The Lemon Fool

What is it with these LED lightbulbs?

I bought my very first, a "dimmable" one, years ago now at a B&Q closing down sale, "30,000 hours life". I reckon it lasted all of 30 seconds. Untypically for me, I somehow managed to lose the receipt. Put me right off LED lighting for years.

Recently my last filament bulb for the bedside table lamp blew. Oh dear! Got to get myself a "dimmable" LED bulb. Some research followed... I eventually found myself at a large B&Q. Couldn't see the 13.8W 1521L one they had on their website. (Which definitely reminded me of the first one I had bought years ago...)

Christ! I can remember when you went into a shop and just asked for "a 60w lightbulb", now you appear to need to be a member of MENSA to buy one. Eventually I went off with a Philips 5.9W 806L ("60W equivalent"). Made sure I got a receipt.

Went home, just tried it. Well, yes, I can actually tell when it is switched on, I can't deny that. But equivalent to 60W? You must be joking, looks more like 30W to me. Hopeless!

I'm thinking of converting to oil lamps.

It can be a pain getting to grips with these new lights.

Yes they do actually state the light output, rather then the electricity consumed. However that doesn't help us old fogies does it.
My solution was to actually fit "corn cob" bulbs and use the number of Led's as a guide.

I don't use a dimmer. If I want light, then I want light.
I buy mine online and have a stash.

Anyway, you now know not to buy ~800L bulbs. I suspect that you may be happier with your original choice.

Ps, it's heat that kills LED bulbs. If hanging from the socket, look for ones with metal rather than plastic at the base when choosing higher power bulbs.

I've never had an LED bulb from B&Q that wasn't badly made and short-lived. Or buzzed, or cracked its little plastic collar, or went yellow. These dimmables have been OK though. https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0BTSVXCTY .

But enough of being helpful. There was a time when they were telling us that a 5 watt LED was equivalent to 60 watts in old money, but it was a lie then and it's a lie now. 9 watts is nearer the mark. And to get any sort of a real idea, you have to be an expert on Kelvins and Lumens, which sound like they've escaped from some children's TV series from the 1970s.

And then you choose between bayonets and small bayonets and Edison screws and small Edison screws and clear filaments and something called a Led Smd. Not forgetting PAR38 and R50 and MR16 and R2D2. (Not really, I'm just checking you're awake).

And then the whole thing all over again in Smart or stupid, or dimmable or not, and any bloody colour under Kelvin's bloody rainbow, as long as it's yellow or blue. Or the programmable ones in my standard lamp that can supply six different light tones, from a warm Caribbean dawn to being surgically experimented on by aliens.

And that's when you find out that dimmables come in families, and buying the wrong family will make your dimmer switches buzz. You'll probably find out later that it's also septupled the bill on your smart meter. (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... -high.html)

Oh, I love it, I love it. Passes the time of day when I've got nothing else to do.

BJ

If you are still using the old fashioned dimmer switch, you will find many of the dimmable LEDs won't work with it, as you need a compatible dimmer.

At least I think that is the case, we still have a large box of Tunsten filament lights from MrsF's parents.

The thing that gets me is the temperature restrictions on some of them - I bought an outside light that said it was only for use between 4 and 30 Celcius.

DrFfybes wrote:
The thing that gets me is the temperature restrictions on some of them - I bought an outside light that said it was only for use between 4 and 30 Celcius.

Why would you do that?

Tedx wrote:

DrFfybes wrote:The thing that gets me is the temperature restrictions on some of them - I bought an outside light that said it was only for use between 4 and 30 Celcius.

Why would you do that?

Probably got more to do with the crappy plastic shells than the bulbs themselves. Some of ours have yellowed, or gone brittle or sagged horribly in even moderate heat. Still, cheer up, it all helps to find a recycling use for a billion tonnes of discarded vapes that would otherwise be bobbing their merry way out to sea in some enchanted part of the world.

What I really can't understand is, last time I briefly looked directly into the business end of one of those small 4.5 V battery LED, hand torches when it was switched on, it was a whole 20 minutes or so before I felt reasonably confident that I hadn't actually burnt a permanent hole in my retina...

Tedx wrote:

DrFfybes wrote:
The thing that gets me is the temperature restrictions on some of them - I bought an outside light that said it was only for use between 4 and 30 Celcius.

Why would you do that?

Because it only says it in the small print in the instruction leaflet that you can only read once you've opened it and unpacked it, and that almost nobody reads anyway.

Paul

DrFfybes wrote:

Tedx wrote:
Why would you do that?

Because it only says it in the small print in the instruction leaflet that you can only read once you've opened it and unpacked it, and that almost nobody reads anyway.

Paul

Ah, got you. I thought you wanted to buy a light that worked between those specific temperatures - hence my question

XFool wrote:What is it with these LED lightbulbs?

They're a whole lot better than any other lightbulb technology I've encountered. Though there are certainly issues with the dimmable ones if used with wiring for filaments or halogens.

My first two were bought a little over ten years ago. One of those is my only LED lightbulb ever to have blown (and I have a lot of them here). Those were early LEDs from B&Q. My current lightbulbs are from Screwfix (with the exception of the kitchen ones, which I bought online) and are excellent.

The first LED I bought in this house was 3.4 Watt. I tried using it to replace a 50W halogen in the hallway, but it was far too bright for there. The 2.6W screwfix ones are just a little brighter than the 50W halogens. In the kitchen, 7W LEDs are many times brighter than the 50W halogens, which had been inadequate for there. And with nine of them in the room, that's a lot of power I'm saving!

Christ! I can remember when you went into a shop and just asked for "a 60w lightbulb", now you appear to need to be a member of MENSA to buy one. Eventually I went off with a Philips 5.9W 806L ("60W equivalent"). Made sure I got a receipt.

Yeah, the number of different fittings is a pain (though even in the old days there were several). Don't ask me why we have so many.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

XFool wrote:What is it with these LED lightbulbs?

They're a whole lot better than any other lightbulb technology I've encountered.

Based on my (limited) experience to date that's not an easy argument to accept.

UncleEbenezer wrote:

Christ! I can remember when you went into a shop and just asked for "a 60w lightbulb", now you appear to need to be a member of MENSA to buy one. Eventually I went off with a Philips 5.9W 806L ("60W equivalent"). Made sure I got a receipt.

Yeah, the number of different fittings is a pain (though even in the old days there were several). Don't ask me why we have so many.

AFAIK in the old days there were two:
Bayonet Cap (BC) - universal for single bulbs in the UK (apart from public transport, to prevent theft?)
Small Bayonet Cap (SBC) - used for the smaller sized bulbs used in multiple overhead lighting units, chandeliers etc.

Then, in the 1970s, fashionable stores started importing or copying 'continental' lamp units along with their continental Edison Screw (ES) bulbs. So, whereas in the past we used to just have general purpose BC bulbs we now have: BC, SBC, ES, SES

That's nothing to do with LED lighting. With that we now have:

Dimmable (but are they?), Non Dimmable, Warm White, Cool White, Coloured, Multicoloured, 'Filament LED', SMART WiFi Dimmable Cool White Filament LED - or not.

Plus doubtless several others not mentioned above...

All with: BC, SBC, ES, SES options!

XFool wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:They're a whole lot better than any other lightbulb technology I've encountered.

Based on my (limited) experience to date that's not an easy argument to accept.

UncleEbenezer wrote:Yeah, the number of different fittings is a pain (though even in the old days there were several). Don't ask me why we have so many.

AFAIK in the old days there were two:
Bayonet Cap (BC) - universal for single bulbs in the UK (apart from public transport, to prevent theft?)
Small Bayonet Cap (SBC) - used for the smaller sized bulbs used in multiple overhead lighting units, chandeliers etc.

Then, in the 1970s, fashionable stores started importing or copying 'continental' lamp units along with their continental Edison Screw (ES) bulbs. So, whereas in the past we used to just have general purpose BC bulbs we now have: BC, SBC, ES, SES

That's nothing to do with LED lighting. With that we now have:

Dimmable (but are they?), Non Dimmable, Warm White, Cool White, Coloured, Multicoloured, 'Filament LED', SMART WiFi Dimmable Cool White Filament LED - or not.

Plus doubtless several others not mentioned above...

All with: BC, SBC, ES, SES options!

As an aside - isn't the bayonet fitting simply the worst you've ever encountered?
It has 4 easy points of failure and I've lost count of the number of times I've met one where the supporting plastic (or bakelite) lug was broken leaving the globe about 15deg off normal... if it makes enough contact to work

When I moved to this house a couple of years ago I replaced about 50 x GU10 and G9 halogen bulbs of 40 or 50W each, with LEDs at 3 or 4W.

I reckon I've saved a fortune in electricity, and not a single one has blown (yet).

Scott.

...It look like the dimmer.

The lamp unit depends on the dimmer to even turn the light on or off, just by touch. The replacement LED light operates erratically via the touch dimmer control. Sometimes it flared up alarmingly as if about to blow. But I can sometimes persuade it now to come on brightly, when it does seem more like a 60W equivalent light, rather than the dim glow state it normally stops at. I will try to test it without the dimmer in circuit. Unfortunately this is the only ES fitting I have. But it looks as if the bulb itself may be OK. So need to somehow replace the dimmer for the lamp, or remove it and put an ordinary line switch in.

servodude wrote:As an aside - isn't the bayonet fitting simply the worst you've ever encountered?
It has 4 easy points of failure and I've lost count of the number of times I've met one where the supporting plastic (or bakelite) lug was broken leaving the globe about 15deg off normal... if it makes enough contact to work

No, that's just the cheap and nasty Bakelite ones that became brittle over time from the heat and crumbled. Decent, old, ones were made of brass and ceramic.

DrFfybes wrote:If you are still using the old fashioned dimmer switch, you will find many of the dimmable LEDs won't work with it, as you need a compatible dimmer.

At least I think that is the case, we still have a large box of Tunsten filament lights from MrsF's parents.

The thing that gets me is the temperature restrictions on some of them - I bought an outside light that said it was only for use between 4 and 30 Celcius.

Why are you keeping old tungsten filament bulbs? Hideously expensive compared to the equivalent LED ones. Admittedly LED are fairly expensive to buy in the first place but it is a one off cost and the electricity saving is huge.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:

DrFfybes wrote:If you are still using the old fashioned dimmer switch, you will find many of the dimmable LEDs won't work with it, as you need a compatible dimmer.

At least I think that is the case, we still have a large box of Tunsten filament lights from MrsF's parents.

The thing that gets me is the temperature restrictions on some of them - I bought an outside light that said it was only for use between 4 and 30 Celcius.

Why are you keeping old tungsten filament bulbs? Hideously expensive compared to the equivalent LED ones. Admittedly LED are fairly expensive to buy in the first place but it is a one off cost and the electricity saving is huge.

Dod

If the gas goes off we'll need some way of keeping warm.

Indeed. But on topic I got rid of my remaining tungsten bulbs once I understood the equivalent values for light and the significance of the K value.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:Why are you keeping old tungsten filament bulbs? Hideously expensive compared to the equivalent LED ones. Admittedly LED are fairly expensive to buy in the first place but it is a one off cost and the electricity saving is huge.

Dod

They give off a nice bit of heat which saves on the heating bill in winter.

I still have 2 cases of Philips softone 40W bulbs, just lovely.

In bed last night, groped for the light... It came on at "60W equivalent"! Quite floodlit the room.

Why is everything getting more and more complicated? I can remember when the most complicated thing was waiting for the valves to warm up.

Last time I still had a portable DAB radio I was still able to get it to turn on and work, just. Had to face Mecca, cross myself three times, then recite the first two chapters of Leviticus out loud; backwards.