Energy efficient bulbs

brokenHaiku

Just moved into my new house, and looking to buy a LOT of energy efficient bulbs/ Looking for ones that will perform well - they're all pretty much the same in terms of power consumption, so just looking for ones that get up to brightness quickly! What do people recommend?

Cheers,
Peter

ic

Morrisons had the Philips ones on offer at three for £1 - screw and bayonet fittings, 60W and 100W equivalents. I have them throughout the house and think they're great.

ifti

netto have them for 49p last time i was in my local store, but only BC ones 11w and 18w

hope this helps.

bookduck

A good tip I once heard is if poss, make sure your lights have all the same fitting (either es or bc) you just have to buy 1 type of bulb type. Just cause they have a 7 year life span, does not mean they will last 7 years after 1 year already had a 1 out of 9 failure.

DNK

I've been using these bulbs for years and have found that the cheaper ones don't last anywhere near the number of hours they state. I tend to go for Osram if they're a decent price. One lasted 8 years being on 4-5 hours virtually every day so it actually did what it said on the tin!
I've found on average that the cheapo ones have only been lasting 400-500 hours. May be just a bad batch I had but I wasn't impressed.

Shambler

make sure you keep your receipts because many of them don't last out 1 year!

sillygoose

Another option, if you consider replacing light fittings partly for looks as I did (dont like dangly light!), buy ones that take 2D flourescent tubes. (like these) They are great. No warm up time, a 28w one has the same output as about 150w of normal lighting, low heat. Also the tubes are more like normal flourescent tubes and not as overloaded as low energy bulbs so will actually last many years. My long hallway is so brighter and went from 300 watts to 84 watts consumption!
Available in many DIY etc but not widely promoted as they probably want you to buy new ones every now and then!

bookduck

Sillygose, have 2 of these bulbs in my kitchen and 1 in the bathroom. They do work well. They are in pir sensor lamps that turn themselves on when people are around, and also measure the ambient light, so don't work in day time.

It stops the Tenants from leaving the lights on!

There is something about CFL and LED lights while being bright, they light looses the brightness quite quickly further you move from the source. I always find an 11w lamp is never as bright as its 60w counter part at a distance. Also the light does not reflect as well - just my opinion and no real scientific fact.

high-rise_andrew

all my low energy bulbs are "natural daylight" which is much whiter than the tobacco yellow you get with the regular ones. They help my S.A.D & generally brighten up the place. hth