G9 light bulbs

I have had two of these in the lounge - it is quite a large one - for several years now. Not the prettiest, I know, but the ceiling is bit on the low side (~230cm), so the low profile was the main consideration.

Problem is that the light bulbs are a nightmare... I have tried the full range available from Amazon from cheapest to the nearly most expensive, also tried both 20w and 40w. They are on for probably 3-4 hours a day, and I must have replaced each at least 2-3 times a year (I cannot think of a week where I haven't had to replace at least one).

I have now had enough (currently 4 of the total of 12 are dead...), and either the whole fitting goes - was a struggle to find something that would look ok - or it is time to do something about the bulbs. Also, even at 20w we are talking about 20 x 12 = 360w.

I came across G9 low energy ones - e.g.

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or

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Has anybody any experience with these (or similar)? They are approx x5 the price of the standard G9 bulbs that I have been using which never came anywhere near the advertised 2000 hour lifespan.

Reply to
JoeJoe
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I bought a g9 light fitting last year, six bulbs, and found that the bulbs failed too frequently. Took a punt with this offer:

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Warm white six for £28. In the fitting since December and so far OK. Light output fit for my purpose.

Richard

Reply to
Richard

I have a ceiling fitting which has 5 of the 40 watt lamps and have not problems with their life. I have an electronic (touch) dimmer that gives them a soft start.

Reply to
DerbyBorn

I had an electronic, remote control, dimmer installed for the original light fitting. That didn't stop the bulbs failing. Maybe I was unlucky, but changing fiddly little bulbs too frequently becomes a tad irksome. If the LEDs fail in an unreasonably short time, I will get rid of the fitting.

Reply to
Richard

In article , JoeJoe writes

I have several wall fittings with G9 bulbs. They've been in place 7 years and I have only ever replaced one. Perhaps your ceiling fitting is prone to vibration from people moving around (or shagging) in the room above.

Alternatively, you could try a soft-start dimmer. Bulbs usually pop when you turn them on and the cold filament gets the switch-on surge, so that's when a weakening filament usually pops.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

The soft start gets you only an extra few hours, but it's the dimmer running them at reduced power even when full on that gets the bulk of the extra life, at a cost of significantly reduced efficiency. Just how much extra depends how much the dimmer reduces the RMS voltage at full on, to derive the voltage it needs itself to operate.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

I have 4 of these G9 lamps in my bathroom fitting in 4 enclosed globes like this:

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The 25w lamps supplied with the fitting only lasted a few months and I replaced them with Lume-Tex 25w lamps which have now operated for well over

3 years with no problems. I'd never heard of Lume-Tex so it was a gamble, but these lamps also gave a better light output than the originals:
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Not sure why they mention 18w as these appear to be the same 25w G9 lamps that I bought! Cheap enough to experiment with?

Reply to
Doctor D

I have some G9s in the bathroom. They used to blow like buges until I installed a soft start pull cord dimmer - Have not had a single failure since (3 years IIRC).

Reply to
Tim Watts

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