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Old 13th Jan 2019, 11:16 am   #15
Sideband
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Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Croydon, Surrey, UK.
Posts: 7,550
Default Re: The demise of the fluorescent tube

Another thumbs up from me regarding LED lighting! I have three- light chandelier fittings in the living room and dining room. These were originally designed for 3 x 40W tungsten candle bulbs which would have been 120W per fitting. At the outset I decided to use 3 x 7W CFL's in each (since the 7W type were equivalent to 40W) so total for each fitting was 21W. These were fine for several years until the CFL's started to fail...(I found about 3 years was the average life). Replacements were easy to start with although not always the same design (I had used the curly twist type originally). It then became harder to find 7W types and I didn't want odd ones (5W and 10W mixed).

Walking around B&Q one afternoon I chanced upon an offer of 5 x candle LED types for £10. These were 3 watts each and claimed to be equivalent to a 40W tungsten. I thought it was worth the gamble so bought two boxes (as it happens, the last two boxes). I fitted three of these to one fitting and was instantly impressed by the light output which to me seemed identical to the CFL's plus...no flicker and no warm-up time....(I always thought that the slow increase in brightness of the CFL's was annoying). I fitted another three to the dining room fitting with the same result and of course the 21W was now reduced down to 9W per fitting. So now I had instant light for less power. I also have four spares should I ever need them. So far these LED's have been in place for about four years with no sign of failure....they have already outlasted the CFL's. For me it's a no-brainer!

I'm slowly changing all the CFL's to LED as required. In the kitchen, my wife wanted spotlights and she liked a three-way fitting in Ikea. This came with three 50W halogen spots. I never used the halogen spots since if I had, the kitchen light would have used more than all the others in the house.....! Instead I bought three 5W LED spots that were equivalent in light output....a tenth of the power for the same light......These 5W spots have been in the kitchen for three years with no problems....15W total power rather than 150W.

The last 'conversion' to LED was the cooker hood....this came with two 20W halogen candle bulbs which were totally unreliable...two failed within months of it being fitted. Now I've fitted two 2W LED candles....same light output. 18 months later, no failures and only 4W rather than 40.

For me, LED wins every time!
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