I have seen LED beacons before (I think there's one installation in York somewhere), but I've never seen ones where the LEDs are on the OUTSIDE!
The lighting is on a dimmer circuit, which means the LEDs always have a bit of a flicker. Dimming the dimmer switch doesn't do anything to the LEDs anyway, because the LED spotlights only need dimmed levels of power to operate at full power, so they stay at full power until the dimmer switch is almost at minimum, and extinguish at the same point as the halogens completely extinguish from dim.Now that suprises me. The packaging for any LED lamp says "not to be used on dimmer circuits", so I always presumed it's damage the interior electrics. Having never looked at the electrics inside an LED package, I don't know if there's a driver in there or just some resistors and/or a bridge rectifier to stabilise the output from the LEDs... but I always presumed that dimming would cause damage - like it would do on CFLs.
I have some GU10 LEDs ( 20x 5mm LEDs) bulbs in the 2 "corridor" bits of my hall. Those are really only supplementary lights and there is a main light. They are supposed to be equivalent to "8w" whatever that means as there isn't an 8w halogen rating nor CFL. They are dimmer than a 7w CFL GU10.Yes I don't understand this either. You buy the LED lamps from B&Q and the package says "replaces your existing
8w" - I looked at that and thought to myself "well that's helpful, there isn't an 8w Halogen bulb" - the closest being a 10w capsule.
A bar I was in last week was entirely lit with the Luxeon 3 LED GU10s and each LEDs is (I think) 3w each. I hadn't noticed until I looked up that they were LEDs and the colour temp was as good as a halogen (unlike a £2 example). Those however are at least £20 a pop ( it's a while since I looked at the prices) so again you get what you pay for.The outlet of TGI Friday's inside the Trafford Centre (manchester) seems to be lit by these types of light (this type of LED downlighter is also sold on eBay, but they're mighty expensive)... While I was there I kept looking up to try and work out if the light was actually a cluster of 3 MR16 narrow beam halogen reflector bulbs, but the light output was far too white. They were far brighter than a 50w halogen.
In my garden I have GU10 LED lamps that are 2.8w Alpha branded (B&Q) ones. They're a bit dim in the kitchen but they make great garden lights. Being about £8 each they're not what I'd call "cheap", but they're not 3w luxeon "expensive" either. The light was great when the garden had snow on it. (The only thing I'm not overkeen on is the fact they have such a narrow beam)
File comment: LEDs lighting up the garden
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