The kids are back to school – The mornings are getting darker and there certainly seems to be a slight chill in the morning air – Yes, the lighting season is almost upon us!
With some schools breaking up even earlier this year, the Summer holidays have seemed longer than usual. We have certainly seen a lull in business over the few weeks.
Luckily September is now here and the orders have begun to come in thick and fast. We would expect to see this continue and even increase throughout the month, going into October.
With people always looking at ways to save money, LED lighting sales usually see a rise in popularity. Again, with the nights drawing and people using their lighting more, this range should continue to be popular.
Another range we expect to sell a lot of is our infra red heating lamps and UV party lighting.
Designed for easy installation with integral solid quick release brackets, these LED batten fittings are designed to enhance room lighting.
Perfect for display showrooms, offices and kitchens these are also proving popular for replacement lighting in garages and attics due to the premium crisp light quality.
IP20 internal use only. Sleek Aluminium / Polycarbonate resistant Profile.
Slimline design just 25mm depth and 75mm width. Fully enclosed unit, pre wired at the full length. Accepts 110V and 230V power supplies.
No more tube replacing, No more starter changing, No more flickering light and energy savings up to 70% compared with fluorescents light fittings.
These LED fittings can be fitted directly to the surface or with the separately supplied suspension kit – Click Here!
Available in 2ft – 3ft – 4ft – 5ft and 6ft sizes, these fittings are quickly becoming one of our best sellers. For prices and stock availability – CLICK HERE!
Since Aurora made their range of square and hexagonal lamps obsolete at the turn of the year, supplies for these light bulbs has been few and far between.
Specialist square down lighters can only take square lamps meaning, there has been no alternative since January; as you can imagine, back orders for these have been stacking up.
The same applies for the hexagonal lamps and fittings.
We were originally promised delivery for June, this year but annoyingly this date was set back.
Thankfully, we have now received all our stock and are happy to offer both types of lamp in 35 and 50 watt versions!
The capsules built into these lamps now offer an extended 4000 hours of life (previously 2,000!) which makes them much better value for money now!
With the temperature unfortunately dipping, the evening BBQs and outdoor parties can become a cold place to be; jumpers and cardies can become a disappointing sight and necessity.
We love summer barbecues and we love summer parties!
We do not love wearing Winter clothing during the summer though, so here is our idea!
Get yourself an outdoor heater – These bad boys push out so much heat, you can stick your sunnies on and dream you’re on a beach somewhere!
Okay, maybe your imagination isn’t that great, but you get the idea.
Keep the party going outdoors this summer – Stay warm – And more importantly keep the sweaters and cardigans off!
Remember when LED bulbs first came about and they cost a small fortune. Well, those days are over and you now have absolutely no excuse to still be using old filament bulbs. Apart from the improved performance and dramatically reduced energy consumption afforded by LED bulbs, they also last for an astonishing 10 years before you have to change them.
With prices around the £2 mark, the savings can now be made much quicker.
Here are some key details about LED lighting –
REPLACEMENT BULB FOR LAMPS UP TO 500 WATTS: LED bulbs turn on at full brightness with extremely high lumen outputs now available!
LONG LASTING: With a lifetime of up to 50,000 hours, you can reduce the hassle of frequently replacing your light bulbs. The savings made during this period vary from lamp to lamp – But you will reduce you power usage instantly resulting in instant savings financially.
ENERGY SAVINGS: Enjoy the energy-savings of LEDs without sacrificing light quality. With powers from as low as 1 watt, as mentioned above the savings are instant.
Controlling lights with your voice used to be something only a god could do, but these days we have smart lighting systems to make any of us feel all-powerful.
The biggest name is Philips with its Hue bulbs, but now IKEA, Hive and a whole host of others have got in on the act too. Let’s get to the important stuff: what’s right for you, is it going to cost a fortune and is it likely to become obsolete any time soon? Let’s find out.
What you need for a smart lighting system
Smart lighting generally uses mesh networking, where each smart bulb wirelessly connects to its nearest neighbour. That network is controlled by a hub that plugs into your router, enabling your other networked devices – such as your phone or tablet – to communicate with your bulbs. Some systems also have an away from home mode that enables you to control the lights when you’re far away, which is handy if you’ve just remembered you left the lights on or want to terrify the babysitter. Not all systems require a hub, though. The LIFX platform just connects directly to your Wi-Fi.
You’ll often find that smart light systems can also be accessorised with additional items such as dimmer switches or motion detectors, and in some cases they can be linked to the IFTTT (If This Then That) service to create complex rules that trigger particular recipes for particular things. Fancy a flash of colour to notify you of an instant message, or a glow to gently break the news of today’s weather forecast? This and much more is possible without too much tinkering.
Siri, Alexa, Cortana and more
Smart lighting systems aren’t just controllable with smartphone or tablet apps. Philips’ Hue system works with Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Echo and Google Home, and that means you can use those platforms’ voice assistants to relay your voice commands. There’s something undeniably cool about saying “Hey Siri, set scene to cinema” or “Alexa, turn the lights off” and seeing it happen. With HomeKit you can also control the lights with an Apple Watch. IKEA’s Trådfri will get similar compatibility later this year.
Hue boasts an Apple Watch app and you can control it via Siri. It works with Google and Alexa too.
Because developers have targeted mobile platforms first that puts Microsoft in the unusual position of being an afterthought: Hue works via a third party app, Huetro, and IKEA doesn’t appear to have any plans for Windows support. We’re sure somebody will hack something together, but for the time being Windows isn’t really welcome at the smart lighting party.
What kinds of bulbs are available?
There are three main kinds: standard bulbs, candle bulbs and spotlights. Standard bulbs come with E27 or bayonet fittings; candle bulbs with SES (small screw) fittings; and spotlight bulbs are most commonly GU10 spotlight fittings.
Smart bulbs come with standard fittings: bayonet cap, large and small Edison screws and GU10 spotlight fittings.
Smart lighting bulbs are LED, which draws much less power than traditional incandescent light bulbs. A typical smart bulb is 9.5W or 5.5W for spotlights and candle bulbs. That’s roughly equivalent to a 60W incandescent bulb and a 50W spotlight bulb respectively.
You’ll usually have a choice of two kinds of bulb: white ones or colour changing ones. The latter are more complex to make and therefore cost quite a bit more. As with normal LEDs, white bulbs come with stated colours: warm white has a yellowish cast which more closely resembles incandescent bulbs’ light, while cool white is blueish like modern car headlights.
How much does a smart lighting system cost?
Put it this way: if you’re hoping that switching to a smart LED lighting system is going to save you so much in energy bills it’ll pay for itself in no time, you’re going to be disappointed. Smart lighting systems don’t come cheap, although they are slowly getting cheaper.
A range of smart lighting products will be added to www.lamps2udirect.com soon – Be sure to keep and eye out!
