This could light up your life

Right now, I would be very cautious about buying LED lights for any reason. Below is the message I posted on the

10-Dec-2010.

In the meantime I decided to try these lamps for longevity, and the first one blew in the first week.

Pay your money, take your chances. I would be wanting to see a few reviews first.

I know the technology will come good in time, but not quite there yet.

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Back on the 20-Nov-2010, I mentioned the possibility of LEDs for domestic lighting.

I had ordered some of these, I wanted something that was physically equivalent to what I was replacing, so I could best judge apples with apples:

E27 3W 42-LED Energy Saving LED Light Bulb - White (220V) Price: $7.92 free shipping

3W, but the review reckons they are equiv to 8 to 12w CFL.

Well, they arrived today. In the family room where we do all of our reading, I have a light fitting that has provision for 3 lamps, and I have been running 3 by CFLs of about 8W to 12W for many years. This has suited us fine.

I just tried the new 3 by 3W LEDs, and there is no way we could suffer from the lack of light intensity, or bad white colour. It was worse than going back to a kero lamp. :-) Yes, we started off married life with a kero fridge too.

I am guessing that they only offered about 25% of the light that the CFLs were outputting.

So I think that costs must drop (per watt), and quality must go up before these become acceptable.

They are now sitting in the cupboard as spares, or novelty talking pieces. :-(

Cheers Don...

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Don McKenzie

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"I'd buy that for a Dollar!".

The reviewer was an idiot or more likely just over enthusiastic. 1 watt LED ~ 1 watt CFL. I'm surprised you fell for it. I have a similar 3w bulb. It lights my toilet. I'm debating on whether I should use one in my (small) laundry since I barely use the room at night, but otherwise not in a bigger room.

1 watt CFL. I'm surprised you fell for it.

should use one in my (small) laundry since I

I was actually going on the review my friend of 30 years gave me, but his was about LED down light replacements, which he had great success with.

However yes, most of the reviews appear to be done by 15 year olds that have at least a weeks experience in electronics. Training for DSE sales no doubt.

And I apologize to the 15 year olds that do have a clue. I have met quite a few of these too.

But a lot of what you buy at places like Dealextreme can be real crap. If it is cheap enough, then it may be worth a try.

Cheers Don...

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Don McKenzie

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"I'd buy that for a Dollar!".

Sorry - there is a DX review that sounds exactly like the one you mentioned but given for a Chinese 3w light (colour is actually pretty good - though it looks strange to be pure white but not actually bright)

My 1 w LES ~ I w CFL is from my experience with the DX type of LED lighting.

Our whole house is led now , wasn't to costly and the reduction in consumption will repay the cost in less than two years assuming the claimed life use is vaguely accurate

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Don, All,

I bought these ones to replace the downlights in my kitchen area..

I agree with stying away from 240V units as I don't trust chinese mains powered lighting..

Those ones above are 12V, they quote AC/DC but I found using the standard AC Downlight transformer they `blinked' at 50Hz and was very annoying.. however I used a 12VDC 5A power pack to drive 6 of these (supposedly 3.8W each) and I have not looked back.

From our observation the total light output is `similar' to the 50W halogen DLs but was more `spread out' and not as directional... The Halogens were actually brighter but only where they pointed, these LEDs gave an overall effect that was MUCH much much better to us.. The kitchen is now flooded with light that is WHITE as opposed to Yellow and not split into sections of shaded/lit areas that the halogens created.

I will add that the ceilings in our kitchen are 9 foot high (about 2.8m) and this did exacerbate the effect of the Halogens with their directionality.

I wish I good give comparison photos but I am not going to wire the halogens back and even then it would be hard to get an accurate like with like view.

Mik

Thank you, excellent information provided all through your comments.