LED down lights

[Shaun]

Morning all, first post of the day.

I am looking for a good price for LED down lights 5W dimmable as well as the dim module. I have recently moved into a house and in the process of replacing all my lights to LED

[Shaun]

Sorry, just to add. This would be in the Pretoria area


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[Shaun]

Does nobody buy LED lights?


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[Chris Hobson]

I buy standard bayonet fitting LEDs from the local electrical shop so unfortunately I am unable to help. I think folks focus is more on inverters and solar rather than LEDs but you  going about it in the right way - first reduce your consumption.

 

[Shaun]

Thanks Chris, that will be my next step after the Solar Geyser


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[___]

4 hours ago, Shaun said:

Does nobody buy LED lights?

I bought my first batch from Uniontech. I still have most of them, but their light output is quite low compared to more modern lamps. The MR16 lamps last better than the GU10 lamps (for UnionTech at least). I also have several Ellies-branded lamps from builders warehouse, works perfectly fine, runs several hours every night. Not a single one has failed yet (of the Ellies, two UnionTechs has failed so far). I've had them for 4 years now. I also have a few Eurolux cheapies from Builders Warehouse, these are 4W lamps, but make more light than the old 5W lamps. Going on two years now, all still working. I have two 7W Osram downlights too, work every night, not a single failure, and it must be more than 2 years by now. The first Uniontech lamps were R250 a piece (back in 2012!), but now everything is below R100 and sometimes even cheaper than that. So far I have not found a lamp that I can conclusively call rubbish, even the Ellies (which I expected to be rubbish) are holding up very well. My whole house is MR16 though, I cannot speak for the GU10s.

I have several LED lamps (bc and es) used for bed lamps and outdoor lights. These are 5W lamps, less than a year old, all bought from builders warehouse at between R35 and R50. One of them has a very bad flicker (I suspect a failing diode), but it's outdoors and it doesn't bother me enough... and it keeps going despite the flicker.

So I don't have any particular advice... even the cheap junk at the hardware store seems to do fine, and they all outlast CFL significantly.

Edit: I notice now you asked about dimmable lamps. I don't know about that, I discovered that generally the light output isn't so bright that you feel you want to dim it (at least in the early days), so I actually removed the dimmers (where installed) and just went with normal LED downlights.

[Shaun]

Thanks Plonkster, I also went the Ellie's Route from Builders on my previous house when the Ellie's Brand just came out. There is a gentleman that sells LED's in Kempton Park at the cheapest rate I have seen so far. Adverts on Gumtree. Dimmable GU10 for R75.00


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[Shaun]

I bought my first batch from Uniontech. I still have most of them, but their light output is quite low compared to more modern lamps. The MR16 lamps last better than the GU10 lamps (for UnionTech at least). I also have several Ellies-branded lamps from builders warehouse, works perfectly fine, runs several hours every night. Not a single one has failed yet (of the Ellies, two UnionTechs has failed so far). I've had them for 4 years now. I also have a few Eurolux cheapies from Builders Warehouse, these are 4W lamps, but make more light than the old 5W lamps. Going on two years now, all still working. I have two 7W Osram downlights too, work every night, not a single failure, and it must be more than 2 years by now. The first Uniontech lamps were R250 a piece (back in 2012!), but now everything is below R100 and sometimes even cheaper than that. So far I have not found a lamp that I can conclusively call rubbish, even the Ellies (which I expected to be rubbish) are holding up very well. My whole house is MR16 though, I cannot speak for the GU10s.
I have several LED lamps (bc and es) used for bed lamps and outdoor lights. These are 5W lamps, less than a year old, all bought from builders warehouse at between R35 and R50. One of them has a very bad flicker (I suspect a failing diode), but it's outdoors and it doesn't bother me enough... and it keeps going despite the flicker.
So I don't have any particular advice... even the cheap junk at the hardware store seems to do fine, and they all outlast CFL significantly.
Edit: I notice now you asked about dimmable lamps. I don't know about that, I discovered that generally the light output isn't so bright that you feel you want to dim it (at least in the early days), so I actually removed the dimmers (where installed) and just went with normal LED downlights.

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[Shaun]

Thanks. The dimmable light are existing and the wife prefers them. We have dimmable in the main bedroom and 3 bathrooms.


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[Shaun]

Dimmable require a dimmable device as the normal dimmable lights work off voltage to reduce the light


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[Shaun]

Cheapest device I can find is for R399


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[___]

1 hour ago, Shaun said:

Dimmable require a dimmable device as the normal dimmable lights work off voltage to reduce the light

It's a bit more complex than that. The normal cheap dimmer chops the AC waveform to get a lower average voltage (but the same peak). For the most part, you want to stay away from voltage control because that makes things hot. Much better if you have some thermal weight to it so you can full-on/full-off control it. Which is precisely what a geyser does, as well as a light dimmer, just the time scale differs :-)

I actually have no idea how you dim an LED. For one, the light level is not proportional to the voltage, because the LED simply turns off when you go below the forward-bias voltage. It certainly isn't simple, which probably explains the cost :-)

[Shaun]

Thanks


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[pilotfish]

I couple of years ago I fitted out 10 apartments with cheap Cobb dimmable GU10 LED's (about 500 lamps). I had a couple of early failures and sent staff to replace them, who reported getting mildly shocked if touching the globe while the light is on, more so if dimmed.

I went to investigate and it turned out that as the globe dimmed a higher and higher voltage with respect to earth was measured on the metallic body of the globe. I called the supplier who told me that I must have wired the fittings incorrectly and to get stuffed.

I replaced them at my own cost and now only use high quality globes from reputable suppliers.

[___]

Eddy currents perhaps?

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[pilotfish]

I didnt get into it too deeply, the body of a 230v globe should NEVER form part of the electrical circuit so I just threw them away as unusable. I suspect that the metallic body was used as a heat sink for electronic components within the globe (transistors or thyristors).

[___]

Reason I ask, you say the voltage goes higher as the dimming increases, which makes no sense. That makes me wonder if you're not dealing with a high-frequency component of some kind inducing current flow in a nearby conductor, that is, whatever shocking you felt wasn't actually mains, it was a secondary induced voltage. Still, as engineers we learn that scaring your tenants is not a good thing (ie, maybe it isn't a problem that the top floor of the building sways a little in the wind... but the tenants might get a little scared... don't do it :-) ).

[mohfamous]

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