Tesco CFL's

[Alho]

We know no one really likes them but my local Tesco's has been selling CFL's (18w 20w and even some 23W) at 5 for£1. Not always in stock, but got to be worth buying some.

Alho

[Mike P]

On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:36:53 +0000, Alho grumbled:

50p for 5x20w ones at Sainsbury in Winnersh this week if anyone is near..

Mike P

[John Stumbles]

OK, maybe I'm no-one, but I prefer them to crappy hot yellow

19th-century-tech tungsten. The only place I use incandescents are a couple of 20W 12V halogens in the cupboard-sized downstairs loo and a mains GLS-style halogen in the PIR-activated outside light, where a fluoro would be rubbish due to the frequent ons and offs and low temperatures. Oh, and CFLs aren't much cop in lava lamps ;-)

Thanks, I'll take a look next time I'm near a Tesco. Normally, of course, I don't go in.[1]

[1] g'wan, hands up who gets that reference? ;-)

[Bill]

In message , John Stumbles writes

Well, I've posted before and I'll repeat. We have installed these everywhere and they are terrible. One room has 2 x 3-bulb lights. By mixing and not matching, we can get the lights to come on and slowly assume reading brightness, but we have what it says on the boxes is the equivalent of 360 watts in the lounge. We used to run on 40 watt bulbs. Add to this one of the lamps glows green. The other green one in another room expired after about 2 months. They were badged "Ever Ready". One of the Philips ones lasted about the same time and was the source of a sizzling sound for the last 2 weeks of its life.

The Philips ones come with a little leaflet to post to tell them how wonderful they are. I'm reduced to filling them in and telling it like it is. Mustn't waste the freepost.

In 2 bedrooms we have some bluey-green light, but we will have to replace the single fittings with multiples to achieve sensible levels of lighting. In the 'music room' my daughter complains that she can't see her piano music properly. All I get is moans. Elsewhere the CFL candle bulbs are too big for the fittings, so the fake candle bits have had to be discarded. They came from CPC. They seem to have faded, as an air of gloom has descended on that room and we have had 2 failed bulbs in the year in the '3 bulb 'candelabra'..

I'm not against FL's. The strip light in the kitchen is fine, but the rating is realistic. Maybe if 30-watt CFL's were common and of consistent quality, I'd become more enthusiastic.

[John Rumm]

Tesco's CFLs seem to be a mixed bag. There is one 11w stick lamp that is the best CFL I have found so far - it actually has some output at the red end of the spectrum, produces some useful light at switch on, and warms up in a minute or two. They seem to last about as well as two or three traditional bulbs. However anything candle shaped they do, seems to truly awful. Short life, very slow warm up, and quite a variation of different shades of green from identical new bulbs.

[John Stumbles]

Not had any such problems: only the odd ones that go flickery or quite dim just before they expire.

I don't have candle bulbs anywhere: they're just too naff in any technology :-)

The least satisfactory CFLs I have, from the pov of warm-up time and lifetime (though the current batch seem to be getting better) are GU10 equivalents.

You do have to take the incandescent-equivalent ratings with a pinch of salt: I go for 20W CFLs in place of 100W tungstens.

If only one could get regular strip fluoros in presentable non-style-challenged fittings :-(

[NT]

The thing with cfls is, like linear fls, they range in quality from excellent to dire. Picking philips wasn't a good start, and it sounds like you've gone for too low power lamps too.

Try something decent like Osram, using 23w for 100w, 15w for 60w, and

11w for 40w.

NT

[Andy Wade]

IME the Philips 'professional' ones (PLET range[1]) are excellent. The local John Lewis used to sell them but alas they only seem to carry the subsidised stuff now. The better lamps do cost a bit more, but lamp cost is down in the noise once you factor in the lifetime electricity cost.

Agreed - Osram 'Dulux' types are also very good and 4:1 ratio is about right.

[1] Available from electrical wholesalers or see

[Rob Horton]

Bill, you seem to have an amazing talent to consistently purchase really bad CFL's. All the CFL's that I have seem to come on to full brightness within about a second or two. The only bulb that takes a while is housed to make it look like a traditional incandescent bulb. This was bought as an experiment as I have a lamp shade where the bulb is completely exposed (not my choice). I have also purchased some CFL GU10's to replace some halogen GU10's. The CFL's are 7W instead of 40W and a lot brighter, almost too bright. Maybe the halogens have dimmed with age.

Give it a few years and CFL's will be a thing of the past. LED's will have become the norm. The latest from Cree (

), the XP-G with an R5 bin can produce about 139 lumens per watt. CFL's produce about 60 to 72 lm/W and incandescents produce 8 to 17 lm/W

LED technology is coming on in leaps and bounds. OLED's offer up the possibility of moving away from point source emmission of light. Quantum dot LED's can produce any colour that you like.

[Tim W]

Andy Wade wibbled on Wednesday 25 November 2009 09:34

I can speak highly of Prolite Spirals - very good light (I have the daylight and that's good enough for me to spot the 3 different brands of pipe and fittings on my white waste pipes from the kitchen(!). They do a warm white too. Had 7 in service for a year and one died (unless it's the plug fuse - haven;t checked yet - TBF it's in a hand lamp and does get knocked about) but the rest are still burning strong and bright.

Haven't found Megaman and Varilight bad either.

Don't touch unbranded/wierd branded cheap crap IMO. I had some Tesco cheap ones a few years back. All useless - very dim. Another brand I bought a load of were "Your" (some chinese home grown crap) and they did run OK at first, but dimmed out in about 6-9 months. Doubt their carbon footprint even beat a filament lamp.

You generally get what you pay for (exceptionally lucky bargains excepted)

[Martin Bonner]

I am about to do something very similar. A transformer has gone in the roof above the bathroom, so I'm going to replace transformer+MR16 halogen with GU10 fitting + CFL.

What brand of CFL did you fit?

[John]

I wish I could find some decent circular T5 fittings.

[Adrian C]

Poundland is still selling 100W Pearl Incandesent bulbs, 3 for a pound.

[Rob Horton]

It came from Tesco's, 2 for 1 offer which may not be running now. These types do take a short time to reach full brightness which may or may not be a problem for a bathroom.

Clearly there is a variation in operation between manufacturer and light design. The manufacturers should quote start up times on the packaging as well as colour temperature.

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Adrian C writes

TJ Hughes* is doing 4 clear 60 or 100W for 99pee.

• A chain mainly based in the North selling pile-it-high, flog-it-cheap goods purchased from emporia unable to sell them, m'lud.

[NT]

they were 6 or 8 for =A31 last time I looked, but mixed wattages

NT

[Shimshams]

John,

Um..*thinks*...*faint bells ringing*...

Death Cab for Cutie? Shirt? Definitely Viv anyway.

[Bolted]

Siteco do some quite nice linear and circular fittings, but aimed at the office market so thoroughly modernist looking (and pricey no doubt).

[Michael Chare]

Thank you for pointing this out, I have bought a supply.

It really is very strange pricing £1 each or 5 for £1. I have paid nearly £7 each for these in the past.

[pcb1962]

If you buy Megaman's very expensive GU10 CFLs make sure you buy them from somewhere that will replace them when they fail at one tenth of the advertised life. I fitted a dozen a year ago and 2 have already failed after 900 hours use (compared to the 15,000 hours they advertise). Unfortunately they were supplied by a subcontractor to a builder who was doing some work for me so I have no receipts. Megaman do not reply to emails or letters regarding their warranty policy, so I'm about to involve trading standards.