LED light bulbs

[granretire]

I am thinking of replacing my ordinary (old-fashioned?) bulbs in some wall light and promptly got totally confused looking at Screwfix's offerings. I need a standard (or so I thought) BC fitting. I find there are LED candle, LED golf ball and LED GLS. The shape of the bulb is irrelevant as it is hidden by the shade. I want the maximum amount of light from these bulbs. Can some kind Lemon Fools guide me in what I should look for, please.

[gryffron]

Look for Lumens. Most Lumens = most bright.

Guide to light bulb shapes: http://greenlivingideas.com/2014/08/30/ ... and-sizes/

If it's in a shade, you probably don't care about shape. Bigger = better light distribution. As long as it will fit in the shade of course. But do ensure it is frosted which emits light all round, rather than reflective/directed (shaded grey in the link) which emits mainly up/down. Reflective/directed is unlikely to be useful in a wall mount.

Also note that LED bulbs don't like conventional dimmers. So if your wall lights have a dimmer, you'd be better sticking to filament bulbs.

Gryff

[jofc]

And remember they come in different colours.

There are warm white and cool white.

I find the current warm whites too yellow for my liking - they started going this way when the CFL became popular.
(The fashion/style police seem to thing cool white is only acceptable in for the kitchen & workplace)

[bungeejumper]

I could fill the Grumpy Old Fools forum single-handed with all my grumps about light bulbs. Expensive halogens that don't survive six months on a shaky rural power supply; fluorescent thingies in all shades and variants; LEDs in four or five types. And then quadruple the number you first thought of, to account for small bayonets, screw fittings and small screw fittings; and then make sure you know the difference between a G9 and a G10 and a G20, which is of course an economics group as well.

And then it's all about lumens instead of watts, and even after that it's not over because you've got to have decided on the Kelvin number, so as to get the colour right. At which point you discover that one manufacturer's idea of Warm White is another's idea of Stab Your Eyes Out Electric Blue. Not that you'll find that out until you've plugged it in......

So finally, you've spent forty minutes at the bulb shelves at B&Q, just gaping hopelessly at the endless variety of options. And that's when you discover that the 55 watt equivalents that you bought for your other lamps are no longer in stock, and what they've got instead is a 47 watt equivalent that'll supposedly give the "equivalent equivalent to a 55 watt equivalent", or some such rubbish.

And you go home with a bulb that doesn't match any of your other bulbs at home, and all you can do is whimper to the wife that you tried your best and it didn't work out.

Anybody know what I'm on about?

BJ

[alterego]

You can get dimmable bayonet fitting led bulbs. Here are a selection from a company I have bought from and can recommend.
http://www.simplyled.co.uk/b22/

So far as colour is concerned I definitely think warm white is preferable to cool white in a domestic setting. Colour temperature of around 3000 kelvin is good. If you go too far towards cool, say 4000k or more, you will bleach colour from the room fabrics and painted surfaces. It's just too clinical IMO and I've tried it so speak from experience.

If you have a dimmer and find it doesn't like the lamps, I would recommend a replacement made by varilight, see
http://www.varilight.co.uk/dimmers/dimm ... -leds.html

I have replaced pretty much all the lighting in my house with led's and cut my total wattage massively, for example, a kitchen that used to have 550 w of lights is now just 45w and brighter than it was. The extra cost of led bulbs has been recouped through lower energy bills and fewer replacement bulbs (in fact no replacements).

[melonfool]

I could fill the Grumpy Old Fools forum single-handed with all my grumps about light bulbs. Expensive halogens that don't survive six months on a shaky rural power supply; fluorescent thingies in all shades and variants; LEDs in four or five types. And then quadruple the number you first thought of, to account for small bayonets, screw fittings and small screw fittings; and then make sure you know the difference between a G9 and a G10 and a G20, which is of course an economics group as well.

And then it's all about lumens instead of watts, and even after that it's not over because you've got to have decided on the Kelvin number, so as to get the colour right. At which point you discover that one manufacturer's idea of Warm White is another's idea of Stab Your Eyes Out Electric Blue. Not that you'll find that out until you've plugged it in......

So finally, you've spent forty minutes at the bulb shelves at B&Q, just gaping hopelessly at the endless variety of options. And that's when you discover that the 55 watt equivalents that you bought for your other lamps are no longer in stock, and what they've got instead is a 47 watt equivalent that'll supposedly give the "equivalent equivalent to a 55 watt equivalent", or some such rubbish.

And you go home with a bulb that doesn't match any of your other bulbs at home, and all you can do is whimper to the wife that you tried your best and it didn't work out.

Anybody know what I'm on about?

BJ

Yep. Our spare bedroom has a ghastly candelabra thing that we inherited with the house and have never got round to replacing, it has three bulb fittings and two bulbs have blown now.

Off to Robert Dyas today to get a new bulb. Can I get the same type? No. Can I get anything under £5? No.

I eventually decided to get LED ones, which will apparently last forever (and we're bound to change the light fitting and then not need that type ever again!) but which were £6 each. And I couldn't buy two and have one odd one, could I? No. So, a small task which I thought would cost me about £3, cost £18 and took half an hour (the shop is two doors from my workplace)!

Grr.

Mel

(this might make you feel better: https://www.gransnet.com/forums/chat/12 ... dium=email )

[bungeejumper]

(this might make you feel better: https://www.gransnet.com/forums/chat/12 ... dium=email )

Love it.

BJ

[Itsallaguess]

I am thinking of replacing my ordinary (old-fashioned?) bulbs in some wall light and promptly got totally confused looking at Screwfix's offerings. I need a standard (or so I thought) BC fitting. I find there are LED candle, LED golf ball and LED GLS. The shape of the bulb is irrelevant as it is hidden by the shade. I want the maximum amount of light from these bulbs. Can some kind Lemon Fools guide me in what I should look for, please.

What's the wattage of the standard bulb you're looking to replace?

I bought a 5-pack of these from Screwfix - http://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-gls-led-l ... pack/2330j

They say on the spec that they are a replacement for 60W-equivalents, but like many of the user-reviews state on the linked page above, I found them to be great replacements for 100W standard BC lamps.

For a tenner for a 5-pack, I'd give them a go if you think they'd be useful. Screwfix have a good returns policy, but I imagine that you'll find a use for all 5 in most houses, and will be pleased with them.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[bungeejumper]

I bought a 5-pack of these from Screwfix - http://www.screwfix.com/p/lap-gls-led-l ... pack/2330j

I bought two five-packs a few months ago @ £16 for the lot, and yes, they're good and I'm going to get some more soon.

Like many LED bulbs, these have strangely small 'heads' in relation to their 'bodies', which can make them look a bit odd in table lamps, especially if the exact vertical position of the light source is critical to the aesthetic. (As with glass shades, for instance.) But that's a minor quibble. Good product.

BJ

[granretire]

"(this might make you feel better: https://www.gransnet.com/forums/chat/12 ... dium=email )/"

Liked it!

Also thanks, Itsallaguess - think I will follow your suggestion. And thanks to all the rest of you for your replies. BTW, the lights are not dimmable.

[Slarti]

And remember they come in different colours.

There are warm white and cool white.

I find the current warm whites too yellow for my liking - they started going this way when the CFL became popular.
(The fashion/style police seem to thing cool white is only acceptable in for the kitchen & workplace)

I'm the other way round in that I find the "cool" white to be way to bright and harsh to live with.

To me the warm white give the closest light to an incandescent.

So as we have 2 diametrically opposing views, my advice to granretire would be to buy one of each and see what they think. The one not liked could always be relegated to the garage or somewhere similar.

Slarti

PS https://www.ledhut.co.uk/ is an excellent source of supply and you get cash back from topcashback, if you want.