If you are considering replacing halogen lamps with LED substitutes, then listed below are some of the best LED spot lights
Click on the following links if you’re interested instead in non-spotlight, regular shape LED light bulbs, LED G4 capsules, or LED Mood lighting.
If you’re interested in further unbiased, genuine customer reviews and all the latest prices of any of the products covered here then simply click on the photographs or product names. All orders are fulfilled by Amazon to ensure timely delivery, an easy returns policy and typically the BEST PRICES available anywhere.
Edison 6W LED GU10 Bulb, Warm White, 50W Equivalent
Can you tell the difference? Well, yes you almost certainly can but which is which, and more to the point which do you prefer? On the left hand side you see a bathroom lit by 3 x 50W halogen GU10 lamps and the right hand side is the exact same space lit by 3 x 6W warm white LED GU10 bulbs, in other words 150 watts versus 18.
Impressive huh? In real life (as distinct from a photographic image) the LED lighting is in fact noticeably sharper and gives a much “cleaner” result, which suits a white tiled bathroom very well. I’m thinking now of replacing the rather cheap ceiling fitting with something a little more contemporary that takes 4 rather than 3 lamps, so as to fit an inexpensive programmable color changing mood lamp for a bit of fun.
With 6 watts total (3 x 2W) these Edison GU10 LED bulbs are among the most powerful mains voltage LED spots currently on the domestic market and offer a genuine replacement for 50W GU10 halogen spots. Though they claim a close match on color temperature (2700 Kelvin – warm white) they in fact produce a noticeably “whiter” light than a halogen (which is either a good thing or not according to personal taste in these matters). They certainly match 50W halogens for brightness and the 45 degree beam gives a good sized light pool on the floor (for comparison a standard GU10 is slightly narrower at 38 degrees).
The manufacturer Edison use their latest LED chips for these and claim a lifespan of 22 years with 88% saving in electricity consumption which a) sounds eminently plausible and b) this is established lighting giant Edison not some schmuck on eBay.
One thing to note though, is that whereas most 3 x 1W LED spots are at best a match for a regular 35W lamp, doubling the power does not double the amount of light. LED lighting does not scale in a linear fashion where power is concerned so a 6W LED lamp is probably no more than 50% brighter at best than a 3W one – not twice as bright, as you might quite reasonably have imagined. But brighter is nonetheless brighter and these 6W Edison LEDs are definitely bright enough to replace 50W halogens.
These bulbs support worldwide operability (voltages between 85 and 265V AC). Made from Advanced Aluminum Alloy though at 60mm in length this bulb is slightly longer than a regular GU10 but should nevertheless fit most standard GU10 spotlight and downlight fittings. Manufacturer’s warranty for 1 year from date of purchase. ISO9001/2000, CE & RoHS Certified.
A great high quality spotlight – not much else to say other than you can buy them here right now for probably the best price anywhere, and if you want the cool (or “daylight”) white versions then those are also available.
Edison also manufacture both a 6W MR16 LED and for those who like it really, really bright a 9W MR16 LED spotlight for use with low voltage systems.
Since replacing low voltage halogen lamps with LED versions requires an element of rewiring in order to also replace existing transformers with LED drivers, an alternative approach worth considering is to just cut the transformers out and fit mains powered LED lamps instead. This simply involves connecting a GU10 lampholder at the point where the transformer used to be wired in and thus passing the current direct to the bulb.
There is little to be gained by using “low voltage” MR16 (technically GU5.3) format LED bulbs since all LED light bulbs are low voltage – it’s simply that “mains” powered ones have integral onboard electronics to perform the step down and there are advantages of switching over to GU10 mains format.
There is typically nothing in it where the price of the LED lamps is concerned, and what you save on LED drivers you spend again in installing GU10 lamp holders. However it is a simpler system and there are fewer compatibility issues (since there is one less component in the picture) which is especially helpful if you want to consider dimmable LED lights. Just a thought – and if replacing recessed halogen MR16 lamps, then it’s also a good idea to buy GU10 lamp holders that incorporate a fixing bracket/clamp.
LEDZWORLD 4W Dimmable GU10 LED
Ledzworld is a Dutch newcomer to the domestic LED market. The company was started in 2008 and has specialized in high quality professional products, but also offers what it terms its “Mass Market Range”. Do not be fooled by the down market sounding title (or indeed the company name which could pass for one of Del Boy and Rodney’s ventures), since these are in fact among the very best LED lights currently available. A good example being this Ledzworld Acriche 4W Dimmable GU10 LED. In the UK the primary distributor for Ledzworld products is the well known lighting supplier Aurora (see below) who of course supply the excellent range of Aurora LED spotlights
Nearly all Ledzworld professional products are based on Cree LED technology, but this particular spotlight uses Acriche (pronounced “Ak rich” – a mangling of Greek “Acro” meaning “the top” (as in The Acropolis) and French “riche” meaning richness). The point though is that this is the world’s first semiconductor lighting source (LED to you and me) that operates on AC power without requiring additional conversion circuitry. This is, to put it mildly, a really, really big deal since it’s the integral electronics that convert regular mains voltage to a form suitable for powering delicate LEDs that are often the poor relation in many LED products.
Impressively this lamp is dimmable on most common household dimmer switches and has a power factor of 0.9 (to find out a whole lot more about both these issues then checkout this guide to LED lighting). However, the fact that the power factor is stated for this lamp where in many cases it is never mentioned tells you something. Put simply 0.9 is very good and means that total electrical consumption for this product is 4.4W; compare this with some LEDs that have a power factor as low as 0.5 meaning that a nominal 4W bulb is in fact drawing a total of 8W (it’s those inferior internal electronics again).
In fact most, if not all, Ledzworld LED lights (of all kinds, not just spotlights) have very high power factors and are dimmable. You do however tend to pay a premium for dimmability (typically about 50% extra) but if you’ve gotten used to being able to vary your lighting between full on and right down low then losing this ability to easily and instantly adapt the lighting to the situation can be a big psychological deterrent to switching to low energy lighting. Certainly it’s an incredibly useful feature in many modern kitchens where you need a brightly lit environment to prepare food but need to adjust the mood when sitting down to eat at the kitchen table.
Be aware though that whereas a halogen lamp goes from bright white to a soft gold color, dimming an LED just varies it’s intensity and does not alter the color. Unless… you go for a lamp that incorporates Ledzworld’s patented Color Temperature Adjusted (CTA) dimming technology that fades up an orange LED as the white fades down and mimics this effect very well indeed. The particular lamp described above however does not have CTA – just regular non-adjusted LED dimming – but there is an example here of a regular shaped LED light bulb that does.
Aurora 6W 240V GU10 Ultra Bright LED Light Bulb, Warm White, 50W Equivalent
Aurora, who take their name from the natural phenomenon of the Aurora Borealis (or Northern Lights), have been involved in speciality lighting (or as they put it themselves, innovative lighting solutions under the ‘Aurora’, ‘A2′, ‘Luna’, ‘Sola’ and ‘Aura’ brands) for a number of years.
They are what is known as a “technology integrator” and act as both an original design manufacturer (ODM) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) whereby they will either license designs to be manufactured and rebranded by another company, or indeed manufacture/rebrand/supply other makers products as their own. This is not at all uncommon in the fast moving LED retrofit business – another good example being Cree (see below) where both manufacturers and suppliers often struggle to keep pace with the constantly evolving technology and consumer demands.
As an example of how incestuous the LED industry can appear, this Aurora 7W Cree CTA Professional Dimmable LED Bulb described on Aurora’s own blog is the exact same product that Ledzworld (see above) brand as their own – complete with patented CTA dimming. Makes you wonder who in fact actually owns that particular patent.
Anyway, listed here are details of all types of Aurora LED products
Click here to purchase Aurora LED products (including all Ledzworld lamps).
Exergi E2 Hyperbright LED Light Bulb, 4.0 Watt GU10, Wide Flood, Warm White, 2700-2850k
Exergi – strange name but a great product. The Exergi Hyperbright is from a UK based manufacturer that has built on Cree LED technology to produce one of the brightest (and arguably brightest per watt) GU10 LED light bulbs available to the domestic market today (and it’s dimmable). Exergi LED spot lights are the exact same dimensions as a conventional halogen GU10 (some LEDs are fractionally longer) and the “warm white” version uses a diffusing lens that produces genuinely warm white that is extremely close to the color from a halogen lamp. The tradeoff of course is a slight drop in brightness – but in a straight comparison between an Exergi 4W warm white and a 35w halogen you would be hard pushed to tell the two apart.
Exergi lamps are also available as direct replacements for MR16 (also known as GU5.3) and GLS (regular “light bulb” shape with a typical ES base) and come in both warm white and cool white variants. The first versions consumed 3W while the newer E2 generation light consumes 4W and matches a 35W halogen very well, though 50W is a bit beyond it.
These will save you a truly sizable amount of money over time (try their handy LED Savings Calculator) and are easily available to buy online – just search for the name or click here for the 4W LED GU10 spot or here for the 3.6W MR16 LED spot.
Note that whereas the GU10 mains powered Exergi lamps are dimmable using mechanical rotary dimmer switches, they cannot be used with electronic dimmers and the MR16 low voltage version cannot be dimmed at all.
Interlux LED lamps
Interlux LEDs are supplied through a UK supplier LED Lights4Less but are in fact based on high quality US LED components from California based Bridgelux. The supplier explicitly states that these lamps are not equivalent to 50W halogens, however the many favorable customer reviews indicate that where folk have set realistic expectations with the intent to replace 35W halogen lamps then these do a good job at a reasonable price.
Auraglow 7W LED GU10 Bulb, Warm White, 50W Equivalent
Auraglow (which seems to be a trading name for products supplied by an Essex based importer/distributor) offer a number of high brightness GU10 LED bulbs that compete in the 50 watt halogen lamp replacement stakes.
They use the standard 3 LED configuration that you see with Edison LEDs for example and despite being sold as 7 watts, appear in fact to be common or garden 6 watt LEDs (the bulbs even have 3 x 2W printed on them).
The photo to the left shows 2 regular halogen lamps and 2 of these Auraglow lamps. Can you tell which is which? Me neither without looking really carefully, so they do indeed perform very well. The light is pleasantly bright and not obviously different to what you get from halogen.
The LEDs themselves are set into yellow/orange lens that result in a pretty warm white effect, though it is perhaps too warm at the periphery and too cool in the center. But without detailed nitpicking, the overall result is very good and most people would have no idea you were using LEDs if you didn’t tell them.
They also offer a dimmable LED with a similar spec (not quite so bright at full brightness) that dims reasonably well down to about 1/3rd brightness.
So still not the same extreme level of dimming available with incandescent light bulbs. Also you would be well advised to invest in their low load dimmer
They’re being sold on Amazon for much the same as the LED wholesale price which is claimed to be about 50% off the retail price. But then you can find what appears to be the exact same bulb for less (and this is the dimmable version too).
One notable issue is size – they’re slightly longer than normal GU10s and also slightly fatter. The picture to the left shows one sticking out a bit in a chrome GU10 track lighting fitting where it actually looks rather fetching in my opinion, but this may not be your cup of tea. They are also slightly fatter than normal and can thus be awkward to push into normal recessed lighting rings. This next picture shows what the problem is – the fins on the back push against the uprights that hold the retaining clips. To be exact, they rub on the springs, but a bit of gentle persuasion does allow you to force them fully in (either ease the uprights apart a fraction or just push fairly hard).
In summary then, these give out a very good light but for non-dimmable LED spots I still favour the Edison 6W (but that’s just my personal preference, yours is almost certainly different). The discrepancy between the product and its description caused an eyebrow to be raised, and their provenance isn’t exactly solid (imported from somewhere in China, but beyond that who knows?) so you pays your money, you takes your choice.
Incidentally, Auraglow also supply these rather cute LED mood lights if you want to install reasonably bright but not expensive mood lighting (a child’s bedroom for example).
Based in Hull in the North of England, Peritus Electronics have a large range of inexpensive LED spot lights that feature most of the types of lamp base commonly used for spot lamps. They also offer bulk purchase discounts, which many suppliers don’t exactly advertise.
The pictures on the left all feature 3 watt small Edison screw (SES or E14) spot lights from Peritus and indicate the differences between the various different flavors as compared with a 40 watt halogen lamp.
In each of the two sets of photographs the sequence is as follows:
- top left shows a standard 40 watt halogen reflector lamp
- bottom left shows a 3 watt Peritus warm white LED
- top right is a 3.5 watt Peritus 21 SMD warm white LED
- bottom right is a 3.5 watt Peritus 21 SMD cool white LED
Given that all three of the LED bulbs draw less than one tenth the power of the halogen lamp they’re pretty impressive. As you can see, the cool white version fairly comprehensively kicks the halogen lamp into the weeds, though it may be a tad harsh for domestic use.
The warm white SMD LED is a very good match on both color temperature and brightness, and given that the application here is for a reading lamp, the slightly sharper light is actually preferable.
These pictures also quite clearly illustrate the difference between cool and warm white. The cool white has a slightly better CRI (Color Rendering Index – a measure of the accuracy of color reproduction) with a color temperature of 6500 Kelvins and delivers 310 lumens. The warm white is 3200K, which is not all that warm as these things go, and delivers 300 lumens, but being warmer it “appears” to the human eye to be noticeably less bright. These figures compare quite well with the more powerful Edison 6W LED bulbs, though as you would expect the Edison bulbs are brighter all round and the warm white is warmer at 2800k.
The real surprise though is the difference between the regular style 3W warm white LED (which houses 3 individual LEDs within a lens – bottom left in each frame) and the 3.5W SMD (Surface Mounted Device – top right in each frame) version, which also has a clear plastic cap over it, but purely to protect the SMDs.
The stated light output is 300 lumens for the 3.5W SMD and 180 for the (admittedly cheaper) 3W LED, and it clearly shows. The other advantage of the SMD arrangement is that they physically cover a wider surface area so the light is already more spread out.
As already noted, these Peritus LED bulbs are relatively inexpensive (certainly the cheapest decent quality LEDs I’ve come across) and if you’re looking at taking out 35-40 watt halogen lamps then they do the job very well. Tackling a 50W incandescent equivalent though is beyond them and you would do better to consider a 6 watt LED such as the Ledzworld or Edison LED bulbs reviewed above.
Despite being only 3.5 watts, they give out a bright pleasant light with a reasonable beam angle, and the price is most definitely right. My order arrived the very next day and the company had no problem with me wanting to exchange the cool white versions for the warm white.
And another pleasant surprise – these are pretty robust (like all LED bulbs I’ve tested, they’re heavier and feel more substantial than regular light bulbs) and one of them happily survived a fall from up near the ceiling onto the stone kitchen floor. Try that with a regular spot lamp and you’ll be sweeping up shattered glass.
Philips Dimmable Master LED GU10 7W equivalent to 50W 40 degrees
Philips LED lamps are always a sound choice regardless, but if you absolutely must have dimming capability then the Philips Dimmable Master LED GU10 7W has to be another contender (besides the Ledzworld Acriche) to replace existing halogen spots.
It has to be said that until quite recently dimming wasn’t really much of an issue since few domestic LEDs were sufficiently bright to need taming. But with modern high brightness LEDs now hitting the market that’s all changed and dimming capability can be a key factor for many consumers.
Philips is of course well known as an established pioneer in the field of LED and the Philips Master LED series can be controlled by most common domestic dimmer switches and will dim down to 10% of normal brightness. For detailed information and even a list of recommended dimmers follow the links from Philips own Master LED webpage. Note that not all dimmers are supported – specifically those pretty push button ones that incorporate an LED indicator (ironically)
Current Master LEDs are based on a 7 watt LED unit that delivers warm white light with a beam angle of 40 degrees which makes them ideal as direct replacements for the ubiquitous recessed halogen lamp. There are available in a variety of color temperatures and base types and can suit both mains and low voltage supplies. But be aware that like quite a few LED GU10 replacements they are longer in length.
Cree are of course renown for developing and manufacturing LED dies (the electronics etched onto a semiconductor wafer that will eventually become the base of an LED) which then find their way into other manufacturer’s LED product.
In fact it is not unusual for suppliers of LED lamps to badge their products as “Cree” because doing so carries more weight than using their own name.
A case in point being this Cree 5W cool white lamp. It claims a color temperature of 5000 kelvin which certainly is on the cool side, but on the other hand it is also very bright (we haven’t tried this one yet as 5000k does seem a tad too cool for regular domestic use), however people who have bought it seem to rate it highly.
This particular Cree 5W cool white LED bulb is supplied by the Long Life Lamp Company
We recently tested their 6W 80 LED GU10 (pictured above and shown in action below) since it has a high number of favorable customer reviews and concur with everyone else. It is very good, solidly made, just the right size, reasonably priced and gives great light. Perhaps not as stylish as say the Edison range but the funny little nodules make it much easier to get a grip when twisting it into typically tight GU10 fittings.
The photographs show part of a shower room with the left hand shot being lit by a 50W halogen and the right hand being lit by this 6W 80 LED. The halogen is clearly warmer (this room uses very warm earthy colors anyway so as to complement the sandstone tiles on the floor) but whether it’s “better” is a matter of taste.
Personally I prefer the illumination from this LED in this situation and, although difficult to pick out in a photograph, you can just detect that the light from the LED bulb is smoother and more evenly spread – halogen lamps often don’t throw a smooth light pool, especially when close up to a surface as is the case here.
All in all this slightly odd little lamp does a great job at a very affordable price and should easily pay for itself within a year (assuming “average” usage of course)
Cree do however also make their own consumer LED light bulbs…
Cree EvoLux Series
The Cree EvoLux S and EvoLux R globe LED light bulbs are designed to fully replace normal 100w incandescent bulbs with luminosity of 1,000 lumens of brightness which is very bright indeed. Little wonder than that Cree also offer the dimmable Evolux R variant.
The Cree Evolux R bulb is dimmable using its own built in dimmer that offers three preset light levels and also keeps the last dimmer setting so that it automatically resumes at the correct light level when turned on. As an aside, it’s worth noting that a requirement to dim a low energy LED light bulb down gives a real insight into to how far and fast LED technology has developed just recently.
These Cree EvoLux LED globe retrofit replacements for 100w incandescent light bulbs utilize a single 13w LED chip with a lifespan of 50,000+ hours. This can produce huge savings in energy costs and even allowing for the current high price the Evolux LED delivers an unbeatable return on investment with upto 90% saving on electricity consumption.
The Cree Evolux Series fit most types of normal Edison screw and bayonet mount fittings and there is a choice between warm white at 3000k and cool white at 6000k (most people prefer warm white in a typical domestic situation). There are also EvoLux Sh and EvoLux Rh models with reduced height clearance to suit tight situations where the bulb might otherwise be visible.
For anyone currently looking to buy all round domestic LED lighting (i.e. standard bulbs not spot lights) the Cree EvoLux LED globe light bulb is presently one of the brightest available.
Sharp Zenigata Series
A long time leaders of the pack, the Sharp Zenigata Series offers brightness levels of 80 lumens per watt (for comparison a regular 40w incandescent bulb outputs about 400 lumens which is thus a mere 10 watts per lumen) which allows for an LED light bulb that consumes just 6.7 watts of power to compete head on with a conventional 60w lamp at 540 lumens.
Zenigata LEDs are available in 2,800 to 6,500 Kelvin’s which covers reasonably warm white thru to “high color rendering” white which is in demand for many applications where accurate depiction of illuminated objects is required. The Zenigata LED is particularly well suited as a direct replacement “retrofit” low energy bulb for existing halogen spotlight fittings.
Sharp also provide this extremely interesting and informative LED Catalogue that provide a very clear understanding of how a major lighting manufacturer sees the future panning out. It also explains issues such as why you actually do need a constant voltage LED driver and the differences between wiring in series and parallel.
Practical Considerations When Installing LED Lights
Before going any further though it is worth stressing that as a rule you get what you pay for where LED lighting is concerned. Good quality LED lights will easily match existing incandescent lamps in terms of brightness and of course will outlast them many times over and most importantly they will significantly reduce your electricity bill since they draw so little power.
Unfortunately there are all too many cheap (and not so cheap) and nasty products out there and the situation is not helped when large DIY stores put these things on their shelves (if you heard that one of the worst offenders in the UK was called “Beyond Queue” then you misheard, but not by much). Putting overpriced low power LED products in a prominent position that sells their energy saving and “green” credentials just results in a lot of disappointment which in turn breeds disillusion with LED lighting.
So, do not think, as some folk seem to, that you can get away with cheap and/or underpowered LED lights. The approximate rule of thumb for matching LED wattage consumption to conventional incandescent bulbs is 1:10 – in other words to match a regular 50w lamp you should consider at least 5w LED. The internet is full of people bemoaning that their 1.5w LEDs aren’t “bright enough”. Well, duh? How bright do you think the equivalent to 15 watts is?
To reiterate, buying cheap or underpowered is a false economy. Expect to pay somewhere around £20 GBP for a quality product that will do the job you want it to – after all, you’re going to still be using it a decade or more from now. Go for recognisable brand names such as Edison or Philips or at the very least check if the manufacturer is using Cree chips (if they are they WILL say so) though there is more to building a quality LED lamp than just using a quality chip.
When fitting LED lighting bear in mind that it is typically very bright but also very focused, in other words the light tends to illuminate a fairly confined area which can lead to a spotted effect if you’re not careful.
The easiest solutions are to a) consider the beam angle of the LED bulb you are fitting (a wider angle will spread the light out and avoid spotting) and b) install more lights but with a lower brightness level and/or softer color (find out more about how LED light colors affect light quality). This latter solution is often the best if your spot lights are mounted on a track or some other non recessed fitting. It’s a good excuse to update the room a bit and frankly the cost involved is trivial compared to what it will continue to cost you by using halogen spot lights.
As a rule Cool White LEDs tend to appear brighter and, well, cooler though modern quality LEDs avoid the blue hues often associated with under powered first generation LEDs. The effect is more akin to natural daylight but most people find it a bit off putting except when used for specific purposes such as display lighting or to create a very modern look or where good color reproduction is required.
For some people, an issue with modern LEDs is that they are in fact too bright, or rather that they’re not for the most part dimmable. This isn’t necessarily so these days as the positive reviews for these Philips Dimmable Master LEDs indicate, but in general you will find that dimmable LED bulbs tend to be offered more in the GU10 mains format rather than 12v MR16 – possibly because with low voltage you need both the bulb and the driver (transformer) to be capable of dimming so it’s all a bit of a palava.
A straightforward solution of course is to just ditch the transformers and connect GU10 holders with pre-wired tails direct to the mains cable (you might want to get an electrician involved though, especially if you live somewhere that has regulations governing home wiring – the UK for instance). Find out more from this section about LED drivers and dimmers.
Most contemporary Warm White LEDs provide a reasonably close facsimile to standard halogen lamps in terms of light color, but most are still slightly cooler since there is a performance benefit to be gained that way. Perhaps the best approximation of halogen warm white is currently the Exergi Hyperbright that is near indistinguishable from a regular 35W halogen lamp in every respect bar running costs (and possibly slightly brighter though brightness appears to be a somewhat subjective measure).
When replacing halogen lights recessed into the ceiling void check to see whether or not the existing fittings are fire rated. If you remove the halogen lamp and look up there will be a domed metal can enclosing the aperture if the fitting is fire rated, otherwise there will simply be a void. Many LED replacement bulbs will easily slot into fire rated halogen downlight fittings, but some are slightly too big. Either identify the correct size lamp for the fitting or replace the fittings since unlike halogen lamps, LED spotlights run cool and do not therefore pose a serious fire risk. If using a straightforward void in the ceiling where the lamp is held in place by a metal retaining clip then this is simply not an issue anyway.
The reason by the way that some LED GU10s are slightly larger than normal is to house the integrated transformer. Pretty nearly all LEDs use 12 volts input – the issue is whether the step down from 240 volts (or whatever your mains supply provides) is done by an external transformer/driver or on-board electronics.
In most cases, if you are installing or replacing existing down lights (typically in kitchens, bathrooms and hall ways) you should aim for an equivalent brightness to about a 35 watt incandescent halogen lamp. This is plenty bright enough for a working area such as a kitchen, especially if your kitchen is also equipped with supplementary lighting in the form of under shelf strip lights and cabinet display lighting that already illuminates worktop areas. Some people though do prefer the much brighter look that 50 watt lamps give.
As noted above, to increase the overall level of light it is often more effective to add more light bulbs than replace existing ones with brighter versions.
For example a smallish bathroom lit by a fitting that has 4 x 50 watt halogen lamps can be perfectly adequately lit by 4 x 6 watt LEDs but if you were to renew the fitting with one that took 4 lamps you could get a much closer approximation to the warmer appearance created by halogen lamps by using very warm white LEDs and compensating for the slight reduction in brightness (as compared to the cool white – or “day light” – versions) by adding in that one extra bulb.
It is still only going to consume 24w compared to 200w, so not quite the full order of magnitude difference in running costs, but a healthy 7 to 8 times cheaper.
The comparison photographs by the way are of the utility room at Kat Towers which, as it happens, is lit (on the left) by 4 x 50W halogen spots and (to the right) 4 * 6W Edison LED GU10 spots. The obvious difference is 200 watts total power consumption before versus 24 watts after, but other than appearing slightly cooler (which can look nicer in certain rooms) there’s not much in it. Both shots were taken at night and the camera flash was off so everything is lit just by the track on the ceiling. It’s about as good an indication as you can get from a picture and in the flesh they genuinely do light the place up much the same as the 50W halogen lamps did, plus the color rendering is much better (the walls are in fact a pale yellow shade of white but the halogens tend to add a pink hue).
Big Bang vs. Steady But Sure?
A major point worth keeping firmly in mind is that you don’t have to replace all your lighting in one go. For one thing it would be quite an upfront expense – although the sooner you do make the move the sooner you will reap the benefits of very much lower electricity bills. There is no technical reason why you shouldn’t for example swap out half (or whatever percentage you want) of a bank of ceiling downlights and replace these with LED equivalents.
With GU10 mains bulbs you can mix halogen and LED on the same circuit and you still benefit from the LED ones using about a tenth as much electricity as their incandescent neighbours. With low voltage (typically MR16 and MR11) you really need to also change the transformers to LED drivers rather than hook the LEDs up to the existing 12 volt transformers. It probably will work if you don’t bother but all bets are off where longevity is concerned and the additional cost isn’t that much, especially if you share a single driver among a group of LED lights.
The main benefit from using a gradual approach rather than Big Bang then is obviously that it spreads the investment costs out. At present most people who buy LED lighting do so for one very specific reason, which is to save serious money over time, so look on the upfront cost as a long term investment that will repay itself many times over.
Sure, each individual LED lamp costs 10 times more than a conventional one, but they last well over 20 times longer so they in fact work out at least twice as cheap just on purchase costs. Factor in that the bulk of all lighting costs isn’t the bulbs anyway, it’s the electricity and you’re looking at saving 90-95% of what you now spend on lighting.
Frankly, the economic case for LED lighting is completely overwhelming. The only issue that any one should really have with LED lights is budgeting for the switchover, finding out which ones they like best and discovering how LEDs create scope for new home lighting ideas. We’ve been here before when Thomas Edison decided to do away with candles and gas lamps, and now we’re consigning his own incredibly important but flawed invention to the pages of history. The best way forward is to simply buy a few, experiment a bit, rinse and repeat.
Here at Kat Towers for instance we long ago took exception to the size of the electricity bill and the utility company’s frequent “adjustments” to our payments and the kitchen was quickly identified as a major culprit with a bank of 12 x 50w recessed halogen spots in the ceiling that burned long into the night most evenings. The savings in running costs by replacing just the main kitchen lighting with LED is currently about £145 per year, so the investment is recouped quite quickly (about 15 months rather than 15 years for solar power, just by way of comparison). And of course you can easily take the bulbs with you if you move house – or use their very low energy consumption as a selling point (but not both, clearly!).
But there is also a good aesthetic reason for adopting a phased switch over, which is that if you change all your lighting in one go it will give you a bit of a shock. This applies whichever direction you move in, so once you’ve got used to the cleaner, whiter light of LED you would find that suddenly switching to halogen made everything look rather pink and orange. But if you change only a bit at a time then you don’t really notice anything changing very much at all.
A gradual switch over also gives you a chance to experiment with LED lights since there is no getting away from the fact that they do give quite a different kind of light – not inherently worse or better (apart from the high efficiency of course), but different. But there’s only one good way to find out what suits you best and that’s to get stuck in and actually buy LED lights!
