Guess what? The PP with the "ugliest" internals (smallest primary cap and transformer, untidy PCB) turned out to be the best performer in our tests! And time has shown it's also reliable long term.

A variation on The Perversity Principle.

I find with Aldi products it's hit and miss.
Some items are quite good quality and last well. Others are garbage and fail quickly or just don't work very well.

You've just got to use your best judgement. If it's really cheap then it's probably rubbish.

As for LED globes I think there should be far more stringent independent local testing done before they are allowed on the shelf.

That goes for Power supplies and Plug Packs also.

When they fail and you crack them open they are so poorly made and doomed to fail quickly with no proper heatsinking and Electrolytic caps of poor quality sitting next to other heat generating components etc etc.

Not to mention the RFI they emit.

Ebay is responsible for a lot of these inferior items entering the country also.

Rant over.

Gupta's law:

"If it seems too good to be true it probably is"

But I must say that over the years I have seen many examples of beautifully designed and built gear that's turned out to be hopelessly unreliable and cheaply built gear that exhibits rock-solid reliability. That includes some of my own designs I confess.

"Anyone with a few teenagers about will certainly have observed that rarely do they switch lights OFF as they depart a room & in general leave a trail of ON room lights wherever they go."

I first bought CFCs more to save when the lights were supposed to be off than when they were meant to be on.

The only incandescents left are those outside lights in direct sunlight where the alternatives would cook if left on.

When I first moved into one house I replaced the incandescent globes, where I would not dare put a CFL, with the RC types one used in a lead light. 22 years later they were still there: None had failed.

For most of us this table is what it is all going to boil down too.

This table is assuming the globes are on all day for 1 quarter.

Light bulb Wattage Usage cost per quarter for ONE light bulb
Incandescent 60 $35
Halogen 42 $25
CFL 15 $9
LED 12 $7

Wow, we have halogens in the bedroom, toilet and hall and a cfl in the kitchen and laundry and I have a 3 globe lamp on the loungeroom ceiling with 2 x 40w and a 60w incandescent globes, mainly because I study and find incandescents better for studying, reading etc. I also use a 100w incandescent when doing radio work for the same reason; I can see better! I honestly haven't tried LED's as I never knew they existed except for those funny little 12v ones they string together!

I also use a 100w incandescent when doing radio work for the same reason

Bit hot in summer! Try sourcing a replacement 100 watt locally.

I don't bother looking locally, always on ebay so far in bulk!

I spent some time on the net researching the costs for lights bulbs and I think that Table I copied is correct.
But when I win lotto which should be any day now.
Its going to be Incandescent in every room!
Pete

I have a 50W Halogen desk lamp as a spot. Under the shelf over the bench is a 3ft LED strip. Its around 5ft to a reflector that used to be 2 x 85 watt (8ft) but is now 2 x 40watt twin common fluorescent tubes.

If they fail I note that the abt 42 Watt LED one in the kitchen puts out more light than the fluorescent one (twin) of the same still left. That was measured with a light meter.

They do make a LED globe that looks like an incandescent. I have two.

I wonder if the LED ones etc are susceptible to transients & RF? I have a lot of RF Riding on the mains & there are lightning & other mysterious transients.

I have strategic MOV's on some circuits like the TV & those filters also have caps for the RF. Never unusual for one of them to trip their circuits RCD, circuit breaker or both: Which is what they are supposed to do.

Marc

With halogens, be aware of the high level of UV radiation they emit which can be considerable at close quarters. I know of a lift driver (remember those?) who had to stand under newly-installed halogen downlights less than a foot above his head in his lift car all shift, day after day. Eventually he had problems with burns on his scalp. When he took it up with his boss he was given a captain's hat to wear.

On the subject of hats: When in sunlight baseball style hats that do not cover the ears are a wonderful trendy statement, otherwise useless.

Being in an agricultural area, I have seen more than one person die, or be seriously disfigured, from cancers that started on unprotected ears.

I'm not at all happy with CFLs - the smaller ones take a long time to warm up to full luminance, and after a year or so they begin to dim noticeably. So as they expire (usually long before their nominal lifetime) I am replacing them with LEDs.

Of course, the LEDs share the same PSU quality problems with components, and PSUs in LEDs also have to rectify the current.
You would think the market for tiny PSUs was now so great that there would be incentive to design and build ones that are reliable and not noisy. Bad RFI is not only a problem for AM radio reception - I have also experienced it affecting computer and digital TV operations.

Another PSU issue is their poor efficiency. I have measured LED fluoro-tube replacements, rated at 14watts, but actually drawing >50watts. The difference can only be lost in the PSU (heat) and in some cases the load-limiting resistors protecting the LEDs from current overload.

I'm sure better designs exist, don't they?

If not, should we be moving to configure domestic lighting circuits to 12v DC from the switchboard, fed by one properly built and shielded PSU? The same circuit could eliminate many wall-wart PSUs for small appliances, as well. Are their engineering issues with that?

should we be moving to configure domestic lighting circuits to 12v DC from the switchboard

That thought has occurred to me. Back to the old days of DC "on tap".

You may be aware of GPOs that now come with inbuilt USB chargers:

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