Fark me, they can be dull! 
I love the energy saving concept... But I hate the light that comes from them (FYI - we don't have them yet).
Walked inside a house with them the other day... They must have been using the ultra savers... 3 Watts or something.
SO DULL!!! But it was also a horrible blue/white/cool light.... So dull!...
I've also heard that they might "phase out" the 50W Halogens... (although 35W is taking over...)...
There will be a great black market for Halogens in the future!
Separately, I know an architect in QLD who flouted the new rules... A few years back, you could only have about 50% of the light fittings as Halogens... So he would use 50 halogens around the house, and stick 50 other lights into the garage, and ouside wall lighting, etc... It got to the stage that the "authorizer" said, "Look Terry(*), this is the last project I'm going to let you get away with this!"...
* Not his real name!
PS - I'm not even looking for your opinions here! LoL!
I agree , the wife got me to buy 3 leds to replace the halogen down lights in the kitchen , now we cant see a thing when cutting as they have shadows all around the kitchen .
Put simply the $65 dollars I paid for good quality leds (not the cheap ones ) was not worth the money .
I would rather pay the $65 in power bills.
Select to expand quoteSimondo said..
Fark me, they can be dull!
I love the energy saving concept... But I hate the light that comes from them (FYI - we don't have them yet).
Walked inside a house with them the other day... They must have been using the ultra savers... 3 Watts or something.
SO DULL!!! But it was also a horrible blue/white/cool light.... So dull!...
I've also heard that they might "phase out" the 50W Halogens... (although 35W is taking over...)...
There will be a great black market for Halogens in the future!
Separately, I know an architect in QLD who flouted the new rules... A few years back, you could only have about 50% of the light fittings as Halogens... So he would use 50 halogens around the house, and stick 50 other lights into the garage, and ouside wall lighting, etc... It got to the stage that the "authorizer" said, "Look Terry(*), this is the last project I'm going to let you get away with this!"...
* Not his real name!
PS - I'm not even looking for your opinions here! LoL!
philips make haelogen replacement MR16 LED bulbs that arent fussy about trasnformer voltages (have internal drivers) have the same beamwidth, colour temperature and brightness of 50w haelogen globes. (i.e direct swaps)
I've been replacing my normal size CFL bulbs with the 6W or 7W warm white LEDs from bunnings (about $18 a twin pack) and I don't notice any difference in light levels. I'll keep going until I'm 100% converted.
Haven't tried any downlights but.
I really like the dull warm light that the test led globe emits here . Night time is supposed to be dark anyhow !! if its to bright we get confused and stay up too late .
i,m hopeing to change all these 35 watt 12volt halogens to leds over time .
then run them from stored power in old forklift batteries topped up with cheap solar panels .
while i,m on the hippy trail , anyone got a secondhand Mexican cardigan for sale with matching ugg boots !!
I've been using them for 18 months. Lumen count is important. Mine are 600L, 5.5W. I love them. Have had one fail and they'll replace it if I send it back... it's been sitting by my computer for a while now. B22 BTW.
The down lights flickered, so I put the halogens back in above the dining table.
I bought some cheapo LED lights off eBay from China. They work alright but yes the light they put out is not as good as normal lights. However with power prices the way they are I'll put up with it.
^^^ go by lumen output not wattage comparison. If you choose the right LEDs you never notice the difference. I have replaced over 50 low voltage down lights to LED.
If you are thinking you are going to save big bucks on energy think again. Unless you are running your lights for long periods the savings are marginal. commercial buildings do save heaps as they run lots of lights for 10 - 12 hours per day. The reduced heat load and lamp life are what I was looking at.
And the great things about the LED's is that they don't lose brightness in a few weeks like the CFL. Ikea have a good range of LED's for normal light fittings at a good price. Would always recommend you buy one of whatever model you are considering before doing a bulk buy to retrofit the house.
Halogen down lights should have been banned years ago, the amount of energy they use is ridiculous considering the number of them that you need to light an area effectively.
I'm still amazed how efficient LED's have become. Old LED's (which wasn't that long ago when that's all there was) drew about 15mA and developed a voltage of about 2V (aka barrier potential - BP) across them. With less current and about the same BP, we now get LED's many magnitudes brighter. I have some green 17 Candela LED's I got when they first came on the market a few years back, about the same current as the old LEDs (with a BP of about 3V) and are blinding ! ... literally on the border of impractical for use as indicator lights (or anything except lighting)... and that's a single LED.
Select to expand quoteSimondo said...
...stuff showing that he knows nothing about lighting. 
If you select your LEDs based on lumen output you would realise that they are much superior than halogens. Most have a diagram showing their lumen rating on the pack.
Typically a quality 12v LED downlight will be equivalent to a 50w halogen. So if you want a lesson in maths - that would be 4X the efficiency ($long-term savings $).
They have much more benefits - they last 10-200 times longer than halogens in case you're not a fan of changing halogen globes every 2 years... and they don't heat up as much as halogens, so are not a fire hazard as halogens have proven to be.
I also specify lighting and haven't put a light above 18w in any residential specis in about 6 years.
We renovated two years ago and replaced all lights with LED (replaced halogen downlights). Couldn't be happier.
Have had to replace a couple due to transformer issues but overall the quality is excellent.
Would I go back to halogen? No way.
Select to expand quoteSailhack said..
Typically a quality 12v LED downlight will be equivalent to a 50w halogen. So if you want a lesson in maths - that would be 4X the efficiency ($long-term savings $).
I assume that's a typo and you meant 12W.
from my own experience trying to use them for video/photo work, most of them have a huge spike in the green spectrum and are lacking some other parts of the color spectrum. i think this is why people often say they look different, as well as duller. the warm whites will slowly develop a green tinge over time. you'll really only notice it once you start mixing the older ones with fresh ones
the lumens rating is a bit misleading as it seems to be measured directly in front of the led lens, while incandescent and halogen will be quite bright even off centre, most leds are only intense straight on-ish
One of the downsides with the early LEDs is that the phosphor coating used on blue LEDs to get the white color slowly dissipates... and yep - 12w (too much time atm trying to sort camping equipment for the hols.
