"Fanny by Gaslight"......
"Fanny by Gaslight"......
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Discussion

Tony*T3

Original Poster:

20,911 posts

265 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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Recieved some free 'low energy' light bulbs from our electricity supplier recently, so when the regular light bulb in our bedroom blew the other day, I decided to fit the new bulb, apparantly rated at 40 Watts (equivalent). Seems I can save both money and the planet by using them.....

For Feks sake, when you turn these things on they give off virtually no light!!! What the fek use are they? Its like going back to he 'dark ages' (literally) when people only had a candle to see by at night!!! Is this the best they can do?? I cant beleive the government is going to ban the sale of regualar light bulbs soon - have they even fitted these bulbs to Number 10 Downing street? If they had, surely they could see that they just dont work properly unless you leave the light on permanantly? And even then, theres no way these bulbs actually give out the amount of light they are allegedly rated for.

Progress? I dont think so. Must stock up on regular light bulbs now, other wise the future us decidedly gloomy...


Sheets Tabuer

20,476 posts

233 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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To be fair if you put an ordinary 40 watt bulb in your living room I doubt you will see anything.

crofty1984

16,547 posts

222 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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I have one in my bathroom. I'm sure the room actually gets darker when you switch it on.

hornetrider

63,161 posts

223 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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Couldn't agree more. And you wait til you smash the bulb and it leaks its nuclear powered goop all over your fingers eek

Mexico.

1,254 posts

205 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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I clicked this link thinking Fanny Sunesson furious

miniman

28,606 posts

280 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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My house has a number of ceiling lights that will **ONLY** accept a specific type of low-energy bulb. Guess how long before they go in the bin...

onomatopoeia

3,512 posts

235 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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The equivalent values are optomistic at best and they take a couple of minutes to reach full brightness.

A 40w incandescent bulb is not the brightest thing in the world to start with and you certainly wouldn't want to be reading by it. A "40w equivalent" energy saving bulb probably puts out as much light as a 25w incandescent, I'd suggest looking at getting the next rating up when replacing an incandescent with an energy saving bulb (e.g. 100w equiv to replace a 60w). Still uses a lot less energy (if your electricity bill matters to you) and lasts massively longer.

I don't subscribe to saving the planet, I do subscribe to reducing my electric bill and not needing to replace ligthbulbs all the bleeding time.

littleandy0410

1,745 posts

222 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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I'm not trying to defend ugly monstrosity energy saving bulbs (surely that's a lifetime ban in these parts?) but I think the free ones that come in the post are the older, slower ones, (and normally feckin massive too!) I think the more modern styled ones are a bit better. you only have to wait 7 hrs for it to warm up and kick out light, instead of 14.

M3CHA-MONK3Y

6,095 posts

213 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
quotequote all
They do take an age to 'warm up' but once they've been on a few minutes, there fine. As suggested, try a higher wattage if your not getting enough light.
I replaced most of the lights in the house with these and have noticed no difference in the light quality.

Mr Will

13,719 posts

224 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
quotequote all
I have a mix of energy saving and normal bulbs in my house.

The bathroom and ceiling lights all have normal bulbs though as these are only normally on for short periods of time and I want a bright light straight away.

Lights which stay on most of the time though, such as the lamps in the living room and bedroom, have energy savers as the long warm up time and slightly lower light levels do not matter here.

Strikes a good balance in my eyes!


GlenMH

5,364 posts

261 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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Have they managed to sort out the colour temperature of them yet?

I hate the "grey" light that comes off these lamps and would rather have a yellower, warmer colour.

telecat

8,528 posts

259 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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All the fittings that can take these bulbs have them in my house. I don't however use anything less than the 60W equivalent's and the Newer ones are better than the older. I would not ever have considered the 40W except in multiple fittings. I would personally avoid the ones sold by a large Scandinavian furniture outlet as most go very quickly and take the breaker with them. The GE and Philips ones are pretty good and have been used since we moved house 7 or 8 years ago.

SpydieNut

5,903 posts

241 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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clap

for the best title i've read in a while

laugh

jammy_basturd

29,778 posts

230 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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I'm sure I've read somewhere that the energy needed to create an 'energy-saving' bulb outweighs any energy saving gains it gives in a household? Could well be another internet "fact" though.

john_p

7,073 posts

268 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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I don't mind them too much, the energy saving bulbs are ridiculously cheap (go to Robert Dyas and they're probably still doing 10 for £1).

Plus who likes really bright lights anyway, they just show up all the places in the flat I haven't cleaned hehe


XMES RUS

1,318 posts

242 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
quotequote all
SpydieNut said:
clap

for the best title i've read in a while

laugh
what about Gas by Fannyfart - GF's could power a whole street

SpydieNut

5,903 posts

241 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
quotequote all
XMES RUS said:
SpydieNut said:
clap

for the best title i've read in a while

laugh
what about Gas by Fannyfart - GF's could power a whole street
well now, there's another thread entirely - quoted for posterity and you'd better hope your OH doesn't read here wink

hehe

Deva Link

26,934 posts

263 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
quotequote all
Sheets Tabuer said:
To be fair if you put an ordinary 40 watt bulb in your living room I doubt you will see anything.
They're a nightmare as you get older and you need tons more light to be able to read (think I read it's 10x at 60yrs vs 16yrs).

One of our electronics suppliers has components for cfl's to make them come on at full brightness (even at low temperatures) but it would add to the cost so no-one is interested.

HereBeMonsters

14,180 posts

200 months

Wednesday 15th April 2009
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Sounds like you've got some cheap ones (if they were free, they're bound to be).

For places where you need the light to come on quickly, we put more expensive ones in. They take far less time to "warm up", and save us at least 10 pence a year on electric. I swear.