Boring Q - The cost of running downlighters

[Rugrat]

I heard that having 50W downlighters is pricey but not sure what that really means. We've got 20 in our kitchen/diner and just wondered where I might be able to find out what they cost to run ... per hour I guess?

Also if I switched to LED how much would I save and would I see a deterioration in the brightness of light? Seems to be a huge price range of the LED's so wondering if I have to be careful to avoid cheap fake stuff?

All a bit confusing!!

 

[Lindfield by the Pond]

Got me thinking too. It's about 8.5p per kwh. If you have 20 x 50w = 1kw. Therefore 8.5p per hour, or whatever your electrical company charges you per kwh.

Don't know about LED's.

 

[doogen83]

LED lighting use a lot less power, however the light output from the lamps is not as good as normal lighting. They are getting better all the time but are not up to they same standard yet. Another thing to consider is that LED lamps have a much longer lamp life than the standard lamps. I'm for ever changing normal 50w down lights.

 

[cyrilthesinik]

50w Halogen vs 7w LED Bulbs - YouTube

LED Buying Guide | Energy Bulbs

GU10 High Power LED Lamps 240v

Have a look at these sites....yes your right very boring

 

[Rugrat]

LED Buying Guide | Energy Bulbs

GU10 High Power LED Lamps 240v

Have a look at these sites....yes your right very boring

Handy thanks .... I can't really see why 2 bulbs that are the same in terms of life (50,000), output (=50W) and warranty (5years) are priced so differently - Phillips £21.99 vs Megaman £12.99 ... or are there light snobs

Trying to work out the running costs is doing my head in a bit but using [MENTION=12796]Lindfield by the Pond[/MENTION] rough workings I reckon it costs me about £65/year to run my 20 vs about £10 for the LEDS so about 4 years to break even if I buy 20 of them?

Think I'll wait for prices to come down ... although I thought I heard somewhere that the conventional Halogen bulbs are being phased out by some sort of legislation ... sounds odd if it forces everyone to go out and buy £10+ bulbs

Thankfully GP is about to start

 

[Triggaaar]

It's about 8.5p per kwh. If you have 20 x 50w = 1kw. Therefore 8.5p per hour, or whatever your electrical company charges you per kwh.

Don't know about LED's.

Hello Chris. Same thing for LEDs, but swap 50W for 7W.

 

[SeagullSongs]

I worked in an electrical shop last year, so don't know how prices have changed recently, but I'd recommend going for LED. The halogen lamps tend to break despite their ~5000 hour rating. Last time I checked, the LEDs were about £30-40 and the halogens were about £8? Kitting out your whole house with LEDs would be much more expensive, but it would save you money in the long run. Plus, most expensive bulbs like the Phillips Masters come with a guarantee.

 

[blue2]

Depends if the are 240volt ac they the calculation above is correct if however they are low voltage dc i.e. running off a transformer them much less around half the cost, LED is the way forward with running costs less than a quarter

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

Its frustrating that the cost of decent LEDs isn't coming down very quickly. I have a similar dilemma as the OP with loads of halogen downlights in the kitchen / diner that I would like to swop for LEDs but my research to date shows the cheapest LEDs to be around £13 but these only have a few LEDs within each unit so only give about 35 lumens output (pathetic). Whereas the expensive ones have up to 80 LEDs giving around 500 lumens output, so significantly better. However the decent LEDs seem to start around £25 each so a bit too pricey at the moment. Fortunately I don't have to rely on the halogen downlights because we have some LED striplights above the kitchen worktops which are brilliant (ha ha).

The other complication is that I need some dimmable LED downlights for the bathroom and all of them preferably with a 'soft' light output so you don't get that cold hard light typical of standard LEDs.

Finally I am creating a gym / cycle turbo training area / workbench at the back of the garage and would love to replace existing flourescent tube ceiling lights with some LED downlights (using a spare halogen track) but given the cost I'm thinking some kitchen worktop style striplights mounted at low level might be a compromise.

 

[CP 0 3 BHA]

Got me thinking too. It's about 8.5p per kwh. If you have 20 x 50w = 1kw. Therefore 8.5p per hour, or whatever your electrical company charges you per kwh.

Don't know about LED's.

I don't know who you get your electricity from but I'd love to find out if you're paying 8.5p/kwh! 12p+ is more likely.

If the OP's kitchen is the hub of the house and you have 20 x 50w burning for say 10 hours a day then you could easily clear a quid a day - well worth replacing with LEDs. In our utility room I've ended up leaving one or two strategically placed normal bulbs where lighting for work (the wife's ironing!) is important, but replaced the rest with fairly cheap LEDs. They light the space but not what you are doing if that makes any sense!

 

[clippedgull]

These bad boys are the future.

Philips selling colorful Wi-Fi lightbulbs exclusively through Apple | Ars Technica

 

[Lush]

I'm getting some here as soon as my stock of halogens run out. For a small house (that has a lot of halogens) my electricity bill is stupid.

GU10 LED 3x1 Watt Dimable Bulb - 320 lumens - 50 Watt Equiv - 3x1 5050 SMD Chips

 

[Lord Bracknell]

These bad boys are the future.

Philips selling colorful Wi-Fi lightbulbs exclusively through Apple | Ars Technica

Philips announced on Monday that it would begin selling its new Philips hue LED bulbs exclusively through Apple starting on October 31. The bulbs themselves can display "normal" hues of white light as well as a plethora of colors. The bulbs are equipped with a Wi-Fi connection, allowing them to be controlled remotely via iOS app. Each bulb is a 50 watt "equivalent" and they're sold as a three-pack for $199 (what, you thought LED bulbs would be cheap?). The app allows you to take a color sample from anything in your home—a photo, furniture, the walls—in order to create a customized light environment, and you can also use it to set timers or control the lights remotely. In addition to developing an iOS app to go along with the bulbs, Philips has offered up an open source platform for developers to work on their own hue-inspired offerings.

It's unclear why Philips has chosen to sell the bulbs exclusively through Apple, but the company clearly believes Apple's audience would be more likely to purchase this kind of product from the outset than the owners of other devices.


Unclear? It's bloody obvious.

 

[Rugrat]

Its frustrating that the cost of decent LEDs isn't coming down very quickly. I have a similar dilemma as the OP with loads of halogen downlights in the kitchen / diner that I would like to swop for LEDs but my research to date shows the cheapest LEDs to be around £13 but these only have a few LEDs within each unit so only give about 35 lumens output (pathetic). Whereas the expensive ones have up to 80 LEDs giving around 500 lumens output, so significantly better. However the decent LEDs seem to start around £25 each so a bit too pricey at the moment.

The link that Lush posted below has them at just over £7. Assume a lumen is how bright they are (thought that was the 50W equiv meant !!) so is 320 OK? If so is there a catch with this price? All bloody confusing

I'm getting some here as soon as my stock of halogens run out. For a small house (that has a lot of halogens) my electricity bill is stupid.

GU10 LED 3x1 Watt Dimable Bulb - 320 lumens - 50 Watt Equiv - 3x1 5050 SMD Chips

 

[Superphil]

Handy thanks .... I can't really see why 2 bulbs that are the same in terms of life (50,000), output (=50W) and warranty (5years) are priced so differently - Phillips £21.99 vs Megaman £12.99 ... or are there light snobs

In my business we are using more and more LEDs to illuminate signage, largely for the perceived power saving cost and the environmental aspect. There is a significant difference in the quality of LED lighting, the cheap stuff is cheap for a number of reasons. These are some of the reasons why we try to use better quality lamps in what we do, and also the possible pitfalls of using cheap ones at home.

1) Colour/temperature of light, can be very stark white, not the sort of thing you want in your home,
2) Colour of white lamps can have a blue tinge, again, not what you want in your house.
3) Colour can be dirty/yellowey, again, not nice at home
4) Inconsistent, you fit a load of lamps, then add another in the future, the light colour/temperatue doesn't match.
5) Reliability, seriously, just because they are LEDs does not mean they are reliable and will last for years. Cheap brands give you little or no come-back if they fail. If you buy a quality brand (Phillips, Osram etc) you'll get a warranty that actually means something.

The problem in our industry is often you need to use a lot of lamps to illuminated a large sign, the cost can be horrendous, more than the cost of the sign. Some companies try (and succeed) to fob off the client with cheap LEDs which then look terrible when the sign lights up, or they convince the client that flourescent tubes are just fine and they are so much cheaper.