Wednesday, September 28, 2011

My Conversion to Energy Saver Light Bulbs

According to Google, I have never discussed Energy Saver lightbulbs on this blog before. I am more than a little surprised about that, since I was sure I would have noted my disgust with them at some point.

Oh well, this makes my conversion all the less spectacular.

My problems with Energy Saver bulbs have traditionally been two-fold. The first is that they give out a vastly inferior quality of light, making it impossible to read by these bulbs. The second is that they take forever to warm up, during which time the inferior light level is even more inferior. Yes, it's inferior to an inferior thing. That's pretty bad.

However...

The light bulb in my bedroom blew some months back, and given the EU's decision to ban effective lightbulbs, I was rather stuck. And so I headed out to Homebase, rather than the more traditional Tesco, in search of a new bulb.

It took some time, but eventually I identified the brightest Energy Saver bulb they had on offer, and proceeded to spend an absurd amount of money on two of them. These were promptly installed in both the bedroom and the spare bedroom, leaving only the living room with a traditional bulb. (The rooms I don't use were fitted with Energy Savers some time ago, if for no other reason than that I don't use them. The spare bedroom had had an Energy Saver fitted, but the bulb was faulty and so needed replaced.)

The upshot is that these new bulbs are just barely less effective than the 100W bulb that was fitted (they claim to be equivalent to 90W), and they heat up in less than 30 seconds, rather than the six hours that is traditional for Energy Savers. I find this to be an adequate substitution for the traditional bulbs that are now banned.

Of course, I've only had these bulbs installed for a few months. I have no idea how well they'll last, and degredation has also been a problem with Energy Saver bulks in the past. Still, for now they're good enough.

In conclusion: provided you are willing to spend absurd amounts of money on the highest quality Energy Saver bulbs you can find, Energy Savers are an adequate substitute for, and almost as good as, the traditional bulbs they have replaced.

Truly, I have been converted.

2 comments:

Kezzie said...

That's weird- I've been using them since they were first introduced (well over 15-20 years I believe) and most of them are really good! Only the rubbish one on my landing has not impressed!

Steph/ven said...

Somehow, the ones in my parents' kitchen actually make the room darker.