The definitive low-energy GU10 lighting thread
Discussion
As I understand it; where an LED fitting is producing a lot of light, then the output will diminish as heat is generated within the LED itself. So that whereas some of these lights will produce plenty of light at switch on, unless they have good heat management, then the light output will reduce as the emitter warms up. (the reverse of ccfl).
Has anyone seen any tests of the output from hi-power LEDs where the output is measured after the temperature stabilises?
Has anyone seen any tests of the output from hi-power LEDs where the output is measured after the temperature stabilises?
I've now got led down lights in the kitchen and bathroom. As I was designing with led in mind, I littered the area with lights.
I bought alpha bulbs originally and of 12 I have two left, this is in 14 months, they've been blowing from 3 months. At £9 a bulb they were pricey.
Since I've been buying gu10 4w led bulbs off eBay, the ones I've been getting are £11.99 for four, not had one die yet (6 months) and I'm quite impressed by the light output. They're 3 x led per 'bulb'
I bought alpha bulbs originally and of 12 I have two left, this is in 14 months, they've been blowing from 3 months. At £9 a bulb they were pricey.
Since I've been buying gu10 4w led bulbs off eBay, the ones I've been getting are £11.99 for four, not had one die yet (6 months) and I'm quite impressed by the light output. They're 3 x led per 'bulb'
My thoughts on this:
I'd avoid GU10 lamps and fittings and I certainly wouldn't consider them for any new requirements. A couple of years back we wanted to replace a lot of GU10s with a low energy solution and tried several different low energy lamps available at that time. None of the LED lamps then were bright enough and a couple of the CFLs were really poor. Some of these replacement lamps didn't actually fit the GU10 fittings we were using, because they were physically much wider/longer than the standard halogen GU10 lamps.
We ended up switching to General Electric 7W CFL reflectors. They are almost as bright as the original 25W GU10s. They do take a little while to warm up to full brightness, but overall they have been a good replacement. Now only cost about a fiver each but when we bought them I seem to remember they were a lot more than that. I guess LED lamps are starting to depress the CFL market?
If we were doing this today, I'd replace everything with good quality LED downlights.
One problem I do have in a couple of rooms where we have dimmed incandescent downlights at the moment is trying to find replacement, dimmable, LED downlight fittings which fit the existing holes (120-130mm dia.) as all the ones I've seen are too small!
One other point I think is worth making - it's pointless posting photos in order to demonstrate how bright or dim your lights are. The camera will expose for what it sees and that won't necessarily match what you see with your eyes. Unless you've got a light meter and know how to use it properly, you can't be objective about how brightly a room is lit, you can only state your subjective opinion.
You just need to speak my other half to see that her idea of 'enough light in the bathroom' is vastly different to mine. Especially first thing in the morning!
I'd avoid GU10 lamps and fittings and I certainly wouldn't consider them for any new requirements. A couple of years back we wanted to replace a lot of GU10s with a low energy solution and tried several different low energy lamps available at that time. None of the LED lamps then were bright enough and a couple of the CFLs were really poor. Some of these replacement lamps didn't actually fit the GU10 fittings we were using, because they were physically much wider/longer than the standard halogen GU10 lamps.
We ended up switching to General Electric 7W CFL reflectors. They are almost as bright as the original 25W GU10s. They do take a little while to warm up to full brightness, but overall they have been a good replacement. Now only cost about a fiver each but when we bought them I seem to remember they were a lot more than that. I guess LED lamps are starting to depress the CFL market?
If we were doing this today, I'd replace everything with good quality LED downlights.
One problem I do have in a couple of rooms where we have dimmed incandescent downlights at the moment is trying to find replacement, dimmable, LED downlight fittings which fit the existing holes (120-130mm dia.) as all the ones I've seen are too small!
One other point I think is worth making - it's pointless posting photos in order to demonstrate how bright or dim your lights are. The camera will expose for what it sees and that won't necessarily match what you see with your eyes. Unless you've got a light meter and know how to use it properly, you can't be objective about how brightly a room is lit, you can only state your subjective opinion.
You just need to speak my other half to see that her idea of 'enough light in the bathroom' is vastly different to mine. Especially first thing in the morning!
FurtiveFreddy said:
One problem I do have in a couple of rooms where we have dimmed incandescent downlights at the moment is trying to find replacement, dimmable, LED downlight fittings which fit the existing holes (120-130mm dia.) as all the ones I've seen are too small!
ledlite make a conversion plate for their range.
dontfollowme said:
I seem to have GU5 50W Halogen bulbs in my place. I've recently replaced some blown ones with some cheap ones from Tesco. Can anyone recommend a source for cheap LED versions?
I have fitted a few of these from Denmans wholesalers and for the money they are very good, not dimmable though.http://www.eterna-lighting.co.uk/productinfo.asp?p...
However someone mentioned this site on here and these lamps seem very similar to the ones I tried. They do the dimmable version as well. Cant vouch for the site though.
http://www.ledhut.co.uk/gu10-smd-led-220-lumens-45...
I picked up a leaflet yesterday on a range of GU10 7w LED lamps that claim to have an output of 700 lumens for colour 4000k and 550 lumens for colour 3000k.They use CREE MTG2 LED and are dimmable.
I don't know if they are any good, I don't know the cost, but they are by a company called Orlight.
I don't know if they are any good, I don't know the cost, but they are by a company called Orlight.
PH5121 said:
I picked up a leaflet yesterday on a range of GU10 7w LED lamps that claim to have an output of 700 lumens for colour 4000k and 550 lumens for colour 3000k.They use CREE MTG2 LED and are dimmable.
I don't know if they are any good, I don't know the cost, but they are by a company called Orlight.
Looks impressive initially but being in the industry, I am sceptical about bold claims which seem a little too good to be true - especially when it comes to retrofits. Those lamps have a GU10 cap for sure but at 90mm depth they won't terribly effective as a retrofit unless you want your lamps sticking 3cms out of the front of your fittings! The photometric 'results' on the datasheet are quite unlike any photometric results I have ever seen too. I don't know if they are any good, I don't know the cost, but they are by a company called Orlight.
I note they also have their maths wrong. 676.2 Lumens divided by 7Watts is 96.6 lumens per watt, not their figure of 99.52. There is also no accounting for the efficacy of the driver that will be built into the cap. An LED may have an effectiveness of xyz but some of that overall efficiency will be lost in the driver's electronics and there is nothing to account for that in the 'results' whereas genuine photometrics will allow for this and show the results.
just saying!
Edited by E36GUY on Tuesday 27th November 11:52
vdp1 said:
220 lumens of this product is less than 50% of what you expect from a 50W Halogen which would typically be about 500. E36GUY said:
Please all read page 2 of this thread about lumes, heat sinking and the limitations of retrofit bulbs before bowling off to get LEDs to replace your 50 halogens. It's all still relevant
We've replaced around 25 GU10 Halogen bulbs around our house with LED bulbs from simplyled.co.uk that were around £7 each.You are welcome to state that in theory this was the wrong thing to do, but all I can say is that in practice, for my house, they were a massive improvement!
Four of the bulbs have failed inside 2 years, but SimplyLED replaced them with no fuss. If I was being picky, I would rather like a light colour somewhere between the warm and cool options, but the warm ones are fine once your eyes have adjusted to them.
I'm surprised at people saying they can't get as much light spread with LED bulbs as they could with Halogens. All the adverts I looked at came with the beam angle in the details, so I deliberately chose a bulb with greater spread than my existing GU10s and guess what? That's right, the spread is greater!
If I was putting a new light fixing in from scratch then I imagine it would make perfect sense to look at LED-specific fittings. As it is, to replace GU10 Halogen bulbs, after a couple of years' experience using LED replacement bulbs, I couldn't be happier.
chris1roll said:
Does the payback time take into account that the halogen GU10's require replacement at a rate of seemingly 1 per week?
xxthousand hours life my arse.
If not you could take some time off!
Something strange there.xxthousand hours life my arse.
If not you could take some time off!
I have 12v GU10s and they are on approx 5 hrs every day.
I fitted them 7yrs ago and haven't had to replace a single one (unlike the crap 60w golf ball lights that I have to replace almost weekly)
V8RX7 said:
Something strange there.
I have 12v GU10s and they are on approx 5 hrs every day.
I fitted them 7yrs ago and haven't had to replace a single one (unlike the crap 60w golf ball lights that I have to replace almost weekly)
I too have about 14 x 12V Dichroic lamps which light our living room. They were installed about 10 years ago and I've replaced 1 or 2 in that time, but not because they failed, just because the filament started buzzing.I have 12v GU10s and they are on approx 5 hrs every day.
I fitted them 7yrs ago and haven't had to replace a single one (unlike the crap 60w golf ball lights that I have to replace almost weekly)
That's not the same as GU10s, though, which are mains voltage lamps and do fail very regularly.
So I think you and I have MR11 or GU4 lamps. The GU10 is mains voltage with a ceramic base and two large contacts. I'm trying to eliminate them all as quickly as I can!
FurtiveFreddy said:
I too have about 14 x 12V Dichroic lamps which light our living room. They were installed about 10 years ago and I've replaced 1 or 2 in that time, but not because they failed, just because the filament started buzzing.
That's not the same as GU10s, though, which are mains voltage lamps and do fail very regularly.
So I think you and I have MR11 or GU4 lamps. The GU10 is mains voltage with a ceramic base and two large contacts. I'm trying to eliminate them all as quickly as I can!
Correct, in our 'beloved' house, I fitted 9x 12v MR16 bulbs over the worktops.That's not the same as GU10s, though, which are mains voltage lamps and do fail very regularly.
So I think you and I have MR11 or GU4 lamps. The GU10 is mains voltage with a ceramic base and two large contacts. I'm trying to eliminate them all as quickly as I can!
In 3 1/2 years I never replaced a single one, and having a fairly small window on the north side of the house they were on a lot.
(I also fitted 8x40w GE 'long life' candle bulbs in the living room, the first one didn't blow for almost 2 years.)
This house and the last one, have 240v GU10s fitted, which blow all the sodding time
Hello lightbulbheads!I worked as technical manager for a lighting company for 7 years so this is pretty much my specialist subject - Please excuse the long post.
Light bulbs (lamps)
There are a few different types of bulb that are commonly and incorrectly bundled together by the DIY stores and supermarkets, causing much confusion among end users.
There are two voltages available - 230V~ direct from the mains and 12V via a transformer (I think we all know that)
Glass types
There are two glass types used - One throws the heat out in the same direction as the light whilst the other reflects the heat back into the bulb. The type that throws it out with the light is known as "aluminium reflector" whilst the type that keeps the heat in the bulb/downlight is "dichroic"
Many electricians dont know the difference between the two glass types and I'd say that 99.9% of supermarkets and DIY stores dont know or care either.
A Aluminium reflector bulb uses normal clear glass that has no visible colour to it. The light and infra-red (heat) can come out through the front. This is hugely important if you have fire rated downlights that are enclosed at the rear.
A dichroic lamp has a vapour deposited substance on the front face that reflects the infra-red back into the lamp. This method was originally developed for keeping fighter plane cockpits cooler without reducing visibility.
230V Aluminium reflector lamp = GU10
230V Dichroic = GZ10
A subtle difference in the base of the lamp means it's impossible to fit a GZ10 lamp into a GU10 downlight.
12V Aluminium reflector lamp = GU5.3 or "MR16" (the latter is the common name but technically incorrect)
12V Dichroic lamp = GU5.3 or "MR16" (the latter is the common name but technically incorrect)
Both of these lamps are 100% identical in shape and are interchangeable - From a size and fitment point of view
You can see that whilst the 230V lamps are easily distinguished by name, the same cannot be said for 12V and this causes massive problems where fire-rated downlights have been fitted.
The majority of fire rated downlights are enclosed at the rear, a bit like putting a baked bean can in the ceiling. Obviously if you put a 50W lamp in a can of that size its going to get hot. This is why 99% of downlight manufacturers specify only aluminium reflector lamps to be used in their low voltage downlights - Using a dichroic lamp will damage the wiring and lamp holder inside the downlight and cause premature failure. Many people fit the wrong lamp and think the bulb keeps failing but in reality its the lamp holder that is at fault.
You cannot buy an aluminium reflactor 12V lamp in a supermarket or DIY store.
Most electricians dont know the difference and call everything "dichroic".
230V Vs. 12V
230V gives a much warmer light output. Lots of people prefer that for lounge areas and so on. 12V gives a much brighter and more sparkly output (because as the voltage drops, the frequency goes up) - This is why they work so well where you have shiny surfaces in bathrooms and kitchens etc.
Because a 12V lamp has a "soft start" caused by the transformer, the filament has a much easier life and the lamp will last for 7000+ hours.
A 230V lamp it constantly being hit with 230v which causes the filament to be highly stress each time it's switched on. This results in a much shorter lamp life.
Light output of LED lamps
The light output of an LED is very different to a halogen and can be broken down as follows:
Colour rendering.
This is the way that coloured object appear under artificial light. Quite often a cheap LED will have poor colour rendering and that makes things look grey, pale and washed out. This is because they have a poor CRI (colour rendering index). More expensive LEDs have much better colour rendering and can be considered a cgood halogen alternative.
Light output.
This is where is gets tricky to spot the genuine figures among the Chinese bulls
t.There are two methods of measuring light output and the two are not related. It is impossible to convert from one to another.
A directional light source is measured in Candela (cd)
A non-directional light source is measured in Lumens (Lm)
1cd = 1Lm spread evenly over a 1m square surface.
An LED chip produces directional light which has to be bent around the place using lenses and reflectors to give a good light spread. Therefore all LED products should be measured in Candela - But they're not. Because of the ancient requirements of European building regulations, manufacturers have to state the light output of all lamps in Lumen.
This gives them all an excuse to measure light output of a lamp using equipment that was never intended for the job in hand. It is possible to achieve different results using the same lamp on the same day, depending on how the test is done - There is no standard for doing the test. You can pretty much get your results to be anywhere between "technically correct" and "what the customer wants"
Another curved ball is that many Chinese manufacturers dont even measure the light output of the finished product. They take the LED chip light output and assume it'll be the same when housed in the lamp. Some of them even take the value that was measured on a naked chip at temperatures below freezing before it was encapsulated and assembled. An LED chip can lose as much as 50% of it's light output through encapsulation and lenses etc.
Beam angle
Most halogen lamps give a beam angle of around 36 degrees. Achieving this with an LED is difficult.
Because a halogen lamp emits light evenly in all directions, the light spread is good and consistent throughout the beam. An LED on the other hand relies on the lens to bend the light around the place and attempt to give a good light spread. This further reduces the efficiency of the LEDs and causes lots of problems with light quality.
You will often find that LED lamps give patchy light spots or a halo effect. This is caused by the lens.
Many manufacturers cant get over these problems so limit their beam angle to just 15 degrees - The result of this is a series of bright spots and a lot of shadows all over your lounge.
Lumen maintenance
This is probably the figure most commonly ignored by cheap lamp manufacturers but arguably the most important.
The light output of an LED will initially go UP over the first couple of hundred hours. After that it will stabilise for a few thousand more before dropping off significantly.
Achieving good lumen maintenance is difficult and relies on some complex thermal management and circuitry. This is why the more expensive LED lamps have a metal body with a visible heat sink and are bigger than their halogen counterparts.
Cheap Chinese lamps dont have either of these two things and as a result, the light output falls off a cliff after a short period of time.
When a manufacturer specifies a lumen output, look for the lumen maintenance figure too. You need something that says LM70 or LM80.
LM70 = 70% of the initial light output is retained at the stated lifetime
LM80 = 80% of the initial light output is retained at the stated lifetime
LED lifetime
The lifetime achievable by an LED chip is way in excess of what is required for domestic lighting. However, the electronics behind the LEDs will commonly fail after a few hundred hours, particularly if they get hot.
Again some cheap manufacturers state the lifetime of the LED chip before it's fitted into the lamp - That figure is pointless.
Wattage
Unlike halogen lamps, the wattage of an LED is meaningless. There is no direct correlation betwene wattage and light output. This will take end users many years to get used to. For example, some 5W LEDs are brighter than other 6W LEDs
What to look for in an LED lamp
These should be the minimum standards you need to look for to get a true halogen replacement
Beam angle = 36 degrees
Lumen output = 400lm
Lumen maintenence = LM80 @ 10,000 hrs
Colour rendering = 80CRI
Wattage = Irrelevant
Edited by 200bhp on Friday 7th December 01:07
Edited by 200bhp on Friday 7th December 07:05
Decided to break this into two posts just in case it crashed when clicking submit!
I urge anyone considering spending a sizeable amount of money on LED bulbs to consider changing to a dedicated LED downlight. Generally speaking they offer:
An integrated fire barrier
An integrated acoustic barrier
An integrated airflow barrier
Vastly superior reliability
Much better light output
Superior dimming capability
LED technology is moving at a very rapid pace and it is often difficult for some manufacturers to keep up with the latest technology. For some suppliers this is a problem because they have no in-house capabilities and are reliant on a far eastern factory to copy what someone else has done already. This means they're always playing catch-up - There are many companies around offering products they have found at Lighting trade shows which quite frankly, are very poor quality and many fail to meet the most basic electrical safety standards.
As explained in my previous post, the biggest headache for LED manufacturers are problems associated with heat and light distribution. Both of these can be easily overcome with a dedicated downlight.
Because the dedicated products have a driver that is located away from the LEDs, the driver components run at a much lower temperature. This means they are more likely to match the lifetime of the LEDs themselves. The extra space available to the electronics designer means that the circuit will be much better and capable of driving the LED chips at their optimum supply.
Most of the main players have now got an integrated LED downlight and most of them are quite reasonable in performance terms. The ability to use established driver technology allows downlight manufacturers to make something that is pretty reliable, as long as the LEDs are allowed to stay nice and cool with a big heatsink.
However, we are now starting to see another problem - LED downlights that wont fit into the same hole as an existing halogen downlight. Most traditional downlights are fitted in a 65-70mm hole in the ceiling. Many integrated LED products need a bigger cutout.
The established players are now so confident in their product that they're offering 7+ years warranty.
What to look for in an integrated LED downlight
Integrated fire barrier
Integrated acoustic barrier
400lm total light output
Lumen maintenance = LM80 @ 10,000 hrs
beam angle = 36 degrees
CRi = 80
Wattage = irrelevant
Colour temperature = 2700k to 3000k
65-70mm cutout
7 to 10 year warranty
Driver included with the package but NOT located directly behind the LED chips.
LED Downlights with integrated LEDs
I urge anyone considering spending a sizeable amount of money on LED bulbs to consider changing to a dedicated LED downlight. Generally speaking they offer:
An integrated fire barrier
An integrated acoustic barrier
An integrated airflow barrier
Vastly superior reliability
Much better light output
Superior dimming capability
LED technology is moving at a very rapid pace and it is often difficult for some manufacturers to keep up with the latest technology. For some suppliers this is a problem because they have no in-house capabilities and are reliant on a far eastern factory to copy what someone else has done already. This means they're always playing catch-up - There are many companies around offering products they have found at Lighting trade shows which quite frankly, are very poor quality and many fail to meet the most basic electrical safety standards.
As explained in my previous post, the biggest headache for LED manufacturers are problems associated with heat and light distribution. Both of these can be easily overcome with a dedicated downlight.
Because the dedicated products have a driver that is located away from the LEDs, the driver components run at a much lower temperature. This means they are more likely to match the lifetime of the LEDs themselves. The extra space available to the electronics designer means that the circuit will be much better and capable of driving the LED chips at their optimum supply.
Most of the main players have now got an integrated LED downlight and most of them are quite reasonable in performance terms. The ability to use established driver technology allows downlight manufacturers to make something that is pretty reliable, as long as the LEDs are allowed to stay nice and cool with a big heatsink.
However, we are now starting to see another problem - LED downlights that wont fit into the same hole as an existing halogen downlight. Most traditional downlights are fitted in a 65-70mm hole in the ceiling. Many integrated LED products need a bigger cutout.
The established players are now so confident in their product that they're offering 7+ years warranty.
What to look for in an integrated LED downlight
Integrated fire barrier
Integrated acoustic barrier
400lm total light output
Lumen maintenance = LM80 @ 10,000 hrs
beam angle = 36 degrees
CRi = 80
Wattage = irrelevant
Colour temperature = 2700k to 3000k
65-70mm cutout
7 to 10 year warranty
Driver included with the package but NOT located directly behind the LED chips.
Edited by 200bhp on Friday 7th December 01:35
LED Chips
LED Manufacturers
If you're looking at LED lamps or downlights you will have probably noticed many places like to brag about the manufacturer of their LED chip.
Do not buy a product based solely on the chip manufacturer.
Philips Luxeon and Cree are probably the two biggest LED manufacturers of LED chips. Their products are used the world over by most lamp and Downlight manufacturers. However, please allow me to use a car based analogy - Does fitting a Ferrari engine into a Saxo make it a Ferrari? No, because whilst the engine may be wonderful, the rest of the package will let it down and in the end the whole thing will be pointless.
Both of these manufacturers have different models in their range, rather like car manufacturers. Again, using a car analogy, just because you have a Mercedes key ring, it doesnt mean you drive a C63 AMG - You could have an entry level A class.
Traditional (current) LED chip manufacture
Because of the way LED chips are manufactured, there can be a significant variation in the colour of the light output. Whilst they can aim for a whole batch to match, it is simply impossible at the moment for this to happen.
What the manufacturers do is a process called "binning" - They go through an entire batch and put each LED chip into a "bin" based on it's actual colour output. The more bins you have, the more equally matched each LED in the bin will be. However, more bins = more inefficient production = higher cost.
The result of this is that the manufacturers offer a range of different options to the light bulb and downlight manufacturers. Some of them are a perfect match whilst others vary in light output. However, they will all be identical in every other way (including reliability).
If you buy a product simply because it has a Cree or Luxeon LED in it, how do you know how strict the binning was? - You dont.
Likewise, how do you know if the chips you're getting are this years model or a 3 year old design? - You dont.
If one Luxeon/Cree product is cheaper than another bearing the same name, there is likely to be a reason for it.
Now for the fourth and final instalment of "LED lighting for dummies" 
As already said, LED lighting is moving forward very quickly. This means that very soon a lot of the existing products will be left behind as a new breed of LED Downlights and bulbs becomes available. Its similar to LCD Televisions being replaced with LED etc.
Lighting products are becoming more light consumer electronics and many companies, small and large, are unable to adapt what they do to keep up with things.
As explained earlier, heat is a massive problem for LED products. If you can remove the heat from the LED chip, you can ensure it will last for a very long time. In order to do that, most manufacturers currently fit a big heat sink but that is akin to treating the symptom and not the cause.
Traditionally, each LED (for a downlight or bulb) is assembled onto the circuit board by hand. The two tiny wires or legs which connect the chip to the power are soldered individually and provide the only means of getting heat away from the chip.
SMD Technology
The future of LED technology is SMD LED. These chips are placed onto the circuit board by machine and soldered directly into place. This removes the inefficient small contact points and replaces them with a contact patch that is the same size as the LED chip itself.
Time for another car analogy - Traditional LED manufacture is a bit like trying to go off roading with 60psi in all your tyres. SMD LED is like dropping that pressure to 30psi - You have a much bigger contact patch and can avoid problems more easily.
The big players in the LED retro-fit market have already started to introduce SMD LED in their products. Philips and GE have recently unveiled bulbs that are aimed at replacing traditional 60W bulbs. Gone is the traditional aluminium heatsink, replaced by a plastic body with some fins to guide the air as it is drawn over the surface.
The thermal problems associated with high power LEDs will soon become a thing of the past. This means that manufacturers can start to produce something that is a lot cheaper, a lot lighter and a lot simpler. Those who continue to offer an expensive downlight with aluminium heat sink will get left behind in the weeds.
Should I wait for an SMD product?
This is a lot like the dilemma you have when buying a new TV - Do you get an LED TV now or wait for everything to be 3D, or maybe you wait for 3D without glasses?
At one end of the LED market you have the cheap Chinese light bulbs that fail basic electrical safety tests and have a pretty poor light output. At the other end you have the expensive integrated LED downlights with aluminium heatsinks.
Neither of these two product types are going to be around for many years to come. Even the best are a half-way-house to something better.
If I was keen to buy an LED downlight today I'd go for something like the new Inceptor range from Click: http://www.fastlec.co.uk/scolmore-inceptor-integra... or http://www.wydels.co.uk/Product-Catalogue/Non-Dimm...
However, if I was happy to wait a year or so, I'd save my money.
The future of LED Downlights is SMD and it's coming within 18 months.
Prices will be significantly lower than the existing integrated LED downlights and the performance will be the same if not better than the best of what is available today.
One of the biggest names in LED manufacture has been working on this as part of their plan for world domination of the LED market. The strategy is to flood the market with a cheap product that will be a true alternative to the GU10 halogen lamps we all love.
These are exciting time for those in the lighting industry and it's going to test some companies to the limit as they struggle to keep up with technology - Manufacturers who can change the way they work and adopt the principles of consumer electronics manufacturers will win this one.
The future (12-24 months)
As already said, LED lighting is moving forward very quickly. This means that very soon a lot of the existing products will be left behind as a new breed of LED Downlights and bulbs becomes available. Its similar to LCD Televisions being replaced with LED etc.
Lighting products are becoming more light consumer electronics and many companies, small and large, are unable to adapt what they do to keep up with things.
As explained earlier, heat is a massive problem for LED products. If you can remove the heat from the LED chip, you can ensure it will last for a very long time. In order to do that, most manufacturers currently fit a big heat sink but that is akin to treating the symptom and not the cause.
Traditionally, each LED (for a downlight or bulb) is assembled onto the circuit board by hand. The two tiny wires or legs which connect the chip to the power are soldered individually and provide the only means of getting heat away from the chip.
SMD Technology
The future of LED technology is SMD LED. These chips are placed onto the circuit board by machine and soldered directly into place. This removes the inefficient small contact points and replaces them with a contact patch that is the same size as the LED chip itself.
Time for another car analogy - Traditional LED manufacture is a bit like trying to go off roading with 60psi in all your tyres. SMD LED is like dropping that pressure to 30psi - You have a much bigger contact patch and can avoid problems more easily.
The big players in the LED retro-fit market have already started to introduce SMD LED in their products. Philips and GE have recently unveiled bulbs that are aimed at replacing traditional 60W bulbs. Gone is the traditional aluminium heatsink, replaced by a plastic body with some fins to guide the air as it is drawn over the surface.
The thermal problems associated with high power LEDs will soon become a thing of the past. This means that manufacturers can start to produce something that is a lot cheaper, a lot lighter and a lot simpler. Those who continue to offer an expensive downlight with aluminium heat sink will get left behind in the weeds.
Should I wait for an SMD product?
This is a lot like the dilemma you have when buying a new TV - Do you get an LED TV now or wait for everything to be 3D, or maybe you wait for 3D without glasses?
At one end of the LED market you have the cheap Chinese light bulbs that fail basic electrical safety tests and have a pretty poor light output. At the other end you have the expensive integrated LED downlights with aluminium heatsinks.
Neither of these two product types are going to be around for many years to come. Even the best are a half-way-house to something better.
If I was keen to buy an LED downlight today I'd go for something like the new Inceptor range from Click: http://www.fastlec.co.uk/scolmore-inceptor-integra... or http://www.wydels.co.uk/Product-Catalogue/Non-Dimm...
However, if I was happy to wait a year or so, I'd save my money.
The future of LED Downlights is SMD and it's coming within 18 months.
Prices will be significantly lower than the existing integrated LED downlights and the performance will be the same if not better than the best of what is available today.
One of the biggest names in LED manufacture has been working on this as part of their plan for world domination of the LED market. The strategy is to flood the market with a cheap product that will be a true alternative to the GU10 halogen lamps we all love.
These are exciting time for those in the lighting industry and it's going to test some companies to the limit as they struggle to keep up with technology - Manufacturers who can change the way they work and adopt the principles of consumer electronics manufacturers will win this one.
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