LED bulbs: tests and tests, pay attention to the results!

[Christophe]

A comparative LED / Fluocompact file is coming (power consumption, brightness ...) in the meantime here are our 1st impressions on LED bulbs.

Edit: here are the results: https://www.econologie.com/forums/ampoules-a ... 18-50.html

We bought 6 models (100% Chinese except the price) of LED bulbs to test to possibly offer on the store ... the finding is rather catastrophic after 1 month of use:

1) The light is super cold and very directive. Even with a bulb with 60 LEDs (sold 24.90 €!) Consuming in theory 4W (not yet checked with the PM230) it is far from having the brightness of a fluorescent bulb of 5W. The atmosphere is colder than with neon lights ... very unpleasant.

2) The gain in consumption is very low compared to compact fluorescent. Or worse: for the same power consumption, the lighting is clearly to the advantage of compact fluorescent. (a file with photo will be made soon).

In theory we should gain 30% of consumption for the same brightness which does not seem to be the case. More detailed tests will soon be performed ... (I need to find a light sensor)

I remind you that the gain in brightness / consumption between a conventional bulb and a fluorescent bulb is 500 to 600%.

3) The body of ALL LED bulbs is very hot ... this may explain the 2) on low light / power performance.

4) After about 10 hours of use, on a bulb with 30 LEDs there are about ten functional ones left ... Uh, we hadn't said 100 hours of life for LEDs? I will request reimbursement.

5) I dismantled all the LED bulbs and put back our good old compact fluorescents!

Conclusion: LEDs for specific applications are good (spot, light point, night light, desk lamp or bedside table ...) but in no case for mood lighting.

ps: if other people have tested, their opinion is welcome, maybe they will contradict our judgment ...!

Edit on 5/10/07: tests on Luxeons, the results are much better, see: https://www.econologie.com/forums/comparatif ... t4009.html

[delnoram]

completely agree with your judgment on the following points:

Conclusion: LEDs for specific applications are good (spot, light point, night light, desk lamp or bedside table ...) but in no case for mood lighting.

Also with:

The light is super cold and very directive

except that we can aim for a white surface (reflective preferably - not like me ) you can have a better light diffusion (for a slightly dark passage.

in terms of the temperature equivalent to a fluorescent on the glass in front of the LEDs.

For the life of the LEDs the bulb that I installed about 8 months ago still has its 20 LEDs working, the loss of performance is inevitable but not visible at the moment.

[tof]

Note that LUXEON LEDs which normally have a good yield, have a color approaching neon (even if it is far from being the case in reality, it "seems"). Far from the classic white LEDs.

Taking photos often in very dark conditions, and playing on the lighting (possibly see my site), here is how the different lighting in photo stand out:

- Halogen: yellow-orange.
- Classic Led (white): Relatively dark blue.
- LUXEON LED: Light blue.
- Neon: Green.

[Christophe]

Ok for luxury ... but at what price?

[tof]

(I edited my post above).

There are LUXEON "fakes" (fake LUXEON) at attractive prices, with roughly the same characteristics (except the power).
I personally bought on EBAY a so-called LUXEON headlight (Made in China) which, although not emitting the 3 watts promised, lights up very well, and whose color is like the real LUXEON. The price ~ 10 €. With 1 "LUXEON" 3 Watts (my eye), and 3 classic white high brightness LEDs. There’s quite a difference between the 2.

[delnoram]

ah yes i hadn't thought about it, the luxuries heat up enormously



here is the model that I installed of the standard (but not too expensive) from China of course, but are there others?

[elephant]

well, the led's

1) calm, we have already made great progress, in '90, we were already not even sure we could make blue, a fortiori white.

2) buy Chinese LEDs if that sounds good to you, but there are currently items from European suppliers for beaconing or emergency lighting. these articles must be supplied by special transformers at 2 volts.

3) it is indeed out of the question to play the big illuminations, but I use daily small jewels of headlamp with LED's, which work with 3 AAA batteries for a long time (I sometimes use them all day, because I still have 51 banks and I work in poorly lit areas). A game of AAA per week is good, because the KW battery is rather expensive and I save a lot of time by not having to move a portable light

Personal reflection:

eco lamps, that's good, but have you already calculated the savings in KW that it does on an entire house: negligible: let's focus our efforts on big savings: heating, hot water, transport, heating the corridors of public buildings, etc., and there we will really use our energy (neurons) usefully. Afterwards, it will be time to work on saving the candle ends.

in fact, have you ever thought about why the economies of the South (Italy, Spain, California, Florida, Mexico, Brazil) are as efficient as ours? They don't have heating bills and they have public transport: it's already 2500 to 3500 euros per year that the worker must not claim from his employer to survive.
If in addition they have cheap vegetables and have to dress less and the administration is cheaper ...

[delnoram]

Yes that's not wrong, currently NICHIA is the producer of the most powerful white LEDs (Japanese it seems to me) (in normal LEDs not luxury) and in nuanced tones.

But the fact remains that the Chinese leds approach power values, a tone below, but still correct.
Their big problems is the disparity in consumption at equal light power, as well as too blue tones especially if they are pushed in voltage.
2v transformers are only valid for red to green colors
the blue and white lights barely 2volt their voltage being 3.5 ~ 3.6 volt.

In fact nothing to get upset about , but even Chinese the spots are very useful when at night we have to cross a dark sector avoiding bumping into the furniture and this for a consumption of 1.5w (the nightlights "econology" consumption even lower, but their light coverage is much more reduced)

[Christophe]

here is the model I installed of the standard (but not too expensive)

We tested the same model but in 12 V (It is the brand Electris with the eagle is that it?) And well it is not really top! In the comparison cited below I was not even talking about this test ... because I guess there is a technical problem ...

So either there is a bp with the 3 (3 times the same model it was for a 3 spot light) that we tested or it is lamentable to sell this .... the 21 LEDs light up nothing at all But then nothing at all...

A torch with 5 LEDs lights about ... 500 times more (arbitrary data) than these 21 LEDs ... I don't really understand ... Maybe a pb with the integrated transformer?

How to light yours under 220 V?

[delnoram]

Yes that's it, but look at the packaging I got caught, because in 12volt it's AC current and not DC (on mine) suddenly in DC you must go up to 15 ~ 16 volt for 1 correct result.

in 220Volt it gives me 10lux at 1 meter from the spot and 5 lux in
reflection on the wall.
In stabilized 16volt DC: conso39mA or 0.624w 32lux (it's better than the 220 ... no ........ I'll have to try others. midnight that's it I'm on vacation )

These values ​​are unfortunately arbitrary since I use my multimeter (an ITC-777 for the curious little ) under more than average conditions.

Under the "same" conditions 1 circular tube of 22w (unverified) gives 50 lux, 1 tube of 36w (unverified) gives 125 lux and my 19 "LCD PC screen gives 10lux.

Now all of this needs to be put into perspective since the light surfaces are not the same, I would have to have an identical consumption for each of them in a black room to make viable measurements.