If you haven't got these yet - do!

Got my second batch of these little fellows today, for my bathroom. I had fitted three of them in my kitchen a wee while ago, so when two out of the four halogen bulbs in the bathroom popped, the choice was easy.

Between the two rooms, I have reduced electricity consumption by 315 watts, and although that is not in itself an earth shattering amount, its still money that is better in my pocket than the electricity company's.

The best of it is, these wee bulbs give a much brighter, whiter light than the halogens they replaced, and they are the first credible alternative to the conventional incandescent bulb as far as I am concerned.

Seriously, these are well worth changing over to if you get the opportunity.

 

The very back end of them is heat sink for the LED's, which can get a wee tad warm to the touch if they are on for a very long time (hours and hours), but in normal use they give off no heat at all, and the bulb face remains cold to the touch.

They light instantly, with no flicker at all, and colours are much better under them too (they are much more 'daylight' like.

I've just done a quick calculation that the two rooms alone are knocking around £80 a year off my electric bill.

I've also found a floodlight type (either with or without PIR) that only consumes 10w! Kinda puts the 500w beastie that I have out doors at the moment into perspective. I won't remove the current outdoor light as its a rented property, but I am tempted to screw two or three of these to a frame and make a portable work light from them.

I am also intent on slowly but surely phasing the last few incandescent and CFL bulbs out now, as the performance of these is far superior. The downside at the moment is that the 'normal' style bulbs are still £12-£16 a piece.

 

I definitely think that its things like solar cells and LED's that are the way forward; I'm firmly in the 'highly sceptical' camp when it comes to global warming/climate change, however I do believe that making things more efficient has to be better for everyone, as log as the end product is as good or better than the conventional one -- even if the only benefit of doing so is that everyone has enough heat and light at a reasonable cost.

 

I'm also thinking about the comfort and convenience factors too - lights should provide a light that is not only bright enough to allow us to see, but also do so in such a way that colours are at their best, whilst not being hard on the eyes.

My next quest is one of these fellows; it needs to be fitted in conjunction with one of these which connects to the current wiring and replaces this unit which we currently have buried in an airing cupboard.

My thinking is that the current one is either on or its off, so no consideration is given to actual temperatures in the house; we currently have TRV's, which regulate the room temperature to a degree, but the bathroom radiator is the 'vent' rad which is on the whole time the boiler is on. As its been getting a bit chilly the past couple of nights, I set the programmer up in advance of the cold snap that is due from tomorrow - an hour from 7pm, and an hour from 3am; it came on tonight at 7pm and within twenty minutes I had to open the window as it was far too hot, thus completely wasting the heat.

Conversely, there have been times during the winter when it has gotten really cold overnight (we always know when its that cold as the dog jumps onto our bed and tries to sneak under the duvet!), so it can end up freezing cold before the heat kicks in.

My thinking is that a thermostatic controller would not only control the on/off times, but also then regulate the 'on' periods so that the boiler was only actually on when needed; I am hoping that it might also be a bit more efficient to have the system maintaining the temperature within a set range, than heating the house from cold each day, twice a day?

 

I am seriously tempted - if only to get the controller away from the reach of the wee one, as she has this habit of going into the airing cupboard (its in her room) and putting the heating on when she feels a tad chilly (and won't even consider a jumper or even a pair of socks to keep warm!)

The only thing I am struggling a wee bit to get my head round is how it will fit in with the existing kit (thermostat on the hot water tank, three way valve etc)

 

Excellent! Hope you are happy with them Sheal

One caveat that I should add to this thread - AVOID the LED equivalents being sold by Argos and Homebase, TCP branded; they are utter rubbish, and have an extremely high failure rate.

The Long Life Lamp Company ones from Amazon and other retailers are among the better ones.