A while back we shifted most of our house lights from incandescent to halogen, although some bulbs are still incandescent. Now I'm really struggling to find incandescent, and halogens have only recently had a temporary stay of execution but that won't last.

We've tried flourescent, and the migraines are ridiculous. LED's seem like a decent idea, but trying to find 'equivalents' is virtually impossible. Is there any guidelines we could follow to match both power and colour temperature? We've got 40w, 60w, and 100w incandescents, with most halogens being either 10w or 30w.

Can anyone help with the equivalent LED's, and/or perhaps suggest where to get them from?

You could try Toolstation - they still do "proper" bulbs as well as halogen and LED's

You'll struggle to get high power LED bulbs in a 2700k colour. It's worth checking out LED filament bulbs but again you're limited in terms of max power.

I absolutely love the LYYT 6W LED filament bulbs- they look identical to halogens in terms of light output. I think their suggestion that 6W LED filament = 50W incandescent is about right.

One thing to be aware of is that the "dimmable" ones often need special dimmers. Something to do with trailing edge triggers vs leading edge triggers.

Anyone know what the new LED ones are like. The ones that look like a traditional incandescent bulb, with an LED "filament"? The story when they were announced was that they'd give light like a traditional bulb, but with LED efficiency. I've yet to try one though.

I have a rgb bayonet bulb from asda, just thought id try one as was on offer for about a fiver. When on brightest white id say it's about as bright as a 60w old school filament. It suits the dining area of my kitchen as the kitchen has spots for proper brightness to key areas. Kids like to switch colours occasionally.

[Edited on 24-9-16 by loggyboy]

You can still buy old style bulbs - they're now industrial bulbs rather than residential.

Just get some led filaments. Cheap and quickly pay for themselves.

When buying LED don't look at the wattage this is not an indication of brightness.

You need to look at the lumen output usually marked Lm on the packet.

You need greater than 400 for the light to be effective, some are down at 250 Lm.

Ones in my kitchen are 620 Lm and are super bright.

[Edited on 25/9/16 by big-vee-twin]

Lumens rating is effected by the lights angle e.g. some LED "globes" only generate light out of the end, so the lumens appears much better but if you put them in a ceiling fitting you'll have a very dark ceiling. MR16 type bulbs are even more impacted by this as some have really quite narrow emissions angles.

Other thing to bear in mind with LEDs is that although they run cooler they can easily over-heat. I've had G9s and MR16s that worked brilliantly and look lovely for the first few days then the voltage reduction circuit over-heats and they flicker horribly from then onwards. I gave up sending them back for replacements after a while (the next one would do the same).

Filament LEDs in an open (lampshade) type fitting I'd definitely go for (and as they're 360 degrees the lumen rating is as it suggests). MR16s, G9s etc, anything in an enclosed lamp fitting I'd be cautious with.

Thanks for the pointers everyone. The angle of light is certainly something I've noticed with LED's, there are very few 360 degree lights and considering one is to go into a bedside lamp it needs to be as distributed as a regular bulb. The main living room light has the bulbs parallel to the floor, so again I need at least 180 degrees for it to be a light rather than a torch.

I did look at lumens, with a 100w incandescent running at about 1200 lumens I have yet to find an LED equivalent. However I have found a 450 lumen light which should be sufficient for a 40w replacement.

I'd not really seen filament LED's before so I'll check those out.

I may have an additional problem though, the halogens are mostly low voltage (240v down to 12v) and from what I'm reading they may not be a straight swap for LED's.

MikeR, the industrial bulbs are what have kept us going, some places describe them as 'rough service' as well. But they're getting very expensive.

I have been using some led filament lamps for a while now. (from asda) and 6x 4w bulbs work fine in one room, but another room they are just too dim because that fitting has smoked glass decorative bowls.

cpc/farnell also have a good selection
http://cpc.farnell.com/filament-style-led-bulbs

heres a 950lm warmwhite bayonet cap
http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-elec/pel00227/lamp-8w-led-filament-b22-2700k/dp/LP09278
£6 each if you buy 5 or more.

ps 806lm is about equivalent to traditional 60w, (47w halogen)

I've found that Ikea led lights have the best colour match and to get round the lower lumens output,compared to halogen that is, have doubled up the bulbs using a splitter converter off eBay. Now done it with 5 fittings and am delighted.


However still cannot find a satisfactory substitute for low voltage halogen downlighters they lack "sparkle"

Cheers