Replacing Halogens with LED's

[ed_pete]

I have a large number of 50w halgen downlighters and I'm considering replacing them with LED versions as in theory it works out a lot cheaper in the long term. Does anyone have any experience of 240v LED GU10's and can recommend any advice on good ones vs bad ones and how they find the brightness / type of light they emit ? TIA

[Pam50]

My electrician put Philips 6.5W CorePro LEDspot LV MR16 - Warm White (36?) in the bathroom after we'd looked at quite a few brands and colours. You do need to borrow or buy one and put it in the room to see them on...some seemed very green or pink.

The ones above are a nice neutral light, not too cold or yellow.

I used

http://www.energybulbs.co.uk/

and they were great.

Hope that helps, Pam

[*Bob*]

Lumens (ie how bright) output of a 50w halogen = approx 900.

Lumens output of current LED replacements = 450, tops.

So the answer is.. There aren't any, not if you're looking for the same level of brightness anyway. If you can live with less light, give them a go by all means. Don't forget to compare:

Physical size (not all LED 'gu10 replacements' are identically sized, so not all will fit if space is tight)

Beam angle

Always compare lumens, not watts.

Consider whether they need to be dimmed (not all LEDs are dimmable and those that are should have a new-fangled electronic dimmer, not the old-school type.

The ones with a single LED are much better then the 'cluster' types.

Light quality has definitely improved, even if the light output isn't up to scratch.

Philips is a reliable brand. Buy the latest stuff, don't get fobbed-off with the backload of two year-old LEDs the bulb company is sitting on, which aren't quite as good.

There are some new quite new ones from a company called ZetaLED which are meant to be good, but they are wide beam only.

We have a few Megaman LED GU10s here (the 'best selling' one from BLT Direct) which are decent in light quality but only used for accent lighting.

Buy they from BLT.. They have a very good no quibble return policy so you can try some out - and then send them back when you discover they're not bright enough.

[Huguenot]

Well, who woulda thunk *Bob* was an expert on LEDs! Impressive! I filed that post :)

[ed_pete]

Thanks all for the advice.

[njdeco]

LED does make a difference in terms of how much electricity is consumed. As long as you go for warm white not something like daylight, you can't go wrong. I had all halogen lights swapped for LED's.

Painters and Decorators in Dulwich - http://njdeco.co.uk/Dulwich.html