Well that's what I would have thought... but if you look at packaging for GU10 LED lamps, it always says "do not use if the cover glass is broken". Now I never knew why halogens seem to need a cover glass because I'm unaware of any exploding in a way akin to Metal Halide lamps; so I'd have thought the production of the LED GU10's could be further reduced by removing the glass entirely... however this may add difficulties to 'horn' type GU10 fittings where you have to use a rubber suction cap to fit/remove the lamps.



Ah yes that makes sense. Also I've seen capacitors used elsewhere to reduce the mains power down to a workable level... In fact I use something like it for a relay switch on a PCB. At the last house in the first shed I built I had a Newec LED exit light that was permanently maintained or permanently non-maintained (non-switchable) - this relay PCB was used to switch between the pins on the driver circuit of the Newlec light. The relay terminals switching the lower voltage on the Newlec PCB and the input to the relay PCB was mains voltage Live and Neutral... on the PCB is a small round black thing (haha - real technical!) with the + side marked, which to me strikes of a miniture ac to dc converter by means of diodes - and then there is a capacitor alongside.



Is the LED GU10 in your present house fed by a normal switch then, or some sort of controller?

Also, uplighters built into a wooden floor - how did you access them for lamp changes? The house I'm in now is 1960's build and has part suspended floor downstairs (and that includes the 2000's extension at the back!)... I doubt we'll get floor uplighters here though! I may be able to put some in the cabin though if I don't put down any lino/carpet/laminate...

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I believe halogen bulbs give out a small amount of UV and the glass front cuts out some of the UV. There was "health scare" at least 10 years ago about halogen desk lamps an UV to the eyes. I suspect nowadays the glass of the bulb is coated with a UV stop.


The frosted glass on the B&Q LEDs is probably to diffuse the light and partly improve the colour rendering.

The one is my hall is fed by a normal switch, sometimes it glows and other times it doesn't, that is probably due to currents being induced in the "switch wire" from other cables. If you measure with a digital multimeter  (with greater than 10M ohm input) the voltage on a dead circuit which is next to a lot of other live cabling you will quite often see 50 maybe 100 or more volts on it. However since this is an induced voltage by coupling from other cables (transformer effect) it is only at microamps level it can't do any harm, however it is often enough to allow a capactive dropper PSU to create a small output voltage. This is why on railway electrification the signal cables must be shielded to prevent the traction supply inducing voltages in the signalling cables and changing signal aspects.

As for the floor uplighters, the lightbox was suspended beneath the floor so the brick was horizontal and flush with the floorboards. The lightbox was bolted to brackets on either side with 2 bolts but these were hand tight. The floorboards were cut so that the brick was a tight fit, but if pressed down on one side, the lightbox would pivot on the bracket and the brick move down on one side and up on the other enough to get it out. It was helped by the fact that for glass bricks the "middle" is thinner than the face.

They reminded me of keep left bollard illuminating bases.

Somewhat less "industrial" and more cool than those if you don't mind...  

I read that Triac/electronic dimmers are damaged if used on loads under 60w or so. Don't know how true it is.

I've taken the LED spotlights out of my ceiling fitting and put in the old halogen spotlights.

This evening, I used the ceiling lights for a prolonged period of time. By prolonged I mean 5-10 minutes, and within this sort of time period there was a burning smell that got stronger and stronger, so I switched the lights off. Sniffing at the light fitting, there seemed to be more of a burning smell around the halogen fittings rather than the LED fittings. I took the LED spotlights out as a precaution, just for the fact that I have never smelt this burning smell before.

The weather forecast was good, so tonight I went to have a look at the WRTL Stelas in Bournemouth.

The Stelas were the 18-LED square versions, consuming a total of 26w power, and producing 1710 lumens, mounted to 5m aluminium columns. I am pleased to say that I can now give the Stela my seal of approval, as light output was very good, probably a good comparison with 36w PL-L. The spread of light was quite reasonable considering the LEDs are aimed directly down below the lantern, although obviously the light is brighter under the column. I expect that reading a newspaper below the 18 LED Stela would be very easy.

Considerably better than Southampton's LED street lighting, and nearly half the wattage too. No wonder the Stela is making its mark.

Maybe the Bournemouth ones are a bit different, as the Lancashire ones are 18 LED versions but didn't seem as bright as 36w PL-L

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I wouldn't think they would be different. Maybe what I should have said was that the 18 LED Stelas were more than adequate for their location. Fitting a 36w PL-L lantern would have been the alternative at that location if CFL were used. The 36w PL-L technically produces a lot more lumens, and if put side by side is probably brighter, but the 18 LED Stela was good nevertheless.

I must say, it was on a footpath, but the spacings appeared to be the existing Revo Woolwich column spacings. It is the spread of light across a road that I would still need to see for myself.

Some councils, actually, a number of councils, use 70w SON/metal halide to illuminate footpaths, which produce between around 6000-6600 lumens of light for around 84w of power. If an 18 LED Stela producing 1710 lumens is sufficient for lighting footpaths, as I now believe it is, then you're looking of a power saving of nearly 60w! Of course, 70w SON/metal halide should never be used on footpaths anyway, and I mean never. 35w metal halide or 50w SON is more than bright enough, but councils can't help themselves.

This may still continue with some councils. Take Southwark Council in London, as already mentioned on UKASTLE, using the largest 52 LED Stela, power consumption 70w, to light a footpath. That footpath must be f****** bright! Southwark really missed a trick. They did the old chestnut of installing lighting that is more efficient but retaining around the same power consumption and massively increasing perceived lighting levels, a bit like when Southampton replaces 35w SOX with 60w Cosmo. No excuse for it, just council stupidity, and LEDs or no LEDs, councils will still be wasteful retards. Rant over.

You wouldn't like what Tameside council has done with lighting a footpath in Ashton-under-lyne... The footpath/alleyway goes between two houses, but has hedges either side. It then opens up behind the houses where it joins with paths that go behind the houses and there is a substation there, then the path goes between two other houses to get to the next road. Well, where the open space area is, they've stuck up an 8m (it appears to be 8m anyway) column with double bracket and what appeared to be 100w QSS's on each side! Apparently, I think they were trying to get to shine down the narrow bits between the houses. They failed.


When you go into the Tameside area, their welcome boards all say at the bottom "Tameside - an excellent council"... now, in most cases where an institution is bigging themselves up like this, it normally means they're crap!

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