To be utterly baffled by buying lightbulbs these days!

[Busybusybust]

It’s soooo confusing. It seems we have LED or halogen? And the two don’t mix. But the wattage is weird. What was wrong with 100w, 60w, and 40w.

Every time I pass the lightbulb section in the supermarket, there is some poor hapless person looking baffled.

Thank god its not just me.
We moved last year and still haven't worked out what i need for living room. I bought 4 candle bulbs but they weren't dimmable..... then bought ones that dimmed but even at lowest level they are soooo bright .
It is my pet hate now

I'm so with you, sigh.
Now we have long life lightbulbs, I only buy one about once every 5 yrs, which means the technology actually changes each & every time I go to buy I have another steep learning curve.

I'm like this with a lot of tech, actually! I have an idea that when I'm 60 I'll really get my head truly around mobile banking... that should keep me up to date for about 18m before the apps & tech all change, again.

Totally agree! I used to stare at them and walk away empty handed. But I think I’ve got it sussed now. I go by lumens. Get the equivalent of 40/60/100 watts but make sure it has the highest lumen output as different make bulbs have variable lumens and have quite a noticeable difference in the amount of light they give off. Hope I’ve explained it ok!

Me too. I am utterly bewildered by the variety of options. I take a photo of the current bulb and then try to buy an exact match. Why is modern life so complicated?

I'm the same. Can't fathom it at all now. I just know the new ones give a ghastly, lurid glare that the old non-eco-friendly ones never did.

You need to aquaint yourself with the fistful of cardboard techinque:

When you have the correct lightbulb out of the packaging and fitted, tear off the most informative panel of the package and write the item (i.e. 'lamp near telly') on the back.

Do this every time and you'll build yourself a scruffy but invaluable reference library.

I don't know if I had this idea myself or someone told me, but once you know, it's really important you share it. I can now do crazy things like buying bargain bulbs in bulk during sales or online. It's quite liberating.

Oh yes! I want a 40watt but box tells me whatever new thing is - is equal to 33w or 55w. So do I want it darker or much brighter than what I want?! Why can’t they reproduce a 40 or 60 in new version.

Is it a bit sad that I posted that?

Me too! Completely baffled.... The last time I bought lightbulbs in B&Q there were half a dozen people head-scratching and looking perplexed in front of the lightbulb shelves.

Yeah- what the fuck happened to going to Asda, picking up a pack of 8 bulbs for £2 and having enough to last us the year?? Now it’s these fandangled bastards that are ‘lifetime’ ones since when has a lifetime been 6months I’d like to know and cost the feckin earth!

knitted I had to research(!) online so I didn’t look like one of those Neanderthals you saw and swooped in, picked up what I thought I needed then hid round the corner comparing it to what I’d seen online then slinking back to get what I actually needed. What a palava

Me too, I hate the bloody things and hope we can go back to 40/60/+ watt proper bulbs post Brexit. The damn things either give too dim a light or blind you [grrr]

Oh, thank you all so much! So glad I’m not alone!

So do we need an idiot’s guide?

It's the bloody difference in colour that does me. I have all these really cold lightbulbs that are sterile and horrible. Then I have the nice copper filament ones but they go all Frankenstein if I use them with a dimmer switch. I just can't fathom it.

I'm confused too...and the light they give off is so cold and unflattering.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one who thinks this! It used to be so simple - 40w or 60w, screw in or bayonet. Now it's all changed, I've got no idea what I'm meant to be buying.

I’m sure half reason why they seem blow every 3months is because they are wrong wattage for light. But most lights are pre change over so there is no equalivant to match. Long life my ass

I'm so with you. It's not just the wattage equivalents, or whether it's halogen or LED, it's also whether you need bayonet or small or large screw top! Nightmare! Supermarkets never have what I need, nearly always have to order online.

I have this pinned to my Lighting board on Pinterest. I have previously driven myself doolally trying to work out what to get. And bought the wrong thing more than once.

Fabulous wowfudge that is really useful!

Totally agree with you OP. I dread a light bulb going in my house because I know I'm going to have the same old fiasco yet again,trying to buy a new one. The one in my bathroom went a couple of months ago,and I had to take the one out of the toilet and put it in the bathroom for a week,as that's how long it took me to find a new one. Then 2 weeks ago,my bedroom bulb went. Part of the problem is that all mine are bayonet fitting,whereas the shops seem to have a thing about screw fitting ones. I eventually managed to get one on Sam99 (shop similar to Poundland for those not familiar with it).

The wattage is the power consumption of a bulb, for old incandescent ones there was very little difference between manufacturers so you could equate the wattage to the light output.

There us a huge range in the quality of LEDs though so as a pp mentioned its important to check the actual light output which is Lumens.

Cheap brands have cheap leds which have issues with colour and light output.

You can gel leds in a warm white, they would be 3000k or 3500k. The cool white ones are 400k. (This is the colour temprature of the bulb)

Yes baffled too. Struggled to find spotlight replacements in all but Robert Dyas.

Lol at SilverySurfer thinking Brexit will bring back incandescent lightbulbs