Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi all

With the Eskom increases upon us , I thought I'd let you guys know about my company which specializes in LED lighting (wholesale & a bit of retail ). It's been established in the last two years and has gained momentum with tremendous interest in both domestic & corporate spheres. Time to re-assess your consumption. Please contact if interested...

Tell us more.

How much power does it save compared to normal lights and the energy efficient bulbs?

What is the price on the GU10's?

Households in SA run 220V AC (Alternating current) and LED's are normally low voltage DC (Direct current). So do you need some converter to install these lighting, or do they have their on mini converters (per item). Will you be able to run a few of these (bulbs?) together with conventional Edison bulbs in the same household?

Apart from the bulb, how much power does the transformer use?

Transformers are usually fairly efficient (round 98%) but rectifiers somewhat less so, lets say together about 80-85%. Yes, you will have to install a circuit similar to your counter top lights or whatever you refer to them as, you know, the little down lighters. Or the system where you have a string of them hanging off two wires, that looks quite cool. The point remains though that they are very directional, so to light up a room effectively, in order that you don't break your fcuking neck over the dog while looking at the nicely lit up portait on the wall , which is holding your gaze (and fcuking up your night vision ) because it's the brightest spot in the room..., you would need a lot of them. (Ever notice how dark it becomes around a bright spot? )

Funny how it always comes out the same, hey? Well, that's energy for you. You get what you pay for... You can improve your efficiency, you can improve your economy, but if you use less energy, you get less heat/light.

The biggest plus with the LED lights are their lifespan. They last long. Ten times longer, "Up to" no doubt, so lets say average 5 times ("up to" is very different from "average"), so judging by that, and my little bit of life experience, if they are less than 4 times more expensive than the normal little halogens you get for this same circuit set up, I would be most pleasantly surprised and will probably rush down to Empire Lighting and buy me a bunch of them. Bearing in mind I already have the transformer-rectifiers installed, but do replace bulbies irritatingly often.

I see they have 220V ones too. They sound interesting but the fitting suggests you need some special hardware for that too. VIV, tell us more about the 250V LED light?

Pine wrote:Households in SA run 220V AC (Alternating current) and LED's are normally low voltage DC (Direct current). So do you need some converter to install these lighting, or do they have their on mini converters (per item). Will you be able to run a few of these (bulbs?) together with conventional Edison bulbs in the same household?

These LED bulbs are available in both 12v or 220v & as such, all that is required for existing applications is merely replacing your halogens with the LED variety.The MR16 ( 12v ) and GU10 (220v) need no special hardware to be installed ( your existing setup will work as is ) Yes these will work in conjunction with conventional bulbs in your household.

A few points to keep in mind :

1. CFLs (compact fluorescent lamps)
2. LEDs (light emitting diodes)

CFLs don’t cost a great deal to purchase, and because they have been around for a few years now many of the initial problems have been at least mitigated to some extent.

However, to most people CFL light bulbs still seem ungainly, oversized or downright ugly (they still won’t fit in smaller light fixtures, poke out above lampshades and CFLs cannot be used at all in low voltage MR16 fittings). Also, despite many efforts to improve the light quality of CFLs many people remain unconvinced and dislike them for this reason.

Other aesthetic issues with CFL energy saving bulbs include the fact that they are not for the most part dimmable and that like regular fluorescent tube lights (from which they are derived) many folk report eye-strain and headaches from the flicker and there have even been reports of CFL’s triggering epileptic fits.

All the above issues with CFL light bulbs can be addressed one way or another over time, but the fact that being filled with mercury vapor is a fundamental part of the design of CFLs is a particularly nasty issue that is especially hard to escape. Breaking a single CFL low energy light bulb is unlikely to cause you significant harm, but the cumulative effect of millions of people eventually disposing of old CFL light bulbs with their mercury vapor still intact is far from insignificant.


LEDs - Three important points to bear in mind about the higher price for low energy LEDs as compared to incandescent and energy saving CFL light bulbs.

First, the price difference reflects the fact that the use of LED for general purpose domestic lighting is still quite novel, though increasing manufacturing levels and consumer take-up will drive the price down dramatically once both come fully on stream over the coming months.

Second, and partially related to the observation above, is that the cost of LEDs drops by a factor of twenty over the course of each decade. This characteristic is reliably predicted by Haitz's Law (very similar to Moore's Law for computer chips and for similar reasons, principally because LEDs are, just like computer chips, pure electronic devices). Haitz also states that LED performance (amount of light per watt of electricity) increases tenfold over the same decade.

Third and perhaps most intriguing is the fact that as far as the cost of domestic lighting is concerned, the price of light bulbs is almost entirely irrelevant. It is an extraordinary yet easily provable fact that even if regular light bulbs were totally free and LED lights cost, let's say something outrageous like R500 each, it would still be vastly more economical to purchase LED low energy lights.

The reason for this is simple: the cost of electrical lighting is the cost of the energy i.e. electricity. It matters not one jot what the actual light bulbs cost; it's what it costs to run them that really counts. Also, since LEDs last for tens of thousands of hours (in practice, decades of use) you only need to pay the purchase price once, unlike regular bulbs which last only upto two thousand hours or just over one year.

The second biggest gripe about low energy LED lighting is light levels and quality, or in technical parlance luminosity and light color.

To understand what this means, consider that a standard 40w incandescent bulb delivers about 360 lumens and a 60w bulb about 540 lumens, which gives a ratio of 9 lumens per watt. Anything that offers greater than 25 lumens per watt can be classed as an energy saving light bulb. Certain LED light bulbs consume up to 6.7 watts and thus produce 6.7 * 80 lumens per watt which is 536 lumens, on a par with the standard 60w incandescent light bulb.

So you could, right now, replace all your 60w light bulbs with LED light bulbs rated at 6.7 watts and consume 1/10th (or 90% less) electricity. And remember Haitz's Law? Because of performance improvements, eighteen months from now you should be able to obtain the same 60w worth of lighting from just 3 watts !!!

VIV wrote:....... It matters not one jot what the actual light bulbs cost; it's what it costs to run them that really counts......

OK, but can you tell us what they cost? Despite the most convincing arguments, that is still going to be THE facter which affects 95% of people's decision to purchase or not.

Thanks

The last foto, with plenty of LED's - does that represent a flood light (as opposed to directional light )?

Chris wrote:What is the price on the GU10's?

MR16 / GU10 (12v or 220v) cool/warm white - 3 watt : R 120.00

I use both mr16 and mr11 LED bulbs in our flat. One problem I had with the MR16's is that they don't seem to use enough power for the transformer I had so it wouldn't work unless I had 2 normal halogen bulbs in there. The rest of my bulbs are CELs

That could be eliminated with the use of a LED driver, which are inexpensive,however,going the GU10 (220v) route seems a better option for new applications. I have used MR16's in conjunction with halogens, in larger rooms (6 LEDs 2 Halogen ) with great results . The balance was 'spot' on and the savings on your utility bill not to mention their longevity(LEDs), do justify investing in them.

Just saving me the hassle of changing the @#@#$ downlighters every so often has already won half the argument for me.

The ones you mention are 3 Watt Led's, so going by your example (3 x 80) should give me 240 Lumens?
Which, if I calculate correctly, is much less than the 450 Lumens (50 x 9 as per your example) from a 50w downlighter?
or have I missed something. Lets say I have miscalculated, and they are much closer,how do I go about ordering a few to try them out for brightness, longevity ?

karmakoma wrote:Just saving me the hassle of changing the @#@#$ downlighters every so often has already won half the argument for me.

How do I go about ordering a few to try them out for longevity ?

Yes, for me too.

I also want to order some to test for longevity. I'll try them and if they are still working by 1 April 2020, I'll pay you by EFT. Please do not send banking details before 30 March 2020, otherwise I'll lose them between now and then. I need about 12 for this longevity test.