Low energy light bulbs. Surely we could do better.

[Leah-Lacie]

GU10 bulbs for my kitchen aswell, they were £3.97 for 2 in Tesco, I can get 10 on eBay for £5

[the_rudeboy]

It was the nearest I had to 100 and I expected it to be slightly dimmer, but this is a completely different type of light cast around the room - miserable!

Whilst you might expect a 75w equivalent CFL to be about 25% less bright than a 100w equivalent, this isn't necessarily the case, because the lumen output/watt is greater for higher wattage lamps. The 100w one might produce 65 lumens/watt and the 75w one might only produce 58 lumens/watt, so in reality it might be over 30% less bright, which is quite significant.

[Rupert_Baehr]

It was the nearest I had to 100 and I expected it to be slightly dimmer, but this is a completely different type of light cast around the room - miserable!

 

You can get 'soft light' bulbs and you can get 'daylight' bulbs. - I doubt that the latter are full-spectrum because the lamps for SAD light boxes are more expensive than ordinary fluorescents, whereas daylight ESBs are cheaper than 'soft light' bulbs.

 

For most individuals, the savings on electricity by shifting to ESBs is small, but nationwide, changing to ESBs will mean that the number of power stations required (and the UK is short of power stations) will be reduced.

[quisquose]

My experience with the ( quite expensive ) investment in LED lighting is in this thread about LED lighting:

 

http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=681827

 

Any room which is just being used occasionally, like a downstairs loo, storage room etc, should retain a fast bulb IMHO. This is more important than energy efficiency.

[andrejuan]

Which magazine have recently tested light bulbs.

 

Useful info on output, expected life, brightness, prices. Plus ones to avoid.