Incandescent versus fluorescent candle bulbs

Tesco online groceries only have ONE type of candle bulb with standard bayonet cap and that is a 7W fluorescent type for £3.60. Three pounds and sixty pence for ONE friggin' bulb!

But on Amazon I can find loads of the "old-fashioned" element 60W bulbs at a fraction of the price, e.g. Sylvania pack of 10 for £4.99 (or 20 for £7.99). Given that I have just replaced one "old-fashioned" bulb for the first time in 9 years, £3.60 seems an excessive amount to pay when I could fit the old style for around 50 pence for another 9 years. These are the wall lights in the front room and are not switched on much.

How come the "modern" fluorescent bulbs are so expensive? Or is it just the supermarkets finding yet another way of ripping us off?

MM

Reply to
MM
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Given their relative complexity, a better question would be "How come CFLs have been so cheap up till now?".

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Have look elsewhere and you can probably do better buying in packs of

10, but now is a very bad time to invest in CFL candle bulbs. They are intrinsically difficult to make and LED ones that are *much* nicer are only just around the corner. You can always buy remaindered CFLs cheaply after the LED units become more widely available. Afraid the LED ones will be a fair bit more than £3.6 though - more like £9.

I was recently caught out by a 10W LED nominal 60W lamp I substituted for a nominal 60W CFL on my parents stairs where the slow start was a hazard. It was *too bright* I had to get a 40W LED equivalent instead!

You have to factor in the lifetime electricity consumption before the pricing makes any sense. Most people are unable to do that which is why new printers are dirt cheap and the ink costs more than pure heroin.

Given their complexity tricky glasswork and the difficulty getting the control circuitry into the space it is astonishing they can be made at all for the price. The one saving grace is that as candles they tend to have enough free air movement around them not to cook the electronics.

CFLs hanging down or inside glass globes tend to have a short life.

Reply to
Martin Brown

En el artículo , Tim+ escribió:

They were very heavily subsidised for a time by the energy companies who were misguidedly given taxpayer funds by guvmint to promote 'green energy'.

I stocked up when Tesco were selling 'em for 10p each. Still hate the bloody things though.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

Were they given government funds? I thought the cost was just added to everyone elses bills.

Reply to
Andrew May

I've always thought that bulbs pretending to be candles was a bit odd as a concept. If you want candles then surely in this age we could come up with a safe device that actually looked like a real candle. The one issue with hyour senario is that you have to factor in the less efficiency of the filament bulbs into the costs, but as you are not replacing all of them I'd definitely suggest the filament idea is the best. Then when you replace the lights themselves in several years you can make a decision depending on the technology of the day.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Gaff

In article , Andrew May writes

Probably. I wasn't paying much attention at the time.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

I don't call a jump from 50p to £3.60 cheap!

MM

Reply to
MM

Exactly. And I may well be moving before the new filament bulb has even done 4 years. Even if it packs up after 2 years, at 50p a pop when buying a multipack from Amazon is as cheap as chips.

MM

Reply to
MM

Make that 50p plus all the electricity, which comes in at many times 50p. On economic grounds alone, CFLs are a no brainer.

NT

Reply to
meow2222

Probably the Megaman ultra compact candle bulbs... they used to be £6 each or thereabouts.

IME they are "ok ish". they look ok, the light colour is not too bad when looking directly at the bulb, but the spectrum is still gappy, so unless you have at least one incandescent in there as well the colour rendition is poor. Light output is a bit feeble though at 1/2 to 1/3 of that of a real bulb (based on measurements I did with a lux meter). The ones I had lasted about the same as 4 or five regular bulbs.

They have gone back to their real price as the subsidies are removed. If you ignore the actual light output problem, then in real terms they are not that expensive, since a 40W filament lamp will use say £5 worth of juice in its 1000h life compared to say a quids worth for the CFL.

Reply to
John Rumm

That's why I said "up till now"!

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

Was it that the illuminated area was deemed too bright, or the actual lamp?

Out of curiosity, what lamp was it?

Chris

Reply to
Chris J Dixon

Lighting Ever 10W LED 810Lumen the new one is 830Lumen. Samsung chipset.

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It was too bright compared to an aging CFL they had got used to which IMO was unsafely dim for at least 5 minutes after switching it on.

Reply to
Martin Brown

economic grounds alone, CFLs are a no brainer.

If you only switch the lights on occasionally, you're going to use practically no electricity anyway. It's not lights that cost the money, but heating and cooking. Normally, I rarely use the front room, but I've got my bed in there at the moment following an operation. Normally, therefore, I'd hardly ever switch the lights on. The thought of having a £3.60 bulb in there doing sweet FA most of the time doesn't exactly enthrall me or my wallet. And that's only one of a total of four bulbs, two in each of the wall fixtures. Not my choice. It's what the builder fitted. Replacing *four* bulbs with the newfangled ones would cost me £14.40 -- or just 2 quid using the "old-fashioned" filament type. I expect Edison is already turning in his grave over this kind of "progress".

MM

Reply to
MM

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That lamp is 'daylight white' (6000K) which is a pretty 'hard' light. 'White' (3000 to 3500K) or even 'Warm white' (2750K) might have been less of a contrast with previous lamp. I have a single 4W LED in the porch lamp, and when the street lights go out it seems to light up the neighbourhood!

Reply to
Terry Fields

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(3000 to 3500K) or even 'Warm

single 4W LED in the porch

My error - it was the 2700K predecessor but no longer offered for sale that I can see. I just grabbed the nearest match to the one I bought. It still isn't what I would call "warm white" though more like 4000K.

Reply to
Martin Brown

En el artículo , Martin Brown escribió:

It looks like it directs all its light downward? I was thinking of a LED bulb for the porch light, but that would need light to direct sideways too.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

There is some sideways but almost none upwards due to the heatsink unless it is inside a lamp shade. Putting no light upwards is actually a benefit in an exterior lighting situation avoiding light pollution.

It won't put as much light sideways as a traditional filament bulb but it may well provide enough and will be less dazzling. You would have to try it and see - I am not easily impressed but I was by this unit.

Reply to
Martin Brown

En el artículo , Martin Brown escribió:

Thanks. It would be cap side down in the fitting (a coach lantern), so most of the light would be pointing upward into the cap. Perhaps I could line the cap with some alu foil to reflect the light.

It illuminates a path so I do need some light out the sides.

I might well do that, or try another of the corn bulbs discussed recently. The first one I got, a couple of years ago from China, is very poor.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

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