Ecionomy light bulbs that actually light

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Hi. This winter I can no longer bear the dim greenish light produced by my economy bulbs, and the delay before any light actually emerges.
I have heard that light bulb technology has moved on in the years since I bought them ... are there any new models that you can recommend?
I have (mainly) bayonet fittings and still need to be economical with the electricity.

[specialsubject]

low-energy bulbs have indeed moved on, and are now fast-start, although they never produced green light to my knowledge.

look for special offers - they are pretty much all the same. BTW don't buy eco-halogen, contradiction in terms. LEDs use the least and last the longest, but are still pricey in most places although coming down.

[PigletJohn]

If you find them dim, they are probably underpowered. To replace an old 100W bulb you need about a 22W cfl.

Osram are generally very good but even the Tesco value bulb is now quite quick to light. Unless it is in an enclosure or hidden by a shade I prefer the ones with a bulb-shaped opal glass cover. If it is out of sight the "stick" lamps are usually a bit cheaper.

Your local supermarket or hardware store probably has a recycling bin for old energy saving lamps.

For an exposed ceiling lamp I really like the large globe lamps by GE and others which have a 150mm ball. It looks better and gives less glare as the light is diffused by the pearl globe. They are more expensive but mine last about 5 years. Some of mine are 24W.

In a table lamp or bedside lamp you can go down to 8W but that is not enough to illuminate a room unless you have several.

Look for "warm white" unless you like office or clinical.

LED lamps are fairly new to market and currently so expensive to buy that they are not an economy choice.

[lljkk]

LED bulbs are best we've had.
NONE of them lasts as long as they claim they will.

[Suttonmum1]

Go LED. I calculate £500 saving on the last set I replaced, and that's with a conservative take on their lifespan and not including the cost of replacing bulbs at the rate they were peviously failing.

Look carefully at Amazon reviews and Lidl have them sometimes. Take care if you have dimmer switches.
We have replaced G9 and G4s, spotlights, GU10s and 'normal' shaped ones. Prices have reduced a lot and choice is getting much better.

[PigletJohn]

To get your £500 saving, what sort of lamp were you replacing? Over how many years?

[PigletJohn]

Sorry, I presume they were not economy lamps? They look like spots and down lights.

[Suttonmum1]

For example 6x40w reflector spot bulbs down to 6x3.5w bulbs used at least 6hrs per day. We are on economy 7, so lighting is on more expensive rate. Saving £70 per year, pay for themselves in the first year and are brighter than what they replaced.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I love my led bulbs.

I'm about to order loads of G9 capsules because I can't bear the thought of one lamp costing 99watts to run.

[PigletJohn]

I will confess that I have a strong aversion to downlights and spots in a domestic house, and I no longer have a chandelier, so use hardly any expensive lamps.

From where I stand there is no advantage to buying the still-expensive LEDs when CFLs have the same energy-saving benefits and are much cheaper. They do only have lives of 5000 hours or so but in five or ten years when they wear out technology will have moved on.

[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Went to B&Q to look for led lights but they had nothing brighter than 60w equivalent .. ignored 'eco halogen' after being warned on here ... found a 100w equivalent economy bulb which is certainly better than the rubbish bulb (£4) I had from Sainsbury's, which actually does nothing for the first second or so after switching on and then brightens up to about 2 candle power.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Have you tried online companies like led hut? It's the lumens you have to look for with LEDs. The higher the lumen the brighter they are.

[ContentedSidewinder]

I have LED downlighters in the kitchen and I have ES bulbs for two lamps in my lounge. They are Ikea lamps and I was using energy efficient ones that used 11w but I have now replaced them with LED bulbs from Ikea.

They light up instantly rather than waiting for that warm up period, they are 400 lm; equivalent to a 40w and use 6.3w each. They were £7 each.

It was just easy for me geographically as Ikea is close by and the lamps I had are Ikea's.

Plus the normal ceiling lights in my lounge are those 3 armed golf ball fitting things and I have two of them, so if I have a 60w bulb in each one I am burning 360w of electricity.

[Xmas2013MN6233]

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[LaBelleDameSansPatience]

Oh, to live near to Ikea .... am going to look at led hut, especially as I sometimes see online offers for them.

[Fluffycloudland77]

They've always got a code on, if you go though topcashback you get 15-20% cashback plus the current discount code.