LED Spot bulbs

Ordered 5 X 1.5w MR11 spotlight LED bulbs to replace the standard ones in my Sussex. I could have ordered 3 for £10 from UK or 5 for £3.03 from Hong Kong.
As we don't go off grid until later in the spring, I was in no hurry so ordered from Hong Kong off eBay. Ordered on 20th January with estimated delivery between 7th Feb and 20th March. They arrived today the 28th January , £3.03 Inc postage all the way from HK. Popped them in the van and they are so bright I'll probably only need 1 or 2 lit to light the entire lounge end. This is the seller..

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F222330840448

It amazes me the ease and price difference when ordering from places like China.

I bought two 12v fans and a thermal switch (for my fridge vents) for less than £10 inc. delivery, the very same stuff could be found from the UK for £30 or more..

And mostly they are pretty good if you get failures (of which I have had a few with LED bulbs) - most will just send you a free replacement.

Out of interest, which fan and thermal switch did you go for? I'm just about to pull the fridge out (of the Celex) to do the same job as you.

I bought two of these   https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PC-Brushless-DC-Cooling-Fan-4-Pin-Connector-7-Blades-12V-12cm-120mm-BT-M0L5/282435036803?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649  @£1.78 each..

and one of these  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DC12V-Heat-Cool-Thermostat-Digital-Temperature-Control-Switch-50-110-C-Sensor-/172963628983?hash=item28456f87b7 for £1.79..

Easy to wire up and has been working fine since last year.. 

I wouldn`t buy cheap ones , especially when someone showed me the difference in quality, the cheap ones  overheated and could cause a fire, saw the evidence myself.

And before someone says they all come from Hong Kong, no they don`t ,the ones I bought for my previous van came from Atem Lighting, made by them in Melton Mowbray, they do attend the shows, I went to their workshop and saw the Father making them, he fitted all mine including the strip lights.

Will be going there again shortly. They are not expensive. a bit dearer than Hong Kong granted, but then again everyone has a choice,  I put quality and safety above everything else..I had the others for 5 years and no trouble with them whatsoever.

Best regards,
Margaret

I agree with Margaret about Aten Lighting, although they don't actually manufacture their own merchandise. (They assemble some items, like the excellent home kitchen lighting we have.)

This is not to say that some of the Chinese stuff isn't perfectly OK, but Joe and Saul at Aten are such good people to deal with, and theirs are always the latest top quality products.

I did buy some Chinese bulbs a while ago, and as Margaret said they got quite hot (while they lasted!) and two of the six didn't last very long! In the end I slung them all over the hedge and bought some from Aten, all of which have been perfect.

Not everyone agrees of course, but I prefer to pay a bit more and know that I'll have immediate support in the unlikely event of anything going wrong.

Interesting that Atem has been mentioned, I looked on their website before ordering my stuff from China, but couldn't find any 12v fans..

Les - thanks for the links. Having just wrestled the fridge out, I find it already has a small fan! But I'm fairly sure it only runs while the compressor is running. So I will invest in the small extra controller that you linked to.

Incidentally, in my experience you can get poor quality bulbs from UK suppliers as well - we had a whole batch of MR11 bulbs which all stopped working within a few months - each one due to a capacitor ballooning up and failing.

But I've also had "direct from China" failures too - such as the DRL bulbs which went pop and filled the inside of my headlights with debris! That was really annoying...