Lovely Lightbulbs

[Gavin Scott]

...not cheap. A tenner at trade price. Worth it though.

Don't they last for several million years though?

A million switch-cycles, dimmable and last for 25000 hours; which I'm inclined to believe, given the cast aluminium heat-sink. 'Nane of yer shite', as we say up here.

Here they are in the manky old ceiling tiles:



And up close

[Alexia]

How long do LEDs last?

Specifically, how long do flickering LEDs designed to emulate candles powered by AA batteries last?

Reason I ask is that there are some "moving" pictures coming on the market for Saturnalia, featuring wintry images with "candles" flickering in the windows. Quite kitsch but look good from a distance and not expensive. LEDs not replaceable apparently (although I expect if you're proficient enough with a soldering iron, which surprisingly I am, it may be possible) so my query revolves around basic life expectancy.

[Gavin Scott]

How long is a piece of LED string?

You get what you pay for: cheapo LEDs and their relevant circuitry can burn out (sometimes literally) within weeks, whilst others will give 20-50,000 hours' life.

Yes, I concur.

Although there are some peculiarities which skew the marketplace. Imported, rebadged tat from the east tends to be overpriced, and so should be considered as such in terms of life expectancy.

Conversely, I've bought some excellent incredibly cheap product from importers which is great value.

In conclusion: you pays your money and you takes your chances.

[Pete]

Now I've been thinking, I have some fluorescent tubes under my kitchen cupboards which I now rather fancy replacing with LED versions. Question is, where do I get nice ones from?

I'm wary of buying cheapo chinese rubbish from ebay given how the GU10s all died.

[marksi]

^^^ What he said. Me too.

[Gavin Scott]

http://www.highlite.nl/Shop/Products/Ar ... light-Flex

I've used a ton of this at home, and in the pub I frequent so much. Keen eyes on Facebook or Instagram will see it illuminating above and below the bar, embedded in the window frame perimeter giving a permanent daylight effect, in both 6000k (daylight) white and colour changing RGB.

We've also put miles of it into [REDACTED] cruise liners recently - there's some touristy videos of the colour changing ceiling and walls in the restaurant aboard ship.

It's extremely cost effective. Ridiculously so, actually. Message me if you want an idea, and it's either extremely simple switched power supply for under cabinet lighting, something more controllable for colour, or all the way up to DMX or ArtNet digital control.

I'm a distributor of the Artecta brand. Love it.

I realise how spiv-like I sound, but I don't deal with garbage product, and amazon is awash with discontinued problematic products - and they don't pay any fucking tax.

[Gavin Scott]

Actually I think I'm probably not permitted to associate any product alongside a particular brand of entertainment company, nor the installation team, so purely as an example of course, have a look at the lighting in this floating restaurant, the colour changing picture frames and pillar tops, about half way through.



Here's he same product at home mounted onto the back of my monitor. I was attempting to colour match the programme I was watching.

I realise this discussion is about white not coloured led BUT I CANT HELP MYSELF.

[Alexia]

BUMP

While looking at outdoor solar lights (http://www.diy.com/departments/blooma-g ... 894_BQ.prd) we were confused by the IPX rating and by advice of a member of staff that anything with IPX4 rating (splashproof) should be brought inside in rainy weather.

Our confusion was exacerbated by the fact that some other solar lights that you spike into the ground (and thus presumably are semi-permanent) were also IPX4 rated.

The jar design is such that it has a rubber seal inside the "lid" where the solar panel is keeping any wiring and the battery box watertight. Other "rock"and "frog" outdoor lights were also IPX4 rated.

So my question is - was the member of staff being overly cautious and can we in fact leave these items outside in rainy conditions? Or are IPX4 rated products really not rainproof?

[cwathen]

The 'splash proof' rating of IPX4 is still a pretty hefty rating - the item needs to be able to withstand being subjected to water from any direction at a rate of 120 litres/hour with no water ingress, it's certainly not just a few drops splashed on it - that would come under IPX1/2. All but the most torrential of torrential rain should be fine with IPX4.

IPX5 and 6 involves the use of pressurised jets, I doubt much rain will approach that kind of pressure.

True waterproofing (ie submersion) doesn't start till IPX7.

[thegeek]

We're getting our kitchen done at the moment and I've been looking at under-cabinet worktop lighting.

I was browsing Ikea as the default option, but it's coming out at about £165 for 2 metres worth of OMLOPP (it's bumped up a bit because of the slightly awkward cabinet placement meaning we need two transformers).

It seems decent and sturdy though - is it a case of you get what you pay for, versus something like this from Screwfix? Is there somewhere else I ought to be looking?

[Ebeneezer Scrooge]

I ordered this for my son's bedroom:
http://cpc.farnell.com/flexoled/flex01p ... dp/DP33007

While the white on this one sucks (in terms of colour temperature) because it's been compromised for the ability to mix colours, the build quality and light output is excellent. This video suggests that the warm white tapes have a reasonable colour temperature.

You can cut them and use cheap wiring (like a couple of pairs of speaker wire) soldered to the terminals if you want to bridge a gap too.

Worth a look at least.