[robh2002]

Originally Posted by leedswillprevai

I don't know if this has already been mentioned and I am all for saving energy but these energy saving light bulbs contain mercury. Now it's apparent what a potentially toxic situation you have if one breaks and for that matter on the disposal of them. In fact I find it yet another disgusting example of how the corporations and government really don't give a damn about the earth.

This has been mentioned some time ago but without the tiny amounts of mercury the bulbs wouldn't work properly, so it's not _just_ institutions not giving a damn about the earth. There are considerably more important problems that institutions ignore that this one! Properly disposal of these bulbs is not a problem - just don't stick them in the bin. Besides, how often do they actually 'blow' such that they leak?

[leedswillprevai]

Hi rob the environment agency advise you to clear the area if one breaks or leaks, so it becomes a matter of a "small" amount of mercury still being extremely dangerous for human health. My point about corporations not giving a damn about what they are doing to human health and the earth was that although this might not be the biggest issue it is yet another example (to me at least) of how dangers are disregarded. I could launch into dozens and dozens of examples of this from aspartame to melamine but i shall hold back from that diatribe!

[robh2002]

Originally Posted by leedswillprevai

Hi rob the environment agency advise you to clear the area if one breaks or leaks, so it becomes a matter of a "small" amount of mercury still being extremely dangerous for human health.

I wouldn't disagree, although I am no medic. I remember clearly when I was a kid and a mercury thermometer was broken and it spilled its contents over the floor/desk - it was just cleaned up and the lesson continued! I'm not saying mercury isn't a nasty material, but perhaps the 'risks' are over played in our overly safety conscious world! The risks are also over played by those who don't like the bulbs for other reasons or by people who are against any notion of man made global warming.

[andykn]

Originally Posted by leedswillprevai

Hi rob the environment agency advise you to clear the area if one breaks or leaks, so it becomes a matter of a "small" amount of mercury still being extremely dangerous for human health. My point about corporations not giving a damn about what they are doing to human health and the earth was that although this might not be the biggest issue it is yet another example (to me at least) of how dangers are disregarded. I could launch into dozens and dozens of examples of this from aspartame to melamine but i shall hold back from that diatribe!

I can't find the Environment Agency advice you refer to but surely it shows that the Govt do give a damn; they've just decided that the mercury is less harmful than the climate change.

[whatsupdoc]

Mercury is not really a problem - which makes the banning of mercury thermometers and the loss of all the jobs associated an absolute disgrace.

Mercury vapour is the really dangerous one - as used in the 'environmentally friendly' energy saving lightbulbs!

[robh2002]

Originally Posted by whatsupdoc

Mercury is not really a problem - which makes the banning of mercury thermometers and the loss of all the jobs associated an absolute disgrace.

Mercury vapour is the really dangerous one - as used in the 'environmentally friendly' energy saving lightbulbs!

Is it the case that CFLs contain liquid mercury which is then vaporised at switch on - not sure of this so I thought I would ask? Either way the mercury emitted by burning coal (which we still do an awful lot of) also emits mercury. So the bulbs may not be environmentally friendly as we would all like, but it would appear that they are still better than incandescent bulbs. I'd like to see some proper scientific data on this - any one know of data other than web sites and blogs?

If a bulb is broken - open the window, but again how often does a bulb actually break? One needs to consider both the risk of illness and also the likelihood of being exposed in the first place to make an accurate assessment.

[johntheexpat]

Energy saving light bulbs, three for a quid at Robert Dias. Not bad at all.
(Still a waste of a quid if you don't like the light they give off, however. )

[Already Taken]

Originally Posted by johntheexpat

Energy saving light bulbs, three for a quid at Robert Dias. Not bad at all.
(Still a waste of a quid if you don't like the light they give off, however. )

And five for a quid at Sainsburys - good quality Philips bulbs as well.

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by already taken

and five for a quid at sainsburys - good quality philips bulbs as well.

i woz robbed!

[Already Taken]

Originally Posted by johntheexpat

i woz robbed!

A while back . Morrisons had them on at 10 for a quid!

Annoyingly I'd already got a full set by then but I did pick up a few more as spares

[johntheexpat]

Interesting little earner for anyone coming across the Channel to France. Most places over here seem to be selling them at between 5 and 10 euros a go, so if anyone is coming here on Holiday, fill your case with low energy bulbs and flog them at a market over here to pay for your holiday!
And so many peeps complain about how expensive the UK is......

[nvingo]

Tesco beat those with five for 40p a while back (value brand IIRC).

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by johntheexpat

... Most places over here seem to be selling them at between 5 and 10 euros a go, .

Originally Posted by nvingo

Tesco beat those with five for 40p a while back (value brand IIRC).

Rip-Off France!

[thsths]

Originally Posted by johntheexpat

Rip-Off France!

Well, sometimes I wonder whether they are subsidised in the UK. Any chance that the government is funneling money in the CFL?

[nvingo]

Originally Posted by nvingo

Tesco beat those with five for 40p a while back (value brand IIRC).

They were in my branch again this week.

[RMCF]

Also in my local Tesco's last week.

I have installed a few of these bulbs around the house over the last 6 months, and I really dislike the light they give off. Its rubbish compared to the old style bulbs.

And, it may be my imagination or not, they seem to be getting duller as time goes on.

[IPaintSara]

Its not your imagination, they do get duller with time. Test them with a light meter and you'll find the illumination is nowhere near claimed even when new. I've tried a few and hated them all, either too dim, too pink, too slow to illuminate when switched on, won't work with dimmers. A huge con trick that politicians have fallen for and are too arrogant to admit they're wrong

[RMCF]

Originally Posted by IPaintSara

Its not your imagination, they do get duller with time. Test them with a light meter and you'll find the illumination is nowhere near claimed even when new. I've tried a few and hated them all, either too dim, too pink, too slow to illuminate when switched on, won't work with dimmers. A huge con trick that politicians have fallen for and are too arrogant to admit they're wrong

Thankfully I have a stock of old style bulbs - will be putting these back in. To damn with the environment, I need to be able to see.

[johntheexpat]

Hopefully, LEDs will come to the rescue. They (to my eye) give off quite a white light with a very slight blue-ish tinge which I find great for reading by. However, they are nowhere near powerful enough to replace either CFLs or incandescent lights. But apparently they are working on it.

[Bayden Rank]

We have decided to use the low energy lamps in only those places difficult to reach for changing bulbs (bit awkard on the landing due to light up time) or where light qualtiy is not an issue.

Elsewhere we will use the 'Osram Classic' which use a Halogen bulb within a classic enclosure. The light is good the wattage roughly 66% (but we have found that we can drop from a 60W to a 40W equivalent in some locations) and they have a projected life of 2000 Hrs as opposed to 1000 Hrs for current tungsten lamps.

[LowTech]

.. and they wont save you any energy unless they are in an unheated space or outside. Your heating system will simply put out more heat to heat the rooms and compensate for not having hot light bulbs.

If you think about it you tend to use lights when it's dark (like - Obviously!) And when its dark you usually want the heating on - except for late warm summer nights (which we don't get many of in the UK:-).

And if you don't have the gentle background heating from good old fashioned light bulbs you won't be circulating air and ventilating your rooms; especially in those dark little corners. You'd better get ready for dealing with the mould and odours that'll build up, and get your eyes tested regularly for the bad effects of living with low-energy bulbs.

Turning your room thermostat down even ½ a degree will save you and the planet pots more than buying LE light bulbs.

OK - go ahead and ruin your eyesight; you might save a few watts on those warm summer evenings... and spend those saved £s on repainting.

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by LowTech

.
Turning your room thermostat down even ½ a degree will save you and the planet pots more than buying LE light bulbs.

That's a valid point.

[Confucius]

I use the Megaman range of light bulbs. They are more pricey than the stuff people buy in Tesco or B&Q*, but I find they get bright quickly and I've never had an issue with the quality of the light either. I got them to cut my electricity bills, having paid for themselves in less than 6 months they seem to be doing the trick. They also come in a good variety of sizes and fittings.

*They do stock Megaman but last time I looked they were still the old versions.

[mabo]

Originally Posted by Confucius

I use the Megaman range of light bulbs. They are more pricey than the stuff people buy in Tesco or B&Q*, but I find they get bright quickly and I've never had an issue with the quality of the light either. I got them to cut my electricity bills, having paid for themselves in less than 6 months they seem to be doing the trick. They also come in a good variety of sizes and fittings.

*They do stock Megaman but last time I looked they were still the old versions.

Thanks for the tip, i'll keep my eyes open for them as i've tried a few low energy bulbs recently and found the light from lamps almost impossible to read by, being more akin to candlelight than anything powered by electricity.

[radioian]

I find I cant read under them-Ive gone back to normal light bulbs in the front room, also I found they can be noisy if you listen to MW radio as I do ( Gold..)

Generally it is possible to find energy saving bulbs that perform as well as standard, or 'old fashoned' bulbs, with the exception of 'dimming' bulbs. unfortunatly these are going to cost you; like so many things you get what you pay for; last year we kitted our flat out with tescos standard energy saving bulbs and were shocked to find that whilst they give of a steady bright noisless light, they took 3.5seconds to turn on in every light fitting unless you had turned them off within the last couple of minutes.

we eventually tired of waiting in every doorway until it was safe to poceed and decided the bulbs had to go. EDF energy had sent us a couple of energy saving phillips bulbs along the way and this provided a bright instant light that did what you expected a light bulb to do, so decided to replace our bulbs with the same model. these came in at £13 per bulb but have done the job perfectly for well over a year and a half with no bulbs blowing or loosing any noticable quality.

There a couple of points about energy saving bulbs to consider, much of this already raised, altho it can do little harm to condence the information!

If you live in a flat or house that has timer light switches (the kind where you push a button, the light comes on then automatically goes off after 30s~1min) these bulbs will not be suitable, either their reaction time will be to slow or the constant on and off nature of their use will unacceptably shorten their life making them a false economy. the building i work in has chosen to replace timed lighting with LED lighting, though at present this is not sensably viable for home use.

As mentioned these bulbs do not like being dimmed and even though many say they can be, realistically this is to a point; for example between traditional bulb values; for example an equivilant 100w ESB may be dimmed to equivilent 60W or 60w to 40W, but an equivilent 100W will struggle to be dimmed to 40W. it may be worth considering how often you use your dimmer switch? my parents house has one in their living room (the kind where you preset the level of dimming before turning the bulb on) and i would hazzard a gues that mayb twice in the last two years have they used any setting other that that provided by a 60w bulb. if this is your situation then you may not notice the change as much as you think.

The question of false ecconomy rages on; do these bulbs really save you money compared to standard bulbs considering that the good ones cost 40x the price in some instances? does longer life justify the price? this will change from house hold to household and usage levels. it is worth remembering that insentives like australias banning of traditional bulbs and energy suppliers providing free bulbs has little to do with real energy consumption and more to do with meating international green insentives - it is far easier to get everyone using a new type of bulb than a new type of car.

another often missunderstood fact is that cutting down your home eletricity usage will in no way directly impact the carbon footprint of the country for years - they may tell you that energy saving bulbs allow the same ammount of power to light 3 times as many homes, but the reality is that our powerstations will continue to produce the power, whether we use it or not; we use nearly all of our household electricity in the morning and evening (because we go to work and school) yet the national grid must supply this level of electricity 24hrs a day. the power stations will only start producing less electricity once there has been a long sustatined decline in power usage. the government would like us to use less power so they have to build less new power stations.

that said less power stations do mean less pollution, and energy saving bulbs will save your electricty bill, as well as reducing landfill waste, if we took an average from the bulb manufacurers of the ESBs providing 3x life, then it would be logical to assume that a total switchover would reduce the number of bulbs going into landfill by 60%.

whilst the chemicalls involved may do slightly more damage, on the whole these bulbs are better for the environment than standard bulbs, and it just makes sense for us to consider the impact we have upon the planet, however do not feel overly pressurised into switching, this one comes down to personal choice; they pail in significance to the effect you would have by taking part in a car share once a week, or turning your boiler down 30% (upto a 50% gas bill saving in the winter) or simply sorting out your recycling! we all have to do our little bit, but theres no harm in waiting for this technology to progress as long as we look to what we can do.

[robh2002]

jonny_j22,
I need to point out that you are completely wrong in saying "the reality is that our powerstations will continue to produce the power, whether we use it or not; we use nearly all of our household electricity in the morning and evening (because we go to work and school) yet the national grid must supply this level of electricity 24hrs a day."

Just think about it - where would the energy go if not used?! That's breaking the 1st Law of Thermodynamics! The power stations must continually adjust to our demand for electricity and do so 24/7.

[Lefty1878]

You can get full spectrum low energy bulbs that offer a 'cleaner looking' bluer light. I've got two in the lounge and one in the hall.
However they seem a bit harsh for bedrooms.
They are very good for reading.

Androv 32 Watt Screw Full Spectrum Bulb: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home

I believe other brands are available - i just happened to have an amazon account.
I have no links to amazon or adrov - i'm just a happy customer.

Hope that was of some help.

[deansocial]

Originally Posted by simonoaks

I am concerned that proper lightbulbs are becoming harder to find, and I am also worried that some silly law might come out to take them all off the shelf. Therefore, I managed to source 200 60W proper lamps for just 14p each, bargain

they are already taking them away 1 by 1 it started with 100w then they move onto 80w and so on till all gone. They doing 1 a year i think

[busman12]

I have started looking into replacing the `old` bulbs into new energy saving ones. On one side of the boxes that they come in, it states what you can and cannot use these bulbs for.
I know dimmer switches is one no no, but it also says no if you have your light plugged into a timer - WHY ?

We have some table lamps around the house on timers, why can`t you use them ? Surely this is no different to turning the light on or off yourself !

Thanks.