For the last couple of years I’ve been on a long-term project to replace all the bulbs in the house with LED bulbs as they wear out.
I learned fairly early on that cheap shit from Amazon is exactly that and not worth it, followed shortly by learning that cheap bulbs from supermarkets are also not great.
As a result I’ve ended up nearly 100% Osram, which do the job and seem to actually last. They’re all warm white, though.
I’d like to get some daylight bulbs next as an alternative to the warm white ones, but I’m struggling to find them (I mean, there’s loads on Amazon, but I’m wary of them being cheap shit). Does anyone have any recommendations?
Would be interesting if anyone else has tried (or is trying) to similarly LED-ify a house. Are there better options out there than Osram bulbs?
And no, for me I have no interest in smart bulbs. Too many rooms for that to be affordable for me!
What’s not good about the Amazon or supermarket LED bulbs? Are you concerned about the quality?
Before I went all Lifx in my house, I had decked the house out in Philips Clear LED bulbs as they were the closest to looking like old clear halogen bulbs I could find and I bought them direct from Amazon and had no issues.
The possible problem with the Philips bayonet ones are they are warm white bulbs not cool white. Looking of Philips’ website, they do do a cool white bulb of this type but it looks like its only for an Edison socket.
Now I have gone Lifx, I have no issues with switching from cool/day/warm white light but you don’t want to go that direction so I will speak no more about it! I have kept all the Philips LED’s as backup spares as I did like them.
I’ve been trying to find a high-lumen output, 6000k + daylight white bulb, for my office. I find the white daylight bulbs way better for working in than the warm white, though now I’ve made that discovery I’ve been getting countless bulbs on Amazon to test them out.
The one I’ve got though currently just isn’t bright enough.
Also, Bayonet vs Screw fittings of bulbs. Is it British Law that all houses must be built with a random mix of both socket styles, and your stash of bulbs will always be the wrong kind?
I love my Hue bulbs I’ve a mixture of colour ones and then the white only variety. It doesn’t work out too expensive to be fair. Get a starter kit and then just build on that room by room.
Massive fan of hue. I have white or ambient. I thought colour was too gimmicky/ a waste - would rather have more areas connected than less but colour ones!
I’m getting a sensor to put in the porch next so that if anyone comes along it’ll turn on my living room lights and also my bedroom to wake me up if I’m asleep.
Quite like that you can add in additional accessories to suit your needs.
Amazon: Looked at all the options, checked the reviews, and bought some candle-shaped bulbs for the hallway. They lasted eight months before they all started going one-by-one.
Supermarket: one room was a bulb short and, as I didn’t have the budget for another Osram multipack then (and I couldn’t leave the light with no bulb), I picked up a single bulb when in Tesco. I forget exactly how long ago it was now, but that bulb has recently developed a dodgy connection as will flicker for the first minute after being turned on before settling down and shining properly.
Not only that, but I will carefully check the fittings before going to the shops… and still end up getting the wrong ones Still, as I didn’t have a bulb surplus at that stage, they were still useful, just meant I ended up replacing some rooms in the wrong order, kind of.
The big enemy of LED light bulls is heat, so if you have enclosed fittings or the heat sinks on the bulbs are not adequate, they fail quite quickly. So for example I have enclosed bathroom lights that are close to the ceiling. I’ve tried all manner of makes and they all fail within 3-6 months, Phillips included.
Yet I’ve lots in my living room with metal heat sinks and they’re been running without issue for years, including some cheap ones from IKEA.
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phildawson
(Sorry, I will have to escalate this.)
20
I’ve got all my Hue lights to power-on in the last-used state, so this doesn’t happen. It also means that the wall switches, where involved, can be switched off/on without the retina-searing surprise moments.
But if you have fade-in routines, this will obviously not work while switched off. But the app shows which bulbs are unavailable, so it’s easy to tell what is switched off at the wall in any room.
New year, new update. Stocked up on Osram bulbs from Dyson as they had a limited offer on, and now almost all bulbs in the house are LED (exceptions being bathroom and kitchen).
Further to that, despite what I said earlier about having no interest in smart bulbs, I have bought, er, a smart bulb. Just the one, for my bedroom/office.
Key selling point for me was (a) ability to change the temperature of the light, which means I can have cool/daylight light when I’m working and warm light at bedtime (also dimmable), and (b) I already have Tapo devices so it was no effort at all to add it to my home systems.
I still stand by what I said earlier about it being too expensive to replace all the bulbs in the house with smart bulbs, but it turns out I’m actually really liking the bulb so far. It even has a smart calibration feature where it will change the temperature of the light for me according to time of day, which is really handy!
Not only that, but I will carefully check the fittings before going to the shops… and still end up getting the wrong ones 
Still, as I didn’t have a bulb surplus at that stage, they were still useful, just meant I ended up replacing some rooms in the wrong order, kind of.
constantly wearing sunglasses in our house
