The whole truth about filament LED lamps – disassemble and measure with a wattmeter and heart rate monitor

The whole truth about filament LED lamps – disassemble and measure with a wattmeter and heart rate monitor

There are a lot of questions around, strange (at firstlook), lamps. I often deal with lighting at work and this is not the first time I compare lamps. This time my hands fell on products under the Feron brand. And in this case, these are the so-called "filament" lamps - which have become increasingly popular lately. I have been using them for some time, and now I decided to share my experience of use with you. I will explain what they are and what they are needed for. And all the detailed parameters and current prices You , where I bought them.Content

    Consider filaments in four popular flasks

    Model size A60 (written on the packaging)60x107mm). This is a standard size for pear-shaped lamps. A60 is most often sold with an E27 base. We are looking at a 7W lamp (similar to a 60W incandescent lamp) and a natural white glow with a luminous flux of 760 lumens.Feron produces these lamps in 3 colors - these are:

  • warm white
  • neutral white
  • and daytime white - cold, like 6400k - close to xenon light.
  • In this case, it is a neutral white light bulb with a declared power of 7W and an operating voltage of 230V.The seller in the online store said that it was necessarylook specifically at the manufacturer indicating 230V. Only they are suitable according to GOSTs. If 220V is indicated, then a voltage surge in the network of plus or minus 10% can lead to burnout.So be sure to look at the voltage.power supply. For clarity, if you, like me, have a wattmeter with a voltage measurement function, you can measure your bulbs. Having measured, we see: ours are 226.6V (even plus or minus 10%) - this is within the normal range.Their dispersion angle is stated to be 270 degrees,but in fact I would say that not 270 degrees, but at least 300 degrees. The service life of 30,000 can also be considered not an overestimated parameter, this is the real life of most LEDs.

    In general, what is filament?

    We are used to the fact that everything is on sale, we are arranged onSMD diodes. The original lamps on DIP diodes have long since outlived their usefulness, because they are not effective - they are already difficult to find. Now the most popular ones are in the form of a pear, candle, ball, tablet gx53 - they all mainly go on SMD diodes 2835, 5730, 5630 type.And there are even lamps on COB diodes - this ischips with very dense assembly for the production of mainly miniature G4 and G9 lamps. And also MR16 and other directional light lamps. There is no big sense in producing pears on COB technology, since COB LEDs have a very small scattering angle - only 120 degrees.Therefore, on the basis of such LEDs, light sources (lamps, lights) are made specifically for directional light, such as spotlights.And if you need diffused light, then go outprovisions using SMD diodes, placing them on a matrix in one plane, which is attached to a radiator for heat dissipation. And the light is scattered due to the matte bulb. But one way or another, in any case, the scattering angle is much worse than that of filament - somewhere around 180 degrees, or even less. The advantage of this technology is that it allows good heat dissipation. Especially if a good radiator is used in the design.Some manufacturers are also trying to get out of this situation by increasing the sphere of the matte diffuser (plastic bulb) in order to increase the scattering angle itself.It is precisely in such LED lamps that the angle is close to270 degrees. But, in any case, due to the matte diffuser, the efficiency of the lamp decreases, because part of the light is lost in this very diffuser. To get rid of this "loss of light", these filaments were invented. They use thread-like LED matrices. This is not a single LED, but a type of COB technology, only here it is called COG (Chip on Glass). In COG, LEDs are built up on a glass base and covered with a phosphor (which is what glows with one or another color of glow).In order to dissipate the heat of these filamentaryLEDs, helium-based gas is pumped inside (in fact, it should be pumped according to the technology). It has good thermal conductivity and fluidity. It is there inside, due to convection, it removes heat from the LEDs to the glass bulb, and the latter gives it off to the environment. So the power of filament lamps is limited by the capacity of this bulb, and how much gas can be pumped in there. Therefore, it is impossible to put 20-30 such LED filaments there. Yes, theoretically they will shine, but not for long, because they will quickly overheat and fail. Therefore, like classic LED lamps, filament lamps are limited in power. You cannot implement 20 W in a small bulb, but usually 5-7 W. The maximum that I have seen is 18 W in an A60 bulb at LEDeX, and that was with the use of a good radiator. So, in principle, it will not be possible to implement more power for the long-term service of the lamp. In the same way, in filament lamps the power is limited by the size, or more precisely, the capacity of the bulb.For example, Feron claims that they have implementedthis lamp is 7W. But as far as I have already encountered these lamps, on average the power of one filament is about 1W. Accordingly, if there are four filaments, then it turns out to be 4 W. But each manufacturer has different components and it is possible that one filament can of course contain more than 1W. But this is very easy to measure.There are no miracles here, and it is not 7 W.As I suspected, 3-4 W - that's the actual power. As you can see, it's quite easy to estimate the power with these lamps: just look at how many threads it has. And remember: one thread consumes about 1 W.In addition, the pulsation coefficient is about 25%, andthis is, in any case, more than sanitary standards. Therefore, I would probably not use such a lamp for domestic use at home. Of the advantages: the lamp does not heat up, and is literally barely warm. Although at 4W - of course, why would it heat up. And a regular 4W LED lamp will hardly heat up. But the efficiency of a filament lamp is higher. Now they are, of course, more expensive than regular ones on traditional SMD diodes. The difference is especially noticeable in a row with cheaper lamps on the so-called composite radiators. There is a radiator somewhere, and somewhere it is not. So why does it make sense to buy such filament bulbs?Lamps with such a filament LED are ideal for crystal lamps and chandeliers.Because for crystal lamps it is important,this effect, so that the light plays on the edge of the crystal. And with a matte source, crystal chandeliers will not shimmer. Well, and then, since the efficiency of such a lamp is better, it also scatters light better. And where you need a good scattering angle, these filaments are the best choice.

    Where to buy

    The prices on the screenshot are from the official website of the Feron representative - the AxiomPlus online store. The prices are current today, in principle, you can go and see for yourself.Well, all this is obviously made in China. And the analogs on AliExpress, however, are much cheaper, but purchases in China have their own peculiarities. Let's not talk about them. I think you already know everything.

    The second example is a lamp in a G45 bulb

    Let's look at another example of a smaller bulb - a ball-shaped one, the so-called G45 with a corresponding bulb diameter of 45mm.Here they already claim that it is 5W.They have both E27 and E14 (small) bases. There are four threads here, so we can assume that everything is OK here and 4W. The glow color is also natural - neutral white 4200 Kelvin.Having measured it on a wattmeter, it is clear that here tooabout 4W, more precisely 3.8 W. A little less in terms of pulsation, and about 9 percent with a bit. But 10% is also a lot. It should be less than 5%. As you can see here, unlike the matte bulb, everything is transparent and looks exactly like an incandescent lamp. The driver seems to be hidden in the base itself, and below I will show one of the lamps in disassembled form and you will see how it is all implemented. In this small volume it is quite difficult to fit a good driver with a good filter. So that it smooths out these pulsations. Here the driver is made to the minimum, just so that it shines, turns on and that's it.

    The third candle-shaped lamp is C37

    Next up for trial is a candle with an E14 base andpower of 5W. Here, as in the ball, the same number of threads, but it is made in the form of a candle. For a candle, the main dimensional parameter is the diameter, because often they must completely fit into the design of a chandelier or lamp. And according to the standard, this diameter should not exceed 37 mm. Here, even a little less - they made it 35x110 mm.The candle already has an additional skirt, whichhides a more serious driver. But on the one hand, this skirt closes the scattering angle and reduces it. There are no longer those 300 degrees, like the first one, but a little less. But on the other hand, this allows you to install the lamp in a chandelier with "glasses", into which not every candle-shaped lamp will fit due to the width. It fits there perfectly and is fixed normally. We will not consider the dimensions in detail, since what is important for us now is the correspondence of power and pulsation.And here with power it's the same as with the ballwas: 3.6 W instead of the declared 5 W. But the pulsation coefficient, apparently due to the larger driver in the "silver cup", is just normal - 0.5-2.0%. These lamps are good, practically without pulsation. Because a good driver definitely won't fit into the E14 base. And the manufacturer was able to additionally fit a filter into this "cup" to smooth out pulsations. So this LB55 lamp is very good.In our example we have LB55 with a temperature of 4000Kelvin, but also like the others are available: warm, neutral white and daylight white in three color options. So you can choose a color to your taste, what you like more warm or cold.

    And the fourth light bulb is a candle in the wind

    The same Feron, but now it’s really warm and it’sgoes under the name of "wind candle". Many people think that this is a flickering candle with light like a real wind candle. But no, it is just a flask supplemented with a tail, which shines with the same even light as a regular one. In terms of size, it is usually a little longer. We will not measure, and on the box you can see that the sizes are 110 mm and 142 mm, respectively (due to the tail). And the diameter is the same.The driver inside is also better and the lamp is shiningone to one, like incandescent. The power is the same 3.8 W, the pulsation coefficient is within the norm - 1%. Let me remind you that everything up to 5% is not bad, and even very good. So the lamps seem to be from the same manufacturer, but they are so different (I mean in terms of pulsation and power indicators). So some had clearly inflated declared indicators of 7 W, where in reality it was 4 W. So focus on the number of filaments. One filament is 1 W, approximately.

    What is inside the LED lamp?

    Let's take an old lamp, one of the burnt-out ones.It had a declared power of exactly 10W and it most likely overheated and burned out in this bulb. Many marketers have now started the trend of "more and more than the declared power". They start to shove more and more filaments into a small bulb. At first, eight-filament 4-8 W appeared, this was still normal. And now they are throwing lamps of the same size onto the market, but with 10 W on board. They "definitely" either have less power, or they will burn out just as quickly. Even 8 W for a filament lamp in the A60 shape is already the limit. It starts to overheat and can fail quite quickly, especially if you have it in a closed lamp. Or even more so in some sealed lamp where there is no cooling. And it is the same LED, and also demanding of cooling.The same thing happened with my old lamp, which I think still produced about 9W, which led to it overheating.Another way to check the light bulb isbreak. If there is gas there (and there should be), then there should be a characteristic pop, like an incandescent lamp. True, they had a vacuum or some inert gas based on helium. In extreme cases, if you do not hear a pop, then there should be a specific smell. But in general, this moment remains on the conscience of the manufacturer, since you are not going to break light bulbs right in the store.In principle, you can see everything that is located inside,capacitors and a pulse transformer that smooth out pulsations in all lamps. If these parts are not there, then the pulsation in the lamp will be crazy. In general, such lamps require a competent approach to selection and purchase. Do not thoughtlessly buy some newfangled bulbs. They are of different quality from different manufacturers. They also fail, can burn out, and they can also have pulsation. And do not believe the stories that LED lamps do not burn out, do not pulsate like fluorescent ones and in general this is a panacea.

    Differences between modern and old lamps

    The first models were quite expensive, becausefilament LEDs were grown not on a glass substrate, but on a sapphire one. And the very first models were an exclusive solution and quite expensive. Now the number of manufacturers has increased, competition in the market is intensifying, and accordingly, the technology with growing on a glass substrate has already been worked out, so the reduction in the cost of filaments continues. Prepared using materials from the online store of lighting equipment AxiomPlus Anatoly Bezdymny Did you like the article? Share on social networks!

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