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.

pinkcandy if they're squinting myopically at the boxes, it'll be me.

If you Google it you get different answers. I guesstimate by using the first digit of the old one to do the new one so 60w becomes 6w. And so on.

DH bought me lightbulbs for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. It's difficult to feign excitement when presented with a box of lightbulbs. They are smart bulbs. I was perfectly happy with the thick bulbs really. Now I have to fanny about with an app on my phone, which I've always left in the kitchen or in my bag or upstairs, instead of just switching the bloody lamp on at the switch.

Can I add weird light fittings? I have a bathroom light, in fact I have two of the bastard things because we fitted one in each bathroom
Imagine a glass dome, three of them in various sizes. Surround them by glass circles in various sizes. Add three silver screws to every dome, plus two clear washers for every screw. Add in that the biggest glass dome is too big to hold with one hand so I have to hold it with my arm, glass circle with my hand while trying not to drop the see through washers... repeat x 3
It took me 15 minutes last time. To change ONE bulb
< breathes heavily >

In fact I may have uttered the words "what's wrong with a normal bulb and a bloody lampshade on it" and I'm only 34
Generally ring my dad as he seems to have a photographic memory for stuff like all his previous car registrations and what fitting every single bulb is in my house. He can't remember when I was born but you know, win some...

Thank god it’s not just me! We need a couple of new bulbs and DH keeps putting them on th shopping list and I keep coming home without them as I have no clue what to buy. And I now feel slightly panicky when he mentions it. I’ve told him that I now don’t DO lightbulb shopping. Too hard. And then he laughs at me. And we still don’t have the lightbulbs as he has been either sick with flu or away on business for the last few weeks.

Tomorrow I will study this thread and note it all on my phone and go shopping and buy bulbs without fear. Maybe........

I'm not even in the UK, but my lounge room is currently three bulbs down and has been for months because every time I try to buy them at the supermarket I walk away empty-handed, or with the wrong fitting having tried with all my might to find the right wattage. wtf?

Irene

Your DH bought you lightbulbs for your birthday!!!!! Seriously?

LTB!!!

Smart fucking bulbs! (Smarter than him though, clearly).

Thank you to the person who said they bought light bulbs that were supposed to last years and then tech changed

I was wondering what the hell happened there.

I am also finding that some of the new light bulbs give me a headache but I've lost the plot what kind. It's the spotlights - my flat isn't new new, about 20 years old, so probably had spotlights when they were new? Anyway, it was fine when I moved in, but I've now had to remove some and use a lamp because if they are in my line of vision I get a massive headache.

does anyone know what kind of bulb that might be or if I can avoid it?

It's a tiny flat so I haven't really got the floor space for the lamps. But after a few months of headaches and trips to the optician I realised what was wrong - the bloody bulbs have altered in some way.

sorry for the rant. I don't think anyone should need a PhD in lightbulbs.

Miaow - that's sounds brilliant. Where do you get the SMART bulbs from ? (And are they more than my £ per lightbulb budget!)

I bought one for a lamp but it was brighter than the sun

I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out which ones I needed yesterday 😂

its awful now-i end up taking the olld lightbulb with me if i havent kept the box

i still try and get them in pundland i dont care if they dont last im not paying 6 quid a fucking bulb

Me too, a real challenge to bring the correct one back!

My mum gets her lightbulbs from NASA I’m sure. Her house can probably be seen from space, it’s that bright.

The sort of bulbs she has are the ones that burn your retinas if you make the mistake of looking at the lamp or light fitting. I hate them.

I prefer more atmospheric lighting (i e whatever bulb fits that’s the cheapest.).

Alexa is evil. Stop doing it