New lights in my Man cupboard.

[DAPPH]

Having recently spent £3125 on having a full three wall internal of thermal concrete blocks built inside my garage & a full self supporting 150 mm thermal insulated roof plus a new up & over door frame of treated wood as the rain poured in through the single skin walls & via a bad roof fit on the next door neighbours half of the semi detached garage.

I had to decide what sort of lighting I would put back when it was rewired .
Initially I chose to use the two original 1.5 m T8 fluorescent strip light tubes and as they were not quite bright enough added a 10 & a 30 watt LED flood light to give me a white light over the lathe and drill press areas.
That cost me about £50 in total for it included extra cable and two inline waterproof cable connectors as well as the two three pin plugs . I chose to have them mobile rather than fixed so they can be moved around to give light as & when. it might be needed ( they are good inspection lamps as well ).

Much impressed with these new solid state big yellow blob LED flood lights I convinced my lass that we should replace the T8 tubes with the latest 20 watt T8 LED replacement tubes . Two days later Alison calls me to the garage saying, " This strip light has just died on me, perhaps it's time to buy a pair of replacement lights ".

I then spent a few hours on the internet looking for the cheapest price with a reasonable delivery time .
I bid for a pair at £ 9.45 and yes actually won them including FOC delivery & packing . ( My local wholesaler wanted £ 23 per tube plus VAT ".
The tubes arrived this morning well protected and packed but would not fit into the end / cap sockets on the light fittings.
It was because these new tubes have a slightly oval end cap instead of the normal round end cap that you find on the old fluorescent tubes . There was a slight shielding lip on the sockets would not allow the tube to locate . A few seconds with a sharp pair of side cutting snips & a pair of end cutters saw me snip off these lips ,then file the remaining rough bits till everything was nice level & smooth .


The seller informed me that you have to take out the starter units ..which I did .


Once the tubes were put in place I switched them on .. WOW ! amazing instant light , no warm up , almost as good as bright day light without any flicker whatsoever.
To check things out I set the lathe to run at 300 rpm , to make sure that there would not be any of the , " Being on the same cycle synchronization problems " . The chuck was easily seen to be rotating around 300 rpm & not almost marking time like it did on the fluro tubes .

I don't yet have any pictures of the lighting quality but hope to take some tomorrow and post them up .

 

[rtbcomp]

I'm switching over to LED bulbs at home as the CFLs fail.

http://cpc.farnell.com/kosnic/ktc08...ls-240v-30000hrs-6500k/dp/LP06993?Ntt=LP06993

Or the same thing on promotion

http://cpc.farnell.com/kosnic/ktc08...40v-30000hrs-6500k/dp/LP0699303?Ntt=lp0699303

 

[zx9]

I'm switching over to LED bulbs at home as the CFLs fail.

http://cpc.farnell.com/kosnic/ktc08...ls-240v-30000hrs-6500k/dp/LP06993?Ntt=LP06993

Or the same thing on promotion

http://cpc.farnell.com/kosnic/ktc08...40v-30000hrs-6500k/dp/LP0699303?Ntt=lp0699303

We have had the 6W and 5W versions of that LED lamp in the hall and stairs at home, they work well and cut down on me having to yell at the boys when they forget to turn them off. Slight problem with one nearest to one of the mains powered fire alarms as it flashed each time the fire alarms communicated with each other, had to change that one back to a 40W tungsten lamp.

 

[rtbcomp]

............ Slight problem with one nearest to one of the mains powered fire alarms as it flashed each time the fire alarms communicated with each other, ..........

That's interesting - I'd swear the flourescents in my workshop talk to one another - I've got one that won't start properly and when I get it going by tweaking the starter another one starts playing up. I think it's jealous and wants some attention.

 

[zx9]

That's interesting - I'd swear the flourescents in my workshop talk to one another - I've got one that won't start properly and when I get it going by tweaking the starter another one starts playing up. I think it's jealous and wants some attention.

As it was one of the pendents that were installed during the loft conversion two years ago, I have assumed it can not be a wiring fault as they were all tested and signed off by the sparks for the certificate to be issued by the council.

 

[500e]

You can get strange happenings with led tungsten mixes as well, we have 2 lights with 2 way switch both switches have neon switch plates one light in passage changed for a rack of 4 led lights if second light tungsten blew the leds would come on about 1\3 brightness.
We were called out to look at radio in CAT rough train fork lift the 2 way radio had chronic interference at night, they had had 2 LED work lights fitted the RF noise coming off the oscillator circuit was across 10 Mhz & radiated about 15\20 Ft

 

[normspanners]

I am literally just going to home base for these http://www.homebargains.co.uk/products/9570-ecolight-b22-warm-white-led-light-bulbs-case-of-12.aspx £4.99 they are not in all stores but birkenhead has 14 in stock
I am going to fit 30 of these in the garage http://www.homebargains.co.uk/products/9568-ecolight-gu10-daylight-led-bulbs-case-of-14.aspx £2.49 with that amount should give a good spread of light but only =150 W !!! and they are SUPER BRIGHT. I fitted some in the kitchen and they are VERY good. I put a mate onto them who had 10 in his kitchen now he says it is too bright ! and is going to put zone switch in.

 

[Kent]

I am fitting LED spots 120 degree in my shop during renovations. The spark said why not just put 3 flour tubes in, they give good light and spread? I said "cost" LED 3 watt each x 20 for stacks of nice white light whats a fluorescent use? We did the quick calcs, its a no brainer now the cost has fallen of the led bulbs full spotlight inc LED bulb £10. Add in the fact that you don't smash them like I have many a tube moving a big frame or length of bar...................
I suspect Florescent tubes will be next to go, already you have to store them separate at the tip.
Energy costs will continue to rise above inflation

 

[hareng]

How long are your led lasting and work that against the increase, it will take years to recoup?

Had loads of led BC22, longest any things lasted out of the 17 BC22 sockets is five months with majority failing within two months at £3 to £7 a pop. Pretty sure don't use £7 in lighting per year with conventional bulbs and that's only one bulb out of 17.
They over heat and fail, common problem.

 

[rtbcomp]

The ones I mention are 30,000 hours

 

[bump]

30,000 hours is all good and well if they actually last that long. I'm sticking with Phillips, Osram and BELL for LED lights as they are likely to be in business for some time yet.

 

[brightspark]

i only ever supply robus led gu10 there not the cheapest but i never have any bother with them just the odd few in over 150 bulbs and as them lasting 30.000 hours and some have a 25 year guarantee is a load of ******

 

[mike os]

Got a link damp? Want to get the right ones

 

[DAPPH]

The over heating has been one of the prob's for the early LED GU10's

The ones that have in the bathroom are four years old which are on for about 7 hrs a day are the yellow surface mounted led blocks ( left on for the first four hours of each day for the shower moisture and then on a delay timer to help keep the wet room dry they seem to be faring better than the enclosed LED ones in the Kitchen which are also on for a good 10 hrs a day . These bulbs were the Phillips enclosed three LED GU10's which cost about £18 each four years ago . I have had to replace four out of the original six . Elsewhere in the Kitchen above my lasses work station are another six surface mount GU10 LED's on a swinging arm fitting .
these bulbs are only three years old and are on for about 12 hrs each day save for Sundays .

It was not because of trying to save money that we went the GU10 route it was because I took a reasoned guess six years ago as to which bulb would become LED's in the future & what light fitting would be available. The biggest reason was that I'd played with LED's back in 1985 making circuits to turn them down but not off and then to bring them up to just under burn out brightness . I knew around 1991 that Ford had the patents to a new LED that was supposed to replace incandescent light but that they were having big trouble getting the idea past the safety legislators ,for initially they only were going to have one master LED light and use switched fibre optics to get the light to the right fittings .( the long term reliability was there even back then )

I liked the type of light that I could get out of the LED experiments I did ( used filter papers to get warm light ,cool light and yellow light etc.) . When the LED's started to turn up in bright & super bright without the heat problem it became a no brainer for me to get this superior quality light to help compensate for age related sight degeneration .

Her is a few shots of my man cupboard lighting @ 12.30 hrs today ..
The first is the new 20 watt strip light . behind the four foot wide joist shelf platform is another 150 mm 20 watt LED strip light at 90 degrees to the one in the picture


The second is taken with me standing outside of the garage with the weak sun unshaded on the cabinets



This is taken with the door still open but with just the two strip light on , not much day light entering the depths past the 12 foot point ( by the band saw ) .



This one is with both LED strip lights on & the smaller portable 20 watt enclosed LED flood illuminating the ancient WW2 back lathe, it is amazing to work in such clear light and is not eye straining at all .



The yellow looking CFL's under the dry er 7 washing machine platform ... are two 7 watt CFL's's wired in parallel to give a 14 watt anti frost heat / a bit of dry air circulation. They are six years old and are usually on form the begining of Nov to the end of May .
I also have a pair in the log cabin office for the same period to help keep it dry and a pair in our 5 berth caravan to keep it dry and aired .

For the inquisitive amongst you ,
The washer & dryer are raised to give height for ease of use ( I'm disabled ) , 500 mm storage below and plenty storage above right to the roof , for the shelves they stand on are 900 deep and 107 inches wide , made out of 40 mm x 150 mm wide treated decking boards.
The transverse shelf in the middle of the garage above most of the lathe made from two treated roof joists set on screwed in " adapted " hanger plates is four feet wide and four inches above my head giving me 107 x 48 inches square of storage space on top right to the insulated roof and some where to store a 6 foot long stepladder out of my way under it .

 

[normspanners]

All my led 's have far outlasted standard filament bulbs, I have tried all kinds of bulbs halogens long life tough etc etc and as far as low energy ones well they are a joke compared to led's they dont seem to last 5mins even the philips ones, I have a box full of them and dont fit em now.
My hall is 10m longx 2m narrowest 3 m widest by stairs, and now I am lighting it with 3 x 7w =21w + 7w at the top of the stairs = 28W when all on and is excellent brighter than ever. but the plus is it is instant.
I have only seen good reviews about these ecolights.

 

[rtbcomp]

I've CFLs last ages, some less than a year, all with the same amount of use. With the last lot of LEDs I bought I've made a note in my diary when I got them, so we'll see how they go.

Son of Dyson (he of vacuum cleaner fame) has brought out some LED lamps with heat tubes to conduct the heat away and he reckons they'll last for 37 years continual use.

http://www.jakedyson.com/products/

 

[normspanners]

I was in wickes yesterday and they are doing 9.5W phillips led's standard bc and es for 7.99( I think) or two for 9.99

 

[rtbcomp]

^^ They were £16 a couple of years ago! I bought one and it's still going strong, must be on 10 hours per day every day.

 

[colnerov]

Hi, No disrespect to anyone, but I'm of the opinion that bulbs are consumables. All this talk of 30k hour life spans is sales BS, and buying branded makes is pointless. 30,000 Hrs is 3.4 years if left on all the time, who keeps a receipt for a bulb that long and would the retailer honour it if you turned up, say 2 yrs in, claiming it's blown? Branded makes are not much good to you because your contract is with retailer not the maker who will just refer you to them. Better to buy from a retailer who is likely to stick around, but you still have the timescale problem. If I have a bulb blow I just throw it away and get another one out of the cupboard and move on, after a counseling session

Colin

 

[rtbcomp]

I'm sure the 30,000 hours represents "typical use" and is an average so you wouldn't have a hope in hell in claiming on a warranty. The bulbs don't have serial numbers on them either so you couldn't prove when you bought it in any event.