Phillips LED down lights - cheap way of buying them?

[wylie]

Question: Does anybody know if it is possible to buy Phillips LED downlights cheaper than just waltzing into a shop and paying full price. We are looking at ten LED down lights to replace our ceiling down lights and 8 external LED wall lights. The down lights cost about $120 to $140 each and our sparky said he can get them for us from the wholesaler unless we can find them for less.

If somebody knows of a wholesaler or store where buying in bulk gives a good discount, we are happy to buy more, because we will always find a place to use them in our IPs. (I don't want to have to buy 100 though.)

I plan on ringing around tomorrow or Thursday, but thought someone might have knowledge of a cheaper way of buying Phillips lights, in Brisbane or elsewhere if they post them.

Thanks...

Background - I've seen "no brand" LED lights on ebay ranging from $6 to $hundreds. Our sparky told me tonight that he would only recommend Phillips because (in his opinion) LED lights have not been around long enough for any of the cheaper brands to be proven and Phillips stand by their product regarding warranty etc.

He was not bagging other brands, but has installed Phillips and is happy with them. He said other brands might be rubbish, and buying them from overseas could be false economy.

He said ebay lights might last ten years... or ten minutes.

 

[Jane - Hotspace]

Hi Wylie,
Just a quick tip on supplying your own light fittings for your reno.
If you supply your own fittings and something goes wrong (fitting is damaged some how for instance - even if it isn't visible to the eye), your sparkey will charge extra to rectify it.
However, if they supply the fitting and they have given you a fixed quote up front (which I always always recommend my clients do!!), then (generally) they will take it upon themselves to make sure all fittings are working correctly without charging any extra.
Sometimes it seems a good idea to shop around for the cheapest, but it can actually end up being much more expensive.
Hope that helps you.

 

[nww]

Wondering if maybe you can convert the old downlights to LED with
adding drivers to run the LED lights. might work out cheaper.
There are plenty of LED lights that say they just plug into a standard
halogen fitting but I believe they will cause problems in the long run with out a driver installed.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LED-Driv...06043?pt=AU_Lighting_Fans&hash=item45fd7460db

I need to look into this a bit more as its a bit confusing.

 

[wylie]

If you supply your own fittings and something goes wrong (fitting is damaged some how for instance - even if it isn't visible to the eye), your sparkey will charge extra to rectify it.
However, if they supply the fitting and they have given you a fixed quote up front (which I always always recommend my clients do!!), then (generally) they will take it upon themselves to make sure all fittings are working correctly without charging any extra.
Sometimes it seems a good idea to shop around for the cheapest, but it can actually end up being much more expensive.
Hope that helps you.

Thanks Jane. Our sparky is almost a friend by now and I have no concerns with his work but, of course, if the fitting is dodgy, he will spend longer fixing it. We have bought cheap lights before, and he has had to fiddle about to make it work. I now call him before I buy anything

He tells me what NOT to buy. But he is happy to buy these lights from his wholesaler, but equally happy if we can do better on price than he can.

Wondering if maybe you can convert the old downlights to LED with
adding drivers to run the LED lights. might work out cheaper.
There are plenty of LED lights that say they just plug into a standard
halogen fitting but I believe they will cause problems in the long run with out a driver installed.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LED-Driv...06043?pt=AU_Lighting_Fans&hash=item45fd7460db

I need to look into this a bit more as its a bit confusing.

I have spent quite some time looking at LED on ebay, and on the net. I also heard we can change over to LED bulbs, but our fittings are turning off and on, so I want them gone. There is no insulation risk in our ceiling so we don't know why they are turning themselves off - possibly just overheating.

I don't want to spend a substantial amount on new LED bulbs even if I can find ones to put in our existing fittings, only to have to drag the sparky back to fix it.

I love a bargain, but I think risking buying from overseas or buying cheapies here could mean more cost to us in the long run.

I agree that the whole thing is really confusing though.

 

[Propertunity]

We purchased LED 9W bulbs off eBay about 12+ months ago. From memory they were about $35 a pop
So far we've had 2 bulbs already fail.......and the eBay retailer is now gone, along with any warranty.

 

[wylie]

We purchased LED 9W bulbs off eBay about 12+ months ago. From memory they were about $35 a pop
So far we've had 2 bulbs already fail.......and the eBay retailer is now gone, along with any warranty.

That is my concern too. I'd rather spend $120 for the fitting and driver and have the whole fitting changed. Trying to be too clever with my buying could end up costing us more than just getting the Phillips ones, doing it once and doing it properly.

When I called our sparky the other night, I told him what we were planning. I had mentioned it to him a few months ago. He has replaced the sensor portion above our garage at least twice over the years, damaged by stray soccer balls. I mentioned that it is broken again. He said he will diarise our sensor light job each year to save me the call

Our sparky has just replaced 90 downlights in one large house with Phillips LED, said they look fantastic but the job cost about $12K (or something like that).

 

[jonesy427]

china. hdgate or rahoo from memory. alibaba to get a list of manurfacturers, then onto a wholesaler, then import them yourself.

 

[ralwig88]

Question: Does anybody know if it is possible to buy Phillips LED downlights cheaper than just waltzing into a shop and paying full price. We are looking at ten LED down lights to replace our ceiling down lights and 8 external LED wall lights. The down lights cost about $120 to $140 each and our sparky said he can get them for us from the wholesaler unless we can find them for less.

If somebody knows of a wholesaler or store where buying in bulk gives a good discount, we are happy to buy more, because we will always find a place to use them in our IPs. (I don't want to have to buy 100 though.)

I plan on ringing around tomorrow or Thursday, but thought someone might have knowledge of a cheaper way of buying Phillips lights, in Brisbane or elsewhere if they post them.

Thanks...

Background - I've seen "no brand" LED lights on ebay ranging from $6 to $hundreds. Our sparky told me tonight that he would only recommend Phillips because (in his opinion) LED lights have not been around long enough for any of the cheaper brands to be proven and Phillips stand by their product regarding warranty etc.

He was not bagging other brands, but has installed Phillips and is happy with them. He said other brands might be rubbish, and buying them from overseas could be false economy.

He said ebay lights might last ten years... or ten minutes.

Which Philips LED downlight were you considering getting? There are a multitude of different options on the philips.com.au website. I'm interested as I'll be needing a stack of downlights in my new house.

 

[charttv]

You might wanna have a word with www.brightgreen.net.au got some cool kit when it comes to this kind of thing.

 

[units4me]

http://www.sunnylighting.com.au/Products.asp?GUID=57
http://www.sunnylighting.com.au/Master/totalproduct/ProductImg119/2011921344377.jpg

These are fantastic. Under $100 at AWM. They are 13 Watt, with driver (transformer), they are dimmable and they pump out more light than a 50W low voltage halogen downlight. I recently installed 20 for a customer, to replace old halogens, and they are rapt.

 

[laurencei]

You might wanna have a word with www.brightgreen.net.au got some cool kit when it comes to this kind of thing.

I'm building a nice house right now - these lights look awesome - i'll be looking into them a bit more...

 

[womble66]

eBay --> http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/220859320769?hlp=false

or this is their website: Living Matters --> http://lightingmatters.com.au/14-le...ips-master-led-downlight-kit-7w-dimmable.html

 

[wylie]

We ended up buying sealed LED units, cost us $80 per light, and the light is so bright we can be seen from Mars. We got the sparky back to install dimmers, and we love the new light. It is much "whiter" and takes a bit of getting used to, and the dimmers make the kitchen like a disco occasionally, with the flashing and blinking that seems to happen occasionally.

If it continues we will get him to remove the dimmers.

In our effort to save electricity costs, we also replaced our long dead pool light with a new LED one. Cost $315 including transformer, but when sparky got in the pool we didn't have enough cable to lift it out of the water, so we had to drain about 30,000 litres, pull the new cable through the conduit and try to seal a bit of the pool behind the light fixture that seems to have never been sealed properly .

That... or put the broken light back in and have no light. That was very tempting, but we thought "in for a penny, in for a pound" and fixed it.

It'll take us about five years to recoup the costs .

 

[INVSTOR]

We ended up buying sealed LED units, cost us $80 per light, and the light is so bright we can be seen from Mars. We got the sparky back to install dimmers, and we love the new light. It is much "whiter" and takes a bit of getting used to, and the dimmers make the kitchen like a disco occasionally, with the flashing and blinking that seems to happen occasionally.

If it continues we will get him to remove the dimmers.

In our effort to save electricity costs, we also replaced our long dead pool light with a new LED one. Cost $315 including transformer, but when sparky got in the pool we didn't have enough cable to lift it out of the water, so we had to drain about 30,000 litres, pull the new cable through the conduit and try to seal a bit of the pool behind the light fixture that seems to have never been sealed properly .

That... or put the broken light back in and have no light. That was very tempting, but we thought "in for a penny, in for a pound" and fixed it.

It'll take us about five years to recoup the costs .

The last property we rented had dimmer switches and when the sparky came to fix another light he said the new type of lights don't work with dimmer switches, makes them flicker.

 

[wylie]

Our sparky did warn us that LED "can" flicker when dimmers are added. We said we would give it a try. They are not flickering much, and unless it becomes a "regular" thing, we will leave the dimmers on. If they flicker, I just turn them off and on and it seems to fix it.

We replaced ten downlights in our kitchen, eating area and back deck and six lights on the front of our house from compact fluro to LED and two on the fence. It should make a difference to our power costs as these lights (particular two at the front door and two on the fence) and the kitchen and back deck lights are on most nights for hours on end.

 

[maza]

http://www.sunnylighting.com.au/Products.asp?GUID=57
http://www.sunnylighting.com.au/Master/totalproduct/ProductImg119/2011921344377.jpg

These are fantastic. Under $100 at AWM. They are 13 Watt, with driver (transformer), they are dimmable and they pump out more light than a 50W low voltage halogen downlight. I recently installed 20 for a customer, to replace old halogens, and they are rapt.

Sunnylighting have the e-star 9w led, what do you think of them?

 

[maza]

Im actually going to stay away from the e-star range.

I went to a lighting shop and they had a machine which tests the watts of certain lights etc.

I loved the machine and was playing with it for 30minutes lol.

I tried the osram 10w led dimmable and it came back tested at 10w.

I tried the e-star 9w led and only came back around 6w.

The e-star 9w cree led didnt fair any better.Claim was 9w, only got 6.6w.

 

[units4me]

The 9w is ok, but if you are going from 50w halogens, to see the same light level or an improvement, you will need to go 13w.
But the 9w ones will be more than OK in areas where light level isn't critical.