Recommend me a desk lamp (please).

[DaveR]

Well, not me, actually...

My wife works from home a fair bit and bases herself in our dining room which has one south-west facing window six feet from the table and six 50W halogens in the ceiling. She insists on having these on all through the day not because it's physically impossible to see a laptop keyboard without them but, "because it's dingy".

Burning 300W all day is utterly senseless in my book so I'm after better solutions. Anyone got any bright (sorry) ideas? Quality of light is the main consideration.

Thanks in advance...

[Aviz]

http://www.fototo.co.uk/products/14/96/mr_p_lamp/

[DavidY]

Replace the halogens with Compact Fluorescents or LED bulbs. (CFLs are generally available in two colour temperatures, suggest you look at the high temperature for a more 'office' light)

[DaveR]

DavidY said:

Replace the halogens with Compact Fluorescents or LED bulbs...

I believe there's a PH'er somewhere whose business is in this area and has some very nice LED GU10 solutions I'm not looking to make that kind of investment at the mo, however. We've also just built a double garage with home-office room above for which a desk lamp will also be needed so if someone suggests a suitably ace one to go for, I'll probably get two.

[DavidY]

I just paid about £7 each for some CFLs *though I did buy 40) and LED lights really aren't that expensive, especially compared with a decent desk lamp

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Lighting_Me...

[Aviz]

DaveR said:

I believe there's a PH'er somewhere whose business is in this area and has some very nice LED GU10 solutions I'm not looking to make that kind of investment at the mo, however. We've also just built a double garage with home-office room above for which a desk lamp will also be needed so if someone suggests a suitably ace one to go for, I'll probably get two.

E36GUY - he's just helping me with some LED lamp queries

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?h=0...

[E36GUY]

Aviz said:

E36GUY - he's just helping me with some LED lamp queries

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/profile.asp?h=0...

DavidY said:

Replace the halogens with Compact Fluorescents or LED bulbs. (CFLs are generally available in two colour temperatures, suggest you look at the high temperature for a more 'office' light)

Do NOT do this. LED bulbs are not ready to replace 50W Halogen. Not by a long shot and I hate to see people wasting money on them. Please see my other posts on the subject (search in this section).

[jimmyjimjim]

DavidY said:

I just paid about £7 each for some CFLs *though I did buy 40) and LED lights really aren't that expensive, especially compared with a decent desk lamp

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Lighting_Me...

Bugger me, I get upset at having to pay $7 for 4 of them; got most of mine for about $1.50 each.

[E36GUY]

DavidY said:

I just paid about £7 each for some CFLs *though I did buy 40) and LED lights really aren't that expensive, especially compared with a decent desk lamp

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Lighting_Me...

Jeezus wept. These people are part of the problem. A bunch of chancers that know nothing about lighting importing cheap chinese rubbish jumping on the green bandwagon. Fair enough I suppose but they are offering poor advice. "Replace your inefficient lamps they claim." Yeah ok but look at their GU10 LED lamp...only 240 lumens which is less than half the light output that you get from a mains voltage 50W GU10 and only a third of what you could expect of a low voltage 50W MR16 halogen. Avoid.

[Mr Pointy]

I use one of these from the Daylight Company. They have other designs on the website as well & sometimes you can find them on eBay at quite a saving.

http://uk.daylightcompany.com/category/desk-lamps/
http://uk.daylightcompany.com/product/pl-reading-l...

[Cupramax]

Aviz said:

That's great!

[DavidY]

E36GUY

I haven't bought lamps from TLC, I use a local lighting advisor in an electrical factors, who put me in touch with the Illuma rep for my requirements. I just used TLC as an example (obviously not a good one in your books!)

[E36GUY]

DavidY said:

E36GUY

I haven't bought lamps from TLC, I use a local lighting advisor in an electrical factors, who put me in touch with the Illuma rep for my requirements. I just used TLC as an example (obviously not a good one in your books!)

Phew! I just can't bare hearing of people wasting money on stuff that doesn't perform!