The end of the 60 watt lightbulb.

Oliver14

Come the end of the month the 60 watt incandescent bulb will go the same way as the 100 watt as manufacture will stop. For those of us who suffer from light sensitive Migraines this is a huge problem. All we can hope is before supplies totally dry up that the CF lightbulbs continue to improve and may stop causing the problems they do for some migraine sufferers.

Its a shame the Light bulb industry saw this ban as a way of increasing prices for CF lightbulbs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/businessandecology/energyefficiency/8699771/Energy-saving-light-bulbs-leap-in-price.html

A year on since the ban of Manufacture of 100 watt bulbs (August last year) there is a large market in these bulbs. Just the other day I found one of my local shops selling them (so I bought some more stocks).

Migraines can be so debilitating. I can be totally out of it for a couple of days if I have a severe one that sufferers like myself will do anything to minimize possible triggers. So people will be stockpiling the 60 watt bulbs to go with the 100 watt ones. I also actually have some 150 watt ones.

Another problem with Compact fluorescents are that only a very few (I have only found one) will work in conjunction with dimmer switches. Being able to dim a light also aids me in controlling my migraines.

So should we really be stopping the manufacture of a product before we have an alternative that works as well? Before people bring it up I know the studies on CF bulbs and migraines is inconclusive. This though does not exclude them from being the cause of migraines in a lot of people.

Personally I tried to toatally change over to CF bulbs (happy to save a wee bit of money on electricity) I know that when I did this the frequency and intensity of my Migraines increased and it was impossible for me to read for more than a few minutes using CF bulbs. I now only have CF Bulbs in transit areas (hallway etc).

What I find interesting is the reason for changing to CF bulbs is supposedly the energy saving properties and how good they are environmentally.. I have read reports that changing your lightbulbs can save you anywhere between £10 and £80 a year (seems a wide range to me and it changes depending on who you talk to) with the energy and processes used to manufacture and dispose of the bulbs it is debatable that the savings for the environment are significant.

I know that as the technology for these bulbs gets better these few problems will be worked out but as I said above is it right to force a technology on us that doesn't totally meet the requirements of what it is to replace.

gould300

Tell me about it... We just bought a new outdoor security light that required a 60w ES bulb. We ended up collaring one of the staff to help us look for a bulb and must have bought the last one in the shop. The chap agreed with us that an energy saving bulb wasn't much use in a security light given that it takes so long to warm up enough to shed any light.

Before anyone says "halogen" this light was one of the coach-lamp style so our options are limited

Techhead_2

Forgive me for being daft, but why wouldn't the halogen equivalent to a 60w ES do? Or a fast start fluorescent?

crazyguy

If your sensitive to light and the bulbs are to bright for you simple answer use candles !

hcb42

yep, changes have to be made which at least contain our energy use, which is ever increasing simply due to the number of appliances we all have now!

Frank_Force

Just a random thought but are the bayonet fittings that we use in this country in use elsewhere in the world? I only ask because I'm wondering if you could buy them online from another, more backward country* that still uses the old bulbs and have them delivered here.

*I'm joking.

jackieb

What about the daylight spectrum bulbs? I have several of these and they give off a really good light.

prowla

The yanks reckon that the low energy bulbs contain mercury and are more damaging to the environmentt.

paddyrg

OP, pop to your local proper hardware shop and tell them your problem - good ones do halogen replacements where you have a bayonet base, plugin halogen bulb, then a 'bulb'-shaped topper to diffuse the light and look much like a 'real' bulb, but still lower energy, and still incandescent/non-strobing/dimmable/instant-on

TheSaint_2

Buy an LED bulb - they come for pretty much any fitting out there.
They do cost a bit more than flourescent rubbish, but they are waaay brighter (like a normal bulb) and use practically no energy (less than a flourescent).

I am all LED in my house Energy saving

paddyrg

TheSaint wrote: »

Buy an LED bulb - they come for pretty much any fitting out there.

LED bulbs all strobe too. Also, cheaper ones will fail early thanks to poor thermal design.