One of the 16W fluorescent link things (about 520 mm) has just died; are
the sensibly-priced LED alternatives any good yet?

On 14/12/2012 18:20, Nospam wrote:
One of the 16W fluorescent link things (about 520 mm) has just died; are
the sensibly-priced LED alternatives any good yet?

Having asked about Lidl's LED under-cupboard strips here the other day,
I bought two at (IIRC) £11.99 each.

They are about 750 mm long (three 250 mm parts which can be connected
directly to each other or separated by supplied connector leads).

They work - rated at 3.8 W.

You get two metal clips for each strip, plus six sticky foam pads and
screws - so fixing is easy and flexible. (Blu tack until we make a more
permanent decision exactly where they are staying.)

The "transformer" is a neat 13 A plug device.

Colour of light is not quite what I expected. It is pleasant enough and,
to begin with, looks like an incandescent lamp. Quite yellow-ish
compared to a triphosphor tube. But when you see something blue, which
normally appears very dark under a 2700K incandescent, the thing really
is quite bright blue.

Now that we have taken the first step, more experimentation will be in
order to achieve exactly what we want. But this was a useful and, I
think, sensible first step at not too huge a price.

Been thinking, will LED lighting completely kill the term 'brownout'?

--
Rod

On Dec 14, 6:20*pm, Nospam wrote:
One of the 16W fluorescent link things (about 520 mm) has just died; are
the sensibly-priced LED alternatives any good yet?

You can get LED tubes that go directly in the fluorescent fitting.
(You disconnect the ballast and starter.)
They cost about £10 per foot, so £20 in your case.
http://www.earthled.com/flseries.html