Warm white LED bulb replacements: Are there any "proper" warm whites out there?

Following a chat with the very helpful owner of Bedazzled I have changed the 21w filament lamps in my saloon for warm white leds.
SWMBO is very pleased as she can now see the clues in the crosswords without resorting to additional lighting.
So a big plus for Bedazzled.

j
 
Having changed all the overhead lights to LED for consumption purposes, I did not like the effect.

I simply put colours photographic gel in the holder and instantly improved the 'look' of the saloon for no discernible light value difference. As there is no heat there is no risk of it burning, even if it wasn't 'heat-proof'.

And - I put a red gel in the light over the nav table, so we have 'night-light' for sailing in the dark. Simples.
 
I also replaced all the cabin lights with warm white LEDS from Boatlamps. If anything, the light is warmer than with the halogens, and current would appear much lower judging by the fact that the fan in my shore power unit now rarely comes on, whereas it ran frequently with the old lamps.
 
I find it is not just the colour temperature. Compare a colour chart (or just a paint chart) under halogen and warm white LED. There is a conciderable difference. I have found LED lighting very irritating and 'uncomfortable' in the past, but they do seem to be improving.

MD
 
mobeydick said:
I find it is not just the colour temperature. Compare a colour chart (or just a paint chart) under halogen and warm white LED. There is a conciderable difference. I have found LED lighting very irritating and 'uncomfortable' in the past, but they do seem to be improving.

MD
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you have hit nail on head there MD. If you want light that feels nice you want high CRI not "warm white". This fixation with colour temperature just obscures what really matters, namely CRI, and allows suppliers of cheap junk LEDs to dupe folks into thinking their stuff is good

You can, and cheap LEDs do, get warm white with low CRI by having peaks of RGB and some amber but not much else. But they won't feel nice even if the amber colour floats your boat. High CRI lights and daylight have no peaks- they emit reasonably flat line ROYGBIV and all points in between. Try some 88% Cree LEDs at about 3000k in a properly designed fixture, around £70 each, and you'll be amazed how good they are. Better than halogen by some margin and you wouldn't know they are LED unless you knew. Whereas you can spot poor quality LEDs Instantly, even if you like their colour temperature ( I use 3000 not 2700 inside, and 4000 outside). And as Nigelm says the good ones make heat. Expect a heat sink on the back of them.
 
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nigelmercier said:
No heat? From LEDs? Are you having a laugh?
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Just stuck my fingers on some LEDs that have been lit for the last 48 hours and there was no discernible heat on my fingers. Not scientific but still cool enough not to burn the gel. I thought LEDs were a bit like neon strip lights - it's an 'excited' gas or something rather than 'burning' like a filament in an old fashioned bulb?
 
superheat6k said:
www.bedazzled.co.uk
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I bought a load of warm white festoon LEDs and BA15Ds from Bedazzled. All was good except that my light fittings for the festoon LEDs melted. I didn't necessarily blame the LEDs and I hand't fitted surge protection as recommended. I asked the guy if it was the case that some fittings simply weren't suitable and he said to send back a bulb and he'd test it. So I did. Nothing heard back so I emailed. No reply. Emailed again. left it a couple of months and another email. no reply.

The BA15ds have been excellent. I wasn't even really blaming the LEDs for all my light fittings melting. But getting me to send one back (they all still worked) and then just ignoring me I think was a bit off...
 
Sailfree said:
Tried to replace 50 watt halogen MR16 bulbs in house with LED but mother in law says too dim! It appears to me that warmer lights are easy on eyes but not so bright.

Has anyone found a bright equivalent for MR16s. Problem is I need about 20 so don't want to buy ones that will be unacceptable.
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About a year ago tried to replace 17 MR16s at home: never found an acceptable LED for both brightness and colour. On the boat cheap "warm" LEDs from Ebay look fine in bulkhead fittings that have creamy shades and are as bright as 10w halogens, not yet found an acceptable LED for overhead MR11 spots: all the ones that give decent light are too big for the tiny inset fittings.
 
Saguday said:
Must admit, I personally don't like them too yellow, would rather aim for something a bit closer to daylight but the amazing thing is there is now so much choice so you can pick what you want. 2700k is the same (standard) colour temp as an incandescent bulb.

Charles, I'm not aware of any significant efficiency differences between the different colour temp LEDs, in general white LEDs are the most efficient of the lot anyway. There's different ways of producing white light so it may be differences between these various technologies rather than the colour temp per se.
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I did the comparison about 4 years ago - taking LED claimed lumens against standard halogen bulbs - and found a definite reduction in claimed light output between blue-white and warm white.
Things may have moved on since but, as lighting is only 6% of my budgeted consumption, it's not something high on my list of must-dos.
I spend about 160 nights a year on the boat...
 
All sorts of opinions here.

I tried the early LEDs but they were horrid cold blue lights, I could not even begin to read a book under them - then 4 years ago I changed to Searolfs warm white lights - they are a wonderful homely colour and provided a good reading light. Best part was that instead of burning up to 8 amps with all the lights on, it reduce to about 1.5 amps. None have failed in that time. So my vote would be with Searolf - easy and helpful people to speak to.

I have built 2 sets of sealed ones into my bimini hood - they are waterproof so are sown in with a permanent poswer source.
 
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