Energy saving Light Bulbs

Sonic67

I've had quite a few of the free energy saving bulbs from the gas board and electricity board.
Over the last year 3 of them have ceased working and they are all under a year old. My old fashioned normal light bulbs last much longer than these have

simonoaks

The switches on the push spring are adjustable to the length of time you want.

Sandypusscat

Hi,

I have had a look through the thread briefly, and it seems there is a mix of pro and cons to switching over to energy saving lamps.

My view is, whilst I do not believe in AGW, it could be a way of saving money so that is the main driver. I currently have conventional lamos throughout my house, ranging from normal 60W beyonet, to kitchen and bathroom in ceiling spots to golfball and screw fittings for lounge and study. I tried energy saving lamps about 9 years ago and they were rubbish.

Therefore, can someone recommend the best technology type to look for, and recommend a website where a can buy all the diverse fittings I require in order to convert all my rooms to energy saving lamps?

cheers

dbaplaya

There are 4 technologies as far as I am aware, (I got this from a bulb buying guide) Normal LED, Compact flourescent, Halogen and High power LED.

Modern energy savers are much better and smaller than the old great big things you used to buy, supermarkets are only good for normal fittings and CFL bulbs normally though, we have a 5 bed house full of awkward fitings, GU10 spotlights, screw fitting bulbs (in 2 sizes) and smaller versions of normal fittings and golf bulbs (the last house owner had a thing for odd light fittings we think), we found the best place to buy was eBay for price but only if you know exactly what you want as sellers can be very hit and miss about returns on light bulbs,  I emailed then sent a list of bulbs to the chap at www.powersavebulbs.co.uk and they had most of what we needed for the house and even ones for our outdoor security flood lights.

The downside of CFL energy saving bulbs is that they dont come on instantly at full brightness they take time to warm up but the High power LED bulbs (The way forward when the price comes down) are getting brighter and cheaper, we got some Eveready 3w High power LED bulbs that replaced our 50w Halogen spotlights in the hallway, they are almost as bright and come on at full brightness. Problem is the price, they were about £18 each I think but they have 25 years life according to the boxes, it takes a while to get your money back but we have the hallway light on all the time in winter and there are 10 bulbs we were using 500 watts now we are using 30 watts, also we have fitted energy bulbs into lamps and put them on timer swithces to come on at night, it looks like someone is in when we are out and doesnt cost much to run. we have energy bulbs on all night for security as our house looks pretty dark otherwise.

Also when buying we found you have to be aware what light colour you want and match them, we had to swap some of ours because we didnt understand what "warm and cool" white were, We found we like warm white for relaxing areas and cool white for working areas, cool white is a brighter light per watt used apparently but its too harsh a light shade for the living room.

Feeling quite smug as my sister in law is very "green" and always lecturing us on how she wont fly as it adds too much carbon emmissions and all that (to the point that she has just got a grant and planted 1000 trees on her land to reduce her carbon effect on the planet) but she hasnt got energy savers in yet. I cant wait to make a big point of how green we are when I next see her, plus we have just got an AA rated freezer, I must point that out to her as well,

Last time I saw her I told her I had a great way to counteract global warming and that I was going to leave our fridge door open to cool things down, I was only kidding but she threatened to leave if I said another word on the matter !

Ian J

I have been trying out a range of low energy bulbs this year.

The CFL GU10 bulbs (normal size) are ok if you mix them up with halogen bulbs as the slow start up time of the CFL is pretty annoying.

In the kitchen i have 4w GU10 LED's.  Cant think of the make but i brought them from Focus, they could be made by Ring thinking about it.  they are 3 led's inside each bulb and they are very good, giving a warm colour.

In the porch i  have a Philips 3W led, again very good, more of a cool colour. This has 3 led's inside it.

The downstairs WC has a 4.5w unit made by Elgo.  This is the best in the house, very bright, cool in colour.  A true replacement for a 50w GU10, but pricey at £25.

The outside coach lamps now have 7W Philips bulbs in.  These are pretty good.  Give out a similar light to a 40/50W normal es/bc bulb.  They have large heatsinks on the back.  I had 60w bulbs in there before, so a significant saving on the running costs for the future.

Last unit is in the lounge, there are 4 corner spotlights (gu10) that are used for background lighting.  Originally they had CFL's in but i was annoyed at the startup time so tried the 4w General Electric bulbs.  These give a slightly cool white colour from a single led bulb.  Nice pin sharp spot off the narrow beam.  They look great.

Chris Muriel

Having had my attention brought to this thread by the activities of a spammer - I changed the light fittings in my living room a few months ago and now have two ceiling light fittings taking three 60w bulbs each plus four wall lights taking the same bulb.

I wanted to change to energy saving bulbs but can't as I need a very small globe type bulb with SES fitting and don't think that there is such a thing and the smallest that I have found pokes out of the top.

No wonder they were end of range

John

IKEA have a reasonable range of smallish bulbs - certainly worth checking.