good energy saving lightbulb - does it exist?

raeble

We bought one energy saving light bulb - I think it was phillips years ago it lasted well over six years before it packed up, the light was on about 15hrs a day. Now my mother is an oap she gets them free. You can tend to get free bulbs if you have energy surveys or if you are benefits. Sometimes energy suppliers will do free bulbs. Keep your eye out.

I had some woolworths bulbs that went after about four years. The rest of the bulbs that were put in at the same time are still going. I replaced it with an osram bulb (on offer when I bought it) which has to be the brightest energy lightbulb I've seen. Except for the white light one I got from the pound shop.

Hunnymonster

mb2 wrote:

is this personal experience that a 20w energy-saving bulb will be equal to (or better than) a tungsten 100w [are all 20w the same? if not, which are reccomended?], or just what the industry rate them as? as i have had 25w (?) energy saving lightbulbs which were supposed to be equivilant of 100w; but they bared matched up to a 60w bulb in reality.. i assume tech has advanced since then..

They aren't all the same - the shape of the fluo tube has a lot to do with it, and the effect of any diffuser that may be on the bulb itself. (The same diffusing effect applies in clear & pearl 'regular' bulbs)

also can dimmers be used with these daylight bulbs? (but not halogens or energy saving right?)

If it's a filament bulb then there's no problem in using them. If it's like a fluo tube/energy saver then there's a problem

[Deleted User]

Jem8472 wrote:

As for true white light it depends what you mean. Natural sunlight is colourless, but as it goes throught the atmosphere it gets a blue tinge to it (once had a disagreement with a woman about this) so if you want a sunligth bulb AKA a day ligth bulb then they are the blue looking bulbs.

The reason that daylight compensated tungsten bulbs are blue is that tungsten filaments produce a red light because they operate at a much lower temperature (~2900K) than the sun.

Sunlight is not white in any true sense, it has it's peak energy in the green part of the spectrum, because the surface temperature is at about 6000K. We just perceive it as white because that's the environemt we've evolved in. That's why our eyes are most sensitive to green wavelengths.

When light passes through the atmosphere it is selectively scattered by the gas molecules. The scattering is proportional to the fourth power of the frequency, so blue light is scattered much more strongly than red. The colour you see depends on where you're looking. When you look directly towards the source of light, or at something directly lit, you see what's left over after the blue has been scattered: ie red. Hence the red sunset, and the warm tones of the evening. When you look away from the source, you are looking at scattered light: ie blue. Hence the blue sky, and the cold appearance of anything in the shadows.

The blue tint of daylight bulbs has nothing to do with the blue sky.

lolly5648

We are thinking of having halogen spots fitted in the bedroom ceiling. Why cant we have them with dimmers?

Jem8472

The only reason is because you are only allowed pull coards in the bathroom. I did have one customer that said he bought a pull cord dimmer. I cant remember where he said he got it from, maybe B&Q or homebase I am not sure.

But you can use halogen on a dimmer, if they are low voltage halogen you need a special dimmer that will dim a transformer. They are usually called intelligent dimmers, but not all intelligent dimmers work with all transformers!

iyiarz

I just sent 2 long life spotlight bulbs back to Phillips.
They only lasted 6 months! I paid a premium for them.

If you phone them, they'll give you a freepost address to send them back to.
I phoned Philips Lighting UK : 01293 776774

I'm waiting for the replacments.

michaels

Try eurobatteries.com for all sorts of energy saving bulbs including bright, small sized ones (got some 23w = 120w that fit into a wall lamp). Also for daylight energysavers try ebay.

MATH

My living room has three wall lights and when we used regular bulbs they blew every 4 weeks without fail and needed replacing in the order they were installed. After the first winter of continual replacement I decided to buy energy saving long life bulbs. I bought some cheapie ones from Ikea and the first one has just been replaced after 8 years service. Not bad IMO.

Another area where I had a problem with bulb life was the cooker extractor. Not surprising considering the heat and vibration. Even using heavy duty extractor bulbs I was lucky to get a couple of months life. I swapped to a regular low energy one which was cheaper than the extractor bulb and it lasted for about 6 months. I notice that B&Q now sell bulbs that are normal size and shape where the tube is a spiral a bit like a Mr Whippy Icecream costing less than £3. Where ever possible I've moved onto energy saving bulbs and wouldn't go back to ordinary ones.