We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

replacing household lights with LED bulbs, advice sort please

Options
2456

Comments

  • Verdigris
    Verdigris Posts: 1,725 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    It seems strange to me that a consumable, replaceable item, such as a light bulb, forms part of the EPC rating.

    Indeed. As I alluded to, above, EPCs are really worth the pixels they're displayed on. They over-emphasise some things, suggest ridiculous remedial actions that you wouldn't see an ROI on in your lifetime, a suggest daft things like wind-turbines that most properties won't support and mark the rating down for having a heat-pump!

    Not fit for purpose is an expression perfectly suited to EPCs. (However, it does allow you to pick up a bargain if you know a bit about energy conservation)
  • QrizB
    QrizB Posts: 18,154 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    Sea_Shell said:
    It seems strange to me that a consumable, replaceable item, such as a light bulb, forms part of the EPC rating.
    There is (or was, I don't know if it's been changed) a similar situation with cars, CO2 emissions and VED ("road tax") bands. Manufacturers could achieve lower CO2 emissions (and lower VED) by fitting lower rolling resistance tyres and low-viscosity engine oil.
    Of course, at your first service and first tyre change you could lose all these benefits.
    N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Ripple Kirk Hill member.
    2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 34 MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
    Not exactly back from my break, but dipping in and out of the forum.
    Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!
  • Verdigris
    Verdigris Posts: 1,725 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    Car makers also took various trims off and taped over openings, to improve aerodynamic performance, for tests.
  • MattMattMattUK
    MattMattMattUK Posts: 11,161 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Verdigris said:
    Car makers also took various trims off and taped over openings, to improve aerodynamic performance, for tests.
    In some cases they got very small women to drive the cars after taking out the passenger seats, spare tyres etc. having only enough petrol to complete the test, draining washer fluid to a minimum and pumping the tyres up to almost bursting point to reduce rolling resistance and that is before we get to the defeat devices for emissions and fuel consumption, the system was never fit for purpose
  • QrizB
    QrizB Posts: 18,154 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 9 March 2022 at 3:58PM
    So did you all replace working non-LED bulbs, rather than just buying LED spares and using them when the old bulbs stopped working?
    Incandescent lamps are such energy-hogs that yes, it's cheaper to throw them away.
    CFLs are a matter of opinion. I know some people say to throw them away too, but personally I'm letting them expire naturally before replacing them with LEDs.
    Example:A 60-watt incandescent lamp might have a life of 1000 hours. In that time it will use 60kWh of electricity, costing about £12. Even if it's brand-new, it's cheaper to throw it out, spend £10 on a really fancy 9W LED lamp and run that for 1000 hours instead (£1.80 for electricity, total cost £11.80) .
    N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Ripple Kirk Hill member.
    2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 34 MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.
    Not exactly back from my break, but dipping in and out of the forum.
    Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!
  • Verdigris
    Verdigris Posts: 1,725 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Third Anniversary Name Dropper
    I just "trickle down" CFLs to places where I only occasionally switch the light on. LEDs in all the mainly lit areas but I still switch them off when I leave the room for any length of time.
  • lesley2020
    lesley2020 Posts: 52 Forumite
    Fourth Anniversary 10 Posts
    What works for us is the Ikea Tradfri system - you buy bulbs and various cheap kit and can then do things such as use their Room Sensors to turn lights on when someone is present in a room then turn off when they leave and no motion is sensed.
    You can get plug adaptors which can turn appliances on and off automatically/remotely.
  • coffeehound
    coffeehound Posts: 5,741 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    CFLs were a bit of an environmental disaster really.  We were forced into buying them as the incandescents were no longer permitted to be sold.  The PRC predictably churned out huge quantities of substandard product, and then a couple of years later, LEDs became much better and rendered the CFLs redundant so many/most went straight into landfill, mercury and all
  • MattMattMattUK
    MattMattMattUK Posts: 11,161 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fourth Anniversary Name Dropper
    CFLs were a bit of an environmental disaster really.  We were forced into buying them as the incandescents were no longer permitted to be sold.  The PRC predictably churned out huge quantities of substandard product, and then a couple of years later, LEDs became much better and rendered the CFLs redundant so many/most went straight into landfill, mercury and all
    I remember the early ones, took several minutes to get up to full brightness, they were undimmable, many of the cheap ones had noticeable flicker, even some of the more expensive ones had a noticeable flicker for many people, they really were a technology that should have been skipped. 
  • MWT
    MWT Posts: 10,210 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Fifth Anniversary Name Dropper
    Sea_Shell said:

    If you take out all the bulbs, does that get you even higher up the scale 😉🤔

    "No bulb" is even more energy efficient, after all 😉
    With the way they produce the rating not having any LED bulbs would get you the same score as having halogen bulbs everywhere... it really is a very poor rating system.

Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 350.9K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.5K Spending & Discounts
  • 243.9K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.9K Life & Family
  • 257.2K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.