Source for MR16 LED

Hello All,

A month or so back, there was an article on A Current Affair about a company called Neco (I just saw it and have no relationship with them), and decided to dig a bit deeper.

They do the in home assesment of lighting, eco freindly water and stuff. One of their big things is to convert all lights in the house to fluro bulbs. They sell fluro downlight compatible bulbs that attach to a 240v direct line.

http://www.neco.com.au/product.asp?pID=95&cID=47

They also suggest as others have here that low voltage does not actually save you anything as power dissipates through heat on the transformer.

The resolution, throw away the transformer, convert your enclosures to 240V with one of their conversion kits and add their 7W GU10 Megaman downlight bulb.

There is an energy calculator (don't know how accurate this is) which gives the representaiton of the savings. EG I just purchased 10 x 12v halogens on e-bay for the kitchen reno, cost me $100. To run them - apparently $159 for the year. After conversion kit and bulbs which would be worth $280, the power bill drops to $27. Seems fairly remarkable, but would take just over 2 years to recoup the investment.

The other thing they mentioned on the TV was in NSW, the gov was handing out all sorts of rebates to green up houses. Neco will come and do the assesment presumably to sell you plenty of kit, but through rebates scheme would give you a house full of fluro light bulbs and water saving shower head for free.

http://www.neco.com.au/product.asp?pID=164&cID=97

Anyway, I thought it was slick marketing, but it gets you thinking. As the edison screws have blown up at my place, I have progressively replaced with fluro bulbs. Mrs 11 prefers the light so everyone's happy.

Cheers....DC :)

I have seen one of the new LED type halogen lamps at my electrical wholesaler recently. While they may be more energy effecient than standard
50 watt (12V) lamps, I don,t think they will produce enough light for your average living areas. May be great for additional lighting left on overnight etc.

I saw somewhere on the net, not sure where though, that the LED replacements are equivalent to a 10W halogen.

I'd really love to get rid of my halogens, but the alternatives don't quite cut it yet I'm afraid. CFLs might use a lot less energy, but when I turn a light on, I want it to turn on! Up to 2 minutes to reach full brightness isn't what I'm looking for, plus I like to be able to dim them.

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The other thing they mentioned on the TV was in NSW, the gov was handing out all sorts of rebates to green up houses.

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I would imagine that they are tied into the carbon trading scheme that the NSW gov brought in, ie. get a house to convert to more efficient energy practices and sell the carbon saving to a business that needs to reduce its carbon emissions.

you can buy the 1watt MR16 LED globes for about $15 each from some electrical wholesalers. I use middys. dont use the electronic trannys or the LED power supplys as they dont allow dimming. Iron core trannys are best and can run up to 40+ 1watt LED globes

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Originally Posted by Damon_11

They also suggest as others have here that low voltage does not actually save you anything as power dissipates through heat on the transformer.

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Most now come with switch-mode power supplies which would be in the order of 80-95 % efficiency. Gone are the days of the big iron core transformer - unless you buy budget.

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Originally Posted by Clinton1

I would imagine that they are tied into the carbon trading scheme that the NSW gov brought in, ie. get a house to convert to more efficient energy practices and sell the carbon saving to a business that needs to reduce its carbon emissions.

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i have a standard hallway through my house leading to bedrooms it is about 5 mtrs long by about 900 mm wide and have 3 x 50 w halogens I have recently converted them to led 18 leds each and the light output is absolutley non -existent i am thinking about going for the high powered 5 -7 watt units that are currently on ebay has anyone used these? I think the brand is "environment'but they are bloody expensive any ideas anyone after the leds look good but the light outout is knowhere is comparrison you get more light out of a dolphin torch light

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Originally Posted by built4thrashing

dont use the electronic trannys or the LED power supplys as they dont allow dimming. Iron core trannys are best and can run up to 40+ 1watt LED globes

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Iron core transformers are THE MOST INEFFICIENT type of transformer.

Lighting efficiency is how many lumens you get out for each watt of electricity consumed.

The latest CREE's are up to 80 lumens/watt and are a serious improvement on luxeons.
These do need proper heatsinking, as do luxeons.

I built a 3W Cree into a light for camping and it's the ducks nuts.
An earlier model I built used a luxeon and you could see OK, but it was a bit hard to read by the light.
The Cree pushes enough light to read comfortably for the same power draw. :2tsup:

I also have a Cree on the front of my bicycle and it works great.

Biggest problem with LED is the light is somewhat more directional compared to flouro/incandescent. This needs different optics to spread the light as needed, but for a downlight, this could be a bonus! The Cree has a 70deg beam angle where the brightest light falls, whereas the luxeon was almost 180 degree.

After playing with real power LED's you quickly realise the clustering of 5mm LED's is frivilous when you compare light outputs.
Ideally an LED light fitting is built with the LED in place, you should not need to replace the LED, so you can therefore design the heatsinking appropriately in a fixed batten.

WARNING, you cannot simply hook a bare LED straight to a DC supply, It will light very brightly for a very short time and soon after release the magic smoke and then all bets are off :o