Tag Archives: Lighting

Philips Hue – Ensis

Finally, I've found a lamp for my dining room that I like. I'm getting more and more thrilled about the Philips Hue products. This time I've fallen for the lamp called Ensis.

My problem with lamps over the dining table is that they often send light into the eyes of the people around the table. I'm aware that it's done so that the lamp also lights up the room, but it is rather annoying when you are sensitive to light.

My old dining table lamp had that problem. Furthermore, it used halogen light bulbs, so it was hungry for electricity. The lamp was also the only light source in the room, and it was frequently used as the light in the evening when I had visitors. That was not cheap.

Originally I wanted to buy a Hue strip and place it so that it would light upwards, thereby create indirect lighting, but when I saw the Ensis lamp, I changed my mind. The Ensis lamp is perfect because it has two separate light sources - one sends the light upwards while the other sends the light downwards. That's why I can adjust color and brightness individually, and I can use the uplight as room lighting when I have visitors. It is perfect.

Philips Hue Ensis

LED Lys

Så gik den første LED pære i stykker på det ene badeværelse – øv. Nåh, men der var der ikke noget at gøre ved – jeg måtte bare i gang med at bestille en ny. Jeg regnede egentlig bare med at bestille en magen til den, der gik i stykker, men det var ikke muligt, da den model var gået ud af produktion. Så der var ikke nogen vej udenom, jeg var nødt til at undersøge markedet for at finde en ny pære.

Det gik hurtigt op for mig, at den øgede fokus på LED pærer har sat gang i udviklingen af dem. Da jeg købte LED pærer som erstatning for mine halogenpærer for nogle år siden, var problemet at få nogle pærer med et ordentligt lys. LED pærer havde en tendens til at være meget ‘kolde’ eller blå i deres lys og spredningen på lyskeglen var mildest talt elendig, og det samme var udvalget. Men for miljøet skyld, så skiftede jeg alligevel til LED dengang.

Da jeg modtog den nye pære blev jeg noget overrasket – positivt. Lyset minder utrolig meget om halogenpæren – varmt og gyldent. Og spredningen på lyskeglen er også meget bedre en mine ‘gamle’ LED pærer. Så den slags pærer skal der købes nogle flere af, og de skal bruges til begge badeværelse, så der kan komme mere og bedre lys. Og så gør det ikke noget, at pærerne er blevet billigere.

Billede: Las Vegas er berømt for al deres belysning

Las Vegas

Ny lampe

Jeg er meget besværlig, når det gælder belysning. Derfor har vi i årevis brugt en uplight med dens indirekte belysning som eneste lyskilde i stuen. Ja da, vi har også et par lamper (halogen) hængende over sofabordet, men vi bruger dem aldrig. For selvom jeg godt kan lide halogenlyset, så irriterer det mig i længden, når vi ser tv, til trods for at de kan dæmpes. Derimod kan jeg ikke lide lyset fra spare pærer mm, fordi lyset efter min mening er forkert.

Ulempen ved en uplight er elforbruget, så jeg har i et stykke tid ledt efter en erstatning. Men det er ikke lige noget, jeg finder i nærmeste forretning. Til gengæld har jeg i et par måneder luret lidt på Philips Living Colors koncept. Så da jeg fandt lampen billigt i Tyskland, syntes jeg, at det var på tide at afprøve den.

Hvad er så Living Colors? Det er en lampe, som giver indirekte belysning – og med den store model, som jeg har købt – kan man vælge mellem 16 millioner farver (den lille har ‘kun’ 256). Det vil sige, at lampen kommer med en fjernbetjening med et farvehjul, hvor man simpelthen bare rør ved farven, man ønsker. Derudover kan man ændre farvemætheden af den pågældende farve samt dæmpe lyset.

Lampen bruger en tiendedel i el i forhold til den gamle uplight, så det er absolut en gevinst, og vi er meget glade for den. Men – og der skal engang imellem også være et men – den er svær at placere. Vi har ikke meget ledig vægplads, men et stort vinduesparti med gardiner, og det gør det svært, når man skal placere lampen, for gardiner kaster ikke meget lys tilbage. Desuden er farven på væggene lysegul, mens gardinerne er grønne, så det forvrænger farven fra lampen. Selve lampen lyser kraftigt, så man skal ikke stille den et sted, hvor man kan se lyskilden, og det gør også, at der vil komme en del skyggevirkning. Lige nu mangler vi at ‘lege’ uplight med den. Det kunne være, at den ville være ideel, hvis den fik lov til at bruge loftet til genskær, så det skal afprøves på et tidspunkt. 

Philips Living Colors

LEDs

First, a little background information... 5 halogen light bulbs are usually what lights up one of our bathrooms, but 1½ weeks ago, one of the halogens broke. That started a discussion of whether or not to replace them with something more energy-efficient. For starters, we borrowed a suitcase filled with different kinds of energy-saving bulbs. We highly recommend doing this, since every manufacturer has many types of light bulbs, and the light from them is very different (even from bulbs from the same manufacturer). We liked one of the energy-saving bulbs, but the problem with that kind of bulbs is, that the time it takes for them to turn on is too long. It is very annoying, when you turn on the light, enter the room, and bumps into something before the bulbs turn on. So we started looking at the alternative - LEDs.

We began with buying two cheap LEDs. They were crap - the light was miserable, and we learned that warm white light was yellow! So they ended up along with the garbage. Instead, we bought 1 LED at another store, and it cost three times as much - but then it was also dimmable. That one was comparable to the halogens. Now that we finally had found a LED that we could use, we were tempted to try other types of LEDs (not dimmable). We ended up with two - one watertight and one with a wider beam angle. The watertight LED had a bluish light and a wider beam angle than the halogens, which made them perfect for the position above the mirror. The LED with the wide beam angle had a more yellowish light. We decided to combine the two LED types. Partly because we wanted the combined light in the bathroom to be somewhere in the middle of the two, partly because the watertight LEDs turn on a bit delayed compared to halogens (but not nearly as much as energy-saving bulbs), whereas the LEDs with wide beam angle turn on instantly and turn off a bit delayed. This way we can cut down on the electricity from 220 W to 22 W in our bathroom.

The dimmable LED we bought was not wasted. We use it in the outdoor lighting, which is controlled by a dimmer. A good piece of advice - do not buy the cheap LEDs, you will only be very disappointed. 

LED lighting