Are the new bulbs an EC con?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.express.co...r-energy-saving-bulbs

Do you go along with this latest condemnation of the 'new bulbs' or are they the best thing since sliced bread?

[Gromit]

They save me money.

[Brenden]

I hate them, have stocked up on old type - is it true you have to dispose of the new bulbs separately because of the mercury content?

[carolegif]

I hate them, and yest you do have to dispose of them properly. You have to wrap them up in tissue and take them to your nearest recycling centre for disposal.
Any saving to greenhouse gases gone with the car emissions from going to the local tip!

[anotheoldgit]

It is a 'DIM' idea, which give out a 'DIM' light.

I can't see many taking them down to their local tip for disposal.

So much for for the environment.

[Brenden]

Is there any danger to ones health from these bulbs?.

[jake-the-peg]

This hazardous waste rubbish is a newspaper con

The mercury emitted from power stations powering the old bulbs outweighs what is in CF bulbs by a factor of 3!

http://en.wikipedia.o...t_source_EPA_2008.svg

If you break one your exposure for a short period of time might just exceed the advisory limit for long term exposure.

Basically Rupert Mudoch and pals loathe the EU and are trying to make everybody paranoid about anything they do - and if that involves telling everybody lies and half truths I don't think they care very much

[I.Don No]

I don't like the slow light up with these new bulbs now but I tend to leave them switched on if I am leaving the room for a few minutes which sort of defeats the object of energy saving ...... and I am concerned re putting one in the light up the landing........I would probably been already downstairs by the time it reached full brightness, which sort of defeats the object yet again!

[bookbinder]

I don't see them so much as a "con" - as in confidence trick - but more as an example of dozy thinking by the EU.

[Bettypat]

We are definitely not using these energy saving bulbs. We have stock piled the old ones and hope they will last us out until something better is developed. These new bulbs may last longer but from people I know who have used them, they say that they get dimmer and dimmer with use so they need to be changed before they pop off. There ate lots of American sites you can find and the thing they stress mostly is the fact that if you break one you should never vacuum it up.

[New Judge]

I was amused at an article on the BBC news yesterday. They said that the old 60w tungsten bulbs would no longer be available. This was to “encourage” householders to switch over to the new, useless, dangerous type.

Encourage????? Why didn’t they use the correct word which is to “force”? Householders are being forced to use the new type as there will be no alternative. The amount of electricity saved (something like 45 watts per bulb) is piffling. I would far rather the EU directed its “encouragement” towards store owners who insist on leaving their doors wide open in the middle of January then using a “curtain” heater to heat the street up nicely. I looked at one of these in a large supermarket just recently. It was 22.5kW. The store is open 24/7 so in January it will consume over 500kW of juice per day. Assuming a new lightbulb is used for eight hours a day (a very conservative estimate) the store’s heating will negate the effect of more than 30,000 of them.

I have one of these bulbs in my lower hall. When I switch it on the room gets darker. I have to make an appointment to go upstairs as there is insufficient light to see my way for about five minutes after switching on. Wonderful !!

[emmie]

Think what they could save if most of the lights in the office blocks in London were shut down, i mean they are on all night, as far as i know.

[237SJ]

I quite like them. I`m quite happy to leave a lamp on when I go out for the evening, knowing I`m only burning 8W and not 60W. I was talking to a man in the lighting shop the other week about trying to get a more powerful bedside lamp bulb. He said that Phillips and co. make really cheap, ineffective ones for the DIY store market. He showed me a commercial standard low energy bulb and it was far superior to the 99p ones. The only complaint I have is that they don`t make soft-tone coloured bulbs.

[Brenden]

Can you use them on dimmer switches.

[rov1100]

They did a simple experiment on Channel 4 news yesterday. They had an old style bulb next to one of the new type. After switching them on together the new one wins hands down for brightness.

[DaisyNonna]

Dangerous if you need to get somewhere in a hurry in the dark and have to wait for the bulb to give enough illumination. Sod the expense, I leave my landing light on all night. Makes a mockery of energy saving.

[Ann]

Dreadful things - hate them!! Absolutely refuse to use them and have ordered a load of old type ones from Ebay ............... NANNY STATE - GRRRR!!!!

[welshlibranr]

I hate them!.........as I get a bit longer in the tooth, I find that I need better light, and these bulbs are so dim!..........

[tara20]

Funnily enough, on Sept. 1, the price of the new bulbs went up by 25%.
Can only be a coincidence?

[modeller]

I use to have 4 60w security bulbs outside my house which each had to be replaced 3 times each winter. This involved ladders and working in the cold. A hateful job.
Since changing to low energy 3 years ago I haven't had to change any.
Apart from any savings in energy the very fact I dont have the hassle of replacing them is worth their weight in gold.
With regards to dimness I replaced my 60 watt bulbs with 18 watt low energy , which use a third of the power but I have measured it and they emit slightly more lumens ( brightness ) after 1 minute.
I have just examined 3 different makes and none of them mention any special requirements for disposing of them and even if they did, once in ten years is no big deal.