LED Light Failed within a week!

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#1264181 20-Mar-2015 16:41

lxsw20: Yeap buy brand name ones, Panasonic etc.

Is anyone selling them for a better price than Countdown? Countdown charges too much for light bulbs compared with New World which sells Philips.
LEDs will have a shortened lifespan if installed in an enclosed space if they aren't designed for it as they will overheat.

In many areas GE licences their brand name out to other companies.

lissie

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#1264188 20-Mar-2015 16:49

hsvhel:
lissie: What the hell is a driver? This was a bayonet fitting bulb - it did indeed fit into my existing bayonet? And what is a "reasonable brand? The downlights that blew were GE which I would consider a pretty big brand (if not the largest in the world?)

The driver is the electronics behind the LED itself, stepping down the voltage from the line to suit the LED. This is almost certainly what has failed. If you have a warranty, it should be an easy replacement.
There are a lot of cheap and nasty setups that should not be on the market, sad to day, but $12 is in that category.
If you want a decent setup, go to a reputable lighting store or an independent supplier, not a corporate chain supermarket

Yeah I can't find last weeks supermarket receipt! You're saying $12 is CHEAP for a LED bulb?

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lxsw20

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#1264189 20-Mar-2015 16:49

sure is.

CYaBro

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#1264198 20-Mar-2015 17:03

lissie:
hsvhel:
lissie: What the hell is a driver? This was a bayonet fitting bulb - it did indeed fit into my existing bayonet? And what is a "reasonable brand? The downlights that blew were GE which I would consider a pretty big brand (if not the largest in the world?)

The driver is the electronics behind the LED itself, stepping down the voltage from the line to suit the LED. This is almost certainly what has failed. If you have a warranty, it should be an easy replacement.
There are a lot of cheap and nasty setups that should not be on the market, sad to day, but $12 is in that category.
If you want a decent setup, go to a reputable lighting store or an independent supplier, not a corporate chain supermarket

Yeah I can't find last weeks supermarket receipt! You're saying $12 is CHEAP for a LED bulb?

From memory we paid about $60 for each fitting with a driver.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

lissie

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#1264206 20-Mar-2015 17:30

Inphinity: We've replaced most of our lighting both at home and work with LED over the past 12 - 18 months, all with at least reasonable brands, no failures yet. Some of these lights are on 24/7.

Have you seen any decrease in your power bill? What do you think the payback period will be

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Niel

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#1264273 20-Mar-2015 18:52

Last time I worked it out, about 3 years ago, the payback for a $17 LED bulb used 5h per day was around 6 months due to the power saving. Add to that the fact that the fitting runs much cooler so lasts longer, and plastic in fittings will not turn yellow/brittle like they do with fluorescent bulbs.

PB Technologies sell Panasonic bulbs, but I don't know how the price compares. They have specials every now and again.

For our bathrooms we got Click spot lights from Bunnings, and unlike notmal spot lights I love these ones as they have a wide angle so light up the whole bathroom. A friend bought Click reflector LED lamps and he is also impressed with them.

For a dedicated LED fitting, I highly recommend http://www.qualityledlighting.co.nz/ in Wellington. We changed all our fittings to their 14W model, which gives the same (slightly better actually) lights as a 100W bulb. Its been running over a year, no issues, and these ones are certified for use with insulation (unlike virtually everything else on the market). The owner is an electrician that got frustrated with not finding a decent fitting in NZ. He stocks only warm white, but you can specify whatever colour temperature you want and he will do a special order for you. We got 4000K which is daylight, not too cold and not too warm. I can;t imagine every going back to globe style LEDs, the electronics in the base of the fitting just gets too much heat to last. Dedicated fittings (at a reasonable price) are the way to go.

You can replace fittings yourself with similar (function) fittings, if 1) you own the house and 2) you live in the house yourself. You can't work on the switchboard or install new circuits, but you can change e.g. an incandescent down light fitting with an LED down light fitting. Not sure about changing to a different stile like pendant etc., and apparently you can move a fitting as long as you don't extend wiring, but I'm not sure about that either. There is a document on the internet with what home owners can do, hopefully someone will point you to it as I can't remember what it is called.

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#1264279 20-Mar-2015 19:20

Bought mi-lights off Aliexpress, ebay and limitless led. All work great and have been for over a year so must be just bad luck.

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#1264328 20-Mar-2015 22:04

Have had problems with LED bulbs as well. Originally bought almost a full houselot of Viribright brand from Bunnings. Much preferred their light compared to CFL bulbs. But approx 1/3 have failed after a couple of years. So average lifetime not much different to incandescent. Have been replacing with Phillips and Panasonic. Which have been OK so far but not enough units / time to get a long term picture. None of the fittings have any kind of lampshades or are enclosed. So heat buildup won't be an issue.

Due to the house design I can't install any downlight style LED fittings. So im restricted to mostly whatever can plug into a bayonet fitting. Also I have a policy now of only buying non dimabble LEDs. As no light dimmers anywhere in the house. And the non dimmable ones don't momentarily dim when other loads get switched on. Also for awhile the mains voltage was 242V + alot of harmonics. So all of the dimmable ones were probably getting overdriven.

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#1264662 21-Mar-2015 18:57

bfginger:
lxsw20: Yeap buy brand name ones, Panasonic etc.
Is anyone selling them for a better price than Countdown? Countdown charges too much for light bulbs compared with New World which sells Philips.

PB tech? With account they are cheaper again. If you go instore ask them to do a deal, but there is often a sign on the display, buy 8 get one free or something.

Richard rich.ms

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#1264666 21-Mar-2015 19:01

lissie: Yeah I can't find last weeks supermarket receipt! You're saying $12 is CHEAP for a LED bulb?

At retail in NZ, yes. Remember that the price has been marked up by several people on the way to that. There are cheapish ones at the warehouse that seem a little better than the cheap nasty supermarket brand.

The philips we get here are pretty junky as well. Certainly not up with the quality of the philips ones in the USA where they have to pass UL listing etc.

The problem comes from wanting to make a drop in replacement for incandesent lamps, which has to try to reproduce the inefficiant spread of light, while keeping the LED cool, and stuffing a power supply into the base of the lamp, all while not weiging too much that they break off poor quality or cooked lamp holders or making table lamps too top heavy. Retrofit lighting sucked with CFL's and LED is no different.

Richard rich.ms

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#1264668 21-Mar-2015 19:03

Lurch: Bought mi-lights off Aliexpress, ebay and limitless led. All work great and have been for over a year so must be just bad luck.

Yeah, but they are just too dim unless you team heaps of them up. They also have a large turn on delay when using the switch to power them up, and I have had mine re-pair with the flatmates remote on 2 occasions because he hit his remote button just as I was turning my lights on.

Richard rich.ms

mattwnz

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#1264681 21-Mar-2015 19:22

Niel: Last time I worked it out, about 3 years ago, the payback for a $17 LED bulb used 5h per day was around 6 months due to the power saving. Add to that the fact that the fitting runs much cooler so lasts longer, and plastic in fittings will not turn yellow/brittle like they do with fluorescent bulbs.

PB Technologies sell Panasonic bulbs, but I don't know how the price compares. They have specials every now and again.

For our bathrooms we got Click spot lights from Bunnings, and unlike notmal spot lights I love these ones as they have a wide angle so light up the whole bathroom. A friend bought Click reflector LED lamps and he is also impressed with them.

For a dedicated LED fitting, I highly recommend http://www.qualityledlighting.co.nz/ in Wellington. We changed all our fittings to their 14W model, which gives the same (slightly better actually) lights as a 100W bulb. Its been running over a year, no issues, and these ones are certified for use with insulation (unlike virtually everything else on the market). The owner is an electrician that got frustrated with not finding a decent fitting in NZ. He stocks only warm white, but you can specify whatever colour temperature you want and he will do a special order for you. We got 4000K which is daylight, not too cold and not too warm. I can;t imagine every going back to globe style LEDs, the electronics in the base of the fitting just gets too much heat to last. Dedicated fittings (at a reasonable price) are the way to go.

You can replace fittings yourself with similar (function) fittings, if 1) you own the house and 2) you live in the house yourself. You can't work on the switchboard or install new circuits, but you can change e.g. an incandescent down light fitting with an LED down light fitting. Not sure about changing to a different stile like pendant etc., and apparently you can move a fitting as long as you don't extend wiring, but I'm not sure about that either. There is a document on the internet with what home owners can do, hopefully someone will point you to it as I can't remember what it is called.

The problem is that many people won't do it, or not have the technical knowledge to know who to turn off a circuit, or they will think it is unsafe, which it is if you don't know what you are doing.

richms

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#1264682 21-Mar-2015 19:24

The last lot of ones I have seen installed had a block that went on the fixed wiring, that then plugged into the driver, and then a plug between the driver and the metalwork with the LED's in it.

The idea I think was that the block was wired by the sparky and the other bits were plugged in by grunt labour doing the ceiling.

Richard rich.ms

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#1264689 21-Mar-2015 19:39

I've got e-star bulbs for all the 9W LEDs in the house, and Panasonic for the 2 x 14W LEDs in the kitchen.

Supermarkets are the worst place to but them. I don't recall the exact price for the e-star bulbs but they're around $8 or so + GST and far superior to the ones pb-tech are selling that have a very slow startup time.

mattwnz

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#1264701 21-Mar-2015 20:03

The panasonic ones I find produce the best light, compared to Philips and a warehouse brand. Briscoes seems to be a cheap place to buy them when they are 30-40% off. Not sure if they discount them by more. The ones which fit into B22 or E27 fitting are the best type IMO and probably have the cheapest lifecycle, as it has the driver built in, and it is just a simple easy replacement. You can also by IC downlighter fittings that support them.

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