Flat has fourteen of those glass dome fixtures where the bulb is fully enclosed. I've replaced four cheap LEDs in eighteen months, which is not what the box promised. The nicer bulbs are about four times the price and I'd be spending around £110 to do the whole flat versus £28. Is the expensive one actually different or am I paying for the packaging?
Worth knowing that the 25 year claim assumes three hours a day. That's the standard basis for those numbers, so a bulb on for eight hours in a living room is on a very different clock even before you seal it in glass.
And the rated life is usually the point where a big batch is down to 70% brightness, not the point where it stops working. Two different promises hiding in one number.
One more thing to check: whether the fixtures are on a dimmer. Non-dimmable bulbs on a dimmer circuit fail early and flicker on the way out, and it looks exactly like a heat failure.
Middle path since you've got fourteen: buy two decent enclosed-rated bulbs, put them in the two fixtures that are on the most, and leave the cheap ones in the hallway that gets four minutes a day. Failure follows run hours, so you don't need to spend the same everywhere.
Separate from lifespan, look at the colour rendering figure while you're buying fourteen of anything. CRI 90 versus CRI 80 costs a pound or two more per bulb and it's the difference between your kitchen looking normal and looking like a waiting room. You'll notice it every day, unlike the lifespan.
@drip_dana · 11mo ago · 3 replies
The thing you're paying for isn't the LED, it's the driver and the heatsinking, and in an enclosed fixture that's the whole ball game.
An LED dies because the little power supply in its base cooks. In an open fitting a cheap bulb sheds heat fine. Sealed inside a glass dome the air gets to 60 or 70C and the cheapest drivers with the cheapest capacitors give up in a year, which is exactly the pattern you've got.
What to look for is a line on the box saying suitable for enclosed or totally enclosed fixtures. Not all pricey bulbs have it and a few midrange ones do. That claim is the thing that matters, not the brand or the price.
Also pick the lowest wattage that gives you the brightness you want. Fewer watts in means less heat inside the dome, and a modern bulb making 800 lumens on 7W will outlive one making it on 11W.
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@budget_bruno · 11mo ago
Just checked the four dead ones. None of them mention enclosed fixtures anywhere on the packaging.
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@drip_dana · 11mo ago
There you go. Buy whatever is cheapest that carries the enclosed rating, and don't assume the £8 one has it just because it's £8.
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