LED vs Halogen

LED vs Halogen

I had to replace some 50W GU10 halogen bulbs. I though it could be time to check if it would be reasonable to go to use LED bulbs. I did a year or so similar checking, and at this time it did not feel reasonable because reasonably prices LED bulbs gave considerably less lights out than the original bulb and the only few that would nearly match the original light output were very expensive.

Nowadays the market seems have updated to a point where LED seems to be reasonable. There is wide variety of reasonably priced LED light bulbs on the market. And it seems to be possible to find reasonably priced bulb that gives out around same amount of light as the original 40-50W halogen bulb. But I need to understand the specifications that I really get what I want.

Look at the Lumen value when you’re buying a bulb. The higher the rating the brighter the light! A standard 50W halogen lamp outputs 400 lumens so you probably need a 4-5W LED bulb with very efficient LED. With some slightly less efficent LEDS 7 or 10 watt LED will give a similar light to a 50 watt halogen. But just looking at the watts on the LED bulbs does not tell the light output because different LED types have different light output at same input power. Look at the Lumen output the LED bulb gives.

It is possible to get same amount of light than with original halogen if you pick right product. Here is a video that shows that Dauer 5W Cree XPE Chip Based GU10 lamp can give out 20% MORE light than does the 50W Halogen lamp (and uses just tenth of energy):