Homebase - Low Energy Bulb Advice

[nheather]

Whilst I would like to swap to low-energy bulbs (and have wherever it was straightforward), like many people I find two problems.

1 - I have dimmers in many of the rooms

2 - Many of the light fitting require small bulbs (golfball or candle), with small screw or bayonet fittings.

The dimmers won't work so will have to be thrown away and replaced with normal switches or LE compatible dimmers - what is the carbon cost of that.

Dimming LE bulbs are expensive, don't work that well are are in a very limited range of shapes and sizes.

The small bulbs I need for many of my light fittings are really expensive, not powerful enough or simply don't exist.

A good example is small bayonet LE bulbs simply don't exist as far as I can tell.

So when I was in Homebase yesterday I noticed a big card display listing the different incandescent types and against them the LE replacements. Great I thought so I looked up the small bayonent incandescent - yep it was there. Scrolled across to which LE bulb I should buy and it shows three options, all with small screw fitting - ***.

I felt like dragging a manager across to ask him how I would fit his recommended small screw bulb into a small bayonet light fitting but couldn't find anyone nearby.

I can't beleive it was a genuine mistake, I think it was simple because they didn't want to leave a blank saying "tough there is nothing, buy new light fittings".

So if we ever really do get to the stage of an EU ban on incandescent, I (and I suspect many like me) will have to throw out a load of dimmers and a load of light fittings and buy replacements - and the carbon balance of that will be?

Cheers,

Nigel

[Jenn]

The ceiling light in our lounge has small golf ball bulbs and as much as I'd love to put LE bulbs in it, there aren't any that are small enough.

Even the wall lights need candle types bulbs and we have changed them to LE ones but they're so big they are taller than the glass shade on the lights. It's not that shocking to see but enough to annoy me.

The environmental cost of everyone throwing their old light fittings and getting knew ones has to be more than using incandescent bulbs.

[Sonic67]

This it?:

Lighting Superstore - Golf 7w SBC 2700K - 7w SBC Energy Saving Golfball Lamp, (equivalent to 3

Put 'golf' into the search on that site and there's three pages of various types.

That site also does a big range of candle style bulbs etc as well.

http://www.thelightingsuperstore.co....+energy+candle

[shoestring25]

I'm in exactly the same situation would have to chuck out my dimmer and light fittings to fit energy saving bulbs.

so i thought sod it and brought 100 light bulbs for £20 should last me a while.

[Jenn]

Originally Posted by Sonic67

This it?:

Lighting Superstore - Golf 7w SBC 2700K - 7w SBC Energy Saving Golfball Lamp, (equivalent to 3

Put 'golf' into the search on that site and there's three pages of various types.

That site also does a big range of candle style bulbs etc as well.

The Lighting Superstore UK - Search

For me the problem isn't finding an equivalent but the size of the LE bulbs. They are bigger than their incandescent equivalent and for the lights we have at home, the LE bulbs stick out of the shade which looks stupid.

[Chris Muriel]

There are halogen based replacements for many bulbs in various sizes and cap types; these at least are 30% more efficient than traditional incandescents - and dimmable.
My local Sainsburys has a reasonable range of the halogens with many on special offers at present.

[Reepicheep]

Ikea have a good range of LE bulbs of all different sizes and shapes. Good prices too.

[tvbox]

I wonder what happens when you try to dim an energy saving bulb?

[Chris Muriel]

If you try to use a dimmer switch on one of these what happens - my guess...
Depends on the exact design of the inverter electronics built into the bulb.
They may fail to strike at all, may flicker unacceptably and would certainly be unreliable working on a duty cycle that they are not designed to cope with.