Low Voltage Lamps

[philmccann]

With the impending discontinuation of "normal" lamps has anyone seen decent replacement low power types. Most of mine in the house are of the "golf ball" type, but all the replacements I've seen are naff and do not look good at all. Need to be 240v as they are in the main room lights etc.

Any advice welcomed

Cheers

Phil

[JimNoble]

Presumably you meant "Low Wattage"?

There are "golf ball" type compact fluorescent bulbs available.

http://www.litebulbs.co.uk/category/7/globe-golfba...

Jim

[philmccann]

Hi Jim

Yes you're right that's exactly what I meant. However, most of the ones I've seen are that much longer obvious;y to fit in the fluorescent workings etc, and would look crap in my lights.
Wondered if technology had advanced anywhere to make them smaller and neater.?

Rgds

Phil

[cyberface]

There are some compact fluorescents out there that twist the fluorescent tube into a spherical spiral rather than multiple long U shaped tubes (which I assume you're referring to in terms of 'looking duff').

Like this:


rather than this:

[Big_Dog]

I have some GLS (normal) shaped lamps that have a 28w,42w,52w and 70w halogen capsule lamps inside the bigger glass shaped outer. I have various capped candle shaped ones too and am reliably informed the 45mm round or golfball are on the way. These are class C so not due to be banned like the class D and Es. These are all 240v and dimmable.

http://i625.photobucket.com/albums/tt335/Mr_Nice28...

Edited by Big_Dog on Saturday 27th March 19:49

[philmccann]

Excellent

That's what I wanted to hear. Ideally I want the golf balls but also need them to be dimmable, so the fluorescent option was not really a goer.

Thanks all!!

Phil

[JimNoble]

philmccann said:

Excellent
That's what I wanted to hear. Ideally I want the golf balls but also need them to be dimmable, so the fluorescent option was not really a goer.
Thanks all!!
Phil

There are dimmerable cfls as well. Maybe not as small as you want yet, but it's only a question of time (or determined enough searching )

Jim

[JimNoble]

These are about the smallest dimmerable cfl I've seen:

http://www.house-safe.co.uk/11W-ES-27-DIMMERABLE-E...
http://www.thelightbulbdepot.co.uk/acatalog/Dimmab...

Both 106mm long.

Jim

[hairyben]

Just buy reg golf balls for now:

http://www.lyco.co.uk/Light-Bulbs/Decorative-Light...

Dimmable CFL's are a bit of a compromised technology, you can try a couple out to see if they work, but you may need to change the dimmer switches anyway.

In time LED tech will come of age and be the lamp of choice in pretty much any application.