mending things

A number of my posts here regard my battle to replace GU10 and MR16 Halolgen bulbs with LED equivalents, via a short period of CFL bulbs. This has been successful, with all the 40 halogens having been replaced with LED some 5 years ago. My energy consumption has gone down and so has the amount of heat generated into the loft and ceiling space from the bulbs. Since then I have kept an eye on LED full size light bulbs for ES (Edison Screw) SES (Small Edison Screw and Bayonet fitting bulbs, all of which are represented in my house. Until recently I had found the LED lightbulbs to have dimmer light and a cold blue tint, much as the first Halogen replacements had. A few weeks back while in my local B&Q DIY store I saw a display of Philips LED Bulbs, some of which featured clear glass and a kind of internal perspex crown-shaped diffractor. I'm pleased to say I have tied both in SES , ES and Bayonet form-factors and they are superior to the Com...

I have seperately blogged my experiences with LED replacements for halogen bulbs, where their size, low heat and beam characteristics work well, but what about normal light bulbs i.e the kind you have in ceiling lights, reading lights and elsewhere ? While on holiday in the USA I picked up a couple of small golf ball LED bulbs with ES fittings. These were to replace the two conventional light bulbs in my fridge freezer. They work well in this setting, and while a bit dimmer the light quality works well. While only on for a few minutes while the door was open, using conventional bulbs in a fridge bugged me, as it seemed they would introduce some heat into the fridge. Recenetly i purchased a 60 watt equivalent LED bulb from my usual supplier, simplyLED, to see how far these have come. This one was advertised as a true 60 watt bulb replacement in terms of brightness and colour temperature. As you can see the bulb has a semi opaque cover and some yellow sections are visible in...

Things have moved on since my previous blog regarding GU10 halogen bulbs. To recap, 10 years ago we had our house extended and rewired. We had 40 recessed halogen light fittings installed, the type which runs from 240V main voltage (GU10) not the 12v system (MR16). While the light is good, and the reliability of the bulbs has improved, they still use a lot of electricity (50 or 35 watt types) and get very hot. In my previous blog I explored the options which were available including first generation LED bulbs and Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFL) in the GU10 size. That was two years ago , and at that time LED bulbs were not up to the job and CFL's , typically Megaman variety seemed the best alternative. These consumed only 11 watts and give pretty good light from a few minutes after turn on. I posted a few follow-ups as I tried a few next generation LED bulbs and this post picks up at that point. In my utility room I had 4 of the Megaman brand CFL GU10 bulbs and these seemed to be t...

I know more than I want to about these light bulbs. While the UK Government is waging war on the 100 watt incandescent light bulb, they have, typically, ignored the growing trend of using these bulbs. I guess they pay people to change bulbs for them. We had our house gutted and rebuilt in 2000, and as a consequence had around 40 recessed lights fitted, each of which take the GU10 mains voltage (240v) GU10 light bulbs. At first, the main issue was that the halogen bulbs had a very short life span and cost a lot to buy, around £5. I seemed to be changing a couple a week. Things have improved and now the bulbs are relatively cheap ( £1-£2) and have a fairly long life expectancy. So what is my gripe ? Well these bulbs are rated at a hefty 35 or 50 watts. The packaging even implies that they are energy saving in some way, but of course watts are watts. i If you have 5 * 50 watts halogen bulbs in your kitchen, then you are using a unit every 4 hours they are on. If I turn on all th...