Halogen Bulbs

codo

Hi

Does anyone know if halogen bulbs use alot of electricity. I have 2 lights in the kitchen each light takes four 50 watt halogen bulbs. I was listening to the radio yesterday and someone rang in and stated that a halogen bulb used the same amount of electricity as two bars on an electric fire. Does anyone know if this is true. Our electricity bill has increased greatly over the last 12 months like everyone elses but this comment has made me think of changing the lights we use.

Thanks

Biggles

A 50 watt halogen bulb uses, well, 50 watt.

Two bars on an electric fire uses 2 kilowatt = 2,000 watt.

If you have four bulbs, you're using 1/10th of that.

Cardew

The person on the phone is talking complete rubbish; unless they talking about house full of halogen lghts i.e. in kitchen, living rooms, bathrooms, bedrooms etc.

The 8 x 50 watt bulbs in your kitchen consume 400 watts(if my arithmetic is correct!!) - that is approx 4p an hour.

A 2 bar fire as stated above is 2,000 watts(2kW) and costs approx 20p an hour.

So you would need 40 x 50 watt bulbs to equal a 2 bar electric fire.

codo

Thanks alot. Thats put my mind at rest.

jdm01

Remember there are Energy Efficient alternatives to these halogen bulbs & can use only 2w.

They are more expensive but are becoming more popular and may reduce in price as this technology ages - search on google for "GU10 LED" & apparently they last longer than normal bulbs.

Hope this helps

J

Poppycat

The Leds are not a direct replacement for gu10 I gather, they dont give off any where near the amount of light than a halogen

iashem

the leds are supposed to last 30000 hours i bought some for my kitchen and dinning room they dont give of nowhere near enough light and i have had 4 die in under a year

Woby_Tide

I just bought a few GU10 compact fluorescent tube energy savers on Ebay yesterday to replace the 50W downlights round the house, not as low as LED(but the light is a lot better from a CFL) but at 11W it's still reducing the usage on the lights by 80%, as we've 12 of them dotted around that's a reduction from 600W to 130W for each hour of use, average of about 4 hours use per day over the year it equates to about £80 reduction in electric bill. Cost a bit more than the usual bulbs but at £4.50 each delivered I get payback in 1 year.

(For non GU10 spots i.e. MR16 the options are even less but both Osram and Phillips do energy saving versions that mean a 35W bulb can replace a 50W and a 20W replaces a 35W which still equates to about 30% savings)

Poppycat

I use the megaman gu10's 11w instead of 50w halogens