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Choosing the right lamp . . .

Choosing a light bulb used to be easy— there was only one kind available. Now you have the choice of incandescent, fluorescent, compact fluorescent (CFL) LED or halogen – it’s getting a bit like ordering eggs in the USA - more difficult than it looks so we’ve developed this site to try and help you make the most appropriate choice for your home.

Most people now are looking to switch to low energy lighting but before you do you need to be aware of the options available to you as if you make the wrong choice you could end up being disappointed.

First of all lets look at some of the basic types of lightbulbs we can choose from.


	LED


	What’s Good : extremely long life, extremely low power consumption, small, come on immediately What’s Bad : more expensive, not dimmable, higher colour temperatures,


	CFL


	What’s good : long life, low running costs, relatively cheap, good light output. What’s bad : larger, some disposal issues, not dimmable


	Halogen


	What’s good : bright, modern, small, dimmable. low cost What’s bad : relatively short life, hot, not energy efficient

There are 2 further crucial issues to consider . . . .

The colour of the light. This generally ranges from 2700k which is a warm white and generally suitable for domestic lights, though to 6500k which is a blue/white light and is more suitable for shops and offices.

There photos are taken using 3*3w Warm White (3200k) LED lamps on the left and 3*3w Cool White (5000k) on the right.


		Colour Temperature

Modern lamps have reflectors behind the light source and so the light can be concentrated in a particular direction. By changing the shape of the reflector, manufacturers can vary the angle where most of the light is concentrated A narrow beam is approx 20deg, Medium is 38deg and wide is 60degrees.

If you wish to highlight an item then a narrower beam can be better, whilst for general lighting a wider beam is preferable.


		Beam Angle

If you are looking to replace GU10 halogen lamps then be aware that Low Energy CFL type GU10 lamps are longer and so will protrude from the fitting – in most cases this is fine but if this is not acceptable then you will have to look at LED lamps BUT to get anything like the same amount of light as a halogen lamp, you will need to go for the higher colour temperature LED lamps - just be aware that the light produced is very different to that of a halogen

GU10 replacements

Current issues - As the Compact Flourescent lightbulbs (CFL) contain small amount of mercury vapour, they pose some disposal issues. Like all reputable suppliers of these products, we subscribe to a scheme to encourage the development of proper disposal sites for CFL lamps. This is part of the WEEE directive (find out more here). You do not return lamps to us at the end of life but rather take them to your local recycling centre where facilities are becoming available. LED lamps are NOT affected by this issue.

You may have heard stores about CFL lamps causing headaches etc - we are not scientists so are not pretending to have definitive information about this - you can see what the BBC say here and here

Use with dimmers

We are frequently asked about using low energy lamps with dimmers. The truth is that very few low energy lamps will work with dimmers. There are a few becoming available but they are expensive and relatively bulky. You CAN use a low energy lamp with a dimmer switch BUT you must leave the dimmer in it’s maximum position – if you try and dim the lamps they will flicker badly and you will reduce their life. (NB: it may emit a buzz and shorten the life expectancy of the bulb)




		GU10




		Large Bayonet




		Large Screw




		Small Bayonet




		Small Screw

Choosing the right lamp . . .

LED

CFL

Halogen

Colour Temperature

Beam Angle