Proper light bulbs returning?

[Lieutenant Scott]

It's Cree I have.

Nonsense. With LEDs you can choose warm white, cool white, etc, etc. I've not seen much choice with CFL.

Filaments use a fortune in electricity and are very hot so tend to damage the light socket. You are also restricted in what shades you can use when using

100W ones (and even 60W).

BC is a bit big and clumsy in my spotlights.

My kitchen has ES fittings (they were there when I moved in), but I bought some ES to BC adapters for a quid each so I can use up the free CFLs the energy companies keep giving me.

[Lieutenant Scott]

On Sun, 04 Mar 2012 12:44:20 -0000, Tim Watts wro= te:

Bought on 15th November last year, used a lot since then as this room ha= s pathetic natural light so I use them all day, still going strong. The= y have a 5 year warranty.

They took 4 days to arrive from China (I miss-remembered it as Hong Kong= ).

This is the supplier - he says he's the manufacturer:

[Steve Firth]

NT wrote: [snip]

Have you added in the cost of the spectacles that you will need after your eyesight has been ruined by the CFLs?

[Tim Watts]

Good - you shoudl be OK then (assuming it's not a rip off).

I said Index (CRI if you want to be pedantic), not colour temperature.

> Filaments were so much simpler - no dimmer problems, and your choice was

What?? I have never seen a heat damaged lamp socket.

My point being we've gone from a simple choice of one main fitting (not counting tubes), not to 2 or 3 to suit smaller fittings, but half a dozen just for mains direct drive:

BC SBC ES SES GU10 G9

ELV is just as bad

Then there's various fluorescent fittings T4,T5,PLS,PLC,PLT, 2D 2pin, 2D

4pin, GX53

It's mad...

[ARWadsworth]

So are women. Have you seen all different fittings they offer:-)?

[Bob Minchin]

I thought the idea was that one standard plug would fit any of three sockets available unless I've been doing something wrong all these years!

[Lieutenant Scott]

This had me in fits of laughter.

[Lieutenant Scott]

The seller appears to have a good reputation (unusual for a Chinese seller), and he did say there was a 5 year guarantee.

daylight. CFLs were awful.

Strange. Any that are down-facing (eg a normal pendant light) go brittle that I've seen.

I stick to GU10 and BC. I do have ES and SES from existing fittings in the house and some cupboard lighting.

Do you mean low voltage? I've not seen the point in low voltage lighting at all, all you're doing is adding the requirement for a transformer and more wiring.

I try to avoid those ones. I don't want to be stuck with fluorescent.

[dennis]

8<

That is untrue, tungsten filament lamps wear out far quicker if you keep switching them on and off.

[dennis]

I suspect its the diffuse source making the shadows less distinct and hence reducing edge contrast that makes it worse for people with poor eyesight.

[Andrew Gabriel]

It's already in EU law, but not yet in national laws. It will require lamp packaging to list the Lumen output instead of the power rating. I'm not pleased that the power rating will no longer be required though. The lighting industry argued that the public was confused by the power rating and its request to remove it from packaging was granted. Power rating must still be available from manufacturers (e.g. datasheets, web, etc), but won't be required at point of sale.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Not true for Standard filament lamps - don't confuse the tendancy to die at switch-on with a reduction in lamp life due to switching; there is virtually none and it's a common misconception. What happens is that for the last ~5 or so hours of life, the lamp won't survive a switch-on, so if it's on for less than 5 hours at a time, its end-of-life failure will be at a switch-on.

Some geometry of halogens (larger ones) can be impacted by switching (those where the quartz envelope doesn't get up to operating temperature during the "on" time), which is why I specifically said Standard filament lamps.

[S Viemeister]

I have. Three pendant sockets - they were like that when we moved in. But I suspect the previous owner had used heat lamps in them.

[Andrew Gabriel]

all, all you're doing is adding the requirement for a transformer and more wiring.

12V halogens are at least twice as efficient as mains halogens. Also, the smaller light source (filament) means you can design the optics to direct the beam exactly where you want it much more accurately, so there's a much wider range of beam angles available, and less light spillage (wastage) where it's not wanted. (LEDs can be even better in this respect.)

[Lieutenant Scott]

all, all you're doing is adding the requirement for a transformer and more wiring.

Sounds good in theory, but I can't say I've noticed that low voltage lighting looks any better!

Now we're using LEDs, it isn't required anyway :-)

[PeterC]

My experience with 'daylight' Prolite: buzzed, stank and poor output. Got a full refund OK. Pity really, as they were what I was after according to the blurb.

[Tim Watts]

It's really weird as I've had about 15 of them for building site lighting, all 25-30W BC. One DoA (replaced), 3 got broken, and about 4-5 have died of natural causes after something like 2+years permanantly on - of those that died, I think 2 actually died and the rest were dimming and going brown/grey so they got canned.

I get mine from Lampspecs - not that that should make any difference, unless there are fakes kicking around.

I've had GE branded CFLs which have been s**te - but the worst brand which turned out not to be worth a spit was "Your" or "You" of something like that (some chinese brand).

[dennis]

8<

Thermal shock each time you switch the lamp on will reduce its life.

[Tim Watts]

Really - no.

Yep - some of the pendant shade fitting rings had got a bit brown and in one or two cases, a bit crunchy - but I genuinely do not recall actual socket failure. I would not dispute it happens - but I never found it a common problem :|

[Tim Streater]

Yes, what is it with this screw-in shit that seems to be creeping in?