Energy Saving Lightbulbs

I doubt it! I'm not sure that any even *claim* to do so and - as you say - most of the claims are a gross exaggeration. I can only assume that they use the grottiest incandescent bulbs they can find when making the comparison.

The comparison is made against soft tone lamps, not GLS lamps.

Colin Bignell

Ignore manufacturer's claims and use a general 1:4 ratio for plain energy saving lightbulbs. (Reflector ones are a lot lower.) So using this, you need a 37W lamp. The highest I've seen in normal retail outlets is a 30W lamp in Homebase, screw fitting only. Costco have some 25W ones (Feit) which seem quite good in packs of 4, but are going to be nearer 100W equiv. I've got several in use and no problems so far, but they're only a few months old.

These higher powered ones don't last as long operating cap up, because the tube generates lots of heat which roasts the electronics in the lamp base. You can get higher powered ones from specialist mail order suppliers.

maybe these have some:

Can you please tell me which specialist suppliers sell higher powered bulbs. I can't find any using Google.

Thanks.

Megaman make high power CFL (not very C). If you google for them and see what else the supplier sells.

As an aside, if a 150 watt is currently used in (say) a central light fitting, would it be better anyway to change the fitting for 2 or 3 others to spread the light better. 150 watt is a bit intense in one location (in some cases)

Thanks for the reply. The Megaman WL130 would have been great but its

No. The homebase one I mentioned is 17cm long (if they still do it).

In terms of size-for-size replacements, anything over about 10W (i.e. 40W GLS equivalent) is going to be bigger than the GLS lamp it replaces. CFL's are slowly getting physically smaller, but that's where they're at at the moment.

Also, the more compact the folding/coiling of the tube, the less efficient as more of the tubing becomes obscured by itself resulting in lost light output.

On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 03:01:56 -0700 (PDT) someone who may be Distorted Vision wrote this:-

What are you using the lamp for and is it mounted in a fitting which can stand the heat?

I ended up getting these GE 20W GLS:

Cheers!