LED light bulbs became very good for household use a year or so ago.
LED bulbs brightness became good and the warmth of the light became good.
Their direct availability in shops was not very good for a while - limited choices and expense - that may be changing, I see woodies/homestore/currys seem to have reasonable prices & choice now.
You can buy them online anyway, especially any unusual shapes.
E.g. http://lights.ie (shipped from Germany despite the Irish URL) Good price, excellent selection.
I see online https://www.lenehans.ie/electrical/bulbs.html Lenehans, Dublin, Irish reasonable price but limited selection. Or woodies, https://www.woodies.ie/lighting-lightbulbs/lightbulbs/led-bulbs also reasonable price, better selection. And see more below . . .
I made a google sheet last year (2018/2019) to track bulb replacements. Pleased to say it looks like LED bulbs are reliable. Since start of use in 2018 none have needed to be replaced.
In 2018 some of our light bulbs were filament, others were halogen(vacum & filament), others were cfl(compact flourescent) and first few good LED bulbs had gone in. The flourescent bulbs were meant to be longer life but many of them didn't seem to last. So I wanted to know were flourescent and/or LED worth-while (better energy but more complex manufacturing so not good if more expensive and not lasting long enough).
Anyway, now you can get bulbs of all sizes in LED form. They are a bit more expensive than old filament/halogen but energy ratings much better and they will last a long LONG time. We have been replacing our lightbulbs throughout the house for a while now and none of the LED light bulbs have stopped working. The frequency of replacement of bulbs in this house is decreasing.
SO
I recommend . . .
Stop buying any kind of light bulbs except for LED bulbs.
Gradually replace all bulbs in your house/business/... with LED.
The frequency of changing bulbs should decrease dramatically. It may even stop. So you should eventually not need to have many/any spare bulbs.
Buy a batch of bulbs online (as the range of LED bulbs has not yet appeared in regular shops, for the most part).
We have a couple of tree LED low lights that are on 24/7 usually and over a few years they have faded from white to more yellow so LEDs probably will degrade over time but we can probably expect 5/10/15/20/.. more ? years use from LED light bulbs.
We shall see.
Common bulb types (bulb base can come with different bulb types e.g. big/small/short/fat/candle/..):
13 Nov 2020:
Our latest batch of bulbs came and we had 5 or 6 bulbs to replace, including a cooker fan hood light and a G9 (small 2 pin).
Replaced 5 halogen and 2 filament and 1 CFL with LED bulbs in this batch:
One "normal" bayonet, one CFL(white lightway not in pictures) one GU10 spot.
E14 (narrow screw) 2 spot-lights, one small lamp, one small cooker-hood.
One G9 small bulb.
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| New LED bulbs with packaging going in, old dead halogen and filament bulbs on the right (the CFL bayonet blew that evening! a bit later and missed the photo shoot) |
BEFORE:
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| Kitchen 4 spotlights with 3 LED already working, one blown halogen. |
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| Hall 2 working halogen spotlights, one dead halogen |
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| Living room small lamp, needs an extra short narrow screw bulb. |
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| Kitchen cooker extractor fan with one light working and one dead. (e14 narrow screw filaments) |
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| Play room light with dead filament extra small G9 bulb. |
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| The dead bulbs removed. |
AFTER:
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| Play room light with new G9 LED |
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| Inside the kitchen cooker extractor fan LED bulb on left is fatter than the old one but fits ok. Old filament bulb still in and working on right hand side. |
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| Kitchen cooker extractor fan with both lights working. Left one is LED. |
 | |
|
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| Living room lamp small bulb, now frosted LED. |
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| Hall spotlights now with 2 halogen and one LED. Very hard to tell the difference. Silvered finish. |
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| Kitchen bayonet, soft light. |
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| Close up of play room light with new G9 LED - the light is warm |
A bit more on prices . .
As above, locations to buy from: E.g. http://lights.ie (shipped from Germany despite the Irish URL) Good price, excellent selection. Or https://www.lenehans.ie/electrical/bulbs.html Lenehans, Dublin, Irish reasonable price but limited selection. Or woodies, https://www.woodies.ie/lighting-lightbulbs/lightbulbs/led-bulbs also reasonable price, better selection.
With lights.ie I have had 3 batches (2018, 2019 and 2020) and they are good.
I have not used LED bulbs from lenehans or woodies but I have bought other items in-store with them and they are grand.
Each of these three stores you can get bayonets or GU10s at 7 or 8 euros or 2/3 euros in a multi-pack. That's a good price.
https://www.homestoreandmore.ie/bulbs
https://www.ledvista.ie/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_128
https://www.currys.ie/ieen/led-bulbs/home-accessories/lighting/591_4641_32357_xx_ba00013084-bv00311676/xx-criteria.html (ahhh, lads. Who hates websites where you cannot shorten the URL ? :-P me)
Those three also seem to have reasonable prices.
https://www.screwfix.ie/c/electrical-lighting/light-bulbs/cat8350001
Good range but regular bayonet for 13/16 euros, GU10 for 22 euros. More expensive.
There are others probably amazon sellers and alibaba and more . . .
https://www.google.com/search?q=buy+light+bulbs+online
Historical note
I got a few GU10 LED bulbs in about 2008 . . and they were pretty terrible. Not very powerful. AND that blue annoying single frequency harsh light. Still have them around.
1 comment:
in playroom s/GU10 halogen/GU10 led/
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