Light bulbs and Eco/Greenness?

barry island

I needed to replace a floor standing lamp as one of the the LED bulbs had packed up in the neat little one we got from Lidl about five years ago, when I bought it I realised that the LED units weren't replaceable but hoped that it would last a good few years anyhow, it has been a good little lamp just giving enough light to read by when it isn't dark enough to have the main lights on. The new lamp that we bought has three adjustable lamps which use 40 watt incandescent bulbs these bulbs turned out to be too long protruding from the shades and too bright and overpowering so we found some small lower wattage bulbs online, today when they arrived I fitted them in and the effect was much better the bulbs were within the shades and the combination of the three 25 Watt bulbs more subtle  than the three 40 Watt ones. When I read the small print on the box I noticed that it read "not suitable for household room illumination", strange I thought what magical powers do these bulbs hold that they can't be used to illuminate a room? A quick search on the internet revealed that this disclaimer is a ploy to fool the European Union as they deem it non-green to burn incandescent bulbs in a household but they can be used in a factory/office/advertising sign/etc. This got me thinking about the eco/greenness of on one hand having household equipment which uses less power but has non-replaceable consumable parts such as bulbs and ones which burn more power but at least when the consumable part needs replacing the whole thing doesn't need to be scrapped.

madpenguin

A lot of the thinking now seems to be just about the energy consumption rather than the whole picture.
At present I have a small Glow-worm gas boiler which when it packs up I will be unable to replace and will need a much larger condensing boiler which is deemed more fuel efficient.
The current boiler is 19 years old and still works fine and not expensive to run and is checked once a year.
In the same amount of time my Mum is now on her 3rd condensing boiler each of which has had to be manufactured,fitted,disposal of the old and of course paid for.They generally last about 10 years.When you consider the savings on fuel against the cost of replacement and disposal it all mounts up.
I can't see why having to constantly replace something is deemed better than something that may use a bit more energy over time.In the end I expect you consume more than having one that lasts years!

Pete.8

madpenguin said:

A lot of the thinking now seems to be just about the energy consumption rather than the whole picture.
At present I have a small Glow-worm gas boiler which when it packs up I will be unable to replace and will need a much larger condensing boiler which is deemed more fuel efficient.
The current boiler is 19 years old and still works fine and not expensive to run and is checked once a year.
In the same amount of time my Mum is now on her 3rd condensing boiler each of which has had to be manufactured,fitted,disposal of the old and of course paid for.They generally last about 10 years.When you consider the savings on fuel against the cost of replacement and disposal it all mounts up.
I can't see why having to constantly replace something is deemed better than something that may use a bit more energy over time.In the end I expect you consume more than having one that lasts years!

When we had the mini beast from the east early this year and temps were below 0c for several days the condensate pipe on my condensing boiler froze and the boiler made a terrifying noise each time it tried to fire-up - I could actually see it shaking so much on the wall it was a blur!
The boiler was installed the previous year.
Worcester Bosch couldn't visit for several days so I called my plumber and he suggested disconnecting the condensate pipe and let it flow into a bucket in the loft.
He said to be aware that they can produce around 2-3 litres of condensate per hour. I knew that the condensate was mildly acidic so was careful.
I checked every couple of hours but there were only a few drips in the bucket.
After 4 days, there was about 5 litres of condensate in the bucket - a very far cry from the predicted 2-3 litres per hour.
So I done some researching and came across this atricle that describes why condensng boilers are a myth - 
https://www.theheatinghub.co.uk/why-our-condensing-boilers-do-not-condense

Nollie

Incandescent bulbs last far longer and are far more economic than the extortionately expensive LED eco bulbs here, which regularly blow. The latter seem to be more sensitive to the fluctuations of our rural electricity supply. So here even the theory of better energy efficiency in use falls over without taking into account the whole life/embodied energy costs of the two types, which, I admit I am not au-fait with.

raisingirl

Typically, LED lamps at the moment have around twice the embodied carbon of incandescent ones. Their life, on average is around x60 of an incandescent. During their life, they use maybe 1 - 5% of the energy of incandescent equivalents. Therefore LED lamps are far more carbon efficient. Not even close - by miles

raisingirl

The problem of condensing boilers is solved by having a heat pump instead. Just sayin'

Lyn

Just changing all ours over to LED,  26 bulbs in this bungalow,  good job they’re not all on at once. 

Stephanie308uParr

Led bulbs are environmentally friendly and safe, does not contain any harmful substances, and do not require special disposal, unlike the previous type of lamps. More durable and economical than fluorescent lamps. However, it is worth noting that such a lamp is often more expensive

Nanny Beach

Lyn, I can see your property from space! Have just counted ours,13,that's including lamp each side of the bed

 3 in the conservatory,3 in kitchen,LED,you betcha!

BenCotto

This conversation prompted me to count light bulbs in our house. 76. I have never thought that excessive, though others probably do. It is a very modestly sized cottage.

JennyJ

I've never counted ours but it's quite a lot if I include lamps, under-cupboard lights in the kitchen, recessed ceiling lights in the kitchen and bathroom, outside lights on sensors (the solar ones have arrays of small non-replaceable LEDs), fridge and freezer, ovens, cooker hood, sewing machines etc. Torches too, and my grow light that'll be coming out when I start my tomatoes etc. in a few weeks (also lots of small non-replaceable LEDs, does that count?). Car lights exterior and interior too. And Christmas lights, almost all non-replaceable LED now but many hundreds if I counted them all.

Where would you stop counting? Only the things with replaceable bulbs where you have a choice of what type of bulb to use? That rules out just about everything except the standard ceiling lights and lamps with bayonet or screw-fitting bulbs.