Like many in the HA community, I have an interest in using LED based light bulbs, not just for power saving, but because they may well survive frequent cycling better than fluorescent or even incandescent technologies. This is fairly critical in an automated home, since in somewhere like a hall where the average family might leave a lamp almost permanently on, an automated home may be cycling the bulb many times a day.
However, LED bulbs are still quite expensive, so before investing in a significant number to light my stairs and landing I thought I'd try some samples.
* It's not clear that Initial Lights are still in business.
I have compared four LED GU10 bulbs to a variety of halogen versions that I had to hand. All bulbs were placed in a fitting 1m away from a wall. It's not a neutral coloured wall, so you can't really draw any conclusions about colour temperature - in fact the camera automatic white balance function has messed with colour a little. The wall was photographed using identical exposure settings in each shot to give a comparison of the beam pattern. I also measured the light level at various distances across the beam, using a photographic light meter in incident metering mode. This reading doesn't have a great deal of resolution, but it's what I had available. I also measured the actual power draw with a plug-in power meter device.
|
Lamp Info |
Measured Light Level (EV) |
|||||||||
|
Description |
Source |
Price (£) |
Actual Power (W) |
0cm |
10cm |
20cm |
30cm |
40cm |
50cm |
60cm |
|
Brilliance M Series GU10 3W Warm White* |
8.99 |
1 |
7 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
|
|
22.99 |
4 |
6 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
||
|
10.75 |
4 |
6 |
6 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
||
|
15.80 |
4 |
6 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
||
|
GE 30W Halogen Flood |
|
|
22 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
|
Bell 20W 50° Halogen |
|
|
24 |
5 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
3 |
|
Sylvania 50W 20° Halogen |
|
|
50 |
8 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
|
Homebase 50W Halogen |
|
|
52 |
8 |
8 |
7 |
6 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
Beam Patterns (click for larger images)
1. Brilliance M-series
2. 3x1W Cree XRE
3. Envirolight
4. BLTDirect Single Superbright LED (Deltech)
5. GE 20W Halogen Flood
6. Bell 20W 50° Halogen
Note how uneven the illumination is from the Bell lamp.
7. Sylvania 50W 20° Halogen
8. Homebase 50W
Comparison of packaging (click for larger images)
The Brilliance M and the Enviro-Light are both deeper than the standard GU10s. This will cause issues with some light fittings. Another potential issue is the thickness of the rim. Again, the Brilliance M and the Enviro-Light have a thicker rim than the standard GU10s. For fittings that have a clamp ring, again this can cause problems.
Clones, fakes and lookalikes
At first I thought the UltraLEDs 3x1 Cree and the Deltech were the same lamp. After removing the front diffuser it is clear that the LEDs used are different. The quality of the castings is slightly different, but there is 2 years difference in the purchase date so you can't read much into that. It does seem that this has become a standard packaging that various manufacturers are using to encapsulate different LEDs, which obviously could lead to different performance.
Having said that, both these lamps had similar performance, the Deltech was a little cooler in colour temperature.
So obviously you will need to be careful when shopping and not go on photos or the visual appearance alone. Not doubt there will be fake devices appearing, in the same way that the high quality Megaman devices have also been copied.
Conclusions
From the LED samples I have, the Envirolight and the Deltech are the most interesting. The Environlight has a more substantial diffuser, although ultimately less light output. It it wasn't for the packing rim causing issues with my luminaires I would be using these for my stairs/landing lighting, where the absolute light output will not be so critical due to the number of luminaries. The Deltech is a little cooler than most of the other "Warm White" bulbs, and it's light falls off quite quickly. It would be a good substitute for a 20W 20° halogen and is likely to fit most luminaires. The Brilliance M might make a good "feature" spot light due to it's very tight beam.
Leave a comment