Since we are often asked, here is a quick guide to the differences between halogen, cfl (compact fluorescent) and led spot (e.g. GU10) bulbs:
Halogen bulbs
- Halogen bulbs are cheaper to buy but much more expensive to run as they generally use either 35w or 50w per bulb, making them the most expensive over all.
- Halogen bulbs generally have a lifetime of 1000-2000 hours (1-2 years).
- Halogen bulbs are dimmable.
CFL bulbs
- cfl bulbs can take a minute or so to get to full brightness.
- cfl bulbs generally have a lifetime of 5000-8000 hours (5-8 years).
- cfl bulbs generally have a much wider beam angle (~100 degress).
- cfl bulbs are available in warm white, cool white and daylight spectrum.
- cfl bulbs generally use between 7w and 11w of power when in use.
- cfl bulbs are more commonly not dimmable, but dimmable versions are available.
LED bulbs
- LED bulbs are more expensive but use the least energy.
- LED bulbs are at full brightness as soon as you turn them on.
- LED bulbs generally have a narrow beam angle like halogen bulbs (~36 degrees), but are also available with a very wide (~120 degree) beam angle.
- LED bulbs are available in warm white, cool white and daylight spectrum but tend to be ‘cooler’ than cfl bulbs, e.g. a warm white led will be more towards the cool spectrum than a warm white cfl.
- LED bulbs use very little power, generally between 2.5w and 7w when in use.
- LED bulbs are more commonly not dimmable, but dimmable versions are available.
We generally now recommend using LED bulbs as the best low energy option for your spot lights – check out our range of LED spot bulbs
COB bulbs are they cheaper than the LED bulbs?
COB bulbs are LED bulbs – ‘COB’ stands for chip-bo-board and the chip is the LED.
In our new house we have lots of light holders in the bathrooms which are labeled as for 11W CFL. I assume we can replace with LED bulbs with no worries?
Yes you should be able to – the only think that might cause problems is when you have low voltage bulbs (usually 12v) as you might also need to change the old transformers too. All 11w buls that wehave seen have been mains voltage though, so you should be fine.
My new house built 2010 has mostly 13w cfl gu10s but there is a black plastic cage bit that comes down over the bulb & encloses the gu10 socket so i can’t just put an ordinary led bulb in. what can i do?
Hello,
It sounds as though the GU10 downlight units you have are like the long bodied versions that we stock – they also used to be supplied with a plastic ‘cage’ around the lamp holder to make it easier to install the longer old-style bulbs. The cage isn’t supplied any more as the long-bodied light bulbs are much less common now.
Presuming that the the cable on the lamp holder in the fitting is long enough to allow use of shorter, ‘regular’ size lamp, then I recommend simply removing the plastic cage. A good pair of scissors will do trick!