Energy saving lightbulb questions

dannyjo22

dannyjo22

dannyjo22

Caporegime
Joined
9 May 2005
Posts
32,074
Location
Cambridge
Sod the environment I'm thinking of my wallet as my wife loves leaving lights on then sodding off to another room. I'm trying to change over lightbulbs as they blow, over to energy saving bulbs.

So far changing over the ones in my garage, hallways and toilets has been a success. Finding ones to fit in my living room light fittings and bedroom uplighters is a problem. I like atleast 60-100 watts of light in a bedroom.

That equates to around 15-20w energy saving. I'm struggling to find bulbs that actually will fit in a lampshade.

How am I supposed to save the environment if nothing fits?

Whats the difference between the spiral ones and straighter type?

Where are people buying their bulbs from to actually fit a lampshade?

Any help?

Also my kitchen has a row of those halogen lights 3 on a fitting. The only energy saving eqivalent to GU10's Ive found have been god ugly white ones that are massive.

I dont mind the government phasing out standard lightbulbs if they atleast provide a decent alternative :D
 
aardvark said:
you can buy ones that are the same size and shape as normal bulbs - have a look in homebase or something.
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I did that the 60w and 100w light bulb equivalents where huge. The tesco ones too where about 13cm long. Far too long for a standard lampshade.
 
ot on the light bulbs but quite often the TV pixie aka miss k leaves the TV on after using it. She's not so bad in the evenings, however I have come out of the study to go to bed to find she has finished her gaming for the night, the console is off. but the TV is on :confused:

Day times you can garentee the TV will be on regardless of if anyone is watching it or even in the house. Is there a cure for this?

(and before you even start protesting Miss K my dear, the week I was off, every day I came down stairs to find you had gone out but the TV was on)
 
Kronologic said:
ot on the light bulbs but quite often the TV pixie aka miss k leaves the TV on after using it. She's not so bad in the evenings, however I have come out of the study to go to bed to find she has finished her gaming for the night, the console is off. but the TV is on :confused:

Day times you can garentee the TV will be on regardless of if anyone is watching it or even in the house. Is there a cure for this?

(and before you even start protesting Miss K my dear, the week I was off, every day I came down stairs to find you had gone out but the TV was on)
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Yeah get the same, this week my wife was unpacking stuff upstairs with the TV on downstairs. When I ask, its because she is moving around the house and will be going down again at some point.

Its not rare for me to walk into the kitchen which has 300w of halogens to find them all on, for no apparent reason. Probably been on for hours. Its to cut that bill down I'm going down this energy saving route.
 
dannyjo22 said:
Yeah get the same, this week my wife was unpacking stuff upstairs with the TV on downstairs. When I ask, its because she is moving around the house and will be going down again at some point.

Its not rare for me to walk into the kitchen which has 300w of halogens to find them all on, for no apparent reason. Probably been on for hours. Its to cut that bill down I'm going down this energy saving route.
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Turn the fuse box off when you leave the house, even if she finds it she won't know how it works ;)
 
You can get cooler temperature energy saving bulbs. The higher colour temp (6000+ K) is closer to cool daylight, and the lower (2800ish) are warmer, giving a softer light. The cooler ones are harder to find but they are available.
 
The ones i currently have in my place take about 2 seconds to become "bright"

Now i know that sounds pathetic thing to worry about but I hate spending 2 seconds walking downstairs in the pitch black hehehe

And before you say " You fool just wait those 2 seconds" I cant train myself to do that sorry ;)
 
Efour2 said:
The ones i currently have in my place take about 2 seconds to become "bright"

Now i know that sounds pathetic thing to worry about but I hate spending 2 seconds walking downstairs in the pitch black hehehe

And before you say " You fool just wait those 2 seconds" I cant train myself to do that sorry ;)
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The length of time to warm up seems to be related to the power. The 11W ones we have (equivalent to 60W I think) light up instantly, but the 20W ones (=100W) take around one second.
 
I like the Philips energy saving bulbs. To top it off, Morrisons usually have them on BOGOF at 99p. :cool:
 
You can get some nice compact energy saving bulbs from a well known electronics store. I bought some candle shaped ones, expensive but much better looking.
 
dannyjo22 said:
Also my kitchen has a row of those halogen lights 3 on a fitting. The only energy saving eqivalent to GU10's Ive found have been god ugly white ones that are massive.
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You'll struggle to find a decent Energy saving replacment for these, LED's are comming on but you still looking at tops of a 15W equivalence and they are very directional meaning the light doens't spread round the room as well. I'm sure within the next 12-18 months we will see something much more workable. Another option is to try using lower Wattage Halogens we changed a lot of ours from 50W to 35W it took a while to get used to it being slightly darker but to be honest I think I now prefer the less intense glow!

As far as the other bulbs go your just going to have to shop around, it took me ages to find some reasonably priced candle shaped energy savers that looked reasonable in an exposed fitting.
 
thing is they say they last for 5 times as long as normal ones but i've been using them for a few years and they don't seem to last any longer at all.

Gimmick?

Also what's with the guarantee?

I wonder if I went back to the shop bought an replacement then took the old one in and said it was duff if they would replace it under guarantee?
 
jas72 said:
thing is they say they last for 5 times as long as normal ones but i've been using them for a few years and they don't seem to last any longer at all.

Gimmick?

Also what's with the guarantee?

I wonder if I went back to the shop bought an replacement then took the old one in and said it was duff if they would replace it under guarantee?
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They do last 5 times longer than a normal bulb. It's just that the base the lifetime of a normal bulb to be on for 2 hours a day.
 
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