Energy saving GU10's
My new house used to have 4 x 50W GU10 downlighters in the kitchen, about 2 years ago i replaced them with low energy GU10's. Not thinking at the time that they're probably not all made equal i just bought a set of 5 off ebay for £24. They're a little bit dimmer than the normal halogen bulbs which i can live with to an extent however they take an absolute age to light up, i'm talking around 2 or 3 mins to become fully lit (they start off pink) & i'm now finding when i walk into the kitchen i either put the dining room light on or put the cooker hood lights on (2 x 40w) which is completely defeating the object.Can anyone recommend replacement bulbs that dont cost an absolute fortune, give out a similar light to the halogens & have a decent beam range? Realise i might be asking too much here. I've seen the Zenigata LED bulbs which get rave reviews and seem to tick all the boxes but they cost around £25 each which would take a few decades to recoup in saved electrcitity costs. If you use these bulbs for around 3 hours a day throughout the year, it'll take around 2 years to recoup the cost...assuming £0.21 / kWh and 50 pence purchase price for the halogen and £23 for the LED.
Can't think of any other option to help you - sorry. I think these LEDs are likely to be the best idea. The LEDS are going to last a lot longer too. If you reckon a white LED has a lifespan of 50,000 hours, they are going to last 45 years at 3 hours a day, so you aint going to changing them too often. Has anyone tried the Zenigata LED yet? I have tried several LED and mega GU10s and found them all too dim compared with 50w Halogen GU10s. What purpose do you seek in changing the standard GU10s?
If you want lights to see by, the LEDs are useless IMHO.
If you want to save money, £25 a pop for Zenigatas is also useless.
If it's not broken why fix it? .............err, the OP answered that question ten days before you asked it!!data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7 I had the same dilemma - we moved into a new house 18 months ago, and then realised that the nice spotlights everywhere were costing us a fortune ...with most of the lighting from 52 x 50w GU10 spots !
so go LED everyone says and then you see the prices - which are a joke when you consider you can get a regular energy saving bulb from Tesco for 99p these days, I dont fancy paying £25 a bulb to replace all the GU10s data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7
anyway, I spend some time on ebay and must have tried about 6 different types over a 2 month period before I was ready to give up, before I finally found some that gave the right price/performance ratio - ten quid a bulb and light that was manageable...sure it wasnt as bright as the 3 x 50W they replaced in the same fitting, but more than adequate ...to be honest, most of the lighting is really mood lighting anyway
So I did the kitchen first which has a bank of 4 and 2 banks of 3 x GU10 - so 10 bulbs and £100 total to replace them - been fine since
these are what im using - as always, best just buy one first and try it out to make sure its good enough for your requirements
4 Eco-friendly Warm White 3x1W LED GU10 Bulbs on eBay, also LED Lighting, Lights, Lighting, Home Garden (end time 15-May-09 19:42:37 BST) I'm an Energy Consultant usually advising companies on how to reduce their energy & been looking at GU10 LED's for ages to replace my own 30W or 50W Spots.
Most have pitiful light output or have overheating issues leading to premature failure.
I recently found some 4W Hyperbright ones which come with a 12 month warranty (rare for LED lighting) and even though they are around £22 each they really are close to a 50W for light output, I'd say around 40W.
They have a large metal heat sink facia which will hopefully eliminate the overheating issues of early generation GU10 LED's
I bought 4 for for the kitchen with free delivery & worked out at around 3 year payback based on projected lighting use.
Info here: EXERGI LED GU10 and LED MR16 Energy Saving Light light bulbs
Always choose the Warm versions as others are too blue in cooler. The Warm give out less lumens/watt but close to flourescent in light colour (none are as warm as Halogen).
The litmus test is that the wife is actually happy with these too !!!! How do these stack up against the Zenigata bulbs which "seem" to be generally regarded as the best & the closest you can get to a halogen in a led package. Beam angle is 120 degrees, whats it like with the Exergi?
Edit : Just checked and the beam angle for the Exergi is 38 degrees compared to the Zenigatas 120 degrees. Bit of a difference there Must admit I've not been too concerned about beam angle. As my spot ligts are generally "spot lights", not general wide lighting.