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.

It's really not too difficult!

You look at the fitting....E27,B22 or whatever (bottom bit)

Then the wattage... you can go lower but not higher

Then the tone....cool,warm etc

Oh yes and style... candle,golfball etc

I don't get involved.

I have 92 light fittings in my home- and 16 different types of fittings.

That's OHs department.

If he left I would wear a headtorch.

In the old days you bought a bulb based on energy consumption and that was it.

Now its all changed and no 2 bulbs are the same!
An incandescent bulb is about 2700k, quite a yellow light. A candle is about 1800k, very yellow. A 12v halogen about 3000k and daylight about 6500 which is much bluer

In terms of light output for an incandescent bulb

100w=1350 lumens
60w = 825 lumens
40w= 550 lumens

So basically you want a warm white bulb , 2700k and look at the lumen output you want.

Oh and i keep packaging and receipts and take them back! That said i have bulbs that have lasted 11 years so far.

To add to my misery I have a lot of stupid spotlight fittings and in order to change a bulb you have to break every single finger nail trying to get the wirey circle thingy out , which 9/10 times pings out with such force that it disappears under the bloody washing machine. I then have to get someone to help me move the machine in order to retrieve the sodding thing. Brings a whole new meaning to the question How many (insert whatever group of people) does it take to change a lightbulb ?

Drives you mad, doesn't it?

I've just ordered a new garage door and needed a long sit down afterwards. Size 6 or 7 (feet, not metric), material 3 choices, layers 2, textures if not wood/wood effect 4, colour 16 + white, upandover/roller, lock/remote, window 4 + 2, ventilation 2.

Several needed, if not .

Oh my! You are my people!

I swear this going over to new fangled bulbs is a ruse to drive us to or something.

I have a light fitting that I swear you can't even get a bulb for. I've been everywhere and at my local independent DIY shop they just did a loud sucking their teeth sound and said 'nah, you won't get a bulb that'll fit'

Then the price! Last 10 years? Bollocks, they don't last any longer than good old fashioned bulbs.

And what's with all the bulbs in Tesco being screw ones? At least it seems like it because I have quite a collection of screw ones I don't need but don't realise until a bulb goes and I'm swearing like a navvy that there's none on the shelf that are bayonet and I can't take them back because I don't have a receipt.

Phew, that's better, thanks for the thread

Also, while we're on the subject, they all look horrible. Why dont they make bulbs that look like bulbs? These stick things are vile and sometimes they make a humming noise.

Oh yes. I'm not a Brexit fan but if they could fix this shit, I could be persuaded (shallow)

LED lights don't dim properly and they are too bright

and the halogens don't last

Placemarking so i can write down wherearemymarbles's tips

Thanks

Oh yes. I'm not a Brexit fan but if they could fix this shit, I could be persuaded

I didn’t vote Brexit either, but the Brexit campaign missed a trick in 2016... If their campaign included a pledge to return to the old bulbs, it would have won by a landslide!

Are the new bulbs really that much better for th environment I wonder... The cost of the new ones suggests a lots of work, and therefore energy, has gone into their manufacture!

I was looking for bulbs recently and all they seemed to have were those wanky filament ones that blind you.

YANBU. Fucking nightmare

All these energy saving ones that cost ££££ and the buggers can't even be bothered to light up immediately ! They seem to half heartedly come awake and by the time they're fully lit you've turned the fucker off .

My issue with demonising old light bulbs is that it is ok for bulbs lose heat in a COLD country.

I use bulbs in the dark usually in winter. Adding heat to my room is not a problem.

You can still buy old style bulbs if needed for industrial purposes. Like for inspection lights. I managed to track some down this way.

You look at the fitting....E27,B22 or whatever (bottom bit)

What does that actually mean/entail though? I can look at a fitting all the live long day but I still don’t know what bulb it needs.

There is also the LED/halogen issue.

Every bulb I buy seems to only want to spring into action three seconds after I turn it on.

My bugbear is with the plug in bulbs upstairs in the kids rooms.

Yeah plugging in a bulb is 10000x easier than balancing on a kitchen chair while trying to twist the bad boy in without getting the damn thing shattering in your hand.

Except these super whizzy plug in jobbies are a fiver each. And wilko doesn't sell them which means I have to order them online. A Fiver A Fucking Bulb.

I have found my people. CFT bayonet and screw in, LEDs, halogens, and two fitments that take GU10 two pin focused. Grrr.

wherearemymarbles I promise you, I’ve just screenshot your post. I’m saving it for the next bastarding visit to the lightbulb aisle. Thank you. And if the light ever goes back on again... I’ll see you on the other side

What was wrong with 100w, 60w, and 40w. That tells you how much power the bulb needs (10 hours of 100w = is the same as 1000w for 1 hour therefore 1 unit of electricity). Old bulbs put part of the power into light and a large proportion into heat. Newer bulbs put less into heat, more into light. So wattage doesn't tell you much about how much light you'll get.

Incidentally, IKEA sell useful adaptors that fit a bayonet socket and take a screw bottomed bulb.

My problem is that it is difficult to find lightbulbs that emit enough light for me. I have terrible eyesight and don't see well in low light levels. It is so hard to find lightbulbs that are over the equivalent of 100W in old money. It seems like everyone likes dim lighting, so that is what the supermarkets stock.

Best place to get light bulbs is Robert Dyas.

LED warm up instantly and are better than compact florescent. If you need to dim use halogen as the light gets warmer (yellower) as it dims whereas led gets a bit dimmer but retains the colour temperature which just gives a dim gloomy feel.

Oh my goodness I opened this thread half expecting to see it was a resurrected thread of something I started a few years ago.

I agree. Utterly baffling and most modern lights too dim.

I remember we had an added complexity when buying new light shades that they all seemed to have recommendations implying that any bulb giving off more light than an enfeebled glow worm would be dangerous and you used it at your peril.

I had that problem when our bedroom bulb blew a week ago. The DC and I must have spent about 20 minutes trying to work out which bulb to buy.