Energy Saving Bulbs

[FarmerPug]

Does anyone think these are better than ordinary bulbs

[highlander]

I've changed one energy saving bulb in 6 years of living in this flat; they last ages and don't use as much energy.

Unfortunately they're a bit dimmer than normal filament bulbs and take longer to warm up.

Apparently LED bulbs are brighter, light up instantly, and use even less energy than normal energy-saving bulbs - but they cost more. They're also nowhere near as common at the moment. Give it a year or so and they'll be almost as common.

[DaiRees]

I don't mind energy savers but SWMBO insisted on having dimmers in most rooms so I can't use energy savers in those rooms. I know you can get dimmable ones but have you seen the price of them?? I've mostly got energy savers in table lamps and standard lamps which we use most of the time, hardly ever have the ceiling lights on anyway! . As I type the living room is adequately lit by 1 11W lamp.

Actually I've got one of those energy monitor thingies and right now it's showing 610W. Considering there's 3 TVs on, 2 laptops (both plugged in), 1 PC, a variety of lights and loads of other stuff like fridge, freezer, the central heating (electric pump), sky boxes, DVD players, fish tank light / filter / heater and all the stuff that's on standby, I reckon that's pretty good!

I bought some of them LED bulbs for the kitchen to replace 6 of the 12 50W GU10s that are in there but they were shyte. Paid about £5 each from China on Ebay, they were supposed to be equivalent brightness but they were dim, too directional, crap colour tone and to rub salt in the first one blew in under a week. Fair play to the seller he sent me another one, but then another one blew and another so I had a strop and he gave me a full refund. Dunno whether it was 'cos they were cheapies but I'm staying away from them for now...

[Gary406]

i have energy saver bulbs throu out my house, i find them great, i bought the high watt ones which i think are very bright

[steve_earwig]

Here's one we did earlier viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8192&p=79053&hilit=mercury#p79053

I see mercury filled thermometers are being banned now, how stupid is that?

They're a mistake our descendants will be cursing us for as the mercury leeches out of landfills for the next millennium.

[FarmerPug]

Im doing a big stock up of the old ones, hopefully ebay will always be selling them.

[DaiRees]

Here's one we did earlier viewtopic.php?f=5&t=8192&p=79053&hilit=mercury#p79053

Thought there was an air of familiarity to this....

[Gary406]

yo dia, were did u get that energy monitor from mate ?

[DaiRees]

Maplins mate, but there are lots of deals with energy suppliers where they'll give you one cheap or free... Who's your energy supplier?

[neildavies]

I bought one on ebay for £20 inc postage

[TooT]

I got mine free from NPower. I love going round switching stuff on and then off to see how much they costs

[rwb]

The normal ones are really harsh and bright: great in the bathroom and kitchen, but not what you want in the living room or bedroom

You can get "soft" coloured ones which are ok -- I have one in my lamp in the office.

Got a load of cheap ones from Tesco. They're noisy (buzzing) for the first 10 minutes or so, and the lifetime seems very variable: changed at roughly the same time, the living room is on its third but the kitchen and bathroom are both on their first.

[Doggy]

I see mercury filled thermometers are being banned now, how stupid is that?

They're a mistake our descendants will be cursing us for as the mercury leeches out of landfills for the next millennium.

Might go some way to offsetting the mercury from all these low energy lamps.

Actually I've got one of those energy monitor thingies and right now it's showing 610W. Considering there's 3 TVs on, 2 laptops (both plugged in), 1 PC, a variety of lights and loads of other stuff like fridge, freezer, the central heating (electric pump), sky boxes, DVD players, fish tank light / filter / heater and all the stuff that's on standby, I reckon that's pretty good!

Bet you don't know how much of that the energy monitor's using

[FarmerPug]

I would laugh if the monitor actually used more than all that put together unlikely but it would be funny.
As for energy monitors the speed the meter disk turns is a good indicator of how much your using (if equipped in your house) i know in my house it turns at a very slow and unnoticeable pace, wheras out at the farm where there is 12 mushroom houses with each with a seperate computer control unit, lights, a/c, fans etc and 3 farm sheds one with a big fridge for holding full pallets of mushrooms. The disk for the farms gague fairly spins i reckon if you used it to drvie a motor you could get back quite a lot of electricty, spins at least 2 revolutions per second.