Saving energy

[Blaze]

We've found, unsurprisingly, that some brand names are better than others for length of life. The better brands don't seem to have that irritating flicker from time to time. It may well be that they are the old A+++ ones as well, and thus a false economy ! We saw a dramatic drop in our electricity consumption when we changed the bulbs we use most often to LEDs.

I was a fan of Maglite torches for years but today's smaller LED torches are far more practical, last far longer and give a much brighter light. That said, I believe you can convert an old one to LED ...

Thank you @DaveW @RobertArthur and @elsie for the useful info.

[DaveW]

I bought one of these in 2010/11 can’t remember, it wasn’t cheap but I was fascinated.

https://inhabitat.com/philips-unveils-w ... mmon-bulb/

It’s in my hall and I leave it on at night and when I’m away.

I guess it’s going to go pop one day soon, but I think the ROI is pretty good.

Do you know if these are available in France? I looked on Amazon.fr and see exterior models, but not the interior bulbs.

I bought them in France but the form has changed over the years and the price has gone down. I guess this is what you would be looking at today
https://www.amazon.fr/Philips-ampoule-E ... =8-12&th=1

[hughnique]

I must have changed about 35 GU10's to date, replaced 50w old style with LED's, bought from Action, you can get a 12 pack for about 10€, they look a lot brighter than the old ones. Just ordered a pack of 5 reglettes from Amazon, to replace the old 4 ft fluories, that I have to keep replacing tubes and starters on, and listening to the constant complaint about flickering headache inducing.

[Hotrodder]

I bought one of these in 2010/11 can’t remember, it wasn’t cheap but I was fascinated.

https://inhabitat.com/philips-unveils-w ... mmon-bulb/

It’s in my hall and I leave it on at night and when I’m away.

I guess it’s going to go pop one day soon, but I think the ROI is pretty good.

Reading the link about the "new" Philips bulb I noticed it was a U.S. based article, then remembered reading back then that certain electricity suppliers on the east coast were sending customers packs of the new low energy bulbs for free, gratis, no charge, to aid general awareness of how much could be saved.
I couldn't even dream of EDF or any other supplier here doing that.

[exile]

Okay, I guess I am a bit slow. I thought the new LED bulbs were supposed to be more energy efficient. So, why are they classified with such low ratings; E, F and/or G ?

Not slow at all. It is a bit confusing.

In the days of the old incandescent bulbs with power levels of 40W, 60W or even 100W, the original rating allowed you to see that for example halogen bulbs would improve the energy performance from perhaps F to D, or a fluorescent bulb to B or C. All was well. Then LED bulbs came along and these were all pretty much A rated and A+ and A++ were added but it was perhaps not so clear to some which was better. ( Is A+ better than A -yes- or is A+ like A but using a little bit more - no).

There was still a problem in differentiating between good LEDs, better LEDs and the very best LEDs. So the whole scale was re-jigged. Good LEDs will be in the A and B categories and less good ones in the higher range. Now that incandescent bulbs have gone the way of the dodo (except that one that has been going for years in you bedside lamp) an F rating does not mean the same as it did 15 years ago.

[RobertArthur]

@ Hotrodder, no, not the EDF, it was Paris in 2017 with subsidies trying to get the message across. Not a success. From another forum these snapshots:

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Ms TB: Now I receive an email that I can get 5 lamps for free, but the website says: 1 seule commande par foyer. I already have them. But when I clicked on "J'en profite" anyway, I discovered that the offer has changed. You now get 5 bulbs for free + for 1 euro, 10 more! If you pay 2 euros you will receive a whopping 25! What does a person need with 25 LED bulbs? But yes, 2 euros is tempting and you can always give them as gifts.

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Mr J: I have now had to replace again all the LED bulbs I installed from the free package. The average lifespan is shorter than the old-fashioned incandescent bulbs they replaced. The bulbs cost nothing, but then you have nothing.
In my original contribution, I literally wrote "...here, in my opinion, is yet another outgrowth of the French subsidy circus and foolish circulation of taxpayers' money...". It is now clear to me that it is not even an excrescence, but may be called outright fraud. Dump a batch of demolition-quality LED lights into the public with much noise, win the subsidy based on top-quality pricing, and then après nous le déluge.
Unfortunately, subsidies not infrequently work to corrupt the market and distort competition.

[RobertArthur]

Some led bulbs are not safe at all, ebay buyers be careful.

[hughnique]

Just ordered a pack of 5 reglettes from Amazon, to replace the old 4 ft fluories, that I have to keep replacing tubes and starters on, and listening to the constant complaint about flickering headache inducing.

Well they duly arrived yesterday, a couple of days earlier than estimated, I looked with shock horror when I noticed that DPD were the delivery agents, I could foresee yet another 10km round trip to the fag shop, to collect, and was just checking my e mails about 4 pm, when the phone rang, it was the DPD driver telling me, as far as I could decipher, that he was at number 3, clearly states no 5 on the delivery details, after a bit of faffing about he appeared from the mists of time, and proceeded to inform me that I did not know where I lived and that the name of the street was something else, what an informative bugger he was, anyway got here in the end.

[ajm]

I get emails for 'free' bulbs but they are a scam. Be careful!

[Sparkle]

On a different note, it was soooo cold here last night and as we wanted to watch the TV and I refuse to put the heating on after the 1 Avril we dug out and climbed into sleeping bags - we were so warm that we dropped off to sleep and missed the program - fortunately I'd recorded it