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Lighting Illusions

• 

  tophy on 14/12/2012 - 13:53

  +2

  Just bought a bunch of these from a shop here in Melbourne, after comparing these to a few others like BrightGreen. The Atoms don't have quite the same light quality and they're not quite as bright (I suspect the diffuser takes out some of the claimed lumens) but we liked them because they don't have the spotlight effect being a wider angle.

  Having said that, I don't regret buying them from a shop for slightly more because I spent quite a bit of time with the sales guy and he was very helpful, lent me a bunch of LED lights to take home and try out, etc. If we all buy online then we won't find them in the shops any more, and it makes it even harder for LED light buyers to compare - and choosing LED lights is already a slightly overwhelming process. Just my 2c, anyway.

  • 

    allyemil on 14/12/2012 - 14:14

    The BrightGreens, which model did compare the Atom's to?
    I know what you are saying about buying in store, but we have already done our homework and decided to buy these and knew exactly what we are getting and what to expect, so why not save couple of hundreds.

    • 

      tophy on 14/12/2012 - 14:17

      BrightGreen D1000 - they're the cool white (5000K) version of the D900s. Very nice light quality and bright, but a little bit TOO cool (blue-ish) and left shadows in the corners because of the narrow beam. I liked the Atoms because they're 4000K - partway between the cool and warm whites of other brands.

      • 

        allyemil on 14/12/2012 - 14:34

        They are also 16W compared to Atom's 13W, so use more juice although the difference would be minimal I'd imagine.
        One big difference however is the price difference, about $65 which is quite a bit.
        I know what you mean about too cool. We went with warm white because cool white felt more like industrial light, but it was a really tough choice to make. We also contemplated doing half the house and cool and the other in warm white, but in the end decided to go with warm white everywhere.

• 

  wisc on 14/12/2012 - 13:55

  damn thats expensive light fittings, the globes are about 10 bux on ebayu for 12W ones with and fittings should be about the same…:S

  • 

    tophy on 14/12/2012 - 14:12

    The globes you see on eBay are probably the MR16 or GU10 standard sizes, intended to go into halogen-style downlight fittings. There are SOME screw-mount (E27) fittings for CFL that you might be able to use LED globes in, but the E27 LED globes I've seen are $30-40 for reliable / reputable ones.

    I've heard the halogen fittings don't leave enough room for decent LED heatsinks so they overheat and die. They might still claim 25,000 hours etc on the box but many will die in weeks or months due to excessive heat build up - LEDs are HOT!

    The ones here are proprietary fittings with driver, LED chip and fitting all in one. Yeah it's more expensive but it's designed to last a long time, unlike the eBay globes where they don't really care.

    • 

      oz-dxer on 14/12/2012 - 14:49

      Interesting response.

      I notice when i remove my MR16 halogen i have a void into the ceiling, plenty of room there for airflow.
      Most of these are made in china, and many ebay sellers have the same items sold in stores for huge markups.
      Do The 13w units you purchased come with a 240v AU plug on the drivers?

      Also it would be interesting to see even if those units have C tick compliance, wheteher or not the unit/led drivers actually have been tested to meet the standards. Many vendors just "apply" the label and havent had the items tested correctly, as it is quite an expensive process ( a few thousand dollars) to do.

      i just bought some 12w led MR16 to try for about $6ea delivered, hopefully the stay cool….

      • 

        sirplus on 14/12/2012 - 16:17

        I have lots of (90 ish) $5 MR16 @ 6W and they ALL are 100% fine after a year.
        (and they dim ok except on the lowest of low settings which no one would ever do)

        100% of the $7 MR16 @ 7W (with not as good heat sink as the 6W) have blown after a few weeks

        IMHO
        is all in heatsink and pushing the envelope

      • 

        wisc on 17/12/2012 - 12:08

        what dimmer are you using? im having difficulty finding dimmers they recomend PMWs, but cant find any architrave ones…

      • 

        sirplus on 17/12/2012 - 17:25

        I'm not sure, the electrician has moved to QLD

    • 

      wisc on 17/12/2012 - 12:07

      Quote:
      LEDs are HOT!

      LOT kid of defeats the purpose of LEDs

      maybe the transformers on the LEDs are hot, but the LEDs themselfs aren't. hence the energy efficency!

• 

  Bappy on 14/12/2012 - 14:07

  I installed the cheapest 6W ranges (approx 250 lumen, $18 per unit) and they seems nice in Cool White

• 

  h4lcyon on 14/12/2012 - 14:56

  I think the discount has been on for a while.

  I bought a couple of the 15W Dimmable Gimble a few weeks back for over the kitchen bench, and I think they're great.

  I bought the warm whites, which are still cooler than warm white CFLs but the light output is nice with a 90 degree spread.