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Monday, September 16, 2013

Choosing Ceiling LED Lighting (How to check and ask for quality)

With the emergence of a large variety of products from the "emerging" economies, (no pun intended) it is sometimes difficult to tell good value for money.

In my context,
Good value for money = fair price + good quality
Fair value for money = high price + high quality OR fair price + fair quality OR cheap price + cheap quality
Poor value for money = fair price + poor quality OR high price + fair quality
In short, you pay for what you get.

After some investigation, we would like to share our 2 cents worth with all the readers.
HDB renovation 2009- Ceiling Light before installation

1. Look for thick plastic

HDB renovation 2009- Ceiling Light, thicker plastic is better

2. Look for Metal hinges (plastic ones will crack after 2 years when you try to remove cover for bulb changing)

HDB renovation 2009- Ceiling Light- ask for metal hinges
3. LED ( aka Light emitting Diodes) are the latest trend in the market. They are energy efficient, requires lasts much longer but are more expensive. We will not cover the details of LED here. But in short, the LED must work with a driver (which converts Singapore Power's AC current to Direct current) The drivers usually fails before the LEDs.

So the trick is to ask for 2 sets of LED with their independent Drivers. If 1 driver fails pre-maturely, the other set is running, so you will not experience a total blackout.
This is of course on top of the warranty!

HDB renovation 2009- In 1 Ceiling light fixture, 2 independent sets of LED (Small squares arranged in a circular fashion) and drivers (the white boxes)

Also read:
Shopping for Lights
Problems with False Ceiling and Lightings
Lighting- cost savings
Lighting Concept

7 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I really enjoyed reading through your blog posts on http://hdbrenovation2009.blogspot.sg/. I got a real sense of enthusiasm and passion in each post. Actually, I run Metalhandyman.com, a blog about metalcraft and DIY home improvement projects. If you’re interested, I would love to have you on as a guest blogger. Just shoot me quick a e-mail and we can begin this potentially exciting affiliation together. Looking forward to hearing from you.

    Thanks,
    Bob
    bob.mauer65@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Bob,
    Many thanks for your kind comment and invitation. Have already sent an email to you.

    Cheers!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi, nice blog and very informative, wondering ceiling fan with LED lighting enof for a 3 rm hdb bedroom brightness?? Thanks.

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  4. Hi ws wong,
    thank you for visiting our blog and we are happy that you found it helpful.
    Well, the LED module that we picked for the ceiling fan was a Daylight (aka white light) 22Watt LED. For our HDB 4 room masterbedroom (i'm not sure if that is a relevant gauge as hdb room sizes can vary a lot), it was a good for reading, but too bright for watching tv or just chilling out.

    So we had another "mood" light in yellow colour for watching tv and chilling. There is also another "reading" light on the side table top for some bedtime reading.


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  5. Hi Matthew,

    Congratulation on the new home and I would like to ask where did you get the lights and how to ask for 2 independent sets of led with drivers?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Firman,
      Almost all shops will sell LED assemblies with 1 driver.
      You need to look for a shop who will be willing to custom make with 2 set of drivers-LEDs.

      Delete