Led Tubes

[bhg481]

Has anybody any experience of LED tubes as replacements for fluorescent tubes? This sort of thing:

http://www.brightlightz.co.uk/5-ft-1500mm-20w-t8-led-tube-light-fluorescent-replacement

[ivor4781]

to be honest im staying away from lights that contain multiple leds ,i see so many where some leds have failed within the fitting then it just looks unsightly with dead spots inside it,i see these on the road too with brake lights / high viz brake lights with one or two leds out (even on mercs) my car had leds bulbs in the side lights in but both started loosing leds with 1 year,replaced with tungsten

[The Builder]

Prices of LEDs are coming down all the time. The quality has improved a lot as well. Not so much of the problem that Ivor has found.

I'm never used the striplights yet, but plenty of others. When I tear myself away from Answerbank, I'm about to order 150 various LED lamps for a pub. The power savings over time are pretty substantial.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

A standard 1500mm tube costs around £3 and consumes 58w of power.This led costs £30 and consumes 20w of power.The payback time and the chance of failure ..in my view is not worth it.

[bhg481]

We have 2 x 5ft fluorescent tubes in our kitchen which operate on a light-sensitive timeswitch. I estimate that replacing them with LED tubes will pay for itself in about 2 years.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

You will get led tubes for a lot less than £30...so shop around and get the ones with a 5 year guarantee......if you are happy with the light output.

[The Builder]

The other thing, bhg, do you really need 2200 lumens? That's where the power consumption goes.

[ivor4781]

builder.yes the price is lowering slightly for leds but that doesn't stop a large amount of failures, notice when you drive in behind cars not that old how many are out in brake lights, a pub near me (a beefeater) has had these installed all the way round its exterior and now has unsightly gaps in the continuous strip its used, i love leds but need a bit more reliability ,

[ivor4781]

bright spark
the 5 year warranty is not worth the paper it printed on there will be clause in the small print believe me if you can find the warranty, you could have used the light for 90 hrs in that time or 43000 hrs that's 800 under five years of use you think there going to replace it, and the cost to you of you returning it by post etc would nearly be the same as buying a new florescent tube with fitting

[mikey4444]

At present, my caravan uses Halogen MR11 12v 20w bulbs. These are cheap and easy to find, but they get very hot to the touch and take a lot of power.

I understand that there are LED versions of these, which can be plugged into my sockets, without any further adaptation. But they are really quite expensive.

What I have never understood is the nomenclature with bulbs ! What does
"MR11" mean ? Is that the size and how it connects into the sockets ? I am further confused by the different wattages and different "whites" that are on offer.

If somebody could give me an idiots guide to these flipping names, I would be very much obliged.

[mikey4444]

Also, what would be the equivalent to 20w in LED bulbs ? I have seen some on ebay that are 1w :::

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MR11-LED-1W-Spotlight-Lamp-Light-Bulb-Warm-Cool-White-6-SMD-/151054063646?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&var=&hash=item232b86181e

Would these be as bright as the 20w halogen ones that I am using now ?

[bhg481]

Kitchen is already fitted with 2 x 5ft tubes (long thin kitchen). I don't want to replace the tubes with shorter ones and we like it brightly lit.

My calculation is as follows:

I estimate the lights are on for about 6 hours a day average; up to 2 hours in a morning and up to 8 hours in an evening, depending on the time of year.

so 2 x 58 watt tube for 6 hours a day, 365 days a year, with electricity at 12p per KWh gives about £30 per annum.
Using LED tubes (at 20watts each) will reduce this to around £10 per annum, saving £20 per annum on running costs. Thus taking 3 years (not 2, as I said before) to pay for the tubes. After that I'm saving £20 per annum on running costs.

[bhg481]

Mikey - I think the MR11 bit defines the fitting so any MR11 bulb should do.

As far as brightness is concerned I changed some of the festoon bulbs in my car from tungsten to LED. I measured the current drawn by the new and old bulbs and there is approx a factor 10, so LEDs take about 1/10 the power of a tungsten bulb. The LED bulbs are also brighter but, to be fair, the tungsten bulbs were not new.
I have changed all the interior bulbs and the awning light bulb on my caravan for LEDS and find them all much brighter.
I've also changed the sidelight bulbs in the car for LEDs and they too are brighter.

[The Builder]

bhg, excuse me replying to Mikey...

Mr11 is the smaller one - 35mm diameter. As bhg has said, LED replacements are just that. Pull one out and plug the LED right in.

Cool white and warm white usually. Cool is brighter but stark. Warm is slightly yellow and cosier. Some now also come in "Daylight" which is between the two.

20w would be roughly 2watt in LED.

I use this site a lot. Have a read up of their info pages. If necessary, ring them. They are extremely helpful and certainly not just aimed at "trade".

http://www.ledhut.co.uk/

[bhg481]

Good link Builder; I've bookmarked it.

Just an extra warning to Mike - remember the D in LED stands for diode ie, they will only allow current to pass in one direction. If you fit one to a DC circuit and it doesn't work, reverse the bulb in the socket and then it will. I've seen reviews from people saying they bought a LED bulb and it was rubbish because it didn't work; I suspect they didn't try to reverse it. The manufacturers SHOULD warn you about this but they don't all seem to do so.

[BRIGHT SPARK]

Ivor....we never have a problem with returns. The wholesaler will replace most things without question.It must be my trustworthy personality. :-)

[mikey4444]

Well, goodness gracious me ! What a lot of help and good advice....just what I needed...thanks !

Ledhut looks like a really good site, although their p+p is a bit high. I shall start replacing them a few at a time from next year.

One more query about the halogen/led equivalence. Is there a formulae for comparing the brightness of LEDs compared to halogen ? I notice on the ledhut site they only sell 2w and 2½w.

Also, may I presume that I won't have any problems with my caravan transformer ? There is a warning on the ledhut site of :: LED Transformer Upgrade Maybe Required.

Thanks for the polarity warning, although I was aware of that. I have used LEDS before, on a model railway layout, and until I realised the polarity issue, I thought I was going MAD !

One last question, this time for bhg481....what is a "festoon" bulb in a car please ! ?

[bhg481]

Typical festoon bulb Mikey - usually used for interior lighting, number plates etc

http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/237-40mm-festoon-bulbs/

[BRIGHT SPARK]

mikey.......led lamps require a 'driver' instead of a transformer for basic operation.....however some transformers will do an adequate job.If your lamps start to flash after a few minutes then you need to change the transformer for the correct driver.