To really fucking hate energy saving lightbulbs?

[DarlingDuck]

Ok I realise it is a good thing that we use them and think we should but I hate the dim flourescent glow, am starting to notice it more now the nights are drawing in and remembering just how much it does my head in.

Would it be frivolous to start a Campaign for Real Lighting?

Good idea

It was all driven by the industry wanting to make more more money and launched on the back of the whole Global Warming movement (who then conveniently forgot about the end to end environmental cost of disposal).

Guys, how do we start the campaign?

they are the bain of my LIFE!

I conduct check in/out inspections for tenants, I have to inspect for damage/cleanliness. When I am in a windowless bathroom and switch one of these energy saving bastards on, I may as well go off and boil a kettle for a cuppa while I wait for the bugger to provide enough illumination to see a hand in front of my face.

Theoretically, if you needed a wee, you could go into the loo, do the wee, wipe, flush AND wash your hands, exit and STILL the bulb wouldn't be up at full power!

If you have CFLs* which either (1) take to long to warm up or (2) give too little light or (3) are an unpleasant colour or (4) are bent-tube shaped or sticks instead of bulb-shaped...

then I strongly recommend you buy some new ones of good quality. They have improved greatly over the last 15 years. If you want as much light as a 100W filament lamp you need at least 20W CFL. 22W and 24W CFLs are slightly brighter, if that's what's most important to you. A 12W is near enough a 60W filament lamp. Anything lower is very dim. Don't be misled by packaging that suggests a 15W CFL is equivalent to 100W. It isn't.

They last a long time, and when encrusted with dirt, dust and cobwebs, that will cut down the light output quite noticably. So keep them clean.

For lamps that are left switched on for long periods, such as porch, hall and landing, start-up time doesn't matter much. In cold conditions, such as a porch lamp in winter, they are slower to reach full brightness.

BTW a 20W CFL will run for about 50 hours for about 10p (1kWh of electricity ar current prices). For comparison, a tumble drier uses that amount of electricity in about 20 minutes. So don't imagine you are saving much money by switching them off and on all the time.

The bent-tube, or stick-shaped ones are OK in an enclosed luminaire**, but when the lamp is visible, the ones with a bulb-shaped envelope over the tubes look better. More beautiful still are the globe-shaped ones, available in 150mm (six-inch) in 25W, which I think look great. They are more expensive though.

Looking at the recent "Which tests, the Osram Duluxstar was a Best Buy that warmed up fast and had a good light output and is modestly priced (some of the other Best Buys were quite expensive, or slow to brighten)

Ikea Sparsam, GE Low Energy GLS, Philips Softone, Megaman, were very slow to brighten.

In my own house I mostly use Globes by Philips or GE, and Sainsburys value brand with the bulb-shaped envelope, which are very cheap. You are very unlikely to break the tubes in a CFL with an envelope, even if you drop it from a typical height. However I choose these for their appearance rather than their fast start-up, because I don't keep switching them on and off. Some of them are on timers or photocells. In enclosed luminaires I use the stick lamps because they are cheap and bright.

*CFL means "Compact Fluorescent Lamp" (the most common and cheap kind of energy saving lamp). "Bulbs" are what electricians plant in their gardens.

**"Luminaire" means a light fitting, or what you might call a lamp. Electricians use the term "lamp" for what you call a "bulb"

Nope, OP. YANBU. DH said to me the other day "Put the lamp on. Oh, it is on!".

I'm all for green stuff but I bloody HATE being dictated to. They should address things like the football stadium up the road lighting the place for miles around with beams that must reach thge bloody moon before they start dictating to me that my lamp has to be so dim that I can't sew in the evenings anymore.

My migraines are more frequent in winter, as they can be triggered by dodgy light sources. Thanks to this thread i'm going to look into daylight simulating and LED bulbs, thanks all:)

I am so glad you started this thread OP.

I hate, hate, hate these lightbulbs and it's good to see I'm not the only one.
I am convinced the room actually goes darker when I switch them on!!

I'm interested in the posts that mention side effects. I have always told DH that they make me feel depressed but I couldn't really explain why.

DarlingDuck

"Why the hell were they brought in anyway, do they really save that much energy"

They use about 20% as much energy as a filament lamp, and last about five times as long.

I'm so glad I'm not alone in my hatred of them, they're spectacularly crap! We have several light fittings that have fancy (ish) tapered flame type shaped bulbs and now I'm going to have to have bum clenchingly ugly energy saving ones. Grrrrrr.

I automatically flick a couple of our energy saving lightbulbs on as soon as it gets dark and leave them on whether I'm in the room or not. DS has one in his room but it take so long to brighten up that it may as well stay on so he can go in and out.

Yes, another good point. What about the High Street shops that have their doors open on cold days so are in effect heating the High Street?

It's all very well encouraging people to buy expensive and bloody useless eco-bulbs, that's fine. What I object to is banning the sale of the others. Aren't fags more dangerous? We are discouraged from smoking but can still buy the things if we really want to. Tax, I hear you ask? Cynical, moi?

YABU

Last 5 times as long? Not round here. Somehow ds seems to get through a bulb every couple of weeks. Bloody expensive habit.

"ds seems to get through a bulb every couple of weeks"

perhaps somebody is hitting them, or perhaps there is a poor connection in the lampholder, switch or circuit, or perhaps it is constantly switched on and off. If they are from a reputable maker, and you have the receipt, and it really is every couple of weeks, write a letter of complaint in case you bought a bad batch.

I write the date of fitting on the base of mine when I fit them. I just looked at the lamp over my kitchen table (used a lot) and it was fitted 13/7/10

the one on the landing (timeswitch every night) was fitted 19/4/10

I really hate the light the give out. Ive been thinking about starting a thread about it too. I dont mean to sound too dramatic, but they make me feel reall down - especially living in a basement flat surrounded by trees. We`re always sitting in dim yellow light.

what brand, shape and power are they?

Energy saving bulbs are horrid. I know this sounds a bit sad, but I have stockpiled ordinary 100W bulbs, I have about 140 of them in the garage. I will soon be doing the same for 60W ones. I think this should hopefully be enough to get me through until my 80s and then I won't be able to see much anyway!! I know its not environmentally friendly, but I save energy in other ways and am happy to pay for the extra electic they use. I find it ridiculous that we are told what bulbs we can/ cannot buy.

They are dreadful. In order to actually see we now have 2 lamps plus the main pendant light in the living room. How does that save energy? I've 3 lights on instead of 1!

I am convinced there is something to the migraine-causing claim.

Mil suffered from migraines years ago and has got them under control by excluding cheese, chocolate and citrus fruits from her diet.

A few years ago pil they started replacing their light bulbs with energy saving ones.

Her migraines started up again.

I heard a feature on R4 about a link between energy saving lightbulbs and migraines.

I told mil next time I spoke to her.

They replaced all their energy saving lightbulbs with old fashioned ones.

Her migraines have gone again.

what annoyed me most about this was, people do want to save money, so if energy saving bulbs were really as good as they were saying, people would be using them by choice and there would be no need to ban the others.

YABVU, Biobulbs are fantastic, like being outdoors. No, not cheap but the ones we've had have lasted ages. This thread has just reminded me I need to get some to replace the crappy tungsten filaments ones that the last owner of our new house saddled us with

I don't know.

can you access this ?

If Labour said they'd bring back our beloved bulbs they'd have a landslide election result. Mebbes.

DS2 gets really annoyed when they don't switch on immediately. I have to lock him in the kitchen (with me) until the dining room lights have warmed up, or else he keeps turning them on and off again and becomes quite upset with them :(

They use about 20% as much energy as a filament lamp, and last about five times as long.

That's the theory - my personal experience is that if they last twice as long I'd be impressed, and they use less energy partly because they produce much less light, and its crap light to boot.

But what never gets factored in to this argument is the higher energy cost of manufacture and disposal, which means net net they are little different to Incandescent globes.

And of course your light bulbs are sweet FA in terms of household energy use, and consumers consume a fraction of what industry does...ie for saving the planet, this was not the problem!

For making profits, however.....