Fluorescent Tube Ban Sept 2023

[David Wade]

We now have LED street lights. Many folks on our street have bought new curtains because they are so bright they couldn't sleep...

Dave

[David Wade]

Plenty of LED equivalent tubes that come with a replacement starter (I think its just a link) that pop straight into existing fittings. No need to panic. I popped these into my loft fittings, and its a great improvement...

Dave

[David Wade]

I have LEDs in my loft. They came with replacement starters which are I think just a link. They are brighter than the fluorescents they replaced. They never have problems starting. They don't play up when its freezing.

Dave

[Andy Burns]

They were banned from Feb 2023

[Tim Streater]

Any council tip should take them, I'd have thought.

[Tim Streater]

How does that work in France, then, where IIRC you are supposed to carry a set of bulbs so if obe fails you can stop and replace it. More than 20 years since I had a car where roadside replacement of headlight blubs could be done easily. Perhaps longer.

[Bob Henson]

That would only apply here if you were unlucky enough to have one right outside your bedroom window. For what good the feeble things we have are to pedestrians they might as well have not bothered. I'm all for LED lighting (I have had a houseful for a long time now) but they need enough of it with enough power output.

[Andy Burns]

carrying spares is not compulsory, replacing a blown lamp before continuing (if stopped) is compulsory, so weigh up the risk/benefit of an €80 fine vs the remote chance of failed LEDs vs carting around a £1k replacement you couldn't fit without stripping the car down.

"You may also be liable to pay an on-the-spot fine if you’re caught driving with a broken bulb, so it’s recommended that drivers carry a spare set of bulbs in their vehicle at all times."

[Colin Bignell]

For me, the first place was the kitchen, which has a lot of lighting. Otherwise, I only convert lights when they stop working. I still have some incandescent lamps in rooms where the light is very rarely used. They will get LED bulbs whenever they do fail. OTOH, my current project is to change all the external lights from 2 pin CFLs to LEDs. That is mainly because they are beginning to dim and the effort in going up ladders to change them is not a great deal more than going up ladders to replace the lamps.

[SH]

All of my outside floodlights all have fixed LEDs. so if either the LED driver or the LED array fails, I have to replace the whole LED floodlight

[The Natural Philosopher]

How quaint... it takes years of mercury exposure to make you 'mad as a hatter'.

[The Natural Philosopher]

a new tube and starter is practically the same money as a complete LED fitting It hardly seems worth 'repairing' the old sort

[The Natural Philosopher]

CFLs have been banned for some time.

[SteveW]

If they stop accepting them, people will just stick them in a bag, smash them and throw them in the general waste - just as people do here with plasterboard, since they stopped accepting it at the local sites and required householders to go to one specific site ... where they have to make an appointment and must be wearing hard-hat, safety boots and a hi-viz vest, as it is a site that deals with commercial waste.

[SteveW]

Even before LED headlights, the French police were (supposedly) pretty sensible about it. For instance, they did not fine or require immediate replacement of the bulb in a mk1 Focus ... notoriously difficult to access - so much so that Halfords often refused to fit them.

[Robin]

AIUI French law doesn't require you to carry spare bulbs; it does require you to have lights that work ;)

[Theo]

LEDs tend not to have a single point of failure: next time you're behind a bus or similar vehicle, see if any of the LEDs on the tail lights or indicators are out.

For an MOT, up to 50% of the LEDs being out is a minor fault (advisory), over 50% is a major fault (fail).

So you generally get warning that things are failing. If you choose to ignore it that's your lookout.

Of course that's no help if the fuse or ECU suddenly gives out, but that is relatively rare. And individual LED failures are probably rarer than incandescent bulb failures too.

Losing a whole lamp in the middle of a long journey is one thing, but I suspect a lot of people drive around with a dead headlamp for weeks until they get it fixed. I suppose that's what the French law is trying to address.

Theo

[Scott]

It must be production or importation, surely, as most electrical goods are 'produced' in China?

[NY]

one tube fell out of the fitting on the floor and smashed at

I was taking no chances!

Actually it's not only hatters who were affected by mercury poisoning. The dentist I used to go to had to give up the job after he started having severe heart palpitations, arrhythmia and eventually several heart attacks - which were diagnosed as being caused by mercury poisoning from the amalgam used in fillings. The amount of mercury that a patient is exposed to is minimal, but the amount that a dentist breathes in during his career of filling teeth is apparently quite high.

[Fredxx]

An importer is treated as a manufacturer when it comes to regulations.