100 watt light bulbs

[muckymurphy 10]

i prefer bulbs that are full brightness at the click of a switch, not ones that light my way after i've got to the bottom of the stairs. i prefer economical to a tube of mercury etc. some capsule and halogen type bulbs have a very short real-life lifespan. i once fitted 1,000 or so longlife megaman bulbs in a new build, they were 9 watts each i think. about 10% had to be replaced within 3 or 4 months. at £6.50 per bulb, that's no joke. the 50 watt halogens fared just as badly. i am hopeful that led technology will advance to a point where the light is as good as incandescent. i regularly need to read resistor colour codes and some bulbs can skew the colours so much it is quicker to measure the resistance instead.

i will worry about global warming when my fuel bills start to plummet. but the lights will go out when the coal fired power stations are shut down and we have to buy unaffordable electric from the french.

thanks for all the advice, i will follow up some of these leads.

[Ravenger 10]

I bought some LED bulbs recently, and though expensive, the light is very bright. Best of all they only use a few watts of power.

 

Three R50 LED spotlights in my attic of 4 watts each are way brighter than the compact fluorescent 11 watt spots they replaced.

[Dannyno 19]

i prefer bulbs that are full brightness at the click of a switch, not ones that light my way after i've got to the bottom of the stairs. i prefer economical to a tube of mercury etc. some capsule and halogen type bulbs have a very short real-life lifespan. i once fitted 1,000 or so longlife megaman bulbs in a new build, they were 9 watts each i think. about 10% had to be replaced within 3 or 4 months. at £6.50 per bulb, that's no joke. the 50 watt halogens fared just as badly. i am hopeful that led technology will advance to a point where the light is as good as incandescent. i regularly need to read resistor colour codes and some bulbs can skew the colours so much it is quicker to measure the resistance instead.

i will worry about global warming when my fuel bills start to plummet. but the lights will go out when the coal fired power stations are shut down and we have to buy unaffordable electric from the french.

thanks for all the advice, i will follow up some of these leads.

 

The big energy users are industrial, not the likes of us. But that doesn't mean it's not worth our while reducing our own energy use. It does make sense. But I guess people won't do it if they suffer some minor inconvenience for the sake of a long term issue they won't live to suffer through.

 

I've got an energy saving lightbulb in my cellar. It comes on straight away at full brightness, no problems. And it's been there for over a year so far. Previous bulbs in the same position failed much more often.

 

I like instant brightness too, so it does matter that energy saving lightbulbs match up to traditional ones. Colour is less significant to me, I understand the issues of people for whom it is important.

 

However, when it comes to entering a room to get something, or going up stairs, I don't really need instant brightness, something dimmer at first would do the job fine and be much more economical. So if I'm honest my preference for instant brightness is just irrational. On the other hand, when I sit down to read a book I don't want light that warms up.

 

Anyway, as I say, I've found newer energy saving bulbs to be fine.

 

As for mercury content, flourescent lights also contain mercury and there haven't been scare stories about them.

[Alcoblog 10]

I can't be bothered with all this energy saving rubbish to be honest. My house is belightened by a series of 3,500 megawatt bulbs (working on 3 phase), which pump out more power than the Sun.

'Ray Ban' make a fortune out of me, as the glasses melt after about half an hour.

Sheffield dims at night when I go to the toilet.

[queenswood 10]

Sismans in Wicker. Good old fashioned shop. Sells every kind.

[maryjane 11]

hardware store at Greenhill shops.

[SUPERDREAM 10]

Them "energy" bulbs are ok in certain rooms, but not in the lav, they take TOO long to come on, so if you are rushing for a No2 after a ruby, and its dark there is a chance you may miss the pot in your haste, and redecorate the bath........urgh.

[andysm 17]

Philips have a range of low-energy ones that come on instantly. I have them in my hallway and landing.

[Strix 11]

It's the green label that bugs me... how many people poison the planet shoving them in the bin like they've always done with their bulbs??

 

We have dimmer switches in most rooms. It's a pain finding dimmable energy saving bulbs

[Dan_Ashcroft 10]

The hardware shop in Broomhill (Williamsons) have a good selection including proper 100w ones.

[Mordant 10]

Microwave sulphur lamps are nice and bright.

[yellowperil 10]

The new cree or smd bulbs are excellent. I have some in my kitchen and they are easily as bright as the 50 watt halogens they replaced, they run cool so are safer and light instantly and at 4watts each they use less than 10% of the power of the halogens too,thats over 90% cheaper to run.

My living room fittings are 2x five arm chandeliers and they have smd bulbs in them too

Same saving on each and my bedroom is the same but capsule bulbs.

They are available in cool white and warm white and i dont regret buying them one bit.

Try "each buyer" website, all from china and cheapest i found.

My bedside lamps give a nice warm glow and are 1.5w each compared to the 40w each they were!

Basically i could leave them on all day and night and they would still run cheaper than the others.