New Light Bulbs.
- 7 January 2009 10:2912270I see on the assorted News Programmes that the old fashioned traditional Edison lightbulb is suddenly and rather dramatically being phased out. The panicking public are clearing the shelves in Tesco etc as we speak. If these bulbs are so very popular and they still appear to be so, why do we need to phase them out at all? Cant we have choice. We allow for example daft smokers to carry on puffing and wheezing, cant we carry on being allowed to have our bulbs of choice. Apparently not!
Okay they may use a tad more energy and last a much shorter time but that guy Thomas Edison got the concept right...they actually give off a considerable amount of lighting power.
These new replacement low energy light bulbs are not the same kettle of fish at all. They are universally dim. Ive joined the throng galloping towards greener energy and bought quite a few very recently and ever since then Ive been bumping into furniture and door posts on a grand scale. Ive made a fine art of it. My eyes are black and blue from walking into the kitchen door and my shoulders have crunched into the woodwork ad nausea. My wounds are of war scale. I might have been in the modern version of the trenches.On top of that my vision is failing like never before. I cant see the written word, I cant read newspapers and books are completely out of the question. Well yes...these do gooder lightbulbs are the latest topic for grumpy old men, this grumpy old man anyway!.."...they're the pits!"
Hats off to the original lightbulb I say, it gave light where there was none before..and it did exacly as it said on the tin!email: dover7@msn.com - 7 January 2009 11:0812274They don't make them like this anymore, this particular bulb has been burning for 108 years!
http://www.centennialbulb.org/index.htm
There's an awesome and exciting bulbcam to watch on the site if you get really bored. - 7 January 2009 11:2712276Here's a lightbulb you (hopefully) wouldn't want. It's absolutely genuine, dates from the mid thirties and still works. It was recently up for sale on a well known auction site for £200.
- 7 January 2009 12:1612280I know which bulb I would go for, '108 and not out!' - Light the Reicht! I think not!
PaulB I know where you are coming from, that's if I could see you in these dim but greener times Seriously, I too have climbed aboard the greener low energy lightbulbs but you need an Edison bulb to give you enough light to replace with a greener version 
I agree there should be a choice, I've had to give up reading by electric light as it is not good for the eyesight. - 7 January 2009 12:3112282Just goes to show Phil there has been a gadget invented for every conceivable scheme..who'd have thought it, Nazi lightbulbs.
Yes BWS its dim and getting dimmer, I think the idea as someone said on TV is to use more of the blighters but of course I would imagine that defeats the whole purpose. Candles will be making a comeback any day now.
Has anyone forund the solution to this modern era problem?email: dover7@msn.com - 7 January 2009 13:1012283Candles is a winner all the time and they are nice and what a smell we use them all the time. We sleep in a four poster bed I have told Lesley when I die she is to put four 5ft candles one on each corner and light them
so when you all come round to see me off I will be lieing there with Mario LANZA SINGING I WILL WALK WITH GOD great song you can all walk around the bed saying what a great person IWAS AND HOW MUCH THE TOWN WILL MISS ME 
AND PLEASE PUT A FEW BOBIN THE HAT to help with shoting me into orbit,because I wish to be a commit coming over Dover each ten years and you can all come out at night and look at me going by. 
Vic Matcham - 7 January 2009 13:4812285Trouble is very very few energy efficient bulbs are suitable for dimmer switches, and also if you need the very slim bulbs.Been nice knowing you :)
- Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,302
7 January 2009 14:1112286I must admit that most of our bulbs are low energy. The only "ordinary" incandescent lamps being in the hallway and the bedrooms as they are on dimmers. There are also a few halogen down and spotlights. One of the problems with low energy lamps is that they do tend to be slow in coming to full brightness. This can be an advantage however in getting up at 05.30 and switching the kitchen lights on, they don't blind you.
One word of advice. If a low energy lamp or a larger flourescent tube breaks, don't be tempted to Hoover up the bits. The dust on the coating inside the tube will contain traces of mercury and other rare earth metals. This is very fine and will go straight through the bag and into the atmosphere.
TerryQuis custodiet ipsos custodes? - 7 January 2009 20:4112298there is a problem of disposal, as stated above they contain traces of mercury.
no-one yet has decided how to solve the problem.
another fact about them, is that they are not as longlasting as we were originally told.
