We had a rewire last year; in place of 50W halogen bulbs in the kitchen I
replaced these fitted with 11 watt Megaman GU10 low energy light bulbs.
These were said to have a life of 15,000 hours. As you may have guessed,
they haven’t. Last week one was dead, the importer sent a replacement but
said the batch was out of warrantee.

Yesterday another one went, and times its clear the problem exists with the
rest. There is cracking from the contact pins and lose fragments can be seen
in the bulbs which can be seen in the remaining ones.



As the rewiring was underway this and other building work made the house
un-inhabitable, we were living in a caravan until September. Over time as we
got the basic rooms habitable increasing the amount of time spent in the
house.



So we think we would have been fully using the kitchen from August. This is
a room with out direct natural lighting, so the lights are used when the
roomis in use. To be honist given the delay in the bulbs in reaching full
light, they are usually left on for quite long periods. Given time away,
weekends and holidays, I think 13 months in use. If we left the lights on
all the day, 7am to 11pm this is just under 6000 hrs. Indeed one halogen
bulb was put back with a week, as the low energy bulb just wasn’t bright
enough in one place, its still going strong!



I would be grateful for comments on:-

a.. Is such a short life the real life expectancy of such bulbs rather
than the manufactures claims?
b.. As the last one had a strong smell when taken out, is there a fire
risk from these (one contact pin was lose!
c.. In this length of time, if we had 6,000 hrs are we still saving money
or we wasting?
d.. How do the different manufactures rate the bulbs fin terms of
replacing them if they fail (I can’t find any thing about Megaman having a
batch rather than life warrantee) has any one else experience of this?
e.. Can any one recommend a more reliable make of bulb?


I have contacted Megaman again but heard nothing back this time!




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