To be annoyed with energy saving 'light' bulbs

[BeverlyGoldberg]

Remember the good old days when you flicked a switch and a light came on? Now it looks like someone has lit a candle and the cunty fuckers only brighten up when you've finished what you're doing. Is this meant to be progress?

I have a similar gripe about how TVs now take an age to change Chanel but that's for another day.

Yanbu I feel we are being totally ripped off. They don't last anywhere near as long as the manufacturer claims. They're soo expensive and it's hard to find ones that light up immediately, give out a nice light and are bright enough. Before you just picked up the correct wattage without thinking about it.

I'm also wary about what happens when they get broken, that can't be very eco friendly?

Notech - Considering
The extra raw materials
The hazardous waste created
The lack of heat generated
It is not U to question the efficacy of low energy bulbs

Led ones do seem to be the way forward although they also create higher emissions during manufacture and hazadous waste to dispose of or recycle. I am not a denier, but the solutions aren't as simple as we are being told.

And long life? Do me a favour. Supposedly last for years. No they don't.

We use the energy efficient ones from B&Q - think they are called "Dial" of something like that. Instant brightness.

YABU..We have an energy bulb in our lounge that does take ages to light and it is a bit annoying but it has been going for years.

We also have newer energy bulbs in the rest of the house that only take a few seconds to light up and they last much longer than the old type of bulbs.

YANBU I've reverted to the old bulbs in places where we need light instantly. Where it's going to be switched on for quite awhile I do have the darn things but I don't suffer them gladly.

Ikea are all LED now and they are around £5 a bulb. I believe screwfix are a little cheaper.

We are currently replacing all our bulbs with LED and replacing the dangerous halogen spots as well. I fell into the trap of buying cheap halogen bulbs and had one explode in the fitting and others the glass fell out when trying to change them.

Oh yes, that was why I insisted on halogen lamps when we redid our bathroom a couple of years ago. My parents have an ES light in their bathroom, and by the time you've had a quick pee and washed and dried your hands, the damned thing is still coming to full brightness. Pointless.

We put ES bulbs everywhere. They were expensive so can't justify replacing the lot with LED. My complaint is they're not bright enough for close work. Most go up to the equivalent of 60w, where the standard bulb used to be 100w.
They're not saving any energy if you need twice as many of them on all the time.

I hate them and have a stash of the old type that I bought on Ebay. We are gradually switching to LEDs though, but I really begrudge paying for them and only do it so I can have a decent light.

We get our LED light bulbs from here. Orders take a few weeks to turn up as they're coming from Hong Kong but they're dead cheap.

I needed to buy a dimmable, 'daylight' LED bulb for a reading lamp. I was shocked at the cost, £11.50 for one light bulb!

We had Led bulbs fitted in the kitchen, they said would last eight years.

18 months later and half of them have blown.

YANBU Loathe them. You end up having to put lamps on as well as the overhead lights or feel Dickensian. We have one in the pantry which is hopeless as somewhere you only ever stick your head in for one minute..or ten while the bulb decides to get going.

Be very very wary of 'dead cheap' bulbs coming in from China etc.

luxreview.com/article/2015/02/cheap-leds-buyer-beware

We have a mixture of LED bulbs and energy saving bulbs. The LED ones are bright instantly, in the kitchen we use them with a dimmer switch so we can adjust the brightness. I think they're amazing, if expensive, they are so energy efficient. The more 'traditional' energy saving ones can take a minute to warm up. I'm used to it now, it doesn't bother me any more.
I've never understood the argument about having to put more heating on because the low energy bulbs don't give out as much heat as the filament ones. The purpose of a light is to produce light, any heat it produces is wasted energy imo. If you need heat put the central heating on!

Love my LED bulbs. Came with a 5 year warranty and they give off a much nicer glow as well. Much cheaper to run.
I have halogen spot lamps so they were £5 a bulb but £20 over 5 years seems reasonable to me (had to buy 4) and my energy bills are already visibly reduced! Yay

We had all new light fittings when I bought the house 17 years ago. In their wisdom the builders put two light fittings in the living room, kitchen, bedroom and hall. With wall lights in the living and dining room. We didnt go for fittings with masses of bulbs (wall light we had one not two bulbs) but there are still over 70 bulbs in the house if you count lamps.

At the time we didnt envisage bulbs costing around £7 each. I have been so tempted to go back to standard fittings

70 bulbs?! (faints)

I have 8 ceiling lights, and about 5 lamps (including bedside ones).

Takes an age when you're in the shop as well, the selection is vast. I have 15w regular mini bulbs in my lamps, nicer at night anyway.
I know you said another thread for the TV issue but my TV has to warm up before you can change channels is this the new thing too, I was saying I'm not having another LG thinking it was just theirs.

my TV has to warm up before you can change channels
I've got a Sony and it takes about 30 secs to 'warm up.' It displays the image and sound but you can't do much with it (like change channel / volume) until it's been on for a little while. I think it's because modern TVs are basically simple computers, and when you turn them on it takes a little while for the computer to initialise itself (similar to turning on a smartphone / laptop etc.) I think it's probably the same for most modern TVs.

Dr yes that makes sense. I've just checked it now, takes about 7 seconds from pressing change channel to get another channel, now that's when it's been on a while too.

I loathe them too. A while back I bought a few of the old style ones from somebody selling old stock. Not probably legal but who cares. Anyway they're used now so back to dim and dimmer. The ones that delay giving light for ages after you switch them on are the worse. Why are we putting up with this. My Mum used to get 150 watts as she had big rooms. They were great.

in my front room, i used to have 6 40w candle filament bulbs and it lit the room. now i have 6 efficient ones + a 4 bulb side lamp + a standard lamp and the room still has a gloom about it how can that be more energy efficient?

Our front room has 4 x 60w replaced with 4 x 6w LED replacement bulbs. You cannot tell the difference and believe me I'd notice as I'm rather picky about aesthetics
It's a reduction from 240 watts to 24w and that's just one room.