Removing broken energy saver bulb

[dennis]

The postage costs more than the 47p each I paid for mine in Asda.

[Micky]

Until recently, Morrison's were selling Philips CFL's for 39p

[Derek Geldard]

Human eyes are equipped with auto focus and auto iris, and also have a logarithmic response, and are therefore not a reliable guide, however the falling off of the light had started to become noticeable whilst attempting fine work (I started needing to use a 150w halogen uplighter as well, even just for eating a meal) that is why I got the lightmeter out. The effect is masked to some extent by the variation in hours and quality of daylight through the year.

Having put old and new together the difference is readily apparent.

I notice that the site from which I bought them also has 20 watt spirals said to be 100 watt equivalents at the same price which would go in the same fittings, it's possible that we could get a longer service life out of these but they use 75% more electrical power.

I didn't have an old GLS bulb, the whole house is CFL's and Halogens except 2 oven lamps + the microwave. I've had CFL's since the first Philips "Jamjar" lamps.

FWIR I never used to get anything like as much deterioration with gasfilled filament lamps, and we didn't have the warming up to contend with as-well-as.

Of the spiral lamps that failed (of more than one manufacturer) the plastic enclosure around the bulb cap was burnt brown, the electronics inside must have been running mighty hot.

It's also worrying that straight fluorescent tubes are failing within their first year. I suspect cheap production from the far east (they were bought from Ring) however buying from Philips / GE is no guarantee of good performance and reliability. Reduction in mercury fill is another possibility, some straight tubes went a strange feeble pink colour, this phenomena is new to me.

Well, spiral is just a shape option, and they come in more than one colour temperature.

Reliability/price ratio comes first (need to have reliability but can't pay to have it gold plated) then performance, (No good if it doesn't do what you want) then ongoing direct costs (Have to be able to afford to use it).

DG

[Derek Geldard]

Yes. I saw them in our Morrison's for 2 for 99p.

I doubt they really came from Philips GloeilampenFabrieken

I had to be picky because I needed to get them to fit unobtrusively in an existing fitting with a sufficient power output.

So, It's no go, the Gloeilamps. :-((

DG

[clot]

I'm amazed. I have been using them for at least 25 years and well recall the problem at start up with the old jamjars. I also date my lamps and have one "jamjar" left ( out of 16) which I won't check for its date for fear of killing it though I keep hoping it will pack up! Ours seem to last just in excess of 6/7 years though I have to admit I've used a mixed bag of manufacturers over the years and have concluded that I will stick to GE/ Phillips in future.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not if you buy in 50's

[David Hansen]

On Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:53:43 +0100 someone who may be The Natural Philosopher wrote this:-

There are all sorts of figures over a large range.

Part of the problem is people contaminating whole lorries by putting the wrong things in a bin, which means the whole load cannot be used. That is why sorting of things by council staff at the kerbside produces the best streams of recyclables.

[Derek Geldard]

The jamjar lamps had a wound inductive ballast which can be made reliable at a high working temperature using materials developed for transformers.

Certainly you can get lamps with the Philips / GE name on now at a reasonable enough price but they are all made in the P.R.C.

The fitting may make a difference, during a trip to France I bought 3 shallow bowl type fittings (hence 6 bulbs) which fit flat to the ceiling, could be they run warmer in there, although they were designed for a pair of 40 watt candles as opposed to 9 watt CFL's. About 2 - 2.5 years is the max we get with a significant number failing in the first year

DG

[Andy Hall]

A good idea. That is how they should do it.

I had an interesting "discussion" with my local authority this week regarding their contractor's failure to remove two bin bags of assorted rubbish. There was no apparent reason for this - didn't contain garden materials or anything like that - they sell hampers for that purpose.

The person in the "waste management team" (he called himself an advisor - this is the latest trendy word for a phone jockey) said that she would contact the contractor, try to find out why and get back to me. "When was that going to be?", I wanted to know.

"Maybe tomorrow, maybe later in the week..." was the reply.

"I meant by what time today"

"Oh I don't know"

"Would your boss? What is your SLA with the contractor? I need the rubbish to be collected today since it's in the way. Please can you contact the contractor and ask them to collect it"

(pause to go and ask)

"I'll call you back within the hour"

20 minutes later, a truck arrives from the contractor and collects the remaining bags.

There never was a phone call.

7/10 for fixing the problem. 5/10 for not meeting their commitment of calling back to check that the rubbish had been collected. 1/10 for wasting my time and theirs resolving an issue that shouldn't have arisen in the first place.

[John]

In article , David Hansen writes

Our council now collects all the recyclable stuff (except glass) in orange sacks and then sorts them somewhere (apparently).

[Andy Hall]

Very good. They are eminently more qualified than the householder to do this.

[Dave]

I couldn't agree with you more.

My wife puts all plastic packaging into a green bag that the council provide, despite the fact that quite a lot of it can't be recycled. Things like supermarket plastic packaging and cling film is a no no.

The big laugh, is the fact that our local council do not re-cycle their own rubbish, as they don't get any cash from central government to do so, unlike domestic rubbish.

[Frank Erskine]

I wonder whether their 'orange sacks" are recyclable themselves; or whether their method of collection/sorting is 'green'... I'm not being facetious here, but is this recycling effort not just a token thing to gain Brownie Points from 'central government" (whatever that is)? My own LA still has 'normal' refuse collection weekly, alternating with fortnightly garden refuse collection (during summerish months) and a collection of supposed recyclable stuff such as paper, glass and 'tin' containers. The 'recyclable' stuff is collected by a contractor, who isn't interested at all in any non- 'tin can' things like scrap metal which I occasionally produce. The collection procedure is still via large heavy vehicles (two a week) trawling the streets. Plus the occasional vehicle that sweeps the street, and a gulley-sucker to clean the street drains (actually only 3 or 4 times a year).

[Andy Hall]

They respond to two things - legal compulsion and sources of funding.

[Lobster]

It's all total bollocks... now that our council has introduced wheelie bins and started collecting garden waste, with all the associated costs involved, they must be picking up about, oh, 60% more stuff by weight from the kerbside than in the old 'black bag' days. However, because the extra 60% is pure recyclable (ie garden waste) it means the council can claim that the % of waste which is recycled has suddenly gone up dramatically, thereby meeting government targets, without even considering any other aspects of recycling.

And in order to achieve this, instead of the public composting their own grass clippings in their garden and using the result as fertilizer, we are now encouraged to have our grass collected by a petrol-guzzling, congestion-inducing lorry, transported to God knows where, mulched down and converted to fertilizer or whatever; and we then drive to the garden centre to buy bags of pre-packaged compost for the garden...

David

[David Hansen]

On Thu, 21 Jun 2007 18:30:35 GMT someone who may be Lobster wrote this:-

Presumably diesel or LPG guzzling.

Usually somewhere at least as local as the landfill site.

Where I live the council will provide up to three compost bins for six pounds each. The Scottish Executive leaflet which accompanies them makes it clear that home composting is even better for the environment than the brown bin. It is clear that the council would rather people compost at home, but provides the brown bin for those unable or unwilling to do so. The scheme extends throughout the country and I imagine there are similar schemes in the rest of the UK.

Nice try.