[criticalmass]

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.

[robh2002]

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.

[Member 310233]

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.

[Nic Rhodes]

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.

[sean5302]

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?

[Phil57]

Originally Posted by sean5302

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!!

[t72bogie]

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

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)

[psikey]

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 !!!!

[criticalmass]

Originally Posted by psikey

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

[psikey]

Originally Posted by criticalmass

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.

Just bought a shed load (44) of energy saving fitments (Hispec) that include a 'daylight' GU10 11w 6400k lamp.

Now in hindsight maybe I should have gone to check ONE out before embarking on my mission to save the planet and become an eco warrior!

The light in the living room where there are 12 of these beauties is moon like, with this blue haze. What can I do? How can I replace them?

I have ordered 6 14w Megamans Low Energy Spotlight GU10 14W 830 15K Hr Megaman 14 Watt on a trial basis (new out so am waiting a while for them), I am hoping these give off the brightness and warmth needed in the living room. The fitments are too long for a normal halogen and anyway they only have a maximum wattage of 11W (hoping an extra 3 watts won't matter).

If these don't cut it can anyone out there advise me on where I go from here?

[Lee_JTD]

Originally Posted by criticalmass

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

standard halogen GU10 bulbs are generally 38-42 degrees, so they are closer to the original spec you are looking at replacing.

[gurkey]

Any results yet to report for the new 14W Megaman GU10 MM14152 ?

Originally Posted by Swabypool1964

Just bought a shed load (44) of energy saving fitments (Hispec) that include a 'daylight' GU10 11w 6400k lamp.

Now in hindsight maybe I should have gone to check ONE out before embarking on my mission to save the planet and become an eco warrior!

The light in the living room where there are 12 of these beauties is moon like, with this blue haze. What can I do? How can I replace them?

I have ordered 6 14w Megamans Low Energy Spotlight GU10 14W 830 15K Hr Megaman 14 Watt on a trial basis (new out so am waiting a while for them), I am hoping these give off the brightness and warmth needed in the living room. The fitments are too long for a normal halogen and anyway they only have a maximum wattage of 11W (hoping an extra 3 watts won't matter).

If these don't cut it can anyone out there advise me on where I go from here?

[DOW24]

Hi

Just my two pennies - I'm really hoping that this is the answer to lighting...

Have a fair number of cool white and warm white GU10 LED bulbs around the house now, the oldest have been in place for a coulpe of years with no failures. Reliability is excellent compared with the compact fluorescent GU10s - I found the CFLs didn't last long, especially when switched on and off throughout the evening, but that's probably not much of a surprise. The worst lasted about a month, others followed quickly after. Perhaps reliability is better now but I've replaced them all with LED lamps.

The most recent LED lamps I've bought are 3w single LEDs for around a tenner each and they put out a reasonable amount of light but still nowhere near a 30W halogen. Cool white is brighter than warm white (and looks great lighting a black slate floor!) however the beam angle is pretty narrow so casts a pool of light on the floor. Mine stay on most of the evening but are supplemented with cool white fluorescent uplighters when we are using the room.

They come from Kymanledtex.com - suppliers of eco lights and products though have to be bought via e-bay but I've had no trouble in the past...

I have recently installed an LED strip light from the same company which belts out a fair amount of light for 8 watts but its not particularly attractive - I just wanted to see what it was like!

One tip: some LED replacement bulbs do not fit into some fittings - I've had to file the downlight holders before to get the body of a bulb to fit and also if the bulbs are held in by a spring clip, the lip of LED bulbs can be a bit thicker than standard so that needs some work too.

The technology is advancing but isn't quite there yet; surely it cant be long, the energy saving potential is huge...

Thanks all

We have also had a problem finding LED 50w equivalent gu10 bulbs.

We finally settled for CFL versions and even found a 30w equiv bulb that was the same size as a standard halogen bulb.

If any one has any led high light output GU10 bulbs that are as good and as small as a halogen 50w please post back.

[robh2002]

Just bought and installed one of these to test

Zenigata - all purpose power LED

It's pretty good, but perhaps I should have done for the medium beam version as it does not seem as bright as a 50W halogen - but certainly closer than any other.

The savings of LED have moved me to install Zenigata 4W LED GU10 Bulbs. They might be top end on price but I know the savings will come.

[dekoded]

Wow, these LED GU10's are a bit pricey!

I fancy changing the Halogens in my kitchen but don't really want to spend several hundred quid!

I found these: GU10 78 LED Home Studio Spot Light Lamp Bulb Spotlight

and whilst I'm sure they're not as good as the ones mentioned in this thread they are much cheaper, but are they worth buying?

[robh2002]

In my opinion, I wouldn't touch these types of LED bulbs. Based on similar designs sold at B&Q, they have very poor light quality, poor spread and don't last very long. They give LED bulbs a bad name.

If you think the other LED are more expensive, calculate how much you are paying to run them and they will look rather cheap overall compared to 'cheap' halogen bulbs!

[nheather]

Interested in the Zenigata GU10s.

Anyone here used them?

If so how would you compare

(i) Brightness compared with 50W Halogen

(ii) Spread of beam compared with 50W Halogen

Which colour did you go for, White or Warm?

@robhowell

Just read your comment - what do you mean by medium beam version - I can only see two versions White or Warm.


Another Question

Ignorring the wattage as you can't directly compare that, I notice that the Zenigata is 200 Lumens but the Halogens are 500 Lumens.

How on earth can they be comparable given that one gives out 2.5x the light of the other?

Cheers,

Nigel

[robh2002]

You know, I now have no idea what I meant by the medium beam version! I presume I meant a warm white version.

Its obviously very difficult to talk about brightness as it's one opinion verses another as I don't have a light meter. However, I'd say the LED was something around 50-70% of the 50W halogen it replaced - with a similar beam spread. There is certainly no spot light effect with the LED. I went for warm white as this seems very similar to the halogen it replaced.

My bathroom was WAY over lit with 5 x 50W halogens, so turning it down a bit was a good thing.
Cheers,
Rob.

[johnscarlet]

A 35W halogen would have been 70% of the 50w one

[leon]

i maybe able to help aliitle i have been using led for the last 4 years in my house in the forms of gu10 fitting

type one cluster led these were great about 4 years ago only 1w to power and about 15w of light downside the leds will sometimes fail in the cluster they generate zero heat and are great for mood lighting (white light only) which is whiter than the standard gu10 filement bulbs (£5.00each)

type 2 are single leds that one bright led in a single mirror tube these are bright then the type 1 and i have never had one fail in 3 year they come in white light ( blueish) and warm white simular to the filament bulbs ..they use 1w around £8.00 each

type 3 are 3 x 1w in and array same as type 2 but three of them brighter than the type 2 beware of the imatation ones on flee bay they give of a very yellow light and do not last as long as the proper ones ,,u get what u pay for cost around £15.00 fake ones are £10.00 each ..3w and give out around 25w of light

type 4 the ultimate ones are cree chipset look the same as the type 3 with three led these ones have a long glass luxeon bulb inside a good way to tell the proper ones from fake underpower ones these cost around £18.00 each they give out the same light as the original filement light bulbs all be it in a smaller beam .. 3watts to run and give allittle heat ok to pick up in your hand after 3 hours of use ..
payback on these bulb with normal use around one to two years they are good for around 60 thousands hous which is amazing..
it very tricky to get hold of luxeon bulbs in the uk as the shops dont like to sell the everlasting light bulb
ive been importing cree/luxeon for years now from the usa and there performance is amazing ..im not a business just sell them to friends

hope this helps

[nheather]

So how do these compare with a GU10 50W Halogen.

I've been looking at the Zenigata which are claimed to be a direct equivalent replacement but I'm confused by this when I look at the claimed Lumens output for each

Zenigata - 200
50W Halogen - 500

I just struggle to see how these can be comparable.

My concern, is that whilst I would love to replace the 11 in my kitchen, the light level isn't great with Halogen so I don't want to pay £250 for something that is worse.

I did put the question of YourWelcome and they seemed a little taken aback by the 200 lumens versus 500 lumens but they did they concede that the Zenigata aren't as bright as a 50W Halogen. They did say they offer a keep of return service so I might buy one to try them out.

They also said that it maybe better to wait until next year - there is another step up in technology coming through and they expect to have true 50W GU10 (and better) replacements then. Although they said that they have had the first examples for testing and haven't been very impressed so far.

Cheers,

Nigel

[leon]

nheather
the cree luxeon are the same as a 40w gu10 imoa and the white light version is slightly brighter than a 40w gu10. its the first time ive been able to use led bulb that give out the same power in light

[Tolly]

Read this about the Master LED lamp 7W.


Recalled ProductsBETA
uk and european product recalls by email and rss
Master LED lamp 7W 230 Dimmable
19-Sep-2009
Details
Brand: Philips
Type/number of model: GU 10 E27 standard, E27 NR63

Description: Lamps intended for professional use, but some may have been fitted for domestic use.

Country of origin: China
Danger
Electric shock
The product poses a risk of electric shock because the overheating of one component of the power supply of the lamp may damage the electrical fitting and/or the luminaire.
Action Taken
Voluntary stop of sales and withdrawal from the market by the manufacturer.
The Next Step...
If you purchased this item, get in touch with the place you bought it from to find out what to do next.
If you live in the UK and need further advice, please contact Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06 or Consumer Direct.

[Member 414737]

That was actually an old lamp. That is the 7W 35W equivalent GU10 dimmable lamp. The first version that Philips brought out. All of these were recalled at the beginning of the year, not September as your post claims. Since that model there has been version 2 35W Dimmable 7W, MR16 20W Equivalent Dimmable and now the 50W equivalent 7W dimmable lamp.

[leon]

Originally Posted by Tolly

Read this about the Master LED lamp 7W.


Recalled ProductsBETA
uk and european product recalls by email and rss
Master LED lamp 7W 230 Dimmable
19-Sep-2009
Details
Brand: Philips
Type/number of model: GU 10 E27 standard, E27 NR63

Description: Lamps intended for professional use, but some may have been fitted for domestic use.

Country of origin: China
Danger
Electric shock
The product poses a risk of electric shock because the overheating of one component of the power supply of the lamp may damage the electrical fitting and/or the luminaire.
Action Taken
Voluntary stop of sales and withdrawal from the market by the manufacturer.
The Next Step...
If you purchased this item, get in touch with the place you bought it from to find out what to do next.
If you live in the UK and need further advice, please contact Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06 or Consumer Direct.

ouch im glad i never bought them ones

[Member 414737]

I have 5 of those lamps in my kitchen! I figure that even if they do overheat they will still never get as hot as a halogen lamp does at full light output, so I didn't really understand why Philips recalled them! The company are spending a lot of time and money positioning themselves as the market leader in LED retrofit lamps and light fittings so I think this was more of a precautionary measure. I will let you know if they overheat or not in about 42,800 hours!

[nheather]

I must admit that I remain unconvinced because I can find no-one (forums, manufacturers, retailers) who can answer my simple question.

Ignorring watts, because halogen watts and LED watts are just not comparable in light terms and looking at the technical measure of light output so we are comparing apples with apples

Zenigata - 200 Lumens
Philips Master LED (50W replacement) - 250 Lumens
50W Halogen - 500+ Lumens

So how can these LED equivalents be as bright when they are giving out <50% light?

Cheers,

Nigel