Lovely Lightbulbs

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Pete
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sooooooo..... B&Q now do 9w GU10's with the mini CFL in them for the very respectable price of £3.95. Mr Hyma bought them for his front room to replace the 50w ones that came with the fitting and I'm mighty impressed, they're VERY bright (unlike those crappy LED ones) and although a bit longer it does make them eaier to fit into the notoriously tricky fittings.

I'm going to get some for my kitchen, given that the 5 bulbs in there are practically on all the time due to the lack of natural light in the room the difference between 250/175w and 45w is just too tempting. (I'd already reduced it from 250w to 175w using 35w bulbs from Ikea, but then they all blew within weeks and I only had 50s left in the drawer, so its gone back up again.)

Also they claim an "up to 10yr lifespan" so if they dare blow within two years there will be stern letters being written.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
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Gavin Scott
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Hymagumba wrote:sooooooo..... B&Q now do 9w GU10's with the mini CFL in them for the very respectable price of £3.95. Mr Hyma bought them for his front room to replace the 50w ones that came with the fitting and I'm mighty impressed, they're VERY bright (unlike those crappy LED ones) and although a bit longer it does make them eaier to fit into the notoriously tricky fittings.
I use a similar one but its 11w, so they're slightly longer in the body and stick out from recessed downlighters.

Image

They're really good though. Nice light quality and bright too. 15,000 hour life and 600,000 switching cycles.
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Pete
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So to drag this topic back up from the depths of time I feel that now is the time to review the past two years in lightbulb technology.

First of all, huzzah for the appearance of the halogen capsule inside a normal bulb style lights. Obviously they don't save as much light but their colour temperature and general pleasantness has made my mood lighting far better in the front room.

Second of all, having attempted, and then returned, those shoddy old cluster LED GU10s, and having been unimpressed by the light output of the CFL GU10s, I am now curious about these new style LED ones that are appearing in places.

Firstly, there is this type http://bit.ly/srTyw0 which is rather expensive and appears to be the style used in restaurants everywhere these days. They appears however to have a rather nice colour temperature unlike the moonlight ones of old.

There also seems to be a new style appearing which has some sort of chip behind it. Does anyone know anything about these? (I believe they are referred to as "cree bulbs")

B&Q are currently selling three for a tenner which appears mighty tempting. There is one in one of the display lights and it appears quite bright but I'm not sure how it would be in a home setting.
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Dr Lobster*
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i got a bunch of these:

http://www.energylightbulbs.co.uk/produ ... Warm-White

from ebay (very cheaply from hong kong) and i've found that they have the most pleasing 'spread' of light, if not the most pleasing colour temperature.

i have seen some warm white LEDs in the form of christmas tree lights which looked almost like old style filament lamps but i've yet to see any GU10s with the same warm glow. I only replaced them with LEDs becuase I got fed up with the halogen bulbs popping every 6 months.

I hate the colour cast from fluorescent and LED lighting.
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Pete
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yes the sheer number of halogens you get through is infuriating, made even worse by the utter clart they are to actually fit.

Do you mean this sort of thing?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10x-GU10-20-3 ... 6d6fcd5816

I suppose if you are buying from eBay / PayPal you're usually quite safe as a buyer.

I need 9 bulbs for my whole flat so might consider getting a pack of ten of these.
"He has to be larger than bacon"
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dosxuk
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Pete wrote:yes the sheer number of halogens you get through is infuriating, made even worse by the utter clart they are to actually fit.
Tell me about it. A couple of the venues I work in had lovely architects who decided every cubicle in the toilets should have it's own 20W downlighter, with the cubicle walls up to the ceiling (so if the lamp blows, the cubicle becomes a black hole). I'll let you guess how many cubicles a 2000 capacity nightclub has, but the job of replacing them is continuous (and I do my best to avoid getting involved!).

At least we have a big bag of spare fixing rings now for when the inevitable dropping down the toilet happens.
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WillPS
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Can anybody recommend just a good energy efficient lightbulb (bayonet fitting) which will emit a nice creamy light like a 40w tungsten bulb does? I get completely lost with these things nowadays.
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Dr Lobster*
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Pete wrote:yes the sheer number of halogens you get through is infuriating, made even worse by the utter clart they are to actually fit.

Do you mean this sort of thing?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10x-GU10-20-3 ... 6d6fcd5816

I suppose if you are buying from eBay / PayPal you're usually quite safe as a buyer.

I need 9 bulbs for my whole flat so might consider getting a pack of ten of these.
those are the things, i went for the SMD lamps, i think the ones i've got have 60 LEDs on them though, which maybe why they are pretty bright. It's worth taking a punt on them, i'd say.
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marksi
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I have fluorescent striplights in the kitchen, above and below the cabinets which give all the light required as it reflects off the white ceiling. I'm bored of replacing bulbs (finding them is a nightmare as every manufacturer of a lamp holder appears to dictate the length of the tube - there appears to be many "standards").

Can't find LED strips which are bright enough to replace them. I did use some of the Ikea Ledberg strips (http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90192071/) in mum's kitchen which are fine as she only wanted a low-level light, but they aren't bright enough to replace fluorescent lights.

Ideas welcome.
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Gavin Scott
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I'm just about to do fluorescent lighting above my cabinets too. There's a 2" gap from the ceiling to the cabinet top, so a couple of four foot warm white tubes will slide in there. Should look good. Have also got some little halogen capsule dealies pointing down to the hob, sink and work top, but they're forever popping and are a pain to replace.

Fluorescent lights don't have the flicker problem they used to suffer from. I assume that's down to high frequency starters in them - a trickle down of improved technology from the ones being used for film lighting.

LED lighting is definitely improved from the ones we discussed a year or so ago, but it's still tricky to get consistent colour temperatures, as they're seldom calibrated to the kelvin scale, and one "warm white" can look mighty different from another.

Not great to buy on eBay for that reason, if you can find one lit in a shop instead.

That said, the prices being charged by the DIY sheds is out-fucking-rageous, as clearly they're costing in the lack of follow up sales, give the long life of the products.

I was in Scotmid the other day, and they're no better. They're selling a blister packed 60w ES domestic bulb for £2.99 (of Chinese origin), when they can't be paying more than 20p to buy in.

I nearly fell over when I saw it.
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Pete
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Location: Dundee

The ones I've found in B&Q have a very good colour temperature however on close inspection I suspect that they will not be bright enough to properly illuminate the room.

I think another problem with the things, as I read online, is that the colour temperature does not change as you dim them, therefore being used to the differences between incandescent bulbs can trick your eye on first look as it appears brighter than it actually is.

Still not entirely sure what to do.

I note on that eBay link I posted earlier there are two variations, the ones that I am most used to seeing in pubs and bars are the 6w high power bulbs, which according to the chart on the page are 430 lumens each which seems most acceptable.

The B&Q ones, were only 1.6w and annoyingly lacked a lumen rating which to me suggests they'll be more 20w equivs. [I appreciate that the LED wattage scale isn't linear in the same manner as normal bulbs.]

I might try the 6w high powers and report back. Anyhow its ebay so paypal usually is a good protection for buyers (even if they're shit for sellers).
"He has to be larger than bacon"
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