Energy efficient lightbulbs: are there any brands that are actually capable of lighting a room?

[spiralqueen]

Our EE lightbulbs take an age to come on and when they do eventually get as bright as they are going to get you can only read if you are directly under them. Other than restricting reading to daylight hours, putting more lights on (which seems to defeat the object) or investing in a miner's helmet are there any brands that give off enough light to make it worth switching them on in the first place?

Yes definitely, but the problem is I don't know which they are!

Our local school and church did a special investigation of this, trying out all the different brands for light quality and speed of switching on, and then chose the best. The ones we've ended up with seem to be as quick and to give out as much light as incandescent bulbs.

One of the Radio4 programmes did an investigation, or talked about an investigation recently, so you might be able to find something there.

Did MoneySavingExpert do a survey? I know Which? did but you may have to pay for the results.

Will have a look - thanks!

no, imo there isn't

it got to the point where we were just leaving the lights on all the time because if you want to just nip into the room to grab something and you have to wait 5 mins to see anything it is bloody annoying.

We only have one in the hallway now

Bright bulbs.

I'll ask the churchwarden next time I see him and post here which one he recommends.

Oldlady - thanks for the tip!

I found some 25% energy saving halogen light bulbs (with ordinary fittings) by GE in B&Q, can't find them online but they are great in that they actually do light up the room properly but you get some energy saving too, they're not cheap though.

Yes there is, I've just managed to find some but I can't remember the make, think it might be Phillips? I'll check and let you know tomorrow. They are new on the Market and are called 'Turbo' they light up to maximum intensity immediatly, trouble is they are quite expensive think I paid around £5.00 in Homebase, I've also seen them in Sainsburys.
I really hated waiting so long for the other ones to 'light up'
Will check the make and report back tomorrow.
Regards
Rhiane

Morrisons were still selling 'real' bulbs of 60 watt last week. I bought loads.

We have one good one. It is in DDs room so I will check it and let you know the brand tomorrow.

As far as I remember it is the equivalent of 125 watts in old money.

Thanks everyone - looking forward to your recommendations

We have some fluorescent ones about 20 Watts from Aldi - two of those are fine to light up a big room enough for sewing and very quick to light up.