You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
So far over the last month I've managed to kill 5 IKEA LED bulbs (standard 800 lumen bayonet style). They aren't on dimmers, and they're dying while the switch is turned off.
They are on separate breakers, and in fact separate RCDs. There are no significant inductive loads in the house other than the fridge motor and central heating pump. There is a solar inverter and battery system. All lights in the house are LED, but the only ones that seem to be popping their clogs are the IKEA ones.
Grid voltage is pretty stable at 235V throughout the day.
I suppose I could have just got a bad batch, but I'm trying to work out whether something else could be causing this. No other electrical stuff seems to be upset. The house had a basic electrical check for the solar and car charger install and it's only 10 years old anyway.
Any thoughts before I start asking IKEA for my money back?
have you got solar on there? I imagine that could perhaps cause some odd fluctuations that the bulbs don't like?
Possibly a bad batch ?
The only LED's we've had fail have been on a pendant light we have on the Landing - it takes 9 G4 bulbs, so switching from 20w halogen to 2w LED was a no brainer (plus some of the holders didn't like the heat and halogens would stop working).
I had two new LAP G4 bulbs fail last week (from same twin pack), one after the other after an hour or two, at £4 a pop per bulb. Bought a pack of 10 off Amazon for £11 (cheap Chinese ones). So far the cheap bulb has been fine - been run all weekend. Took the others back to Homebase.
Have you had any thunderstorms lately? I've had three on the same lamp fail (while switched off) after one, must have been spikes through the neutral.
I find my LEDs (mostly GU10) either last ages or die quickly.
I bought a load from Screwfix (Lap maybe?) and they were complete shite. Screwfix were quite good with replacing them but in the end I couldn't be bothered with traipsing back for new ones and keeping the receipts filed.
I bought twice as many as I needed from amazon and of course the first set have been perfect so I'm drowning in spares!
Bought a pack of 10 off Amazon for £11 (cheap Chinese ones). So far the cheap bulb has been fine – been run all weekend. Took the others back to Homebase.
Ditto, Amazon multipack LEDs seem to be fine and pretty competitively priced, we've got about a bajillion GU10s throughout the house so buying boxes of 10+ makes sense.
Probably a bad batch but it could be the output from your inverter. Get an oscilloscope hooked up and see what the waveforms like. If it’s not producing a nice sine wave that may be your issue. Although it would probably impact more than just your led lamps.
I find my LEDs (mostly GU10) either last ages or die quickly.
This. Fitted some where none lasted less more than six months... the replacements have lasted more than 4 years with no failures at all.
have you got solar on there? I imagine that could perhaps cause some odd fluctuations that the bulbs don’t like?
Generally when the lights are on the solar is doing nothing!
I'd imagine Ikea lamps are pretty poor quality. They're usually very cheap and quality is the one thing that suffers. I'd suggest buying some decent lamps from a reputable manufacturer before you start looking for issues that might not exist. It's very odd that they're failing when they're turned off, although it might appear to be the case but in fact turning them on is when they fail without so much as a flicker.
As far as I can tell, LED GU10 reliability is pretty random, with some bulbs lasting forever - or at least still going strong after 10 years +, whilst others just randomly fail. Doesn’t seem to relate much to whether they are a reputable make or not either.
Newer integrated LED lights are much more reliable.
Generally when the lights are on the solar is doing nothing!
I did wonder whether the inverter was doing something unpleasant on the neutral.
IKEA LED bulbs
This I found was a problem - some fizzled quite spectacularly after a few months. I think the rebrand cheapest ones they can find...
I now have bought some proper Philips or GE bulbs and cannot remember the last time I needed to change them.
I just replaced two light switches this morning, both were a little flakey and sometimes needed an extra prod to get the bulb on after a brief flicker. I think one of them killed the LAP bulb, bulb base still warm when plugged in but no light.
It’s more than likely crap lamps, loose connections will cause premature failure but as it’s happening over multiple fittings that would be unlucky. BC and gu10 lamps don’t have polarity so a random neutral fault wouldn’t effect them
^^^ sounds plausible. Username checks out 😃
(cheap) IKEA stuff is pretty overrated IMO
As above, they will be dying at the moment of switch on, before even enough volts get the actual LEDs to give light. Arcy sparky bouncey switch contacts could be a big factor. All the OP's switches will likely by the same brand from the house build, and now have 10 years wear n tear. It might be a poor batch of lamps, or just a poor design, so swap to another, reputable brand.
My day job is LED lighting electronics, so I know these things are pared to the bone, sometimes (often) at the expense of robustness. On switches, I remember seeing horrendous problems with a MK push switch grid module. About 1 in 20 operations would kill our product, that was otherwise fine with everything else, including the official surge and fast transient testers.
Snap, my house was rewired by the previous owner about 10-12 years ago, I've now replaced three double sockets (and a 4th is dead on one side) and three light switches, all either contact issues, stuck switches, or unable to get a plug inserted. Makes you wonder about the quality of cheap sockets being sold
All the OP’s switches will likely by the same brand from the house build, and now have 10 years wear n tear.
I'd guess it's the lights themselves not the switches, as the whole point of smart lights is that you leave the main switch turned on all the time.
Makes sense actually, not had any issues in the kitchen because I replaced all the switches there when I moved in.
Will swap a few out and see what happens.
@phiiiiil they’re the normal dumb lights so are being switched on and off.
@phiiiiil they’re the normal dumb lights so are being switched on and off.
Ah, I forgot they did normal bulbs too! Duuuh
I've rarely found any GU10 led bulbs that last their promised hours of use, and assumed this was due to the ever changing technology of LED.
What's been more annoying over the years, because of this changing technology, is that often less than a year after installing, it's been impossible to purchase more of the same matching brand/ colour / output, so instead of replacing one bulb in a bank of four or six, you need to replace the whole lot, or the odd replaced bulb looks terrible.
I've got some MR11 leds on a stairwell, that I installed around 2005, all still original, and working fine, and another five LED MR16 bulbs in a bedroom, still all good after five years, and I suspect their longevity is due to their cool running temperatures, as the separate transformers maybe protect them better against heat, rather than all the electronics all being held within the bulb? To be honest, I always found GU10 halogens to be poor on longevity as well.
Interestingly, I've since seen content on YouTube where there is speculation that the internal electronics of GU10 LEDs have been designed to run at higher internal power usage, and hence temperature, than is needed, effectively, shock horror, building in early failure.....