dimmable clear 'golf ball' light bulbs?

J_B

zax47 wrote: »

They like it bright - see post #3 :rotfl:

"Yes, but the kitchen has 12 downlighters as well as other lights elsewhere ...."

& I bet they aren't 20 Watt'ers..... :j

They are a right mish-mash
Some LED, some halogen, some 'energy saver' thingys

They are not on too much when I'm in there but ............. :D

victor2

J_B wrote: »

We will be switching them independently, so my guess is that only the one will be used regularly.
We will also be using a dimmer switch as discussed, which leads me nicely to the next question ....
If we have them dimmed to half brightness, does that use half the units of electricity???

:undecided

You have my sympathy. It was only when I replaced our 9x20W kitchen downlighters with 9 4W LED bulbs (and even added two 5W LED penant lights to bring light to a previously dimmer area), that I didn't mind the OH leaving the kitchen lights on!
A dimmer switch should reduce the power consumed as it is turned down - unless it is a very old style that just uses resistance and gets hot when the lights are dim.

Ben84

J_B wrote: »

We will be switching them independently, so my guess is that only the one will be used regularly.
We will also be using a dimmer switch as discussed, which leads me nicely to the next question ....
If we have them dimmed to half brightness, does that use half the units of electricity???

:undecided

Dimmers work by turning the electric on and off really fast. So, if you turn the dial to half way exactly it will be 50% on and 50% off over a full cycle. Thus you'll be using half the amount of electric compared to fully on.

However, half brightness is not going to be halfway on the dial, it will be somewhere above this, because as you dim filament bulbs they become less efficient. I'm not sure of exact numbers, but physics is pretty clear, the hotter an object, the higher the fraction of energy it will radiate as light. So as you dim a bulb the lumens will drop faster than the wattage. In reality though, it's no big deal, dimming your bulbs will still save energy compared to fully on, and it allows you to choose the exact light level you want. It also prolongs the bulb's life span a lot. Just don't massively over-rate the wattage of bulbs used in dimmers as it will come with an efficiency penalty. You might be able to get romantic dim lighting out of a 100w bulb with a dimmer switch turned right down, but if that low light level is all you ever want from the fixture, just put in a 40w or even 20w and turn the dimmer down a little.

J_B

Ben84 wrote: »

......... but if that low light level is all you ever want from the fixture, just put in a 40w or even 20w and turn the dimmer down a little.

Maybe you missed my OP where I said there were two fittings with 20 bulbs in each!!!

I will NOT be selecting 40W bulbs!!

Ben84

J_B wrote: »

Maybe you missed my OP where I said there were two fittings with 20 bulbs in each!!!

I will NOT be selecting 40W bulbs!!

Don't worry, I'm not recommending 1.6kW of lighting! I was illustrating a point with general numbers that came to mind.

Mankysteve

I think osram do a clear candle bulb. I'll check in work tomorrow.

J_B

Mankysteve wrote: »

I think osram do a clear candle bulb. I'll check in work tomorrow.

Thanks, but they need to be 'golf ball', not candle

dominoman

J_B wrote: »

We will be switching them independently, so my guess is that only the one will be used regularly.
We will also be using a dimmer switch as discussed, which leads me nicely to the next question ....
If we have them dimmed to half brightness, does that use half the units of electricity???

:undecided

Yes. Give or take. The dimmer will use a little electricity when dimming, which you'll know as it gets slightly warm, but more or less half brightness = half elec.

I have chosen standard bulbs in all our dimmable lights. A fraction of the cost of LED and they dim perfectly with normal dimmer switches.