to really really dislike energy saving lightbulbs..?

[LoisGriffin]

So I have to pop into dd's bedroom to change sheets/find something. I turn on the light. About five minutes later it's light enough to see but it's a horrible gloomy light.
I put old style planet killing energy draining lightbulb in place. And I turn light on. I can see immediately!! In and out in the smallest amount of time I can bear to spend in there.

Vile things. I had one - it made me suicidal.

I would happily jettison 100 polar bears into the sun, napalm every rainforest in Brazil and melt the biggest ice flow I could find, if it meant never having one in the house again.

Sod global warming, I need to farking see.

I hate them. You can't even buy the traditional 100watt ones any more. I don't beleive the energy savers are greener anyway, they are full of poisonous gases.

We have some in the house (in places like DD1's room where it's better not to see too well) but frankly, I reckon they were better off in the 1800s with candles.

They are useless crap and I hate that they go around saying they are just the same. No one could possibly think that.

DH triumphantly came home with a box of ten for 99p (for the entire box of ten!!) from Dunelm the other week.

He was so pleased I didn't like to point out that they will be like lighting a match in a football stadium. Big, coily, useless things.

And to be extremely shallow about it - they are very ugly.

We have some nice lights that require candle bulbs. Most of the energy-saving ones are the wrong shape and just look 'orrible.

But dh is pretty green, so we have a motley collection of them. Sigh.

What brand is it Slightlymad? Am looking for better once than I've found. Has anyone discovered any that actually work with dimmer switches?

How can they be green if they are full of dodgy mercury?

Didn't they get rid of barometers because of mercury risk?

Precisely Herbie....we have somre pretty toxic chemicals in our lab at work - but we had to get rid of all of the mercury thermometers. It is only a risk if they are broken...but they are made of glass so not an impossibility

I don't know what brand TBH and it isn't a very accessible bulb as it is on the landing. I will see if I can see any markings on it in situ (it is not easy to get out without risking killing myself) tomorrow when it is light. A supplier at work was giving them away, but could have been any of them. It might be GE electric.

I think there are some that work with dimmers (or they are due on teh market soon).

Now don't go getting on a ladder and getting yourself into a Damien situation with a toddler on a little bike wheeling up and down the hallway...

Ok - i have just checked (and survived to tell the the tale!)

The bulb on my landing is an Ikea 11W 50/60Hz.

Seems OK....but then I don't spend much time on my landing.

I friggin hate them too! Especially the one in the upstairs hallway where my vanity mirror lurks - waiting for a peek. Maybe it is a good thing that the light is so poor the initial five minutes - just long enough for the make-up to be done, all sins hidden and not seen I guess.

Friggin hate them.

Sniff. Well, I'll get me coat shall I?!

YABU

You have the wrong kind of energy saving lightbulb then.

I have two 100W equivalent ones that I bought from Aldi, in my bedroom, they fire up instantly and are bright and clear as a tungsten. I can sew and read, no problem.

Dim, slow, flickery buzzy bulbs are either too old or very cheap and nasty.

They can be taken for recycling if surplus, or moved to a room you don't need to be so bright.

The bulbs to look out for are the new LED ones - still horribly expensive and fairly 'first generation' according to the man in john lewis bulb department yesterday (when I was trying to buy a low energy light bulb for a kitchen spotlight).

They only carry a few, having looked on the internet there seem to be a bigger range and cheaper than John Lewis. JL are charging about £20 a bulb, online there seem to be some for about £10, no idea of relative quality. Have also spotted them being used in my local homebase quite a few of their demo lights, no idea what their prices are. One thing that was noticeable though was that the temperature of the lighting display area (usually warm from all the lights on!) was much cooler than usual.

But - JL ones at least - have a lifetime expectancy of 50,000 hours (he reckoned about 40 years), they are instantly bright, they are a better tone of white light than they used to be, they are much more energy efficient - along the lines of they only use 10% of the power of a bulb (I think an energy saving one but not sure) so should save at least £10/year per bulb in electricity. Also no mercury, lots less heat generated, much more robust, and lots of other advantages that I have forgotten now. Unfortunately not yet dimmable but as this is still early days for them, hopefully they are undergoing lots of development and they will be getting brighter and dimmable and cheaper!

anyhow, might be worth keeping a look out for them... not sure if there is anybody else out there who knows any more about them, I don't know much!

The "traditional" low energy bulbs have been 5 for £1 at Tesco recently so not exactly breaking the bank.

My main gripe is that you don't know until you've bought & switched on whether the light is white or yellow or pink or blue or green - I've had all 5 from different makes.

now until I moved into this house, where the landlords agent had "kindly" put new bulbs in for me before I moved in I didn't know what people were on about.

I had energy saving bulbs in my old house, they NEVER took ages to switch on, they NEVER buzzed and they ALWAYS gave good light..........

He must have found the crappest bloody ones going as I have all 3 of those issues with them.

And now I've lost the sodding website that someone linked to on oa previous thread not long ago about these bulbs which had the (quite pricey) daylight energy saving bulbs.................

oops.

meant to say apparently the bulbs to look out for are the led ones, didn't mean to be quite so forthright .

I'm sure there are other new sorts of energy saving ones under development too!

Almost all bulbs in our house are low energy, and we don't have any problems at all.

I haven't the faintest what make they are - possibly phillips?

A 40-year lifespan? They'd see me out.

Hate teh type of light from conventional energy saving bulbs, very cold