How many light bulbs in your home?

Hello,

I was just curious how many light bulbs do you have in your home? Are any energy saving?

Andrew

We have over 100 bulbs in our new house, most of them were those GU10 bulbs that use 50 watts each we have rows and rows of them, we replaced the whole houses bulbs using a site called www.presenceuk.com and we now use a mixture of LED for the mood lighting areas, CFL for some areas and the new high power LED bulbs in the kitchen and bathroom for heavy usage and max light and power saving, we also replaced all our candle shaped energy savers and our security light bulbs with energy saving bulbs, its best to email your supplier if you are unsure what you want though as we bought the wrong bulbs twice, there are all different fittings and colours of white that you dont even realise exist it turned out they had 32 types of bulb that would fit our fittings so if you tell them hat you want then let them tell you what they have then you wont waste money having to return bulbs for exchange, the dealer we used was very helpful and even gave us some discount as we wanted a lot all at once. Just beware though the different colours of white are quite different there is cool white and warm white, cool white we have in the work areas and warm white in "relaxing" areas as the light isnt as "harsh".

I was surprised when I used an online calculator (www.kolighting.co.uk/savings-calculator) to see how much I could save by swapping to LEDs. Even the initial investment is made made in the first year and they last about 10 times longer then normal bulbs.

I am well chuffed. Only advice for swapping 50W Halogens is to use 5W LED's. The 3W ones aren't quite bright enough.

Paul

Yes but that depends on the quality oif the emitters, some 3w LED emitters are brighter than 5w emitters and some 4w bulbs are brighter than 7w LED bulbs, these ones are about the best on the market at the moment:

GU10 LED 4 watt Light bulb. Ring branded. 3 Bright High Power LED's Per Bulb. Standard GU-10 Size.

~ SPECIAL OFFER ~ GU10 LED 4 watt Light bulb. Ring branded. 3 Bright High Power LED's Per Bulb. Standard GU-10 Size. 4w Super Low Energy Saving Warm white spotlight ceiling lamps.

They are far cheaper than they should be but they are on at clearance I beleive.

Some are better than others, plain "white box" bulbs are the worst, dont touch them, always go for a brand as its not possible to get genuine safety approval on white box unbranded goods, although some sellers will tel you diiferently.

Hi stuart
you are right the best bulbs are'nt cheap in the short term i replaced 10 GU10 bulbs in my kitchen with grade A led 's now i use 50watts instead of 500 they are as bright as my old ones and have an approx 50,000hr life (5yrs) The ones i bought are warm white which are great on my ivory coloured units a bright soft instant light.Contacted admin@eco-led-bulbs.co.uk
ithink they supply bayonet bulbs as well.
Cheers terry

Mr Law owns PresenceUK so I'm not surprised he is recormending them or that he got a discount!

In my opinion equally important to intensity of light (no. of lumens) is the colour temp. of the light. Choose an LED (or cfl) with a high colour temp. to give a whiter and clearer light, which is better for kitchens, bathrooms etc. e.g. http://www.thelightworks.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=37_101&products_id=1743

But I have used the 3watt LED's from www.lightingcompany.co.uk and they give 320 lumens which is equivalent to 50watt mains halogen and in the warmwhite colour they match really well

I have about 40 lights in my house. I just kitted my house with LED bulbs from http://www.lightevolution.co.uk. I have to say it is probably one of the best decisions I have made. I have noticed a big difference in my bill lately. Also they seem to be the cheapest bulbs around atm apart from those cheap happy go lucky waste of time supermarket/ARGOS LED bulbs.

I would try http://www.powersavebulbs.co.uk myself as they only sell proper brands, most bulbs online are white box bulbs illegally imported, they are a total fire risk that's the problem... with unbranded bulbs they are not imported through the right channels and have no real safety checks, as a rule of thumb if you haven't heard of the brand then don't buy, stick to known names like Philips, Eveready, Sylvania, Ring, Osram, Duracell, Maxim and the likes, you have to remember that anyone can print a CE mark on a bulb or on a box but if its not traceable back to the maker then its probably never had the proper safety testing. By law the importers address has to be n the box as well so that they can be traced in the event of a fire etc and you find that most of the unheard of brands don't do this as they don't want to be traced and prosecuted. Its not worth risking a house fire to save a few £ so my advice with all electrical items including light bulbs is to always buy a known brand.

Choosing the right LED lamp with respect to light output, colour of light, colour rendering, and dimmability is not a simple task. It is very easy to pick the wrong lamp. Particularly a lamp that is not bright enough and/or not a warm enough white. Some useful advice can be found on this help page: http://www.wowlighting.co.uk/low_energy_lighting.htm

You need to take particular care when choosing LEDs that are going to be dimmed. You need to check compatibility of the transformer (if the lamp is low voltage) and the dimmer switch. And make sure the dimmer switch is suitably derated!