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BBC News - 27/08/09

Some shoppers are bulk buying conventional 100 watt light bulbs before they are phased out, some independent retailers have claimed.

Many traditional bulbs will not be available under European law from 1 September to be replaced by energy-saving bulbs.

And some stores say many of their older customers are buying up to 50 old-style bulbs at a time.

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Nigel Farage MEP, leader of the UK Independence Party, said the idea of banning incandescent bulbs went back to a heads of European Union meeting a couple of years ago.

He said: "We're getting rid of good light bulbs that give us good light from which we can read to be replaced by these new ones which really aren't terribly good.

What a total moron that man is.

Perhaps all of the 'old dears' plan to recycle their 100W bulbs.

The light off compact fluorescents isn't great but its acceptable . If there was no difference in energy then I would pick incadescents. I can understand why alot of people don't like CFL's. I also think that manufacturers claims of light bulb lifetime are exaggerated alot for CFL's they don't seem to last much longer than ordinary bulbs. Still they are good to run off my little solar panels, can't do that with an incadescent.

Sorry but I'm a bit pessimistic when it comes to these CFL's

I bought four 2D units about 11 years ago with 6 replacement tubes.

I'm still using the original tubes so at this rate my solar panels will be dead and I'll have stashed those replacements for nothing !

Junkie wrote:The light off compact fluorescents isn't great but its acceptable . If there was no difference in energy then I would pick incadescents. I can understand why alot of people don't like CFL's. I also think that manufacturers claims of light bulb lifetime are exaggerated alot for CFL's they don't seem to last much longer than ordinary bulbs. Still they are good to run off my little solar panels, can't do that with an incadescent.

Sorry but I'm a bit pessimistic when it comes to these CFL's

I already have a lifetime supply of the new bulbs.

I went into sainsburys one day and they had a rather strange offer. Ten energy saving light bulbs for £1 or 99p each. I asked an employee whether a pricing mistake had been made and she said that it was correct. So I bought 30 of them for £3. I have used two of them and they have lasted for a year so far. I don't notice the difference anymore. I am used to it.

regarding the CFL's - am I correct in thinking that they contain more 'nasties' and take more energy to produce?

Junkie wrote:The light off compact fluorescents isn't great but its acceptable . If there was no difference in energy then I would pick incadescents. I can understand why a lot of people don't like CFL's. ....

I don't understand why people think fluorescents are bad unless they are referring to a flicker of the light. That problem should be removed by more development.

Fluorescents give a more natural white than incandescents so should be preferable. It was possible to buy "natural light" incandescents which had a blue glass to reduce the yellow component of the light. That meant you burnt the same wattage for less actual light. Alternatively you could buy halogen lights at a higher price.

If people think fluorescents don't give enough light they can buy a higher- powered lamp and still be saving a lot of energy relative to incandescents.

The powers that be seem to have gone off half cocked.
Do they really think CCFLs can be used to replace oven lamps ?
There are thousands of applications where CFLs cannot be used.
Low voltage applications just being one enormous field.

Barry White

The reason I like incandescents is because they give a warm light. CFL's give an unwelcoming white light (even if it is close to natural). I have CFL's everywhere in my home just because of the energy saving but I don't like them. I have to say though they have gotten much better at making CFL's recently I expect another 10 years and they will be better than ordinary bulbs.. But energy saving comes first!

I find 60W CFL does not equal 60W incandescent. so we use 75W CFLs. I agree the light quality is different, but we're getting used to it. For our main living areas we have them inside chinese lantern style shades.

There's a little mercury inside and you need to recycle your CFLs at the tip. But we've had fluoresent tubes for a long time in kitchens and offices and no-one complained much about this before.....

the other problem is lack of compatibility with dimmer circuits. I bought a couple of dimmable CFLs but the dimming function seemed to conk out after a while, though they still worked ok for light. So we just took out our dimming switches, to avoid damaging the CFLs by mistake.

To people who really can't cope with using CFLs: Harden The Fu(k Up. Seriously.

We started buying cfls when they first came on the market; I've not bought an incandescent since. And they do last an awesome long time, some of them around 15 years. You get used to them, you adjust the stated wattage to suit your needs - for 60 watts, get a '100 watts equivalent'.

Gosh that was difficult...

You can manage without an oven light, honest. If there's a niche for specialist bulbs, something will come up or we can do without.

I've been using leds (in Ikea's Sunnam lamps) for a few weeks now for direct lighting on a book at night and now I prefer them to both incandescents and cfls! The text is sharper.

Disposal of cfls in Ireland is quite good, especially since the WEEE regs came in.

Personally I love CFLs, they last ages give out reasonable light and use lots less electricity. They're not good for my Dad though as he has advanced macular degeneration and needs a very bright light, especially for reading.

Kieran wrote:Personally I love CFLs, they last ages give out reasonable light and use lots less electricity. They're not good for my Dad though as he has advanced macular degeneration and needs a very bright light, especially for reading.

Check out led lamps. They are perceived as very bright. They're getting better all the time and give a sharp, focused light. Not to everyone's taste for reading but personally I find they help enormously and use tiny amounts of juice.