The definitive low-energy GU10 lighting thread

[stuart313]

Can't remember where I saw this but some GU10s with SMDs and an open front just had a simple diode and resistor to drop the voltage as opposed to a sophisticated electronic driver you might expect to find inside. This was fitted to the live side so there was only a few volts on the exposed solder connections, the other side of the SMD was just connected straight to the neutral pin.

this doesn't sound like the end of the world except there is no live or neutral side on a GU10, depending on which way round you put it in the lampholder you have a 50/50 chance of having mains voltage straight to the exposed solder connections.

[E36GUY]

smn159 said:

Guy,

Any recommendations for wall mounted LED's? they're for the room adjacent to my kitchen, which has been knocked through into the kitchen. Probably going to use it as a lounge / TV room.

I wanted wall mounted as I've already plasterboarded / plastered the ceiling and don't want to pull it down to run more cables (no access from above) - haven't done the walls yet!

Have a look at our website but depends what power you want. If just a feature, we have it covered. If you want something with more ooomph have a look at the catalogue at www.steng.de - specifically, the 'Brigg' range of wall lights. We're the UK/Ireland distributor on these.

[smn159]

E36GUY said:

Have a look at our website but depends what power you want. If just a feature, we have it covered. If you want something with more ooomph have a look at the catalogue at www.steng.de - specifically, the 'Brigg' range of wall lights. We're the UK/Ireland distributor on these.

Thanks Guy - will have a proper look later.

[Harry Flashman]

Good warnings on using cheap stuff.

Still can't find a GU10 LED that mimics the warmth of a standard halogen. Gone back to halogens.

[monthefish]

Harry Flashman said:

Good warnings on using cheap stuff.

Still can't find a GU10 LED that mimics the warmth of a standard halogen. Gone back to halogens.

Try these:
LAP GU10 LED Lamps 281Lm 4.2W Pack of 6 for £19.99
Screwfix code: 9674D


They emit a warm light, and the only difference versus Halogen is that they are a bit brighter, and so you lose some of the light/shade effect you normally get, but a lot cheaper to run without much initial expense.

I was the same as you, and thought all LED's were horrible so I bought these just to try them (no great loss at £20 if you don't like them) and am very impressed.

Edited by monthefish on Saturday 7th March 16:50

[stuart313]

monthefish said:

Harry Flashman said:

Good warnings on using cheap stuff.

Still can't find a GU10 LED that mimics the warmth of a standard halogen. Gone back to halogens.

Try these:
LAP GU10 LED Lamps 281Lm 4.2W Pack of 6 for £19.99
Screwfix code: 9674D


They emit a warm light, and the only difference versus Halogen is that they are a bit brighter, and so you lose some of the light/shade effect you normally get, but a lot cheaper to run without much initial expense.

I was the same as you, and thought all LED's were horrible so I bought these just to try them (no great loss at £20 if you don't like them) and am very impressed.

Edited by monthefish on Saturday 7th March 16:50

I second this, for the price the light output is excellent, dimmable ones are the same price except you get 5 in a box not 6.

[E36GUY]

monthefish said:

Try these:
LAP GU10 LED Lamps 281Lm 4.2W Pack of 6 for £19.99
Screwfix code: 9674D


They emit a warm light, and the only difference versus Halogen is that they are a bit brighter, and so you lose some of the light/shade effect you normally get, but a lot cheaper to run without much initial expense.

These will not be brighter than halogen. They are only 281lumen which is less than 50% of what a 50w will put out. They may well distribute light in a different manner but they ain't brighter. Just saying

[Mattt]

A slight hijack from GU10, but any recommendations for outside LED lights to install in decking?

[monthefish]

E36GUY said:

monthefish said:

Try these:
LAP GU10 LED Lamps 281Lm 4.2W Pack of 6 for £19.99
Screwfix code: 9674D


They emit a warm light, and the only difference versus Halogen is that they are a bit brighter, and so you lose some of the light/shade effect you normally get, but a lot cheaper to run without much initial expense.

These will not be brighter than halogen. They are only 281lumen which is less than 50% of what a 50w will put out. They may well distribute light in a different manner but they ain't brighter. Just saying

I appreciate that you are the (self-styled?) PH expert on lighting, but you are wrong in this instance.
They are brighter. You can come to my house and see for yourself if you like.

[sparkythecat]

monthefish said:

I appreciate that you are the (self-styled?) PH expert on lighting, but you are wrong in this instance.
They are brighter. You can come to my house and see for yourself if you like.

What you should do, is nip round to his house when he's out and paint his light bulbs black.
Then, when he comes home and switches them on, his house will actually go darker.

[baxb]

monthefish said:

E36GUY said:

monthefish said:

Try these:
LAP GU10 LED Lamps 281Lm 4.2W Pack of 6 for £19.99
Screwfix code: 9674D


They emit a warm light, and the only difference versus Halogen is that they are a bit brighter, and so you lose some of the light/shade effect you normally get, but a lot cheaper to run without much initial expense.

These will not be brighter than halogen. They are only 281lumen which is less than 50% of what a 50w will put out. They may well distribute light in a different manner but they ain't brighter. Just saying

I appreciate that you are the (self-styled?) PH expert on lighting, but you are wrong in this instance.
They are brighter. You can come to my house and see for yourself if you like.

We do seem to have this discussion on here fairly often. I changed my kitchen over last year to LED GU10's & to look at them there is no doubt they are much 'brighter' than a halogen 50w, a very intense light source & I don't think anyone would argue that they are not brighter than what came out of the ceiling. I sell commercial LED lighting for a living & was evaluating this product, so had taken a lux reading (lux is the measure of the amount of light hitting a given surface) before & after. The 350 lumen LED lamp gave a lux reading just under 30% less than the 540 lumen halogen lamp, so pretty good, but my kitchen is now almost a third darker that it was. If you were to put 50w halogens back in & looked not at the lamp, but at your floor or work surface then they will be brighter under the 50w Halogens. If they are brighter with the new LED lamps, then that screwfix lamp has broken the laws of physics.

I don't think Guy has 'self styled' himself to be an LED expert on here, but works in the business & offers his opinion & advice in same way other PH'ers in other businesses do just to help people out. As someone who has consistently pointed out the flaws in certain LED products he does not come across as a 'fanboy' for all things LED but as a source for a reasonably well informed opinion.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Harry Flashman said:

Good warnings on using cheap stuff.

Still can't find a GU10 LED that mimics the warmth of a standard halogen. Gone back to halogens.

I used Phillips 4.5 W (or maybe 5W) GU10 with 2700k temp. To my eye they match exactly the halogen GU10s still remaining. I have two in the kitchen (out of 12 lights) and you can't tell which is which unless you go inspect each light.

Quite happy with them, but as I bought from Wilkos they're about £7 each. So nothing like the value of the LAP box of 6. OSRAM do similar items for similar price.

[E36GUY]

monthefish said:

I appreciate that you are the (self-styled?) PH expert on lighting, but you are wrong in this instance.
They are brighter. You can come to my house and see for yourself if you like.

I'm not. It's simple physics Mon. 50w halogens will have a lumen output of 500/600 depending on lamp quality whereas your LEDs are showing as 281. As Baxb says, they may well be brighter to look at because of the more intense light source but in terms of LUX level - the level of light at a given distance away - they won't be as bright.

I guess I am self styled as an expert on PH given s no one else put me forward but I have never offered anything other than informed advice on the subject which I am well qualified to do given lighting design and consultancy is my living and I work for a designer and manufacturer of LED lighting products.

[BoostMonkey]

E36Guy, i've sent you an email about a potential order of GU10 LED's, when you have a moment could you have a look over and get back to me please.

[Gazzab]

BoostMonkey said:

E36Guy, i've sent you an email about a potential order of GU10 LED's, when you have a moment could you have a look over and get back to me please.

Ring him and you will get it sorted. Jut have the credit card ready :-)

[Grumpy old git]

E36GUY said:

monthefish said:

I appreciate that you are the (self-styled?) PH expert on lighting, but you are wrong in this instance.
They are brighter. You can come to my house and see for yourself if you like.

I'm not. It's simple physics Mon. 50w halogens will have a lumen output of 500/600 depending on lamp quality whereas your LEDs are showing as 281. As Baxb says, they may well be brighter to look at because of the more intense light source but in terms of LUX level - the level of light at a given distance away - they won't be as bright.

I guess I am self styled as an expert on PH given s no one else put me forward but I have never offered anything other than informed advice on the subject which I am well qualified to do given lighting design and consultancy is my living and I work for a designer and manufacturer of LED lighting products.

I have the same lights and I have to say I agree they seem brighter than the previous 50w halogens I had, maybe it's because it's a whiter light than the halogens.

I've no doubt that technically you may well be correct, but they certainly seem a lot brighter to my eyes so I can understand where monthefish is coming from.

[MonTheF1sh]

monthefish said:

I appreciate that you are the (self-styled?) PH expert on lighting, but you are wrong in this instance.
They are brighter. You can come to my house and see for yourself if you like.

Next time you're passing East Kilbride Mon....give me a shout and I'll show you what your money gets you with Guy's zep1's.

[defblade]

Grumpy old git said:

I have the same lights and I have to say I agree they seem brighter than the previous 50w halogens I had, maybe it's because it's a whiter light than the halogens.

I've no doubt that technically you may well be correct, but they certainly seem a lot brighter to my eyes so I can understand where monthefish is coming from.

My 5w Cromptons claim 400 lumens; given that you have to quadruple lumens for the eye to perceive double brightness, there's probably little to choose between 400 LED and 500 halogen lumens visually.
However, choosing the "daylight" (6k ish IIRC) colour temp makes them feel much brighter, so much so that people exclaim when we put them on. And on top of that, we've put over 20 of them in our house, none have blown in 16 months (we would have lost at least one long-life Crompton halogen a month on average over that time) so cost savings there and the 10 that stay on the longest each day in the kitchen are only using the same electric as just one of the old ones, which is nice

I think that for most normal people, simple replacement bulbs, of good quality from a "name" manufacturer, for existing GU10 fittings are a perfectly acceptable solution these days.

[E36GUY]

Grumpy old git said:

I have the same lights and I have to say I agree they seem brighter than the previous 50w halogens I had, maybe it's because it's a whiter light than the halogens.

I've no doubt that technically you may well be correct, but they certainly seem a lot brighter to my eyes so I can understand where monthefish is coming from.

This is my point exactly Grumpy. LED is a far more intense light source so looks brighter on appearences but if you stick a LUX meter 1500mm below you will see the difference. It's the same way that cool white looks brighter than warm white. There may only be 20 lumens difference but that isn't enough for the human eye to detect thus its simply an optical illusion

[NormalWisdom]

E36GUY said:

Grumpy old git said:

I have the same lights and I have to say I agree they seem brighter than the previous 50w halogens I had, maybe it's because it's a whiter light than the halogens.

I've no doubt that technically you may well be correct, but they certainly seem a lot brighter to my eyes so I can understand where monthefish is coming from.

This is my point exactly Grumpy. LED is a far more intense light source so looks brighter on appearences but if you stick a LUX meter 1500mm below you will see the difference. It's the same way that cool white looks brighter than warm white. There may only be 20 lumens difference but that isn't enough for the human eye to detect thus its simply an optical illusion

I too have just bought these GU10s from Screwfix - Had a 6-bulb affair in the kitchen which was costing dearly. On first look the LEDs certainly 'appear' brighter from inside the kitchen (though it is marginal). When I look at the kitchen lighting from outside however it is noticably dimmer so I would suggest Physics wins the day.