The new LED lightbulbs had to pass the 'aesthetics test'

When we bought our end-of-terrace Victorian house three years ago, we wanted to decorate and upgrade it as sustainably as we could afford to.

In the end, we decided to invest in:

• 9 new 100% FSC super low-e wooden windows and 1 back door (from Green Building Store),
• draught proofing 1 original sash window, and the front door & fanlight window above the door (by Sash Window Workshop),
• a low profile “sun tunnel” to bring daylight in to our upstairs corridor (Velux),
• cow’s milk protein powdered paint (Caesin from Construction Resources),
• a super low flush toilet (Ifo from Construction Resources),
• and new roof insulation, solar thermal collectors, and an ultra efficient condensing boiler (Kingspan insulation, Thermomax tubes, and Keston boiler).

Quinten's house with solar thermal collectors visible on the roof

To minimize our electricity we bought the best energy rating fridge and dishwasher, installed compact fluorescents wherever standard bulbs had been used and hooked up our TV/Hifi to a “bye-bye standby” type master switch that kills the power to all except the TV recorder when the TV is off. We also installed a ceiling mounted drying rack (by GNU) in our utility room instead of a tumble dryer for those Winter washes, especially needed for our daughter’s washable nappies (we tried several different types but Motherease worked best for us, and compared to disposables, saved us £3k and 2 tonnes of landfill).

When it came to 10:10 we thought we’d finally grasp the thorny nettle of the 22 halogen spotlights that we’d inherited in our kitchen and bathroom.

Has any of this worked? Well, in the 3 years we’ve been at the house, all of the above (along with enthusiastic jumper-wearing and thick duvets) has led to a 12% reduction in our carbon emissions, mainly through the big drop in gas use (see chart below).

So when it came to 10:10 we thought we’d finally grasp the thorny nettle of the 22 “twinkly” halogen spotlights that we’d inherited in our kitchen and bathroom.

Getting results

I’d already unplugged every 2nd halogen lamp to try to leave enough light but cut down half usage. Most of our halogens were 35 Watt versions (I tried to unplug the 50 Watt ones), but leaving half of them turned off didn’t really pass the aesthetics test (ie it looked rubbish).

Our original lamps were 12 Volt MR16 type. These have 2 really thin connector pins that run off a separate transformer and are advertised as low voltage. But don’t be fooled – these don’t actually save you any energy, in fact the transformer just introduces more inefficiencies.

I’d dabbled at buying LED replacements from B&Q for about £12 a lamp, but they gave out really cold blue light and it didn’t spread very far (ie the spotlight beam was very narrow). However, at work we’d been looking into LED replacements for halogens and had come across a great little company in Wales called Ideal Lights that are using the latest CREE LEDs and producing high quality “warm white" diffused lamps that are perfect replacements (see their spec sheet, which includes ES/SES screw thread type lamps as well, but in all fairness there are probably a few companies out there producing these now, eg Ecospecialists).

These new LEDs use only 4.5 Watts (so that’s a 90% reduction on the worst case halogen), but unfortunately, they currently cost around £30 a lamp, which is about 10 times the cost of a halogen. However, they are projected to last 25 times as long (ie 50,000 hours – that’s over 4 years of continuous use, which the manufacturers are still testing to see if their claims are true), so think of them as a long-term investment.

As MR16 lamp ceiling fittings (ie the holders that allow the lamp to sit flush to the ceiling) will also hold GU10 type lamps (the ones with 2 fatter pins with heads on that look a bit like a “T” and run off mains voltage so don’t have the external transformer losses), I decided to bite the bullet and so I spent:

• £600 on 22 GU10 LED “warm white, diffused” lamps with new 240V connector leads
• a weekend in my kitchen’s loft and up a step ladder rewiring the MR16 fittings and installing the GU10 LED replacements

How does it look? I think it definitely passes the aesthetics test and also provides plenty of light in our kitchen (no noticeable difference to previous halogens, and we usually don’t even use the second pelmet lights circuit – the two lights that are turned off in the photo)

What next? Well, since the LED lamps don’t get anywhere near as hot as halogens, I can now get back up in the kitchen loft and reinsulate over the top of all the fittings just in time for winter – anyone up for some recycled plastic bottle insulation?

Quinten Babcock is Environmental Manager at Transport for London Group Property and Facilities.