i have used low energy light bulbs for the whole house over the last 7 years and am looking to replace them with LED type light bulbs in the not too distant future …

LEDs are the future. Seem to be increasing their light output by a significant amount each year. Because they provide direct light they need to be diffused to produce more useful, indirect light (they're basically more of a 'spotlight') so they need to provide more lumens than a standard lightbulb but they're definitely catching up - also unlike 'energy savers' and other flourescents they switch on pretty much instantly. Yep - LEDs are definitely the future but unfortunately they're not quite bright enough just yet so they're not the now. Give it 5-10 years and they'll be bright enough. Of course as most LED lights last 80,000 to 100,000 hours which is roughly 9-11 years you could buy 10 lightbulbs per socket and never buy a lightbulb again - in fact you'd probably end up passing on 2-3 of them to the next generation of your family

Mercury 'Energy Saving' bulbs are anything but ecological. The only good thing you can say about them is that they don't 'blow' as often as regular bulbs. Like other flourescents they use a lot less energy when already on but the power taken to switch them on means that in real terms they're not using much less energy a year. When they blow most normal people just put them in the bin. After all none of the manufacturers or the shops and supermarkets that sell them seem to provide information about proper disposal. In fact proper disposal of a mercury-laden product is very tricky indeed. WHat really annoys me is that people say "Look this 15 watt lightbulb produces the equivalent of a 60 watt lightbulb". I NEVER use 60w - 60w is FAR too dingy. Why not give me a 25 watt lightbulb that gives the same amount of lumens as a 100 watt. Stuff that - give me a 35 watt one that gives me a blazing 140 watts. I HATE dingy rooms.

My living room has a fitting that takes 5x 40w ses golfball bulbs.
I've tried replacing them with energy saving bulbs but the either are:
a) too dim (you need a 60w equiv for a 40w standard bulm
b) too directional
c) ugly
d) don't actually work in the fitting (I believe it's the fact they're not balance as well as the golfballs)

Apart from that every other room in the house has enery saving bulbs.
Although as they use 80% less electricity the wife thinks it's fine to leave them on longer.

Perhaps it's time to think about new light fittings...

The tragic thing being; many new light fittings are just as bad

Are energy savers really 'energy savers'?

We have them all around the house, absolutely useless, but considering their mercury content, the whole manufacturing and recycling process involved with them, do they actually save energy overall?

When I caught bit of BBC Breakfast this morning it seems everyone who called and emailed in was pretty much against the energy saving bulbs...

This seems to be a good site... http://www.litebulbs.co.uk/index.aspx

It is a new fitting

Energy saving light bulbs can't be used with dimmer switches I'm going to have to find all the normal switches I've replaced with dimmer types

The good news is that you can send away for 'free' energy saving light bulbs - we've got quite a few now...

Al

Check the site I linked.

They have dimmer switch compatible bulbs.

If colour/brightness is an issue, try these. It seems most places don't sell ESLs above 21W, but I find you need 30W ESLs to get anywhere close to a 100W incandescent.

In that case, I'd take it back and say it's unfit for purpose.

Seriously; we've known for several years that incandescent bulbs are going to be banned. A light fitting is useless if there are no bulbs, unless you just want something pretty to see by the light of a different lamp.

I've had a brief skim of this thread and nobody seems to have mentioned the health implication of these energy saving bulbs.

Mrs. V has lupus and reacts to the energy savers, so unless LED technology improves it's back to candles for us soon...

That's a new one on me. Does she have to avoid TV and monitors, as well as the sun and fluorescent lights?

Luckily, it looks like LEDs are pretty much there already - they've just not made it over here in any quantity yet. If you look to China, you'll see LED lights of all shapes, sizes and colours for less than £1. That should keep the fashion victims happy too. Probably a good time to start trading in them...

Hopefully, my existing fluorescents will last their 3 years, and then it's finally onto LEDs. This is something I've been wanting for ages, mostly because I like the idea of running the lighting on cheap 12V solar / wind / muscle power

Agreed.

I find reading under ESLs to be really rather taxing on the eyes whereas with the old Luddlites (see what I did there) I could read for hours with no problems. Furthermore when I turn off the light I can "see" and feel a vibrating/flashing effect.

However I have found no such problems with the LED bulbs.