Light bulbs - incandescent, long lasting?

[Murph7355]

I posted similar a fair while ago when replacing bulbs in a couple of fittings in my house (the only ones using filament bulbs) became a chore, and crankedup pointed me at "rough service" filament bulbs.

The first batches I bought were "Bell" brand, and to be fair worked brilliantly - bulbs didn't blow for over 12mths where they'd been going every 3mths or so. Latterly, the only replacements I can find are "Every Ready" branded and, frankly, are ste. Back to the bad old days of bulbs blowing regularly.

Does anyone have any recommendations for good quality filament bulbs that don't pop just by looking at them?

I'd move to LED bulbs, but these are in chandelier type fittings and I don't like the aesthetics of the current LED crop when the lights are off (granted not as often as should happen having a wife and two small kids!). Bulbs are clear candles.

LED filament bulbs are the nicest looking and when on give very similar light to the std bulbs, but the LED filaments are bright orange when off which doesn't look so good. All others I've seen have nasty plastic elements showing.

I'm about to search for halogen alternatives, but thought I'd ask on here too as it usually works a treat

[dhutch]

Will watch with interest.

Halogen are just incandescents in an inert gas so they can burn brighter and more efficient, almost the opposite of rough service bulbs which are designed to be physically tough to withstand knocks.

Assuming they are not getting a physical beating, a given duty cycle*, lamp life is down to quality control. And I could well imagine that filaments are getting less common whats left on the consumer marketplace is the lower quality end.

NB *On/off is the killer, other then total duration, but also even a very slight reduction in brightness via a dimmer increases life hugely.

- Osram always used to be a brand of quality, which they appear to have carried through to the LEDvance range.
- Sylvania where often cited as the brand of choice for GU10 spots and we had good success with them in the day.
- Crompton still seem to be about.
- Philips obviously a big name player.

I have stuck on the Osram frosted-filament LED based GLS BC for the bulk of our new house, available in 4w and 7w warm white inc dimmable they are as close to a traditional bulb/lamp as I have found as yet, which would hide the yellow you talk of but not give you a clear bulb.

We have some chandelier type fittings waiting to fit and I am hoping I will be ok with the yellow look as it will be one of our main rooms and 6 bulbs over two fittings so LED would be a worthy saving in electricity and time.


Daniel

[peterperkins]

If you don't mind them 50% dimmer stick a 400v 6A diode in series with the supply and this will cut the power in half.

Or as has been suggested a dimmer switch to lower the brightness a bit.

[dhutch]

These are the Osram Parathom filament bulbs I have been using, appears cpc have stopped stocking the dimmable ones:
https://cpc.farnell.com/osram/4058075061736/lamp-l...
https://cpc.farnell.com/osram/4058075061798/lamp-l...
https://cpc.farnell.com/osram/4058075817036/lamp-l...
https://www.ledbulbs.co.uk/products/osram-5w-parat...
https://www.any-lamp.co.uk/osram-parathom-retrofit...

https://www.ledvance.com/professional/products/lam...

[Murph7355]

Thanks guys.

One set of lights already has a dimmer. The other doesn't. No real difference in longevity of bulbs between them.

My strong suspicion is lack of QC on the bulbs. You can see that the filaments in the newer bulbs aren't as sturdy as the ones in the original Bell "Rough Service".

The Osram ones all have the yellow/orange filaments. One chandelier has 8 lights and is chrome/silver. The LED filaments really show and do my OCD no good So they don't work for me. Similarly frosted bulbs wouldn't look right either unfortunately.

If someone did silver filament LED filament bulbs they'd be perfect, but I suspect that's technically not doable