Can you buy LED light bulbs for the home?

[MitchT]

After an interesting discussion about LED torches, during which I discovered that the bulbs last longer, are brighter and use less energy, I started to wonder if there are LED light bulbs for the home - Ones that would provide a direct replacement for ordinary bayonet fitting type light bulbs. With the energy-saving bulb nazis making life at home ever dimmer and the availability of 100W bayonet light bulbs dwindling, I've started to wonder if there's an LED solution to the twilight zone and subsequent manic depression experience that is soon going to be forced upon us. So far an internet search has drawn a blank - plenty of LED lighting but nothing to directly replace regular light bulbs... so, does anyone know of LED bulbs with a bayonet fitting that could replace ordinary light bulbs and where I can buy them?

[anonymous-user]

Try b&q, they do certain styles of led lighting, and might be able to help!

[Scraggles]

local hardware shop seems to think the big shops getting an allowance to sell low energy bulbs cheap and get rid of the normal ones, he has loads of bulbs and his supplier has a large warehouse with them in

[GKP]

http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/household-bulbs-c-92.ht...

Any help?

[TWSTEEL]

http://www.expertverdict.com/webapp/wcs/stores/ser...

These things are brilliant but pricey at the moment - no doubt they will come down.




Just found these on the same site

Edited by TWSTEEL on Sunday 11th January 17:16

[grumbledoak]

The current best solution to the coming enforced twilight zone is to stockpile some incandescents. I now have enough to last a few years!

LEDs are becoming available, but they are expensive at present. http://www.thelightbulb.co.uk/product/catalogue2.p...

[skip_1]

Saw some in one of those catalogues that come with the sunday papers. About £4 per bulb.

[parakitaMol.]

We've just bought some LED colour change bulbs. They're really nice in little cube lights.









Not great photography but you get the gist.... they are about £7 each but they're supposed to last 25 years.

They definitely come with screw type and GU10 fittings - don't know about bayonet fittings. (I know this because I bought 3, thought they were great went to buy 3 more (to complete a set) drove to 4 different B&Qs (on an Autistic mission to complete task in one night) and then came home with 2 screw type fitting. When I needed gu10. I had a medium / severe degree tantrum over this.

Edited by parakitaMol. on Sunday 11th January 18:32

[gib6933]

parakitaMol. said:

Nice romantic night in, lights off, maybe light a few candles or 35!

Edited by gib6933 on Sunday 11th January 18:32

[parakitaMol.]

gib6933 said:

or 35!

There were more earlier. You can never have too many candles.

Or lights.

My OH has a mild neon fixation. It's fabulous for backlighting stuff.

[parakitaMol.]

These are the ones I have, Philips also do them.

[erolb]

Can these be used with dimmer switches?

Thanks

[fastfreddy]

I've bought a lot of LEDs recently, and I mean A LOT!

Apart from putting together an LED lighting solution for doing some product photography (wanted to reduce heat output and size of existing tungsten lamps) I've also been trying to cut down on our general power consumption.

I've tried quite a few different LED and energy saving lamps over the last couple of months and have come to these conclusions (mainly based on tests with various GU10 spotlamp replacements)

1. Commercially available, packaged LED alternatives still don't have the light output. Try to replace 50w halogen GU10s with LEDs and you'll be very disappointed. However, if you just want to replace a low power, mood light up to 25w, you can probably find something suitable in LEDs. Eventually we went for the low energy fluorescent type GU10 replacements. Still not quite as powerful, but the good ones come close.

2. Event the so-called 'warm' LED and fluorescent lamps won't give you the same quality and colour of light that an incandescent lamp will. Again, fluorescents are probably closer than warm LEDs but for some areas you may not like the change.

In summary, before committing to buying several expensive LED/fluorescent replacement lamps, try a few different types and make sure you can take them back if you don't like them.

HTH

[JulianHJ]

erolb said:

Can these be used with dimmer switches?

Thanks

Some can, but you can't mix and match on the same circuit (or shouldn't, as the halogens can damage the LEDs with voltage spikes apparently).

Edited by JulianHJ on Monday 12th January 10:02

[JulianHJ]

parakitaMol. said:

We've just bought some LED colour change bulbs. They're really nice in little cube lights.

I like the cube lights, where are they from?

[parakitaMol.]

JulianHJ said:

I like the cube lights, where are they from?

http://www.londonlighting.co.uk/

I'm pretty sure they were from here - will check.

[JulianHJ]

parakitaMol. said:

JulianHJ said:

I like the cube lights, where are they from?

http://www.londonlighting.co.uk/

I'm pretty sure they were from here - will check.

Thanks, I've had a look through and can't find them - perhaps they are no longer available.

[parakitaMol.]

They definitely came from there. They are still in the catalogue - maybe worth checking with them. OH bought some additional ones very recently.

Edited by parakitaMol. on Monday 12th January 14:13

[loafer123]

The latest LED technology is pretty much there.

I can't find the YouTube comparison video right now, but have a look at http://www.geobulb.com/

[loafer123]

BTW, note that the bulb is $120, but it's still cheaper per hour than energy saving ones.

In my view, the adoption of this technology will do more than most things to reduce our energy usage.