CFL or LED lamps ?

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8 Jan 2014
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Flintshire
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Looking for low energy lamps around the house but not sure whether to go for LED lamps or CFL Lamps which would be advised and whats the positives and negatives for both lamps ?
 
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I have rid all my CFL`s to the rubbish bin, too dim, too slow to reach full brightness, too costly, don`t last long, too big to fit many fittings,

It`s LED all round house and garden for me, especially the replacement of 500w security floodlights for 30w LED. The power saving is only one saving, about 95 % less than tungsten lamps. The long life is typically 30 to 50 thousand hours. The colour temp choice is now much improved. The choice of lamp bases is now vast, will fit just about any fitting. They come ON too instant brightness, or can be dimmed with the correct drivers. The prices are dropping considerably month by month, quality can be a problem with some of the cheaper Chinese brands, but I have fitted hundreds of branded LED`s for customers ( at higher cost ) that are proving worthwhile investment for them and no trouble for me. If purchased from ebay only buy from reputable british sellers who try them out and have good customer feedback.
 
my whole house is lit up like an xmass tree on about 45w leds costing about £20 year
with cfls it would be around £50 for the same coverage
 
I am slowly moving to LED. But they are expensive. Still early days for LED but with CFL I was rather disappointed.

Due to a flood two rooms living and dinning were redecorated together and the old light fittings with folded florescent tubes looked horrid so two 5 lamp fittings in living room and two 3 lamp fittings in dinning room both same design.

So 16 Philips globe CFL at 8W each two years latter just 7 bulbs still working. However the dinning room had 6 cheaper 8W globes fitted and non have failed the Philips bulbs were used as replacements for other room.

Bought two 1.4W LED candle bulbs from Lidi and since more Philips bulbs had failed temporary fitted in living room. Rather impressed so few months latter Lidi did some 3W candle bulbs so replaced all in living room with LED so now 26.8W total compared with 80W and much brighter although lumin has reduced by 2/3rds of original so much for lumin.

Used 2W LED in GU10 fittings also worked well.

Used some 0.58W GU10 and MR16 OK very cheap pound world and MR16's have failed. No other LED has failed but I am not inclined to spend too much on a single bulb. Clearly from my 8W globe bulbs buying well know makes does not mean they last longer.

Disadvantage is when my wife falls asleep in the chair switching on LED lamps wakes her with the soft start of CFL it did not. However want to read something and having to wait 5 mins for lights to warm up was not good either.

So I aim to slowly move to LED but 18W florescent tube at top of my stairs was changed last year original fitted second hand in 1993 so lasted 20 years so can't really complain. OK it's a HF fitting with battery back-up so on a power failure can see to descend the stairs.

Kitchen 58W tubes OK don't last as long as not HF but still last 5 years each. Old folded tubes used in bedrooms have also lasted well and the 2D unit in one bedroom has been in 20 years without a tube change however so bright not used that much.
 
From looking at these i will be going for the LED lamps i think in the long run they will be the right option. Lets just hope the prices LED lamps are at keep dropping!!
 
I have 14 LED lamps in my home presently and once you get used to the colour of the light, which doesn't take long, they are great, no warm up and give a good useful bright light.

However, there have been some tests done recently. One was by 'Which' that suggests many LED lamps are not lasting anything like the their indicated lifespan, and in some cases less than CFL's. I installed the first 6 last April and two have failed already.
 

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