Lightbulbs - A hexus reference guide

[Sputnik]

I would be nice if we were allowed to choose what we want rather than being forced into buying a product we don't want.

I don't like fluorescent lighting and I will always buy filament type bulbs if they are available.

My mother bought some of those cheap curly energy saving ones from an 'old dears magazine' and 2 of them exploded in the first week - no injuries just gave her a surprise!

[Butcher]

On the savings thing - it definitely exists. Even if your energy savers only last as long as a typical filament lamp (1000 hours) you save loads of electricity:

100W bulb, 1000 hours = 100kW/h.
30W bulb, 1000 hours = 30kW/h.

So at worst you're better off if the purchase price of the bulb is less than 70 kW/h of electricity. For me the least a kW/h of electricity costs is 5.08p, and that's the overnight rate. That would give a saving of £3.55. A more realistic daytime rate of 10p means you save around £7 in electricity. So even with these bulbs costing a quid or two, you still save money if they only last as long as a normal bulb.

Personally I'm mostly on energy savers - 11W in the hallway, 15W for most other stuff, 20W in the kitchen. I also managed to find an 11W spotlight fitting that fits my desk lamp.

That said, I have a freestanding uplighter in the lounge with a 300W halogen bulb in. Take that earth.