Energy saving bulbs about to destroy my house?

[davido140]

In an effort to help save the planet (ok, reduce my electricity bill) I've deployed the dreaded energy saving bulbs throughout the house.

Odd think is though they make my distribution unit buzz like a wasp trapped under a glass! Doesnt sound healthy at all.

Is it about to burst into flames?

[missdiane]

I know they don't like dimmers, not aware of owt else they don't like, I have them wherever possible, never had to replace one yet

[driverrob]

I know dimmer switches always have labels on saying they're for filament lamps only.
I did replace one old low energy bulb recently that had become quite dim and orangey. It was about 10 years old, I think.

[Kurtblythman]

I rember a year or two ago i got some free ones. Took about 10 mins before they got up to full brightness.
Soon went in the bin as i could of done a better job brighting up the room with a lighter.

[MitchT]

missdiane said:

I have them wherever possible

Yeah, me too... that outside light. That's it. Remind me to invest in Anti-Depressant manufacturers just before the powers-that-be ban normal bulbs altogether.

[Jasandjules]

I reckon they were invented by opticians, because in a few years if you use them I'm pretty sure your eyesight will suffer.

[Pigeon]

Wha? They give a jolly good light. If I compare my place - which is entirely lit by fluorescent tubes and CFLs - with pretty well anyone else's house that I can think of, my place is very nearly the only one where I can actually see what I'm bloody doing. The only reason it isn't the only one is that one of my mates also uses CFLs.

"Designed by opticians" is more appropriate as a denigration of the fancy-arsed st fittings that everyone else has, where the designer has forgotten to provide any means for the light to get out, so you can only tell the bloody light is on at all by looking directly at it.

People moan about CFLs because they won't fit in these pointlessly st fittings and they somehow can't work out that that is a failing of the fitting, not the bulb. Change the bloody fitting for a sensible one, install a CFL and hey wow, you might actually be able to see something.

It is however disappointing that the manufacturers have not taken advantage of the much lower heat output of CFLs to avoid the somewhat artificial limit on light output of a conventional light fitting. Normal bulbs don't come any bigger than 150W because over that size they produce too much heat and cook the fitting and everything around it, indeed even 150W is a bit dodgy and 100W is far more common as a maximum size. Unfortunately the CFL manufacturers refuse to produce a CFL that does more than be equivalent to the light output of a 100W bulb. What I want is a CFL that is as thermally limited, like an incandescent bulb - a 100W CFL that produces light equivalent to a 400W normal bulb. Get some really good lighting then.

[tomTVR]

CFLs produce a whiter light though, like in a public toilet. Normal bulbs feel more homely.

[minimax]

tomTVR said:

CFLs produce a whiter light though, like in a public toilet. Normal bulbs feel more homely.

..some sort of lampshade called for then?

[tomTVR]

minimax said:

tomTVR said:

CFLs produce a whiter light though, like in a public toilet. Normal bulbs feel more homely.

..some sort of lampshade called for then?

I must remember to pack the larger of my two lampshades!

[grumbledoak]

Er, can you just change them all back and see what happens? You didn't throw out working bulbs, I assume?

I don't like them. The give an unpleasant light, take ages to warm up, and they contain mercury. And they won't save you any significant amount of money, or the planet (google e.g. 'Power Factor').

[minimax]

on a serious note, I find that energy saving bulbs are a waste of time for overhead lights, but good for reading lamps, etc.. but what really pisses me off is this "green" movement behind them.

I am sure that all the fancy packaging, the fancy bending of the tubes in to that strange design that these bulbs have and the fact that you have to use more of them completely outweighs the benefits of using less juice..

plus, what about all the new machinery, tooling, factories, etc used to set up production? as opposed to the existing stuff that's been in use practically unchanged for decades.. how carbon neutral is that?

and while i'm on the subject, these bloody wind turbines, I read a study from the guvvinmint, innit (it was linked on here, IIRC) showing that in terms of carbon neutrality, they cost far more to dig the raw materials out and manufacture them in to an actual bloody windmill (let alone transport cost in shipping, lorries and opportunity cost of land they're placed on et al) than they save in bloody carbon emissions!

W.T.F is that all about?

I demand to know which tossers pulled the wool over peoples eyes!

I mean, people who read the grauniad... they aren't stupid per se? I mean, they can string together sentences, they know roughly which way round to hold a knife? some of them are even reasonable people FFS so why is it that they propagate such bullshiit to us and the rubes?

oh my, i'm going to have to go outside for a bit

but it's fking raining

arrrrgh!

edited for speelung and because i'm calming down now.. it's been ages since i've had a good rant on here

Edited by minimax on Friday 5th September 21:44

[Pigeon]

minimax said:

on a serious note, I find that energy saving bulbs are a waste of time for overhead lights, but good for reading lamps, etc.. but what really pisses me off is this "green" movement behind them.

I am sure that all the fancy packaging, the fancy bending of the tubes in to that strange design that these bulbs have and the fact that you have to use more of them completely outweighs the benefits of using less juice..

Yeah, I think the eco-bks aspect of them is bks too. But "use more of them"? You use a lot less of them, they last for ages, you don't have to keep changing the fking things every few weeks like you do with incandescent bulbs - it's one of the best things about them.

But who gives a st if they contain mercury, so do ordinary fluorescent tubes but nobody seems to have realised that - why have they not realised? Because it doesn't do you any harm, so there's no reason why anyone should notice. The thermometers that doctors and nurses use contain mercury too, and they put those in your mouth.

[Jasandjules]

Pigeon said:

Wha? They give a jolly good light. If I compare my place - which is entirely lit by fluorescent tubes and CFLs - with pretty well anyone else's house that I can think of, my place is very nearly the only one where I can actually see what I'm bloody doing.

Really?

I had a 60W bulb in the Study which lit it up ok, then got a Free one of these energy efficient bulbs in the post, and gave it a go. I could not read documents at the desk without a bit of eyestrain. I took the bulb back out and put in an old one, and hey presto, I could read documents again.

[Richjam]

But who gives a st if they contain mercury, so do ordinary fluorescent tubes but nobody seems to have realised that - why have they not realised? Because it doesn't do you any harm, so there's no reason why anyone should notice. The thermometers that doctors and nurses use contain mercury too, and they put those in your mouth.

[/quote]

Erm mercury thermometers have been banned for medical use for quite a few years;) on safety grounds!

[Munter]

Jasandjules said:

Pigeon said:

Wha? They give a jolly good light. If I compare my place - which is entirely lit by fluorescent tubes and CFLs - with pretty well anyone else's house that I can think of, my place is very nearly the only one where I can actually see what I'm bloody doing.

Really?

I had a 60W bulb in the Study which lit it up ok, then got a Free one of these energy efficient bulbs in the post, and gave it a go. I could not read documents at the desk without a bit of eyestrain. I took the bulb back out and put in an old one, and hey presto, I could read documents again.

When was the last time you got anything good for free?

"I had a free pen and it only lasted 1 day. All pens are st."?

[eldar]

Pigeon said:

minimax said:

The thermometers that doctors and nurses use contain mercury too, and they put those in your mouth.

Not any more, the EU is banning mercury....

http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/EuroBrief6200...

[Pigeon]

Jasandjules said:

Pigeon said:

Wha? They give a jolly good light. If I compare my place - which is entirely lit by fluorescent tubes and CFLs - with pretty well anyone else's house that I can think of, my place is very nearly the only one where I can actually see what I'm bloody doing.

Really?

I had a 60W bulb in the Study which lit it up ok, then got a Free one of these energy efficient bulbs in the post, and gave it a go. I could not read documents at the desk without a bit of eyestrain. I took the bulb back out and put in an old one, and hey presto, I could read documents again.

Presumably then they had given you a st CFL which was not the equivalent of a 60W bulb. You want one rated at at least 15W for that. I bet they only gave you an 11W one - which is more or less the equivalent of a 40W bulb, which nobody uses because they're st - you see the morons are on the attack again, they want people to use these things to save energy but they are so up it on the energy-saving thing that they go too far and hand out bulbs which are too small to be any good, result is everyone assumes all CFLs are too small to be any good and don't bother with them, morons dancing around holding bullet wound in foot.

[Pigeon]

eldar said:

Pigeon said:

The thermometers that doctors and nurses use contain mercury too, and they put those in your mouth.

Not any more, the EU is banning mercury....

http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/EuroBrief6200...

fk the EU.

I can't think of any more intellectual comment to make when I read stuff like that.

[grumbledoak]

Pigeon said:

fk the EU.

"Amen" to that!

But I don't quite "get" your position. Do you make or sell these things?