**grump alert**...my house is dark!!!

[alan1572]

we have now switched all our light bulbs to energy saveing ones....
it's like being in a cave, we have 2 lights in the livingroom and we get more light from the power hungry plasma.
The hall is an assult course what with shoes golf clubs and any number of items the my offspring couldn't be bothered to take to it's correct destination, the landing might aswell have a "fall here" sign due to the fact that when you switch the light on at the top of the stairs i automatically start walking down the stairs only to realize that the light still has an hour and a half before it reaches maximum brightness...a whole 16 watts .
As for the WC, well i'm normally finished ( no details here) before i can see my hand in front of my face.
Anyway, just had to get that off my chest...have a good evening.

[Nemesis]

We've been using ESBs in all rooms in the house for 13 years now with no problems.

[picsfor]

My wife is as blind as a bat even with her glasses on - so whether the light is on makes no difference to her

[Hinfrance]

Here's what I wrote about these damned stupid things on 16th September in the WAYT  thread.

I see no reason to change my mind.

"CFLs.

I was an early adopter of this technology, back in the 90s when they were first introduced. It didn't take very long to realise that there were some major problems with them. Not least devices controlled by infrared remotes developing a taste for random operation. But I'm tight, so I was interested in the claimed product lifecycle savings. Unfortunately one of the problems is that there are no product lifecycle savings. In fact they are much more costly, mainly because they rarely last even as long as an incandescent bulb in normal domestic use. And their power consumption during the warm up phase means they often use more electricity than an incandescent bulb if they are only on for short periods of time.

Whoever said that they last longer than incandescent bulbs should be made to live with them over their forecast life without being able to change them. With the only power provided by those other Green con jobs, windmills. But that is a whole different rant. I'll guarantee they will be in the dark most of the time.

Half our home is lit with incandescent bulbs, half with CFLs. Whereas I cannot remember the last time I changed an incandescent lightbulb, I've just had to replace four CFLs this morning. And the new recycling bin in the supermarket for them was full in less than 24 hours (they are toxic waste unlike the perfectly sound incandescent bulbs we have been forced to replace). So if they're so reliable, how come so many of them fail so quickly? Answer is the Greens lie about their hair shirt technology just as much as they lie about everything else. Actually the answer is that they don't take being switched on and off too well.

It is surely no coincidence the the leader of the Greens in the EU parliament is Danny the Red, instigator of the 1968 riots. Leopards and spots and all that . . but I digress.

It's not that CFLs have no reasonable uses - they do - essentially any low level lighting that is left permanently switched on. For all other lighting uses they are as the Americans would say, sub optimal.

Get low voltage halogen lighting while you still can - it lasts for years and again in typical use can often be more energy efficient than CFLs. Alas halogen lighting will also be banned from 2012.

Pray that LCD lighting works properly by then. I've tried this too. Bought 6 20 LED spots to replace the 12v halogens in the kitchen. Two problems. 1, despite claimed life of 100,000 the first LEDs began to fail with 2 months, so certainly less than 500 hours. At the end of three months 28 of the total of 120 LEDS had died and I had had enough of this experiment. And 2, Despite their quoted wattage equivalencies they were significantly less bright and far more directional than the halogens. So the two completely dead ones are in the bin and the rest are in the rainy day, have you learned your lesson yet? box.

And it's foggy."

I reckon Nemesis must live in a house with big windows somewhere sunny and is always in bed before dark and up after daybreak. 

[top totty]

As soon as I got word about the bulbs I went out and stock piled, bought as many 100w bulbs as I could. I prefer 150w but my husband does say our house is like Blackpool illuminations, can't stand poxy lighting, if I want low lighting I will put on lamp, two bedrooms in the house have had the same bulbs in for twenty years. Does this mean that strip lighting in kitchens have to go as well? if so I'll have to go and stock pile those also.

[picsfor]

will it keep the eurocrats in a job making you change strip lighting as well?

[magicrhodes]

Eurgh I hate strip lighting any way!