Energy saving light bulbs - Hurray I'm vindicated

There is an article on BBC today that says stuff I (and presumably many others) figured out years ago:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8406923.stm

Apparently, surprise surprise, energy saving lightbulbs don't save that much energy after all. Some boffins have pointed out that the quoted saving is based on tests in lab conditions with very carefully controlled conditions, and on top of that if they make a bulb that is maybe equivalent to, say, 53 watts on an old style bulb, because there is no such rating they just round up to the next one up.

There's also the argument that an old incandescent bulb 'wastes' 95% of its energy as heat, but as you tend to use your lights more in the darker months of winter, the reduction in heat loss by the energy saving bulb is more than made up for by the fact that your central heating thermostat will pick up the difference and crank up your boiler a bit.

They also make no mention of the energy required to manufacture the bulbs, or dispose of them when they're done.

I feel smug because although I'm not opposed to them, these are all points I've put forward before in various conversations when they come up, and now the boffins have said it

 

thanks for the info. not sure it matters tho, cos arent the government phasing out the sale of normal bulbs?? so we wont have a choice anyway....

 

They've already banned 100 watt 'normal' incandescant bulbs, but you can still by 60s and 40s.

Personally I don't mind energy savers, but it should be a matter of choice, or if there has to be a ruling, it should be based on fact rather than hype.

My only hope is that people read the article and start to question other 'eco' options, where the facts are typically withheld by the marketers.

 

The position with the "old bulbs" is that retailers can carry on selling them until their stocks run out. I reckon that'll be quite some time yet.
I've been buying a couple of packs of 6 X 60watt candle bulbs for weeks from the "Pound Shop," as we use them in table lamps and pendant wall lights

I'm sure there's not a day in the week goes by that someone doesn't think I'm smug about something!

 

That's the bit I've always wondered about. But so long as the UK population is saving this tiny bit of energy, then we don't need to worry about what China, India and others are doing, do we?

 

That's very cynical, but a perfectly valid point

Apparently the UK is responsible for 2% of world CO2 production.

 

So if that's the cause of global warming, we cause half of it, according to something I read on a scientific site the other day.

You can't believe anything these days, can you?

 

Interesting.

"And what you do with a bulb can affect its lifespan, says Mr Leslie. Continuously turning it off and on every 15 minutes, for example, will more than halve its expected lifespan. "

I use the new bulbs but turn them off when not in use. The stair and upstairs landing light are usually only on for a couple of minutes.

Normal confusion and politicans/companies/scientists not giving us the full facts.

Who do you trust?

 

My partner and my friends. Everyone else can go and jump.

 

Why is it then the light bulbs in your car seem to last longer than conventional bulbs? Is it because of the lower voltage?

Of course, the brake-light bulbs in Nissan Micras or similar cars with "baby on board" signs in the back, must fail several times a week, musn't they?

 

Aaarrgggg. More stuff where we aren't going to have a choice but, lo & behold the facts could be wrong!

I use a few 'new' bulbs, but don't like them. They take longer to warm up and so you have to have them on earlier than needed so therefore longer. Once again I haven't explained myself very well have I:dh:

Like quite a few have said, we're getting rollicked in this country (and taxed) yet others are getting away with it! makes me sick.

If only someone, somewhere could give a definative solution I'm sure we'd all be happy to make changes.

cheers

 

What annoys me most is that the ordinary individual is made to take the blame because we might have forgot to unplug our phone charger, while big businesses and even the local authorities get away with shocking waste.

To give you an example of one of the power wastes that annoys me. While I'm told via TV ads that its all my fault for wasting a tiny bit of energy, I can stand in our back garden on an evening and look out across the city of Sheffield. We're near the top of a valley so much of the city is in a basin, below us. I can see all the street lights clearly, thousands of them. It occurs to me that if I can see those lights clearly despite being higher up than most of them, light from them most be radiating out at a very wide angle with most of the light being wasted, skywards. Simply putting better reflectors on them so that all the light shines down to illuminate the road/pavement that it is supposed to, then you could have the same brightness in the intended coverage for about half the power consumption. Yet when I watch TV and see ads telling me its all my fault for leaving my phone charger plugged in, I never see a TV ad that says 'and by the way, your council is wasting megawatts of energy every night'.

 

dont like the so called energy saving bulbs. when you switch on ,they give a dim yellow light.
it takes some time before you get a bright light, which we have been used to over the years.
they are also longer, and show below the light shade ,if they are on a ceiling light.
i do a lot of crosswords ,and in the dark nights i cannot get the instant power from the bulbs that i am used to. i dont believe that me doing a few crosswords is going to melt the ice caps and cause
tsunamis etc etc etc. half of the rain forrests are gone !!it was not me doing crosswords .
i do believe it is a natural thing,it has been happening throughout world evolution and i dont think
what our politicians are doing will make a change one iota!. the basic fact is our planet is changing
the only difference now (it is happening that quick) as i say i do beleive it is a natural event and nothing will stop it .being gardeners we should have noted the changes in a short period of time
in our gardens. we have seen plants that should not be there (out of season) blooming.winter plants being pulled out to make room for summer plants and the winter plants are still flowering.
the whole weather conditions/seasons have changed SO SO dramatically over the past 35 years
as i say i do beleive it is a natural change in our world wide climate . :(
music.

 

I dont like them energy saving bulbs they are very dull so im sticking with the normal ones they are much brighter in my lamps, ive got one in my kitchen and im going to change it as it makes my kitchen dark looking, thanks for the info on them

 

Very true. If you ever go past the Canary Wharf development at night time, every light in every office block is ablaze, regardless of the time of night. Even if they are all energy saving bulbs, wouldn't it be more energy efficient to turn them off? It's not for the safety of low flying aircraft either (London City Airport is a mile up the road) as all the buildings have warning lights as well.