After a high electricity bill from her previous tenant (who no doubt used a 3kw fan heater to compensate for a weak radiator) the landlady of my new place - I am a lodger - is insisting that I exchange the 100w incandescent lightbulb (says 1600 lumens on the box) originally in place with a very much inferior 240 lumen 5w energy saving replacement. On turning it on, nothing happens for about 3 seconds and then the room gradually brightens over the course of about 20-30 seconds which is VERY annoying.
Not great for me, (but not bad enough to motivate me to move just yet) and I tried explaining that the difference in electricity - I only use it at max between 7-7:30am and 6:30-11pm five days a week (not in at weekends) will only be less than 3 units weekly and offered to pay the extra, but she demurred.
What suitable low energy usage (and cheap) replacements are there that give instant light at the flick of a switch and don't give me a headache straining to read? It's a normal 230v bayonet fitting.
Smile, nod, accept the CFL - then swap it back as soon as she leaves.
If ever you need to replace that 100w incandescent, you'll find it hard, of course. You might also like to look at halogen low-energy bulbs, if you really don't like CFLs (5w is not any kind of replacement for 100w) or LEDs.
18 months ago I was setting my limit at 100lm/W; nowadays it's 120lm but, apart from oddities like the GU10s for outside, I'm well stocked and waiting for the fabled 200lm/W ;-) I assume that the OP needs BC lamps; this rather limits the choice, but, IIRC, B&Q has some 'filament' (COB) with =>100lm/W and there are some on the usual big sites. I prefer those of about 4000K or so - I find the light very good. Most places sell 'warm white', about 2700 - 3000K.
Or swap it to a decent output LED unit which is instant on and now somewhat more efficient than any CFL - better colour rendering too.
Only in the sheds or high street. They are easily available online eg
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(in packs of 10 for ~£3)
The brightest LED I have been able to find with uniform light output is
12W (can't speak about its longevity as it is too young yet) is a corn on the cob type of nasty Chinese manufacture from Amazon £2.60.
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I was looking for something to replace a 150W incandescent for my mum. It isn't up to that but it isn't bad as a 100W and much cheaper than reputable ones. I prefer Samsung or Philips LED and warm white. YMMV
Cold white looks subjectively brighter if you can stand it.
Anyone seen an LED bulb that can match or beat a 150W incandescent? (I am still looking)
I suspect a halogen at that power would set fire to any lamp shade!
I have bought quite a few of the ledhut 60W (equiv) "filament" lamps... they have the advantage ove many LEDs of having a fully omnidirectional light output like a GLS lamp - very handy for any "cap down" light fittings that require light output from the neck end of the bulb to work.
The 4K ones can be nice for some places, but you need far more brightness for it to seem natural (just down to the way our brain expects "daylight" to be much brighter than lower colour temperature lights. In my office I use 5 x 60W (equiv) 4K lamps, and that works well.
Obviously based on the American 120v 750 hour 70W rated lamp rather than our less efficacious 240v 1000 hour rated lamps.
Me too! (or, should that be AoL :-)
At that colour temperature, usually described as "Northern Skylight" meaning the illumination from a clear blue sky absent any direct sunlight, you get a very pronounced blue cast. Since our experience of such blue sky illumination in the absence of direct sunlight in nature is invariably associated with a drop in temperature because the lack of direct sunlight means we are shaded from such a source of infra-red heating compounded by the fact that such clear blue skies don't reflect the longer wavelength infra-red back as a cloudy or overcast sky will do, we perceive such high colour temperature illumination as a cue to 'feel cooler than the actual air temperature would normally warrant.
Those electric coal effect fires were called 'Psychological Heaters' for very good reason when the radiant heater elements were switched off, with only the 'coal effect' feature left switched on. If you have a house full of high colour temperature lamps, replacing them with 'warm white' (2700 to 3000 deg K) can help you save on the heating bills. :-)
I had to replace the 30W CFL hall light a couple of nights ago. Trawling through my box of various lamps (a mix of CFLs and filament lamps) I managed to find two unused candidates, both 20 watters (the 30W CFL was a one off just to see whether it was worth the extra consumption - the large 'Chinese Lantern' styled shade in the hall made it the ideal location to try this 'super sized CFL out - switched on before dusk and not switched off until 4 to 5 in the am when I finally head to bed).
One of the lamps was an Ever Ready branded lamp with an opaque outer envelope, the other was a "Status" branded jobby without any such refinement. I tried the nice looking Ever Ready and took an instant dislike to its extremely dim, almost ghostly (ghastly?) blue tinged illumination[1].
I left it running for ten minutes or so before confirming it wasn't going to improve its ghastly colour balance as sometimes happens when a fluorescent lamp is run up for the very first time from new. I swapped it out for the "Status" CFL and got a vastly improved CRI somewhat similar in colour and illumination level to that of the 30W CFL that had suddenly gone dark after, I guess, just a couple of years use (maybe some 8 to 10 thousand hours worth - I forgot to note the commissioning date on the lamp base... but it seems I *did* write this info on the packaging, "Hall
20140624" which is also the date of purchase, cost £3.75 :-).
That 30W CFL was a Morrisons "Energy Saving Stick" with a claimed (presumably 'design') lumens figure of 1897 (63 Lm/W - it would be, as with all fluorescent lamps noticeably brighter from new, about 20% brighter than design lumens, taking a hundred or so hours to drop to 'design lumens' output from which point it would very slowly decline by another 20% to its end of life some 6000 to 16000 hours later, depending on lamp type).
Optimistically, a 6 year life* was claimed (the fine print reveals this life rating is based on a rather arbitrary 2.7 hours use per day - Ouch! That equates to just 5917 hours rating - it claims 6000 hours elsewhere on the carton but a 6000 hour rating on a modern CFL isn't particularly impressive, at least not compared to a linear 4 or 5 foot fluorescent tube's 16000 hours rating to the 20% drop from their 'design lumens' end of service life figure).
The effect of the light output curve starting at 120% and ending at 80% of 'design lumens' accounted for (in my case) the expected similar brightness between the recently expired 30W CFL and its same colour temperature 20W replacement.
Approximating an 18 month service life and an average of 11 hours a day, I calculated a rather suspicious 6022.5 hours run time which makes me think there is a built in mechanism to kill the lamp shortly after it has clocked the requisite 6000 hours as well as all the other lamp tube failure protection modes built into the electronic ballast. However, to be fair, this is probably good for the environment in the longer run (assuming proper disposal at EoL) since it eliminates the temptation to run the lamp beyond the point of economic light output.
[1] Rather coincidentally, the last time I experienced such dim and ghastly blue illumination from a CFL was with an 11W "Status" branded example I bought some years ago from, IIRC, a pound shop. This experience rather tarred the reputation of the "Status" brand in my mind. Now, I've just fitted a "Status" lamp that's rather redeemed that brand's reputation.
Taking a more detailed look at the Ever Ready lamp packaging, I see that it's marked as having a colour temperature of 4200 deg K. I guess I should have been more observant at the time of its purchase and saved myself the embarrassment of buying such a horribly low CRI lamp in the first place (and I suppose, similarly for that ghastly blue 11W Status example from the pound shop). I'm now all too aware of the need to exclude any lamps with colour temp values above 3000 deg K. You live and learn - so that's yet another lesson from "The University of Life" under my belt.
I'd say light quality very good, and would easily replace a 60W if the
60W was over specified for the location. It's more like a 40W incandescent that would do badly if you had dark walls. Mine are thankfully painted white.
Shapewise, go for the 5W candle / golfball style that distributes light better above and below the fitting.
Replacement guarantee as usual very good ...
...as sadly reliability not that great, a couple were DOA and one lasted less than a month before half the LEDs died. Hold on to the packaging and receipts if you want to play this "LED for a quid" game ...
I'm sure other 5W bulbs do better, but cost more. I'm such a skinflint.
Depends. I use them in 2s and 3s, or a single in bedrooms and hallways where I'm not attempting to read the times, nosh caviar or pour the champagne. I leave finding things in cupboards to the man servant, he's OK with a match.
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