On my quest to low energy light the house I've changed evry bulb bar the 8 off GU10 50w halogen bulbs in the kitchen.

Looking around you can get low energy versions (flourescent?) and very low energy/wattage LED versions.

Are either of these going to be any good - particularly the LED ones....?

There are various LED variants but they will not give you any Lux level... i.e.. they will look nice and bright but will not "throw" the light to the floor etc.

Some of the new LED fittings are very bright but you pay a lot of money for the privilage.

You would be better with the compact fluorecsent version but it will not give you as much light as you existing fittings or give out a nice crisp, white light.

If it were me, id keep to a filiment lamp GU10 like you currently have but look for the lastest OSRAM version which run more efficiently.

I can get any lamp you like from work, i think i have a sample of the Osram GU10, if i have, i'll drop you a PM.

HTH

[Edited on 16/4/09 by Major Stare]

don't bother with 1 or 2 watt led bulbs. As has been said, they don't make much light. These are for the fools with 100,000,000 lights recessed into their ceiling so that they don't set the room on fire with the heat produced by all those bulbs. You need ten times that power to light a room.

I tried an LED GU10 - a candle would have been better.

I've also tried an 11W compact flourescent GU10 and it seems pretty good, but at around £8.50 each, I'll not be replacing the other seven in the kitchen until I'm working again!

Actually, when I do replace them, I'll probably use six CF and two halogen, so that I still get some decent light instantly - I hate being half way down a room before the lights start working!

There are LED GU10s and there are LED GU10s. We had a couple in downlighters in our server room at work and you still needed a torch to do anything. I got some for the 9 downlighters in my kitchen but spent a fair amount on them. I can't recall entirely but I think they are about 6 or 7 watts each and the light quantity is ok. However, it is a completely different light to an incandescent or fluorescent as it is a very cold blueish white. You either like it or hate it. I like it my wife hates it.

I just replaced 8 GU10's with some 7W CFL's.

I tried an LED but the light was terrible. Very narrow angle and not much output.

The 7W CFL's are the same physical size as the GU10's (11w are longer) and the light output is okay.

It takes them a while to warm up but once at the correct temperature things are fine.

Output is not as bright as the GU10's but then we didn't need that much light anyway.

Stick with the old style, but get a decent make as others have said, LED's and flouro's just aren't there yet in terms of light output.

I also have reverted to higher effiviency Osrams after a dabble with LEDs - actually I still have a couple of multi LEDs in the kitchen in corners. A tenant fitted single LEDs and they were pretty poor.

Have a look at www.Led-Revolution.com
The flat panels look dead cool. Probably dead pricey too.