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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To HATE the new ratings on light bulbs?

26 replies

Skullyton · 30/12/2015 12:04

I dont understand it at all, and it annoys me.

i've started refusing to buy them and make DH do it.

I want the old watt ratings back :(

OP posts:
Dipankrispaneven · 30/12/2015 12:31

How difficult is it to google what the ratings mean? In fact, you don't even have to do that, you just have to work on the principle that the higher the number of lumens, the brighter the light. It seems to me to make perfect sense - wattage ratings are totally unhelpful for energy-saving lightbulbs.

EduCated · 30/12/2015 12:35

I did misjudge the lumens recently and rather floodlit my very small flat Blush

Sparklingbrook · 30/12/2015 12:46

I am always amazed when I go to buy light bulbs get them back home and they are the right ones. Blush

I get in the shop and get all overwhelmed and start convincing myself the wrong ones are the right ones.

Original poster
Skullyton · 30/12/2015 12:52

they aren't useless Dip, there is no reason why the boxes couldn't have the equivalent watt rating on them.

Having grown up knowing 40 watt was mellow and 70 watt was heathrow airport, i do not get this lumins shite.

OP posts:
MumOnTheRunCatchingUp · 30/12/2015 12:59

It's EU legislation

Lumens is no good way to get the correct bulb. Fittings go by wattage not lumens!

knobblyknee · 30/12/2015 13:02

It looks so simple...not! It also depends on the type of bulb;

www.thelightbulb.co.uk/resources/lumens_watts

Egosumquisum · 30/12/2015 13:19

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MumOnTheRunCatchingUp · 30/12/2015 13:23

i sell lightbulbs in my job, so to me yes they are easy

I first look at the fitting.... B15,b,22,gu10,r7 etc

Then look at wattage....lumens is brightness, but wattage is the important one. Your light fitting will tell you what it's equipped to deal with, so never go over the allowed wattage. You could blow the light or cause fire. You can go under the allowed wattage tho

LED is the way forward

Egosumquisum · 30/12/2015 13:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheFlyingFauxPas · 30/12/2015 13:38

I agree. Light bulb buying has become extremely complicated and expensive.

MumOnTheRunCatchingUp · 30/12/2015 13:41

What's a 'modern lightbulb' if not a LED? Do you mean a halogen or energy saver

I don't know anywhere you'd be able to buy 240w

Egosumquisum · 30/12/2015 13:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

eddiemairswife · 30/12/2015 14:02

I feel like giving up sometimes; and the other day I worked out what wattage/lumens I needed, got my bulbs home to find I'd bought SCREWIN NOT BAYONET!!

CheshireChat · 30/12/2015 14:17

It definitely takes longer to pick them and you go home and find they're not bright enough generally. We now have the brightest LED bulbs we could find and it's still not "Heathrow airport".

Sallyingforth · 30/12/2015 16:43

And never buy LED lights from eBay. There are some terribly dangerous ones sold on there which shouldn't be imported - you can see test videos on YouTube.
The Poundland ones seem to be OK.

BackforGood · 30/12/2015 16:55

I agree that it's very complicated nowadays - used to be you had to know if you wanted a bayonet or screw fitting and a 40 or 60W (100W was v rare) but now there are so many choices to make I never know if I've got the right one or not, and I always take the blown one with me, to try to match to a new one. Gone are the days when I could keep in a few spares as most lights used the same bulbs.

Griphook · 30/12/2015 19:19

Can someone point me in the right direction to what I would buy then please.
I would have brought a 60w bayonet bulb. What would I buy now?

Egosumquisum · 30/12/2015 19:33

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Bing0wings · 30/12/2015 19:49

I'm with you OP. It does my head in.

orangeyellowgreen · 30/12/2015 20:04

100 watts used to be the standard bulb when people had one central light. Now they have lots of lamps instead and need lots of bulbs so not saving any energy at all.

MumOnTheRunCatchingUp · 30/12/2015 20:09

You'll save energy with LED.... Roughly £3 per year per golfball/candle/spot

And £5 per year per large bulb. Bearing in mind LED is designed to last up to 25 years ( built similiar to a car headlamp) they don't break as easily, and use minimal electric

RB68 · 30/12/2015 20:16

60w was the usual central lightbulb. Its not just abut the energy used its also about the life length of a bulb and waste. People have always had lamps and double wall fittings and so on.

Jojoanna · 30/12/2015 20:17

I'm with the OP it's very confusing buying a light bulb . Either too bright or very dull

unlucky83 · 30/12/2015 21:15

I miss the old style filament light bulbs - the house we are renovating still has a few - and they much brighter than any of the energy saving ones and they stay as bright until they break...and life was so much simpler.
I started using energy saving bulbs when they were uncommon...so have seen them improve a lot but (although I am energy aware) I still don't think they are as good - yet.
And I have spent a fortune on them - my bathroom is biggish with 6 reflector type bulbs. As the filament ones went I replaced them with Megaman energy saving reflectors...originally at £20 each (some of the later ones were cheaper - but never less than £10). So that's £100ish spent on light bulbs for one room - and two of them have blown since - replaced with LEDs. Not sure I have saved as much in electricity cost as I have spent on bulbs....
I do prefer LEDs compared to CFLs (the old style energy saving ones) but ime they do lose brightness too - not as badly but in a similar way to CFLs .
I have one in my office that is supposedly equivalent to 100w - it is a few years old now, a Phillips iirc and cost £15+ -so not a cheap possibly inferior one...and it is now more like 60w if that....
And then the warm or cool white...I bought one cool one for my bathroom fed up of dim CFLs - someone left the bathroom light on and coming upstairs in the gloom it looked like something out of ET - however it is not as bright any more...

And I agree it is confusing - the vast array ...partly cos we have more variation in lamp fittings - but there is a whole aisle in B&Q - with every size in every type....I have been know to stand there in a daze trying to work out which one I need ...(although I buy standard LED globes from toolstation now)
Personally I really haven't been impressed with halogen globes for PIRs - when I got them they were the only globes that were suitable for that and both of them went within months - I was so annoyed I took one of them back and got a replacement... and that went too. I gave up - we had new street lights fitted, moved slightly so I don't need them at the front any more - so my light fittings are sitting there with dead bulbs -really don't know what to put in them....
And LEDs are not unbreakable....the glass doesn't break as easily as CFLs and you don't have the mercury problem if someone does hit one with something - but the electronic bit goes - I had one less than 6 months old that started working intermittently. (I took it back - I have no qualms returning them if they go relatively quickly - they aren't cheap and if they are supposed to last years they should last more than a few months ..... )
I actually had a CFL one that did too - it was a newish light fitting on existing wiring and I thought it must be a loose wire somewhere...I had the light fitting off, the switch sockets fronts off thinking it might be the switches - it was only when I got my brain into gear and got the multimeter out I realised it was the (few week old) bulb...
Old tungsten filaments either worked or they didn't ..none of this intermittent malarky...Sad
(Feel very old and nostalgic)

Original poster
Skullyton · 30/12/2015 21:19

we dont use lamps, we've got a reaaaaally old victorian terrace with a long dark living space, so we've two ceiling roses either end of the room, each of which take 3 bulbs, but we usually only have 2 in each, 3 is too bright.

LEDs are too expensive, i refuse to pay £15 for a bulb, and as our switch has a dimmer, we're not supposed to use them!

OP posts: