Stupid light fittings - quick question...

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I discovered that my new house has BC3 light fittings.. it's 9 years old and as I understand it these stupid triple bayonet fittings were put in to make it impossible to use incandescent bulbs shortly before they were banned anyway.

So now I have light fittings in the hallways/bedrooms that require niche bulbs and that I can't swap for smart bulbs which I sort of have to as that's a big element of my job.

So my question is.. (and oddly I can't find this on youtube or whatever) can I just buy a handful of E27 fittings from B&Q and rewire them? I sort of assume this is a fairly straightforward job?

I don't want to change the ceiling fitting just the bulb holder at the end?

Or am I missing something?
 
Should be simple - make sure electricity is off - snap the holder open, undo 2 screws to remove the wires, stick the new one on?

EDIT: You can get BC3 to E27 adaptors pretty cheaply as well though it might make some lights look a bit ugly.
 
Should be simple - make sure electricity is off - snap the holder open, undo 2 screws to remove the wires, stick the new one on?

EDIT: You can get BC3 to E27 adaptors pretty cheaply as well though it might make some lights look a bit ugly.

No thats exactly what I thought I'd be doing, of course electricity off and then somewhere in there there'll be a blue and a brown wire and we're off to the races right?
 
You could remove 1 pin from a 2 pin bulb and with the correct orientation all will be well.
Person all I would replace the fittings.
Andi.
 
I had these in a flat about 8 years ago, although weirdly only two of the rooms had them. I ended up using pliers to bend a bit of the metal in the fitting back on itself so a regular bayonet bulb would fit.

The specific bulbs for those fittings were ridiculously expensive too, whoever let the scheme come into play was an idiot.
 
Yeah I've seen the "hack" to put bayonet bulbs in but I really need E27s.. I just went to look in B&Q and they only had the bayonet ones grr

Any ideas where I can get E27 ones?
 
Yeah you can change the pendant with no issues. I think those are designed to mount to threads though (like in a table lamp) rather than a cable - you'd need ones with a cord grip. They're easy to find for BC, having trouble locating ES ones.
 
A new build we lived in had these all over the shop.

I thought it was a push towards their energy efficiency rating, so that was just by stopping you using old style bulbs?
 
Yeah I believe the 2 came together.. its sole purpose seems to be stopping you using the old style bulbs which you can no longer buy anyway.. grr

As far as I can tell I can't even swap out the lamp holder because E27 ones need a threaded bit to hold onto. I could go bayonet but I figure with all the smart lights I'm probably going to wind up having (its part of my job) E27 makes much more sense so I can use bulbs from around the world..
 
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