Before Christmas I wrote about the unsolicited mailing from NPower which contained 4 rather dodgy energy saving lightbulbs.  In response to all the comments,  and to redress the balance, here is a quick round up of bulbs I do like, all easily available on the high street or by mail order. It’s not my intention to set out to write a heap of “How to go green” blog posts, nor to persuade  you that so many myths about energy saving light bulbs are untrue. If you’ve yet to be convinced, try taking the lightbulb challenge. Or read this very helpful guide from B+Q or try out their lightbulb calculator.

Halogens:

Yes, you can buy energy efficient halogens for those kitchen spotlights. Go Green Lights, B+Q and Nigels Eco store all sell them.  They are a bit pricey, but use about 80% less energy, so well worth the investment (look out for supermarket special offers too) . I’m told that if you search around you can buy them for under a fiver each. They also produce less heat and I think less glare. The LED ones are very bright and worth seeking out too (again, try Go green Lights or Nigel’s Eco Store).

Dimmerables:

In the past it was hard to find bulbs you could use with standard dimmer switches, we have 4 light fittings in our living room (eight  bulbs in total), all on a dimmer control and the first bulbs we tried from Megaman, weren’t a huge success, they flickered and hissed and gave me a headache (though I hear they have improved a lot in the past few years). Recently we treated ourselves to some new ones,  from a different manufacturer (GE), bought in a supermarket and very cheap they were  too. The quality of the light is fantastic, no flicker, quick to reach full intensity and best of all they fitted our tiny light fittings. Nigels eco store has some nice ones  too.

Candle bulbs:

If you’ve spent a small fortune on a lovely light fitting, the last thing you want to do is fit a clunky, unattractive bulb. There are some beautiful bulbs on the market now and there really is no excuse for this (see left) anymore, in fact the only reason it’s still in our bedroom is that (a)  I’m too mean to change it and (b) it’s adequate for the job. I’m sure you’d agree though, it’s not very pretty and doesn’t exactly conjure up a mood of romance or serenity! We recently spotted some gorgeous twisted candle bulbs in a hotel inGeneva,  the manager was very keen to tell us they had recently upgraded all the bulbs to energy efficient models and he had a draw full of the “U tube” variety (like in the picture) if any guest wanted to take them away! We have 32 light bulbs in our house, shocked? Count yours – oh and there’s a string of 100 LED party lights in the kitchen too. We didn’t replace all our bulbs at once, it took a couple of years. We started with the bulbs we use most, the kitchen, hall and living room. Firstly, we used the freebie U – tube shaped ones the Energy Saving Trust give away at community events and slowly sought out nicer ones. I also helped set up a light bulb library run by my local Brownie pack, thanks to the very helpful advice of Chris Goodall (author of  How to Live a Low Carbon Life), you can read his advice on light bulb libraries here and a review he wrote of a couple of carbon footprinting tools here.

Any lighting tips of your own? Do share….