Energy efficient mains light bulbs

[blackrose]

I have a few mains table lamps onboard and changed my lightbulbs to energy efficient type about 15 years ago.

 

They draw about 1 amp from the batteries if I run them through the inverter which is ok but much more than my 12v LED cabin lights, so I just wondered if there were any 22mm dia dual pole bayonet LED mains lightbulbs on the market these days which would draw less? 

 

Just wanted to get others' experience of the power draw on 12v before I go out and have a look in the shops.

[Quattrodave]

I've never seen them, but I'd be really nervous about using them if they were available for the reason that it would be too easy to accidentally be powered by 220v / 240v / mains (whatever you want to call it)

 

I think I'd be much happier & more inclined to modify the lamp with different plug & light fitting so it could only be powered from 12v...

 

Edit:

Have a look for BA9 bulb holders, seem to be plenty available with a good choice if bulbs too...

Edited May 6, 2023 by Quattrodave

[frangar]

Why not use 12v?
 

Look at bedazzled or Aten lighting. I use the ones from bedazzled in my wall lights and they give a lovely warm light. 
 

https://bedazzledledlighting.co.uk/product/bc-24-led-tower/

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by frangar

[blackrose]

36 minutes ago, Quattrodave said:

I've never seen them, but I'd be really nervous about using them if they were available for the reason that it would be too easy to accidentally be powered by 220v / 240v / mains (whatever you want to call it)

 

I'm talking about mains lightbulbs, designed to be powered by mains.

 

[Quattrodave]

3 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

I'm talking about mains lightbulbs, designed to be powered by mains.

 

Ah sorry, my bad 😞

[blackrose]

29 minutes ago, frangar said:

Why not use 12v?
 

Look at bedazzled or Aten lighting. I use the ones from bedazzled in my wall lights and they give a lovely warm light. 
 

https://bedazzledledlighting.co.uk/product/bc-24-led-tower/

 

 

Because they're mains lamps. For some reason that doesn't seem to have been clear from my original post? Those lightbulbs you've linked to are for low voltage fittings aren't they? I don't really want to have to buy new 12v lamps.

 

My inverter is on all the time anyway to run the fridge so although I can use the lamps it would be good to find lightbulbs that draw less power.

 

I've already called bedazzled. They don't do any mains lightbulbs.

 

3 minutes ago, Quattrodave said:

Ah sorry, my bad 😞

 

No problem

Edited May 6, 2023 by blackrose

[frangar]

Just now, blackrose said:

 

Because they're mains lamps. For some reason that doesn't seem to have been clear from my original post?

 

My inverter is on all the time anyway to run the fridge so although I can use the lamps it would be good to find lightbulbs that draw less power.

 

I've already called bedazzled. They don't do any mains lightbulbs.

 

No problem

Yes but why not make them 12v lamps…change the bulb and the plug…job done!  
 

Any 240v LED bulb will use less power than a CLF…and they have a wattage equivalent on the box…just choose what you want…available from anywhere on the high st. 

[blackrose]

3 minutes ago, frangar said:

Yes but why not make them 12v lamps…change the bulb and the plug…job done!  
 

Any 240v LED bulb will use less power than a CLF…and they have a wattage equivalent on the box…just choose what you want…available from anywhere on the high st. 

 

It's not job done because I don't have 12v wiring/sockets in the locations where the lamps sit.

 

Ok I'll just buy some mains LED bulbs - thanks.

 

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by blackrose

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

1 minute ago, frangar said:

Yes but why not make them 12v lamps…change the bulb and the plug…job done!

that’s what I did,

nothing could be simpler,

 

must have been simple; I managed it

[blackrose]

Simple if you happen to have a 12v supply in the location. Not so simple if you don't.

 

It's much simpler for me to fit led mains light bulbs

Edited May 6, 2023 by blackrose

[beerbeerbeerbeerbeer]

Yes, I see now 👍

[PCSB]

1 hour ago, blackrose said:

I have a few mains table lamps onboard and changed my lightbulbs to energy efficient type about 15 years ago.

 

They draw about 1 amp from the batteries if I run them through the inverter which is ok but much more than my 12v LED cabin lights, so I just wondered if there were any 22mm dia dual pole bayonet LED mains lightbulbs on the market these days which would draw less? 

 

Just wanted to get others' experience of the power draw on 12v before I go out and have a look in the shops.

This any good?

B22 LED Bulbs - LEDBulbs.co.uk – ledbulbs.co.uk

 

[David Mack]

Any supermarket, DIY store or electrical store stocks 230V ac LED lamps with b22 bayonet and e27 screw fittings. 

[Jen-in-Wellies]

Since most tungsten bulbs were banned and LED's got better and cheaper, pretty much anything you can buy at a DIY shed, or electrical wholesalers will be LED and fine. Don't buy anything marketed as "smart". That's about it.

[blackrose]

Well I've just been to Toolstation and to be honest there's very little difference between the wattage of (equivalent lumen) new LED bulbs and my old energy efficient bulbs. I'm surprised as I was thinking they might draw half the power. The LEDs I've seen might be 7w compared to 9w for the old bulbs but hardly worth bothering with really. I'm just not going to use mains table lamps that draw up to 1 amp on 12v when my 12v LED cabin lights only draw a couple of hundred milliamps.

Edited May 6, 2023 by blackrose

[David Schweizer]

I assume you are talking about standard 22mm bayonet cap bulbs, known as B22d cap bulbs, these are readily available in supermarkets. I replaced all my CFL bulbs with LED's a few months ago, not only do they really use less power, they are also much brighter, and I managed to reduce the rating rating on most of them.

[blackrose]

Yes that's what I'm talking about. 

 

Bulb brightness is given in units of lumens, so I don't really understand how equivalent lumen bulbs can be brighter? That doesn't make any sense to me.

 

Anyway according to the bulbs I've just looked at an old energy efficient 806 lumen bulb is rated at 9w while the led equivalent is 7w so while there's definitely an energy saving it's not as much as I was expecting. 

 

I ended up buying a couple of 470 lumen led bulbs anyway as they were cheap and only rated at 3.4w. I think that's only about 280 milliamps on 12v and will give me a bit of lower height background light from my lamps.

Edited May 6, 2023 by blackrose

[Tacet]

What are dual pole bulbs?

[Tony Brooks]

1 hour ago, Tacet said:

What are dual pole bulbs?

 

Ones with two solder pads on the base like ordinary bayonet GLS bulbs, rather than a single centre contact plus the case like ES bulbs.

[Ronaldo47]

Whereas the old frosted glass tungsten (GLS) bulbs emit light virtually  equally in all directions,  most LED bulbs, and to some extent the stick CFL lamps, are directional to a greater or lesser extent. 

 

When I tried a fitting a nominally 120W equivalent CFL lamp in the pendant fitting over my dining table, the brightness at the table surface  directly under the lamp was lower than that produced by a 60W GLS  bulb  (confirmed by measuring using a lightmeter).  This is because, for a CFL lamp, the apparent  brightness is proportional to the area of the tube you can see, and directly under the bulb all you can see is the ends of the tubes. Sideways-on where you are looking at the lengths of the tubes, the brightness is indeed 120W equivalent. Such a bulb is ideal for use in bulkhead fittings where the bulb is oriented horizontally and you utilise the light emitted sideways, but was useless over my table. Fine in a standard lamp though.

 

Conversely, many types of GLS-equivalent LED bulbs, although having the shape of a conventional tungsten bulb, emit most of their light over only  180° away from the base and virtually none towards the base.  These can give disappointing performance in bulkhead luminaires where the bulb is mounted horizontally, as only half the glass gets lit, making the room darker on that side 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Ronaldo47
typos

[David Schweizer]

16 hours ago, blackrose said:

Yes that's what I'm talking about. 

 

Bulb brightness is given in units of lumens, so I don't really understand how equivalent lumen bulbs can be brighter? That doesn't make any sense to me.

 

Anyway according to the bulbs I've just looked at an old energy efficient 806 lumen bulb is rated at 9w while the led equivalent is 7w so while there's definitely an energy saving it's not as much as I was expecting. 

 

I ended up buying a couple of 470 lumen led bulbs anyway as they were cheap and only rated at 3.4w. I think that's only about 280 milliamps on 12v and will give me a bit of lower height background light from my lamps.

 

I am aware that brightness is measured in lumens, but as most light bulbs have been traditionally sold by wattage, that is often the only straightforward comparison that can be made between CFL and LED bulbs. Wattage is also the rating which can easily be used to calculate power consumption, which is what I thought you were trying to measure. When I decided to change all the bulbs in our house, I undertook a bit of research, and was surprised to discover that different manufacturers claim different comsumption for the same lumen ratating, consequently, comparing lumens is not really a very effective way of calculating power consumption.

 

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by David Schweizer

[alan_fincher]

18 hours ago, blackrose said:

Well I've just been to Toolstation and to be honest there's very little difference between the wattage of (equivalent lumen) new LED bulbs and my old energy efficient bulbs. I'm surprised as I was thinking they might draw half the power. The LEDs I've seen might be 7w compared to 9w for the old bulbs but hardly worth bothering with really.

 

This doesn't seem to be supported once you start to search for the facts.  A quick Google will show that LEDs consistently draw far less power than their CFL equivalent..

 

We swapped all our CFL bulbs to LED a year or so back, and by turning off everything except lights were easily able to show using the smart meter that the consumption was halved.

 

Some information here...

 

https://www.perchenergy.com/blog/energy/led-vs-cfl

[David Schweizer]

40 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

 

This doesn't seem to be supported once you start to search for the facts.  A quick Google will show that LEDs consistently draw far less power than their CFL equivalent..

 

We swapped all our CFL bulbs to LED a year or so back, and by turning off everything except lights were easily able to show using the smart meter that the consumption was halved.

 

Some information here...

 

https://www.perchenergy.com/blog/energy/led-vs-cfl

 

We do not have a smart meter, but I did a similar test using the standard meter readings, which I realise is a less conclusive method. Like you, I observed that power consumption was reduced by something approachinhg 50%.  Of course some of that improvement was a consequence of replacing all the 60w CFL bulbs with 40W LED bulbs and the 75w CFL's with 60w LED's, with no noticeable reduction in the lamp brightness. 

[Tony Brooks]

To add, I found that "standard" or "warm" LEDs produce a horrible gloomy brownish light when trying to read or work by, whereas "daylight" or bright white produce a much better working light and seem to produce more actual light. My CFLs were brighter than similar rated "normal" LEDs, but the Bright or daylight LEDs were far brighter for a similar wattage. I think I could happily drop the wattage for the bright bulb in my dining room at home.

[Alan de Enfield]

23 minutes ago, Tony Brooks said:

To add, I found that "standard" or "warm" LEDs produce a horrible gloomy brownish light when trying to read or work by, whereas "daylight" or bright white produce a much better working light and seem to produce more actual light. My CFLs were brighter than similar rated "normal" LEDs, but the Bright or daylight LEDs were far brighter for a similar wattage. I think I could happily drop the wattage for the bright bulb in my dining room at home.

 

 

Similarly, I bought some 'warm' LEDs to replace bulbs in the house - absolutely awful. I just couldn't read with them. They were all yellowy like street lights in the fog.

Replaced them with 'cold' (daylight) LEDs and the light was far greater than it ever had been, and at least twice (estimate) to what the 'warm' was giving.