Energy Saving Light Bulbs

mayb_2

Just as a matter of interest harmfull in what way? I bought two bulbs recently and both of them broke in my hand when I tried to hook them into the bulb holder. What should I have done with them - I just threw them in the bin. Would they have been harmful for me to handle them do you think?

If we are harming the environment in some way disposing of these bulbs is the trade off with energy saving still worth it?

zappomatic

mayb wrote:

Just as a matter of interest harmfull in what way? I bought two bulbs recently and both of them broke in my hand when I tried to hook them into the bulb holder. What should I have done with them - I just threw them in the bin. Would they have been harmful for me to handle them do you think?

If we are harming the environment in some way disposing of these bulbs is the trade off with energy saving still worth it?

They contain mercury and sometimes other metals. There's not enough in the bulbs to harm you should you brake one or two, but if we keep sending them to landfill it could cause problems in the future. Local authorities sometimes offer recycling facilities for them, or you can take them back to where you bought them for recycling.

I suspect their long lifespan cancels out the higher initial environmental costs, so although taking more energy to produce than standard bulbs and containing more posionous metals etc it's probably not too much of a worry.

mayb_2

Thanks for that - I will remember to dispose of them properly when the time comes - hopefully a few years on!

BexTech

mayb wrote:

Thanks for that - I will remember to dispose of them properly when the time comes - hopefully a few years on!

Yeah could be a few years on. I still have some bought in 1996 working, actually it's all of the ones I bought back then, just at the time didn't have the money to replace all the lights, so back then just replaced the ones we used the most. We do now have all lights energy saver ones.

twinkle256

This may sound stupid, but has the free delivery at john lewis stopped, because they e mailed to say they had some bulbs in stock, but delivery now seems to be £3.95, am I doing something wrong?

onejontwo

Hi, can anyone tell me why the energy saving light bulbs shouldn't be fitted in lights that use timers to switch them on and off? In my book the timer acts as a manual switch that is set to switch on and off at pre determined times. Any body shed any light on this problem???

navig8r

I can't see that a few times a day would make any difference but every 15 mins or so may give the starter a bit of a thrashing .:D

Dave

EnergyGuru_2

alanchamp wrote:

I work for a large lighting company, so have some knowledge of such things.
There has been evidence of some companies selling these energy saving lamps at seemingly very attractive prices, only for customers to find that they are poor quality far eastern imports which suffer from a high failure rate and a lamp life far less than is expected from such items. Living at least a zillion miles from the nearest outlet of any of the retailers mentioned (down in darkest Cornwall), I cannot comment on the actual product they are offering - which may well be perfectly acceptable in quality, but it is worth bearing in mind when buying these lamps.

The company I work for does not manufacture or retail this type of lamp by the way, so this isn't a subtle way of drumming up extra business

That was my point in my initial post. Look for lamp life that is towards being guaranteed, typically 15,000 hours, good characteristics and good ageing. With a few exceptions I do not expect to replace a lamp for ten years. Indeed my gas and electricity supplier owes me money.

onejontwo

I think this has been mentioned before ,(no doubt some smart alec will love to point out, let,s see who's first!!) but I'm not sure if they were Philips branded 11w and 14w energy saving light bulbs, anyway still on sale at several netto branches.
Not bad for a branded bulb!(or lamp as I've been told!)
The only problem is they are too tall for many fittings, so check before purchase. :beer:

ManAtHome

Yes, has been on before, but they do seem to come and go - dunno if they buy a heap then wait until sold up before re-ordering.

Last lot I bought a few months ago were medium-size - 11w around 4.5", 18w just over 5" (the bayonet bit is around an inch of this). They each have 3 "u" tubes, so smaller than the ones with just 2.