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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To want to change my LED spotlights back to planet killing but nicer halogen?

35 replies

Honesttodog · 06/10/2014 21:27

We have inherited a lot of energy saving lights in our house. Would it be dreadful of me to change most of them back to halogen? They make our kitchen feel cheap and grey and I am happier to sit in near darkness rather than turn them on when guests are here. But I know our bills will go up and it's not great for the planet. I just want to have nice lighting at home!! Any idea on the impact of changing around 24 lights over?

OP posts:
AmberLav · 07/10/2014 08:38

We have LEDs in our kitchen, and I really like the colour they give off, maybe you can just look around a bit more...

Greenrememberedhills · 07/10/2014 09:33

The thing to look at also is the number of square things on the front of them and also the bulb wattage.

I wish I could explain that better but maybe someone else could?

HicDraconis · 07/10/2014 09:51

We have LED phosphor downlights - warm daylight quality light, they'll last a couple of hundred years and no need to change a lightbulb ever again. They're called "Ominus", I have no idea why :)

gigajoules · 07/10/2014 09:52

I won't have anything but old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs in the house, apart from maybe a couple of low-energy ones in areas where they are left on a long time e.g hallways.

Planet destroyer, I hear you screaming.................no, and here's why.

The amount of energy used by old style incandescent bulbs is almost negligible compared to the energy you use for other activities. One 100 watt light bulb uses 1 kW of electricity if it is left on for 10 hours, ie 1 unit costing around 15 p nowadays. So a 100W light bulb uses a tenth of a unit per hour. A 3 kW kettle would use 1 unit in a third of an hour, or 20 minutes. As a kettle takes around 3 mins to boil, it uses about 0.15 units per boil. You can leave the light bulb on for an hour and a half by comparison for each boil of the kettle. Boil the kettle 10 times a day and that's 1.5 units, enough to leave a light bulb on for 15 hours. Now think about your cooker, totals around 9 kW and left on for hours, each ring on the hob is probably a couple of kW, your immersion heater is on for a couple of hours and probably around 7 kW. A low-use household uses around 11 kW per day for cooking on electric cooker, fridges, electronics and lighting, heating and hot water probably easily add 20 kW to the total. Even five 100 W light bulbs left on for 4 hours would only burn 2 units, LESS THAN A TENTH OF YOUR TOTAL ENERGY USE.

So the maths doesn't stack up. The reason light bulbs have been banned by the EU is almost certainly due to lobbying by large manufacturers in Europe, like Phillips and Siemens, who make lights. Why would you want to sell incandescents at 50 p each when you can sell "low-energy" (which take more energy to make and dispose of, and the contents of which are highly hazardous) at £5 each, so more scope for profit. The low energy ones do not last anywhere near their advertised life.......mostly because our electricity supply is so noisy (ie variable voltage), which fries the electronics needed to drive the low-energy light. The variation on the supply will almost certainly break your expensive LED lights as well, because they have lots of complex electronics in them to drive them. They are also not as efficient as advertised judging by the heat dissipation required by the electronics. By the way, wind turbines add even more noise to the electricity supply, helping to fry all those low-energy bulbs adding to the toxic waste pile.

Halogen lights - in those useless unattractive ceiling pockmarks - are about 25 W each. People seem to put about 6 or 8 in a room whereas previously one 100 W light on a pendant would do. That's 200 W being used rather than 100 W. Crazy maths again. An incandescent bulb on pendant light the room more effectively and evenly due to the diffuse reflection of the white ceiling, giving a much pleasanter lighting environment.

The spectral content (wavelength range of the light output) of incandescent bulbs is ideally suited to our eyes and physiology, being broadband and towards the red end of the visible spectrum. We get good acuity, good colour perception, and the reddish output of incandescent bulbs mean they do not mess up our sleep rhythms and immune response when we use them in the evening. Light sources with a huge proportion of blue light may not be so safe, especially for children. Google blue light hazard.

Then there's the toxic contents - old type perfectly safe unless you cut yourself on the glass with no problem for disposal, the miniature fluorescents contain some real nasties, and the LEDs are full of rare earth metals, so the newer ones require special disposal otherwise will contaminate landfill.

And, to cap it all, changing a light bulb with those expensive modern fancy units becomes a maintenance job for an electrician involving tools, rather than just standing on a chair and taking the old bulb out with half a turn by hand.

NotMrsTumble · 07/10/2014 09:56

Cheap leds are, unfortunately a hassle and false economy (voice of bitter experience) . Another vote for Philips warm leds, hunt on the Web though. I needed 18, so was able to get a reasonable discount. IME, much cheaper to run than the halogen spots in my old house.

CuttingOutTheCrap · 07/10/2014 10:11

Pretty sure ours are Philips too (too massive to get up on steps to check, but will post later if it's something different! ) I remember they were about £7 each, and about £10 for the dimmable ones. We've had them in for three years now and they are great. Cheap ones are a total false economy

NothingTraLaLa · 07/10/2014 14:04

Honesttodog I think these are the ones we have:

from B & Q

Gaia81 · 07/10/2014 19:21

We got ours when Tesco were doing 3 for 2 on lightbulbs so worked out quite reasonable

Flipflops7 · 07/10/2014 20:14

I tend to agree, gigajoules.

It's getting hard to find lamps with old style fittings, though. They are forcing us to multi shape, multi numbered crap.

Honesttodog · 08/10/2014 10:37

Thanks everyone, and for yr amazing post giga! Now I feel less guilty...

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