Low Energy Light Bulbs

Low energy light bulbs use less than 20% of the energy of a conventional light bulb, and can last up to 15 times longer.

Fitting Low Energy Light Bulbs is simple, helps the environment and should reduce your lighting bills.

So what type of low energy bulb should you buy?

Both CFL light bulbs (low energy light bulbs) and LED light bulbs offer substantial energy savings. LED bulbs offer the greater saving overall using less energy and lasting longer at 60,000 hours, however a greater initial investment is required. In addition alternative fittings may be required and at present they only provide directional lighting.

With improvements in LED’s making them more and more viable, they will be the choice of the future, but for now we would recommend choosing CFL bulbs. The energy savings are still very good and although they have a lesser life span at 6,000-15,000 hours, they are much cheaper and can directly replace your current bulbs which only last 1,000 hours, helping the environment and your pocket straight away.

Will just swapping light bulbs make a difference?

By swapping a normal bulb to an energy saving bulb you could cut energy wastage by three quarters and save £9 on your electricity bill. It might seem like a small change, but if every home in the UK changed just 3 light bulbs, enough energy would be saved to light the UK’s street lamps.

But don’t energy saving light bulbs use more energy when first turned on, therefore wasting more energy if switching lights on and off?

Carbon Footprint carried out an in-house investigation and found that if anything low energy bulbs used slightly less energy when first switched on, gradually building up to a continual wattage (which only took a couple of seconds).

CFL Low energy light bulbs contain mercury, is that safe?

Low energy bulbs do contain a small amount of mercury which is not at all dangerous when contained within the bulb. The bulbs should be disposed of responsibly and can be recycled at your local council’s Household Waste and Recycling Centre or at collection points provided by some light bulb retailers.

Should you break a bulb in the house, it is advised that the broken material is swept up using a damp cloth and both the debris and cloth put into a double layered plastic bag and taken to a collection point for disposal. The room should then be well ventilated for at least 15 minutes.