Best energy saving light bulbs?

modelreject

Hi,

Need to purchase 4 energy saving light bulbs. The old one's we had were the twisted tub ones but they took ages to light up to full strength and there was a delay when you switched them on.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
MR

Alter_ego

LEDs but expensive.

Cornucopia

I got some CFLs from Aldi that are quite good VFM. (Very bright coiled tubes that are near enough full brightness immediately).

£1.99 each IIRC.

elstimpo

modelreject wrote: »

Hi,

Need to purchase 4 energy saving light bulbs. The old one's we had were the twisted tub ones but they took ages to light up to full strength and there was a delay when you switched them on.

Any recommendations?

Thanks,
MR

What is the application and how much usage will they get?

modelreject

One is for a hallway and the other 3 are for bedrooms.

Hallway light is usually on for about 1 hour a day.

Hard to say about the bedrooms ones. Probably 1-2 hours per day.

Looking to the near future, I will also probably need 2 which work on dimmer switches.

Thanks

Cisco001

If you need dimmable light bulb, it is best to go for dimmable led light & switch.

mistergolo

I've just fitted some LED Downlights in my bathroom. Expensive to put in the light they give off is genuinely the bees knees!

arbrighton

OH is a bit of a lightbulb fiend (all sorts of muttering about how much light and light colour etc) and he's fitted LEDs most places possible in the house. THey look like the old light bulbs, light instantly and last plus use tiny tiny amounts of electricity (4w for example)

Terry98

Cisco001 wrote: »

If you need dimmable light bulb, it is best to go for dimmable led light & switch.

I bought some dimmable leds from Amazon but they don't dim!

I have since read that buying dimmable leds is a minefield and it looks like I have to change the switch if I want my current ones to dim.

Ben84

modelreject wrote: »

One is for a hallway and the other 3 are for bedrooms.

Hallway light is usually on for about 1 hour a day.

Hard to say about the bedrooms ones. Probably 1-2 hours per day.

Looking to the near future, I will also probably need 2 which work on dimmer switches.

Thanks

I think the best energy savers are Philips LED bulbs. The light quality is very good. Prices have come down, but even now they're still only economical for the most heavily used lights in the house.

It depends why you're trying to save energy, but in most cases you might as well just keep using filament bulbs in fixtures which are used lightly. Now that most 60w bulbs have turned in to 42w halogens anyway, the savings are less than they once were. I worked out that replacing my remaining lightly used bulbs <2 hours a day with energy savers would save about 2-3 kWh a month. For economical and environmental things, there are better ways to spend the money.

Fluorescent bulbs are still an option and can be pretty cheap, but I don't usually like the light so much and disposing of them around here is challenging.