Experience w/ high-lumen gu10 LED bulbs from eBay?


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Old 06-03-13, 09:01 PM
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Experience w/ high-lumen gu10 LED bulbs from eBay?

Hi there!

I'm installing new lighting in my apartment and have been researching a variety of available GU10 bulbs. I'll be using the Ikea Barometer as the light fixtures, and plan to have 2 fixtures in each room for a total of 10 lights in each room (each room is about 130 square feet, with 10 ft ceilings).

Since my apartment barely gets any natural light, I want to have the ability to really crank of the brightness in my room and I've been looking into high-lumen LED bulbs. The highest I could find on Amazon was 550 lumen 9w bulbs like this one, which seems well reviewed.

However, I've also found some crazy high lumen bulbs on ebay that seem too cheap and too bright to be true.

Does anyone have experience with these 800 lumen bulbs?

Would 10 be enough (or too much) to light up a 130sq foot room with high ceilings?

Also how long do they last? I've heard stories of LED bulbs from Amazon burning out after a few months, so I'd be even more concerned buying from a random eBay seller.

Thanks in advance for your help!
 
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Old 06-03-13, 10:47 PM
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I have purchased quite a few electronic items from the Chinese vendors on Ebay over the last year, including several LED lamps, albeit 12 volt DC models. I have never been disappointed.
 
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Old 06-06-13, 03:14 PM
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Thanks Furd - anyone else have thoughts?
 
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Old 06-07-13, 03:41 AM
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Welcome to our forums!

One thing to consider is that those bulbs are listed as warm white.
Warm white bulbs are a softer light and may appear dim.
My personal preference is for a light color temperature of around 4100K as being closest to natural light without giving off a blue cast.
 
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Old 06-07-13, 09:13 AM
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Thanks Greg - that's a good point. I have some 5500K Alzo compact flourescents in my apartment right now and really like their color.

Would a 5500K CFL have the same color cast as a 5500K LED? Theoretically, of course, they should, but I know there can be a lot of variance manufacturers' claims. I've heard the LEDs have issues with being too blue, whereas (IMO) the CFLs have issues with being too red.

Eric
 
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Old 06-07-13, 03:40 PM
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I don't have any hands on experience with residential LED lamps to know how they work in real life.
Honestly, IMO they are too new and too expensive to bother playing with.
I am going to wait until they are priced and refined to what CFL's now are.
When CFL first came out makers would label them as to being warm or cool without any mention of color on the packaging and no consistant ratings between mfrs..

IMO, right now halogen bulbs are hard to beat.
They do consume more power but because you can successfully dim them they are pretty versatile.
When fully illuminated you get a nice bright white light and when dimmed the reduced voltage changes the color to a warmer hue which makes for a fairly relaxing mood light.

When dimming a halogen you do need to know that if the lamps are dimmed quite a bit over an extended period of time they will loose some of the white color.
You can overcome this by operating the lamp at relatively comparable times of full brightness and being dimmed.
 
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Old 06-07-13, 03:48 PM
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Thanks Greg - That's a useful perspective. The barometers actually come with a full set of Halogens, so I guess I will give those a try before buying any LEDs. I do prefer brightly lit environments, which made me lean toward the LEDs, as did the option to reduce heat output, but since the halogens are free I'll have to at least try them out.

Eric
 
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Old 06-07-13, 04:02 PM
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Also, LED lights are generally dimmable right? Some of them specifically mention they are dimmable, others don't.
 
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Old 06-07-13, 07:53 PM
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As far as I know some LED bulbs are dimmable but need a dimmer rated for LED lighting.
 
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Old 06-08-13, 03:22 PM
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Thanks Greg - this thread makes it seem like LEDs listed as dimmable should work with any dimmers.

Anyone else have any experience with high lumen output GU10 LED bulbs?

Thanks!
Eric
 
 

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