LED Lights

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savage

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Hi,

Anyone using 12V LED Lights in their homes? Care to share some experiences / general feelings?

I purchased 2 12V 2W LED Downlighters as a test (Warm White), and whilst the light is adequate, it's not as 'wide spread' as with a normal bulb. I'm considering to change all my lighting in my house to LEDs (even go as far as to run them off solar power / batteries), but I'm a bit worried in terms of the actual amount of lights required.... Currently I pay about R40 per downlighter socket, and R80 per LED Downlighter... R120 a pop, it makes for a rather nice investment.

So I'm looking for feedback hopefully to determine on whether or not I should take the plunge or not.
 
I have used quite a few of them, around my house and those of a few friends.

You can get them locally, but I have had some quality issues with the local ones.

I use these at the moment, seem to work well.

Note that you get white light, warm white, spot, wide-angle, etc, so you must specify what you want. The more LED's per light, the more light you get, the latest ones are 84 LED's per light.

The seller above is extremely reliable, but the SA Post Office is not, so you may have some theft losses. So I keep my orders small.

Just be aware that some poor quality 12v transformers tend to damage the LED's over time, make sure that you get good transformers suited to the task. For this reason the GU-10 220v LED lights seem to be more reliable.
 
Last edited:
Hmm, I'd stay away from the "many LED" fittings - they are old tech. The best option is to use MR16's that use CREE led's - usually only 1 LED for about a 20W halogen replacement. Cree make really good warm whites - see the web, although there are some companies playing catchup. Also be aware that they are continually improving the 'lumen per watt' from led's, so the fixtures will keep getting brighter. On the units I've brought in, I've had no reliability issues. In fact they are self regulating, and work over a large range of voltages, AC and DC.
http://stores.ebay.com/LEDpro-Lighting

Ian
 
Hi savage,
my brother's company in cape town sells LED lights.
He is in Lakeside.
Most of the lights use Cree LED's.
We do sell cheaper ones that have Korean or Taiwanese LED's.

The Cree lights come with a ONE year warranty, the others with a SIX MONTH warranty.

the website is:
www.c2r.co.za
 
Hmm, I'd stay away from the "many LED" fittings - they are old tech. The best option is to use MR16's that use CREE led's - usually only 1 LED for about a 20W halogen replacement. Cree make really good warm whites - see the web, although there are some companies playing catchup. Also be aware that they are continually improving the 'lumen per watt' from led's, so the fixtures will keep getting brighter. On the units I've brought in, I've had no reliability issues. In fact they are self regulating, and work over a large range of voltages, AC and DC.
http://stores.ebay.com/LEDpro-Lighting

Ian
 
I don't know that the CREE's are "new technology", that has been around for a while, but has been too cumbersome and too expensive - still seems to be the case.

But it will be great if that technology becomes competitive, you already get great CREE flashlights, but the bulbs are too expensive for downlighters.
 
Make sure you get a high efficiency transformer. Else you lose all the gains made by using LED there.

Also, if one LED goes then it puts more strain on the others so the rate of losses accelerates.
 
4W CREE MR16's are ~R140ea. That too expensive? That's brought in yourself, via ebay though...
 
This is what i have done at home: I took out 1-2 downlighter/s in every room of my house and replaced it with the 12v versions that normally require a transformer(quite expensive, but useless), instead i rand the wiring from these 12v bulbs through the conduit, and changed my single switch to a double to accommodate the new 12V bulbs per room. The power source for these 12V bulbs come from a Car battery i have in the garage (looking to add another one or tow more in parallel later on). this car battery is also wired up to a 12V battery charger that ensures that the batteries are alway full.

This ensures that when i have a power failure, i have at least 1-2 downlighter/s in every room still working. 1 x 12v downlighter can last being switched on the whole night without any problems
 
Electronics123 also have several LED lights (fittings, transformers e.t.c.) for sale.
 
Are the LED downlighters brighter than their halogen counterparts? I have tried the flourescent versions, and found them to consume less power, but they are dim at first and go bright when they warm up
 
12V leds has very low lightening however due to there low energy consumption they are ideal if installed in bulk
---------
led supplies
 
there should be no difference between the lux levels of the 12v and the 220v versions.
you just have to buy the right stuff!!!

and the biggest problem is there is a lot of CHEAP CRAP being sold.
correction,
a lot of CHEAP CRAP is being bought!

if you buy a Chery or a Tata or a Chana, thats what you get.
if you buy a Jag or a Merc or a Rolls, thats what you get.

same with LED's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
LED Lights - Find the right quality, make the right investment

MontyPython is absolutely right about the variance in quality - you must make sure you buy the right quality LED lights to start with. Also there is no waiting around for LED downlights to switch on from cold start. A high quality 2W LED Downlight is a great replacement for any 25W halogen and will utilise a fraction of the energy while enjoying a lifespan of +50,000 operational hours. They are a great investment considering the escalating costs of Eskom tarriffs - and there seems to be no end in sight with electicity costs set to triple by the end of 2012... So if you need to install a lot of downlights, it is the smart option to use LEDs. If you're still looking for LED Downlights, checkout Light Saver's downlights range for more information and please let me know if you have any more questions or requirements for LED Downlights.
 
Jola said:
I have used quite a few of them, around my house and those of a few friends.

You can get them locally, but I have had some quality issues with the local ones.

I use these at the moment, seem to work well.

Note that you get white light, warm white, spot, wide-angle, etc, so you must specify what you want. The more LED's per light, the more light you get, the latest ones are 84 LED's per light.

The seller above is extremely reliable, but the SA Post Office is not, so you may have some theft losses. So I keep my orders small.

Just be aware that some poor quality 12v transformers tend to damage the LED's over time, make sure that you get good transformers suited to the task. For this reason the GU-10 220v LED lights seem to be more reliable.
Click to expand...

after reading your post I did the impulsive thing and immediately bought 4 x 220V warm white wide angle lights with 60 LEDs from this ebay seller. The lights arrived today and I swapped the old 220V 50W halogens out to see how they compare. Long story short...I will stick with halogens for now. Looks like I will need about 150 LEDs per unit to get the equivalent of a 50W halogen.
 
Goobie said:
after reading your post I did the impulsive thing and immediately bought 4 x 220V warm white wide angle lights with 60 LEDs from this ebay seller. The lights arrived today and I swapped the old 220V 50W halogens out to see how they compare. Long story short...I will stick with halogens for now. Looks like I will need about 150 LEDs per unit to get the equivalent of a 50W halogen.
Click to expand...

EINA!!!!

i clicked the link to the ebay dude and cant find the GU10 with 60 LED's?
i saw the PAR20 with 60 LED's.

how about a 6W GU10 with 3 LED's that kicks a 50W halogen?
and if you really want to make a 50W feel inadequate, there is a 8W GU10 with 4 LED's
that will definately do the trick!
 
Wow - two spammers already :p

I've been thinking of going this route - I currently have 25 down-lights, so replacing them with LED down-lights is a damn expensive operation.
 
MontyPython said:
spam? ;)

i only see solutions to problems :D

dont replace all 25 at the same time,
look at your light use habits,
then replace the lights that are on the longest per day.
Click to expand...

Thats 12 of the 25... all in the lounge. Currently running 12 20w down-lights. :)
 
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