

[Craig]

Well yes - the vast majority of our house is LED, first in our kitchen renovation 8 years ago, and then progressively though the bathroom renovations and elsewhere in the house. They obviously get used lots, particularly in the Winter.

The one gotcha was the failure of one single kitchen LED unit. The ones up there were of course obsolete, and replacing the failed one with something with the same nominal colour temperature looked totally different - stuck out like a sore thumb. So I had to replace all 8 of them. How's that for the green credential of LED lights?

However - my garage workshop has a bunch of lights that I installed above machines, all of which were G10 two pin base halogen. So when they go pop I have to either stump up a fiver each for LED versions, which on the usage hours I estimate will last me to age 90 or more. So for that particular low-use application I'm sticking with halogen, and stocking up.

Craig

The thing I really object to is not so much the cost saving, it is the Government's argument regarding greenhouse gases - which at 0.26% saving is trivial.

[Nick]

If anyone knows of a good & reliable LED equivalent of a 500W halogen security flood , that would be great!

BTW. I can use Google just fine, but I'm hoping for actually experience with one!

[peter scott]

I have a large stock of 50w MR16 Halogens and I don't think I've had to replace more than one in 20 odd years despite having twelve in active use and another 6 less active. What I am now finding is failures of the electronic 12 volt transformers two of the same type failing recently after 20 years service.

Peter