That snuck up on me - Bulbs

yermum said:
My parents have some beautiful 1960's lightfittings that will not take newer style bulbs as the shades are shaped to take an old fashioned clear candle style bulb. I don't know what my Mum will do when I tell her - she'll have coniptions
Click to expand...

She can still buy the old style bulbs from me for a very reasonable £9.99 per bulb :).
 
I've replaced all my lamps with Low Energy replacements. It was a major PITA whenever an old filament type lamp blew. It would take the circuit breaker out and all the rest of the lights in the house would go out and i would have to go down the cellar with a torch. Not good when it's at night and you don't know where the torch is. And for anyone saying 'the lighting circuits should be on 2 breakers', i know that. I just CBA to put them on seperate ones. The whole house wiring is a disgrace and i'm pumping myself up to rewire it all.

Every energy saver i've got has lasted at least 2 years so im happy
 
Last edited:
Greebo said:
The problem I have with this is that I have a lot of farm outbuidings which have 100W and 150W bulbs in. The energy saving ones are too big to fit in the light fittings so I am going to have to replace all the light fittings in the buildings to take them. :(:mad:
Click to expand...

buy 100 150w light bulbs now and laugh later? :p
 
Our energy savers have been in the house for way over three years, there has never been an issue with the amount of light they put out and we haven’t yet had one blow.
 
The other day i was talking to a chap fron Newey and Eyre and he told me that as far as he is aware most incandescant bulb types will eventually be available as Halogen bulbs wether it be candles or whatever. He explained that to acheive the same brightness as 60w incadescent you only needa 42w making them around 30% more effecient. The only downside is that the halogen bulbs are expensive atm.
 
I think it is a good thing in general, but it's annoying for us. We keep two lizards who both require 100W spot bulbs for warmth. If they get rid of them, it costs 5 times as much to buy them as branded "reptile bulbs", and they're harder to get hold of.

Although we still have about 25 bulbs in a box :p
 
I'm angry about this and have stocked up on the old style candle bulbs (I need 5 x 25w slim bayonettes in the living room - hard to find at the best of times). My local electricians was selling bulks by the caseload on Saturday - everyone was queuing for them.

I am annoyed for two reasons: firstly, it should be my decision how I spend my money and light my house, and secondly there is a lot of newer technology that is far better than these low energy bulbs (that are far higher in carbon impact to produce).

I'm getting so ****** fedup with being told how to run my life.
 
I've got a daylight energy saver in my home office. It's fab - best lighting I've ever had at home, bar none (including 100W bulbs). I'm not saying it's the best ever - just the best I've owned. Several years old now and no noticeable problems - flick the switch and it's on - which just goes to prove that it can be done. It's one of the rapid start coil types previously mentioned.

My problem room is the bathroom. It's got an enclosed light fitting and while most anergy savers will fit they don't light the room properly because of the electronics in the base. I did eventually find a mini 11W energy saver that achieves the desired result but it takes several minutes to 'start up'. Not good - especially in a bathroom where the light doesn't tend to be on for long. :(

Edit:-

clv101 said:
I have fittings designed for candle bulbs, use these:

http://www.bltdirect.com/product.php?pid=8551&cat=998&nm=9+watt+SES+Energy+Saving+Mini+Spiral+Lamp
Click to expand...

Thanks. There's a bayonet version of that. Might solve my bathroom problem.
 
Last edited:
I tried to switch over to energy saving bulbs but I can't find equivalents for most of my lights without spending a fortune. I've got a dimmer in my bedroom, GU10 spotlights in my kitchen and only recently bought two new spotlight fittings for my living room which use mushroom shaped bulbs.
I've looked several times for energy saving bulbs that would fit in my new spotlights and even bought a few to try, but they're all too wide at the base in a pyramid type shape :(.
 
Pretty much all the bulbs in my house are now of the CFL "energy saving" variety. The only ones which are not are the halogen's in the kitchen and in the chandelier in the dining room as it's on a dimmer and I'm not paying £10+ per bulb - it's got 6! Oh and the lamp on my bedside table, but it's only 40w anyway. Had them all for years, not had a single one die on me yet and they were all free! A few of them do seem to be taking a little longer to warm up than perhaps they should, but apart from that I've not had any issues.
 
If anyone wants some illegal pre-ban incadescent lightbulbs I will happily post them to you from the free world. I might even throw in a pint glass and a couple of pen knives if you promise not to hurt yourselves with them.
 
Lynndinky said:
The other day i was talking to a chap fron Newey and Eyre and he told me that as far as he is aware most incandescant bulb types will eventually be available as Halogen bulbs wether it be candles or whatever. He explained that to acheive the same brightness as 60w incadescent you only needa 42w making them around 30% more effecient. The only downside is that the halogen bulbs are expensive atm.
Click to expand...

These are pretty good, we tried CFL's first in our spotlight fitting in our lounge, but they were not good, taking too long to produce acceptable light from our point of view. The halogen spots are great though, and they weren't too expensive, think they were on offer in sainsburys for 49p each.
 
I've played around with a couple of enery saving bulbs and from my experience:-
1) Althouth they come on immediately, they do take about 5-10 seconds to reach full brightness.
2) They don't seem quite as bright as the bulbs they're suppose to replace. ie: You'd probably have to put a 60W energy saving bulb in to replace a 40W traditional bulb.


Those of you who have used them on dimmer switches, what are your thoughts?
 
Biohazard said:
what about spotlight bulbs?

some at my grans and aunts house run into hundreds of watts.
Click to expand...
We've got spots in the kitchen. I noticed last time I looked that there's a halogen version that's lower power but same light output. It's the same size bulb but with a small halogen mounted at the bottom. They were about £1 each I think, same as a pack of 3 normal ones.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom