Best non energy saving lightbulb type?

radderfire

radderfire

radderfire

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24 Sep 2007
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Hi Guys

I'm after a new lightbulb for the lounge that gives off a decent bright light. I don't want an energy saving type as the flickering annoys me. I've seen there are loads of options in the shops, so any recommendations on the best type to buy?

Thanks
 
TRNC said:
What flickering?

Energy bulbs dont flicker any more than a traditional bulb.
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That's actually not the case. Some CFL bulbs flicker at 50Hz just like the long fluorescent strip-lights do. The excited gaseous mix inside the tube only emits when the current is flowing through them in one way, unlike filament bulbs which have no polarity sensitivity.

In addition, some CFL's have noisy inverters which derive the High-Voltage from the mains, which causes higher-frequency flickering (between 200Hz to 5000Hz).

Only really new and quite high-end CFLs are "flicker free" and even then, that's only because they flicker faster than it is possible to detect.

Some people are a lot more sensitive to flickering than others.
 
radderfire said:
The flickering I was referring to was just when you turn an energy saving bulb on.
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Have you looked at LED bulbs, quite different to normal energy savers.

Pros and Cons. They seem to really suit spotlight type applications.

I have 4x 3Watt LED spots in a kitchen light, they seem brighter than the old 50w spots, but have a much tighter beam so there seems less light in general.
 
The old florescent tubes in classrooms and kitchens were ok, but don't get me started on the CFLs (energy saving bulbs). I hate those damn things. They're not bright enough for me, don't like their colour temp and visual clarity is reduced e.g. no shadows.

I skipped that generation completely. It's either incandescents or LEDs for me. They're bright enough, normal colours and you can see shadows.
 
Ikea have a good range of LED drop-in replacement bulbs.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/categories/departments/lighting/20514-2/

I've replaced all the bulbs in my hall/stairs light fittings with one of the 200 lumen candle versions, which give out plenty of light in a 3-bulb fitting (the spec. sheet says it's equivalent to a 25W incandescent bulb, but to be honest they do not seem any dimmer than the 40W bulbs they replaced). I see there are also some 400 lumen options now, although not in candle shape yet.

At only £6 each they are a bargain compared to most of the other LED bulbs out there.
 
Don't suppose anyone knows where one could purchase light bulbs that are bright bright white? For SAD purposes, want to replace my normal lightbulb with one of them if they exist
 
Westyfield2 said:
I've just bought one of the Philips £15 LED bulbs... expensive but will last hopefully. It's a lot better than the normal energy saving bulbs :).
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Blimey that's steep :eek:
Got a link for them? Why are they so expensive?
You can get proper dimmable 9w (580lumens) 100k hours Rotundity CREE for less than half that on ebay (£7.00) :confused:
I bought 10 of them when I was doing the electrics in my rents new conservatory and they are top notch, great build quality and extremely bright :-)
 
C.R.A.Z.Y said:
Blimey that's steep :eek:
Got a link for them? Why are they so expensive?
You can get proper dimmable 9w (580lumens) 100k hours Rotundity CREE for less than half that on ebay (£7.00) :confused:
I bought 10 of them when I was doing the electrics in my rents new conservatory and they are top notch, great build quality and extremely bright :-)
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http://www.philips.co.uk/c/-/19964/cat/

http://www.wickes.co.uk/48w-bc-phillips-led-a-shape/invt/218986/?source=123_74

Regular filament bulbs keep blowing here, so I'm hoping this LED jobber is more tolerant of the bad electricity!
 
Westyfield2 said:
http://www.philips.co.uk/c/-/19964/cat/

http://www.wickes.co.uk/48w-bc-phillips-led-a-shape/invt/218986/?source=123_74

Regular filament bulbs keep blowing here, so I'm hoping this LED jobber is more tolerant of the bad electricity!
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Nice and bright but only 15k hours :eek:
That's pretty shocking considering decent fluorescents lamps can achieve 15k, decent LED should be 50-100k!!


Mark A said:
Do Ikea only do the screw type? All the fittings in my house are bayonet fittings.
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DragonWoLf said:
Spot on! Cheers for that bud, now to find bayonet fittings...
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You can buy adapters for pretty much all flavours and sizes on eBay for less than £1 each :D
 
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StoutMeister said:
A daylight balanced bulb perhaps?
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Unless your front room is massive then that bulb is WAY too much, it's over half a kW of light :eek: You can't dim CFL btw and it's silly expensive & big to be used as a standard light imho!!

The reason people slate CFL energy savers is because they replace 100W incandescent light bulbs with 6-11w CFL's and then moan that they are too dim :p
You need to use high power (30-40w) CFL if you want an almost equal alternative to 80-100W incandescent light bulb (See linked picture below)
The only way you'll get almost equal light output at silly low power consumption (6-11W) is if you go down the LED route, fluorescent lamps are simply not efficient enough to achieve this.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Energy-Sa...4106091?pt=UK_Light_Bulbs&hash=item23245fafeb
NO HOTLINKING!

For the same price of 1 of them crazy bright 500+W lamps you can almost get 3 of them far more practical 150W+ lamps above!

As others have said the flickering is inherent to fluorescent lamp technology and is why when installing fluorescent lights in workshops and factorys careful planning is needed. Otherwise you get what's called strobing (Sp?) where machines appear to be stationary when in actual fact they are turned on and moving :eek: :p
 
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