LED v CFL bulbs

[Johnny B Good]

Yeah, redundant assumption on my part. Mind you, the return email address can be made up any which way you like but in this case, it would have been reasonable to assume a UK location without further comment.

Oddly, they all look like figures typical for long life / rough service lamps rather than for the UK standard 1000 hour life GLS lamp. The only clue in that picture to suggest that they might be long life / rough service being the use of the word "Professional" on the packaging.

Anyway, harking back to the observation that modern "60W" 810lm LED GLS lamps seem to match or exceed expectations (for those of us in the UK at any rate), is simply down to the manufacturers being forced by regulation to use lumens output figures based on the more efficient American 120v incandescent lamp standard when such equivalency "Wattage Ratings" are included on the packaging by way of a guide to help their customers choose a replacement for an incandescent light bulb.

It's rather fortunate for us in the UK (and Europe for that matter) that the American incandescent lamp figures were the ones chosen to set the standard since this results in an LED GLS lamp that produces a little more light than our wattage equivalent incandescent lamps produce.

The increase is a very welcome one since choice of incandescent lamp wattage is typically based on a minimum acceptable level to keep their running cost as low as possible. The main reason we use 60W lamps in place of 150W lamps is on account of the profligate energy consumption such a "luxury item" as a 150W lamp would represent. A doubling or tripling of the light levels commonly used in homes lit by classic tungsten filament GLS lamps would be a very welcome improvement in all bar a few exceptional cases, hence my use of the phrase "You never had it so good." :-)

[Johnny B Good]

Two points: the *real* 60W lamp is the brighter American 60W lamp making it a little brighter than our (UK) 60W lamps and I hope you took advantage of Poundland as your source for the "40W" 470lm light bulb which, in its "A" form, has proved reliable, unlike the golfball version which didn't.

[Andy Burns]

The spec sheet says 1000 hours, and avoids use of the word "rough" but does include words such as "robust", "industrial" and "reinforced".

[Johnny B Good]

Most likely they chose a 240v long life lamp as "Their Standard". I suspect the regulations now in place for LED lamps simply didn't exist as such so they were free to choose the lowest possible benchmark by which to 'legitimately' make wattage equivalency claims on the packaging.

Whether the new regulations applied to LED GLS lamps are also being applied to the current production of CFLs, I simply do not know. If the CFL lamp manufacturers know what's good for them, I'd expect them to now be voluntarily applying the LED GLS standards even if they're not obliged by force of regulation to do so. However, in view of the impending obsolescence of the CFL, that's rather a moot point.

[Bob Eager]

We have those neon surrounds on the hall/landing light switches. They give enough light anyway.

[Steve Walker]

Trading and advertising standards are quite capable on acting on what the public would expect, not what the small-print actually says. If they'd wanted to, they could have enforced a comparison that was actually meaningful to Joe Public.

SteveW

[Me]

Wow, what a response! I read every reply, even the ones that drifted away from the original question and am much the wiser for it.

I will replace most if not all of cfcs but not all at once. I will wait for them to expire, which won't take too long in my own experience. Thank you all for some very interesting reading, you have been a great help.

One further thing, when I first started using (over 20 years ago) cfcs I was told never to switch one off before at least 20 minutes had elapsed to allow for "cathode regeneration" or the bulb life would be seriously shortened. Is this still true?

Thanks again

[tabbypurr]

the reality is they never did

[tabbypurr]

never was

NT

[Steve Walker]

No. Which makes me wonder, was there political pressure to keep quiet and get the things sold depite them being disappointing to almost everyone who used them?

SteveW

[Me]

Wow, what a response! I read every reply, even the ones that drifted away from the original question and am much the wiser for it.

I will replace most if not all of cfcs but not all at once. I will wait for them to expire, which won't take too long in my own experience. Thank you all for some very interesting reading, you have been a great help.

One further thing, when I first started using (over 20 years ago) cfls, not cfcs..(edit) I was told never to switch one off before at least 20 minutes had elapsed to allow for something called "cathode regeneration" or the bulb life would be seriously shortened. Is this still true?

Thanks again