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Author: Charles Barnett

Coloured bulbs – when to use them

Posted on by Charles Barnett

Last updated on 29th July 2021

The coloured light bulb is hardly a new technology. Indeed many people might remember them from teenage years, as they are perfect for customising your room, being cheap, easy and quickly reversible, so they wouldn’t make your parents scream. While there is a lot more to coloured bulbs than simply popping in a purple one in so you can listen to Pink Floyd, there’s still an undeniable truth in there. Coloured light bulbs are a cheap and convenient way to completely change the look of a space.

Coloured bulbs for all purposes

The classic coloured GLS bulb is still available, in a wide range of colours, not to mention energy-saving and G9 halogen variants. But rather than blitzing the entire room with one colour, like an 80s nightclub, why not use the palette available to you creatively? For a peaceful sanctuary of a room, mix up green and blue bulbs, while a games room or bar would suit bright, vibrant reds and oranges. Interestingly, if you’re planning on a bit of poker, red lighting apparently encourages people to gamble more boldly.

Celebrations

Coloured bulbs are also great for seasonal celebrations – deck out a Valentine’s Day party (or a small girl’s bedroom) with pinks and reds, while greens and reds are great for truly festive feeling Christmas, and blue and green light will create a suitably monstrous Halloween.

Change the context

Don’t just limit yourself to using coloured light bulbs on their own. You can achieve amazing results when combining them with more traditional white lights, to add context and life to a room. This works particularly well when you’re trying to make a dull-looking room really pop. If you have a hallway, bathroom or other area that could best be described as ‘institutional’, replace the central lighting with coloured bulbs, and then use white spotlighting or table-lighting to create smaller, more intimate pools of light.

To break up long expanses of plain coloured wall, use splashes of colour to make the room interesting and break it up a bit, again using brighter spotlighting if you want to create smaller, more cosy feeling areas. At the other end of the scale, make a small room seem larger by shining coloured lights into every corner of the room.

Coloured spotlights

For subtle splashes of colour, spotlight bulbs, available both in halogen GU10 and LED GU10 types for standard spotlight fittings are perfect for adding a delicate flush to surroundings. Spotlights in particular are great for highlighting ornamental items, architectural features and art, as you can pick a shade that will really bring out the colours in whatever you’re illuminating. Best of all, spotlights can be recessed unobtrusively, so you can achieve some startling effects. Mount spotlights in narrow alcoves in an otherwise brightly lit room, for striking red or green features to break up the space. And if you can’t decide what colour you want, just get colour changing bulbs that change colour between red, green and blue.

Festoon finale

Finally, don’t forget those festoon lights. Yes, draping multi-coloured ones all the way round a garden or patio can make it look like a 70s holiday camp, but there are ways to use them strikingly. One of the most effective is to use just a single colour, such as all red or all white. This works particularly well with golf ball or pygmy bulbs, but is effective with coloured GLS bulbs too. Also, don’t just leave them outside.

Stringing up festoons around a living room or dining area can give it a bit of a festival bodega feeling, which works well if you have a basement living area. Don’t feel bound to string them up in the traditional fashion either – a great alternative is to wrap festoon lights around a pillar or beam, something best done with LED bulbs, as they hardly heat up.

If you’re looking for a different type why not take a look at our full range of coloured bulbs.

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

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New build home lighting part 3 (Kitchen / Diner)

Posted on by Charles Barnett

Last updated on 29th March 2022

A new build represents a blank canvas – a chance to set the tone for the whole house from the ground up. Your choice of lighting for new builds is a major part of what that tone will be, and is the filter that so much of the rest of the house will be viewed through.

So far our series on lighting for new builds has focused on the living room and hallway and then bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, Now we return downstairs to finish off the interior of our imaginary 2-bed starter home by stepping into the kitchen/dining room.

Choosing your lighting: the basics

Obviously one of the key factors in choosing lighting for any room will be the size and scale of the room itself. It might be the deciding factor, for example, in just how grand a chandelier centrepiece is in the dining room, or how extensive a set of cabinet downlights is in the kitchen.

However, that is a universal principle that applies in any room, and so doesn’t need special consideration here. Suffice to say, the larger and more attention-grabbing a lighting fixture is, the more space it needs around it – ignore that rule of thumb and you’ll overpower the room instead of illuminating it.

The same counts for brightness, although with the kitchen being typically one of the brightest rooms in the house you’ve got more room for error. That said, it’s a cardinal sin to under-illuminate a kitchen, so especially if you’re thinking of cabinet downlights make sure they’re close enough together and there’s enough of them (if there’s no other lighting in the room) to light up the entire kitchen.

New home kitchen / diner lighting ideas

There’s a wide range of kitchen / diner lighting products to choose from in the Lyco range. Here we highlight some of the most popular options available, and some of our personal favourites, to give you a sense of the choices available:

Retro style pendant: timeless class

Elstead Provence Rise and Fall Ceiling Pendant Light – Polished Nickel

This classic adjustable rise and fall pendant is the perfect multifunctional kitchen/diner light, bringing together old-world charm and class and contemporary styling complete with polished nickel finish.

Dimmable LEDs: high-tech kitchen lighting

View range here

Nothing gives a new build kitchen that ultra-modern look like LED spotlights, and the Fireguard LED7 range comes in various colour/warmth combinations so you can create just the right look for your kitchen. They’re available in fully dimmable form, and are IP65-rated and fire-rated for both commercial and domestic applications. Plus, the high-performance LEDs mean just 7W of power output matches of a 50W halogen for light output, but with an 80% energy saving.

Cabinet downlighting: low energy, little effort

View our range of cabinet lighting here

Cabinet downlights provide focused illumination on a specific area and are really simple to install, so it’s easy to see the appeal. In the case of the Aurora Mica LED Cabinet Light, you get the added advantage of a white light that’s rated for 50,000 hours and uses far less electricity than any standard light bulb. These LED lights can be surface mounted or recessed and come with 2m of cable included. You will however need an LED transformer, which is sold seperately.

Flexi striplighting: fun, decorative and versatile

View our range of cabinet strip lights

If you’re willing to put in a bit of effort and apply a bit of creativity, flexible striplighting is a clever and highly versatile way of lighting your kitchen – or any other room in the house, for that matter. Each 5M Flexi Strip incorporates 300 LEDs, and can be cut every 3 LEDs to suit just about any application. The strips are flexible and the LEDs come with a 120-degree beam angle, making it an ideal discreet lighting solution for shelves, alcoves, kick boards, cabinets… just about anywhere you can think to put them, in fact. We’ve chosen to highlight the “daylight” colour option here, but strips also come in warm white, and blue, as well as an RGB colour changing option.

If you’re connecting multiple strips together, or want your Flexi Strips to be dimmable, you’ll also need an Inline Amplifier. Last of all, a pack of Link Leads will come in handy should you wish to reconnect your cut LED strips.

The right lighting for new builds

New builds come in all shapes and sizes, which means specific lighting requirements for the kitchen/dining room area can vary greatly – and that’s not even accounting for the vast spectrum of personal taste.

The options we’ve shown here represent some of the more popular new build lighting options available, but of course you could also go for fluorescent or LED solid striplights, as well as halogen or other variations on the lighting types we’ve covered here.

Just remember that while room size might be the first thing you notice about any home, the right lighting to showcase that room is equally important, whether you’re looking to have a house valued for selling or renting, or are fitting a property out ahead of moving in yourself.

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

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GU10 LED Bulbs – time to upgrade

Posted on by Charles Barnett

Last updated on 29th July 2021

If you fit a lot of lighting, you’ll know the term ‘retrofit’. It refers to the new wave of bulbs that use the latest energy-saving technologies such as fluorescents and LEDs. They’re designed to look as much as possible like existing incandescent or halogen bulbs, perform as well as them (and ideally better) and most importantly fit into existing fittings, so you don’t have to replace anything in order to benefit from better bulb technology. That in itself wouldn’t be cost efficient.

Becoming popular

Retrofit bulbs for GLS fittings are already widespread, especially in energy-saving stick, spiral and GLS pendant variants, with LED GLS bulbs catching up fast. These of course have the advantage of a great deal of space to play with, as the large existing bulb shape offers enough room for the lighting elements and the circuitry that powers them. Plus they don’t even need to be standard bulb shaped, as GLS fittings are often quite open.

It’s not been quite so easy to directly replace GU10 halogen spotlight bulbs, however. A traditional GU10 is incredibly compact, thanks to the tiny but powerful halogen bulb inside. Because of this, GU10 fittings tend to be flush, especially to ceilings, with absolutely no space to cram in any extra bulk. Manufacturers have been working hard to find a solution to this, as there is a massive market for GU10 bulbs – think of all the fashionable bars, hotels, boardrooms and shops with a ceiling littered with flush spotlights – and they’ve started finding solutions.

LED is an investment

When you take a look at the listing for one of the newer GU10 LED bulbs, the first thing that you might notice is the price, especially if you’ve got a ceiling dotted with fittings you need to fill. So if these bulbs are multiple times the price of a basic halogen GU10, what are you getting for that cash? I hear you ask. Well…

  • Firstly, you’re getting a massive lifespan boost. The average GU10 LED bulb unit will last, depending on the model, between 25,000 to 40,000 hours. That’s up to twenty times longer than a halogen model!
  • As well as offering a massive long-term saving through longevity, an LED unit draws a fraction of the power drawn by the equivalent halogen bulb, so you’ll see your electricity bills plummet rapidly.
  • LED bulbs also give off a lot less heat than a halogen unit, so you’re less likely to see heat-damaged fittings, plus they can be used in situations where heat is an issue.</li

LED technology is improving fast

The sheer variety of LED GU10 bulbs has already eclipsed that of traditional bulbs. As well as current market-leaders in standard warm and cool white shades by Philips, Sylvania and GE, you can now get wide-angle and dimmable units for the first time. Or, if you have specific mood lighting effects in mind, you can not only get coloured bulbs but also ones that change colour according to a pre-programmed pattern. Surprisingly, these latter bulbs are far cheaper than standard LED GU10s, as they use a larger cluster of LEDs to provide the light.

LED GU10 bulbs have now even managed to achieve the same output levels as powerful halogen bulbs, with several 50-watt equivalents, and even a 65-watt equivalent on the market. This means there’s absolutely no reason not to replace power-hungry halogen bulbs with longer-lasting, cooler and cheaper-to-run LED units.

Take a look at our full range of GU10 LED bulbs.

Want to see what other LED light bulb options Lyco has to offer? Take a look at our full range of LED light bulbs.

For more advice, inspiration and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

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Energy-Saving Light Bulbs – a definition

Posted on by Charles Barnett

Last updated on 29th July 2021

The light bulb was invented by Thomas Alva Edison in 1879. Back then, the UK population was a significantly less than what it is today, there were no cars on the roads and no planes in the sky. Any overseas holiday was a cruise of sorts.

The world has changed hugely since 1879, and so has the technology that goes into light bulbs. However, traditional incandescent bulbs were only truly usurped as the go-to bulb by energy-saving light bulbs a handful of years ago. This was well overdue, as incandescent bulbs expend over 90 per cent of the energy they suck-up in outputting heat, rather than light.

In an increasingly energy- and environmentally-conscious world, those old bulbs have no real place – and are in the process of being forcefully phased out.

Rules of energy saving

Although there’s no hard and fast rule in terms of the exact savings required by these new light bulbs, compared to the old type, to define them as ‘energy saving’, the two most popular technologies use between 70 per cent and 85 per cent less. And as they last much longer, the savings will be felt in your pocket as well as by the environment.

CFL – the good, the bad & the ugly

The most common type of energy-saving light bulb is the CFL bulb, which stands for compact fluorescent lamp. Oddly enough, the first type of compact fluorescent lighting was developed not that long after the first incandescent bulb – back in 1890 but never made it into bulb form until 1976, some 84 years later.

However, it’s only in the last decade or so that they’ve gained real prominence on the high street. In 2007 when the UK government announced the UK phase-out of incandescent bulbs, the backlash against CFL bulbs said that they produced weak, ugly light that took an age to get up to full power. CFL bulbs were admirable in their aims, but not always so admirable in their performance.

Today, that’s simply not true. Most domestic bulbs are “instant on”, giving near-full power from the moment you flick the switch, and you can pick the colour temperature you’re after. Warm, or with a cool blue-ish tint – whatever you want.

There are many types of CFL bulbs out there. Perhaps the most familiar is the spiral. It’s cheap to buy and as there’s no extra layer beyond the fluorescent tube, its light output efficiency is excellent.

If you’re after something that has a look a little closer to the incandescent bulbs of old, we offer CFL bulbs that emulate both the traditional rounded bulb shape and the more elongated candle type. The latter is particularly strong as a decorative bulb – with a more elegant look than the slightly more efficient spiral shape.

CFL derivatives

There are CFLs that look almost nothing like light bulbs too. 2D bulbs unwind the fluorescent tube of other CFL bulbs to give even better light dispersal. They’re perfect for stair well, wall light or bulk head fittings, where function takes a lead over form.

Most CFL bulbs are designed to fit in exactly the same housings as old incandescent bulbs, but there are also pin-fit bulbs for fittings that incorporate everything but the bulb itself. The benefit of these bulbs is that they’re cheaper to produce – and hence cheaper to buy.

LED bulbs – not perfect but getting there

The other main type of energy saving lightbulb is CFL’s competitive and plucky younger brother – the LED bulb.

LEDs work in a completely different way to fluorescent bulbs, but offer comparable levels of energy efficiency. One of the key benefits of LED lights is that they do not contain Mercury, a poisonous substance found in CFL lights.

LED lights also solve one of the lingering problems of CFLs, whose lifespan drops significantly if they are turned on and off frequently. They also often offer better lifespan in general – LED lamps can last for up to 30,000 hours where some CFLs are only rated at 8,000 hours. However, this remains light years – or at least light days – ahead of incandescent bulbs.

The downsides of LED bulbs include that they’re generally significantly more expensive than the CFL type, and while they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, they’re not always available in as high-power variants as CFL. For example, you won’t find a 60W-equivalent LED candle bulb… yet.

Halogen – a low energy alternative

There’s a third type of energy saving bulb too. CFL and LED are the kings of energy saving, but we can’t forget humble halogen. We offer energy saving halogen bulbs, which don’t contain harmful mercury and generally cost peanuts compared to CFL of LED bulbs. However, they remain much less energy-efficient.

The savings speak for themselves

Forgetting their life-spans for a minute, the clearest way to work out the energy efficiency of a bulb is to calculate its lumens per watt rating. A lumen is a standard unit of brightness. CFL and LED bulbs work out at around 50-70 lumens per watt.  Halogen bulbs can manage around 20, while old incandescents will struggle to reach 15 lumens per watt.

Over the space of a year, the energy benefits of using CFL and LED lights is obvious – especially as they tend to last 5-10 times as long. Consumer body ‘Which’ has calculated that a single energy-efficient bulb will save you over £30 on your power bill over five years, and their calculation didn’t factor-in rising energy prices or inflation.

As incandescent bulbs continue to be phased out across the world, we’re only likely to see improvements in today’s energy-saving bulb technologies. What we should all be looking forward to is improvements in LED lights that’ll see prices of LED bulbs start to tumble. For now, why not check out our huge selection of energy saving LED bulbs?

Take a look at our full range of energy saving light bulbs.

Alternatively, if you are looking for more inspiration, advice and news take a look at our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

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High Frequency Lighting – what is it?

Posted on by Charles Barnett

Last updated on 29th July 2021

Think of fluorescent lighting, especially in an office, and your first thought will probably be of harsh strip lighting, flickering slightly, and with a faint buzz that’s almost outside the range of hearing, but not far enough so that it doesn’t irritate. While that fluorescent buzz and flicker is great if you’re Michael Mann, and are looking for atmospheric urban effects for your latest film, they’re not so good if you have to live with them every day while you work.

Flicker no more!

You don’t need to put up with that flicker and buzz any more, as high frequency lighting produces strong, steady light that doesn’t visibly flicker, and eliminates hum and buzz completely within the human aural range.

High achievers

High frequency lighting achieves these results by doing exactly what it says on the box – increasing the frequency of the electric charge to the tube. Standard fluorescent lighting operates at a frequency of around 50-60Hz, while high frequency lighting boosts that to 30 KHz. As well as reducing flicker and hum, this also increases light output, and that’s not all. They also start up much more quickly, offering full light output within one second – no more hanging about waiting for the light to get bright enough to be able to do anything.

No added expense

You might think that all these benefits come at a much increased energy cost, but you’d be wrong. High frequency lighting actually improves energy efficiency by about 10%. They also maintain peak light output for longer than a standard fluorescent tube, and have a longer life-expectancy, so they more than cover the initial outlay involved in fitting them.

Less symptoms

There are potential benefits for the many people who find that they suffer from headaches and eyestrain if they spend a great deal of time under fluorescent lighting at work or school, particularly migraine sufferers. Published studies have shown that under high frequency lighting reported symptoms of headaches and eyestrain were more than halved, and that people were more likely to use the lighting when conditions required it. As well as making users happy, switching to high frequency lighting could also improve efficiency and reduce sick days.

Options

Since the introduction of LED, problem with flickering have become less and less common. When replacing standard switch-start fluorescent lighting, we would recommend strip lights and recessed light fittings in offices and corridors . Stylish external lighting can also be fitted thanks to  brick lights, which look absolutely stunning alongside a swimming pool, garden path or in a car port, among many other uses.

There are a number of options if you want to fit lighting that won’t annoy users with noise and flicker, and will also save you money if continuous use is required. These include emergency recessed fittings, golf bulkhead fittings and low energy bulkhead fittings, which are ideal for stairwells and walkways.

Take a look at our collection of High Frequency Lighting.

Looking for more news, information or inspiration? Try our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

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Lighting controls explored

Posted on by Charles Barnett

Last updated on 9th August 2024

Flush Ceiling PIR Movement Switch

The most basic form of lighting controls consist of simple on/off switches built into lamps themselves. That’s fine for such things as table lamps and work lights and in its most advanced form gives us the ability to switch the lamp on or off just by touching the base. The most developed types even provide brightness control.

Then there are the familiar wall-mounted switches, usually placed just inside the doorway controlling lights fixed in various places in a room. Again these can incorporate dimmers to control the level of brightness. For landings and staircases the switches can be two-way so that the light can be switched off or on at the top or at the bottom. For some situations, communal staircases in apartment blocks for example, timer switches provide the simple solution to human forgetfulness. The Electronic Time Delay Switch is a perfect example. When the light is switched on it remains on for long enough for anyone to ascend or descend the stairs and then is automatically switched off. The timing is adjustable to suit the situation.

Activated by changing levels of light is the Flush Mount Photocell Sensor controller. This clever piece of kit is capable of controlling as many different lights as you wish and can be overridden by the normal manual wall switch when required. The level of light is variable by adjustment too.

Another lighting control suitable for controlling multiple lights according to natural light levels is the Dusk To Dawn Photocell. Part of a range of dusk to dawn photo cell controllers, these can control outside security lighting as well as indoor lights.

The next level of sophistication in lighting controls works, not on light level but by detecting movement. If someone is moving about in the dark they must need a light, so the light obligingly switches on and stays on until a pre-determined time after all movement has ceased. This is all made possible by the Passive Infra Red detector, PIR for short.

PIR controllers come in many forms. Some such as the  Timeguard 360° PIR Light Switch, can be used to control a number of separate lights from one location. The Light Switch with Movement Detector, is also used to replace the normal light switch and turns an ordinary lighting set-up into an automated system.

For a really unobtrusive PIR system of lighting controls there are small Flush Ceiling PIR Movement Switches. Several of these mounted at intervals of about 5 metres will ensure detection of movement everywhere in the room. These versatile units can be used with lamps of any kind and can even be used to control fans!

These controllers are ideal for use in rooms which are not occupied all the time, such as cloakrooms, so that lights are only on when actually needed. These lighting controls are not only a great convenience but over a year can save a great deal of expensive electricity.

The 360° PIR Light Controller is another one. Cunningly designed to detect movement over 360 degrees it doesn’t matter what the angle of approach, there is no blind spot. The length of time the light stays on when activated can be adjusted to suit the location making them ideal for corridors and staircases that are not in constant use.

Lighting controls then do rather more than take the effort out of flicking switches. They enable lights to come on when you enter a room with both hands full and similarly go out when you leave. Much better than trying to turn the lights off with your chin! They turn on lights when someone enters where they should not, alerting others to the incursion. Whilst performing these useful functions, lighting controls are also saving a fortune in electricity.

Looking for more news, information or inspiration? Try our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

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Wattage comparison – Goodbye Watts – Hello Lumens

Posted on by Charles Barnett

Last updated on 29th July 2021

Not so very long ago, when incandescent bulbs ruled the roost, choosing the right light bulb based on brightness was incredibly simple, as it was all done in watts. And what’s a watt? Well it’s a measure of energy transfer (named after James Watt, the pioneer of steam engines), but that was always irrelevant. For years, everyone knew that 60 watts meant standard room lighting, 40 watts was a bit dingy, 100 watts was nice and bright for kitchens and bathrooms, and anything brighter than that was best left for surgeons and interrogators.

Getting rid of confusion

Everything’s changed now though, with the decline of incandescent bulbs and the rise of energy-saving and LED bulbs. All of a sudden, the wattage has changed drastically while the brightness has stayed the same, leading to a good deal of confusion. When energy-saving bulbs were first introduced, manufacturers initially dealt with this by printing the wattage the bulb was equivalent to on the packaging, e.g. ‘11w – 60w equivalent’. You can find a table of the more common equivalents at the bottom of the page, which is a reasonably good guide to the likely brightness level of your bulbs (not all energy-saving bulbs give off quite the same light, but then neither did incandescents). However this isn’t the whole story.

While it’s easy to make a rough comparison between incandescent and energy-saving bulbs, lighting is not just about these two types of bulb any more. There are also now various different types of LED bulb, not to mention halogen bulbs, and assorted tubes, so it’s virtually impossible to find a measure of energy that can be applied to all bulbs and still mean anything to the layman. Which is where lumens (lm) come in.

What is a lumen?

A lumen is a measure of the light given off by any light source that can be perceived by the human eye (i.e. not including the invisible wavelengths). Lumens basically cuts out any measurement of how much energy it takes to produce a given amount of light, and just measures the light given off. This is like your car’s speedometer measuring how fast you’re going, rather than the amount of energy it takes to get you to that speed, and is a far more sensible way of defining light levels.

You’ll need to get used to Lumens too, as EU legislation now states that the lumen value of a particular bulb must be printed most prominently on packaging. It’s not hard to see watts and equivalent wattages going the way of pounds, ounces and the dodo in the fullness of time. So how do lumens work then?

Rough equivalents

As a rule of thumb, lumens are very roughly equivalent to the incandescent wattage times ten, plus a little bit, so that a 450lm light source is roughly equivalent to an old 40 watt bulb, while an 800lm light source is similar to a 60 watt bulb. Comparisons for the most common sizes are in the table below.

Get ahead

Due to the huge variety of possible light levels available from new generation energy-saving and LED bulbs, it’s a good idea to get into the habit of thinking in lumens. It’s also a very good idea to buy spares when fitting multiple light sources in the same space, as wattage is now no longer a guarantee that a bulb will be the same level of brightness. Plus because bulbs lasts so much longer now, if one of your bulbs looks wrong, you won’t be stuck with it for months, but maybe for years!

 

Energy-saving bulb Incandescent Bulb Average Lumens
4-7 Watts 25 Watts 300
9-11 Watts 40 Watts 450
13-16 Watts 60 Watts 800
18-20 Watts 75 Watts 1100
22-25 Watts 100 Watts 1500

Need a particular bulb? Try our light bulb finder!

Looking for more inspiration, advice or news? Try our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

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Energy Saving GLS – Traditional Bulb Replacement

Posted on by Charles Barnett

Last updated on 29th July 2021

The traditional light bulb that has been such a familiar part of our lives for generations is soon to be no more, replaced by LED GLS Light Bulbs. Before long the incandescent lamp will be just another relic of the past. Already the sale or importation of pearl or frosted bulbs is prohibited throughout the EU although existing stocks can still be sold. Those stocks have already dwindled to the extent that it is now virtually impossible to source such bulbs.

Replacing old friends

It is all in the interest of reducing our carbon footprint by means of energy saving and the new bulbs that have taken the place of our old friends are all energy saving in one form or another. When energy saving GLS light bulbs first appeared in the shops many people were put off first by their appearance which was radically different to what we were all used to and then by apparently inferior performance in terms of light produced for a given wattage.

Things have moved on since then. Manufacturers soon realised that sticks and spirals were not to everyone’s taste so alongside these shapes which so proudly proclaim their up to the minute nature they produced energy saving GLS light bulbs that look quite similar to the more familiar incandescent bulbs. They fit in existing fittings so much better too and perform much more like the old bulbs. Now you don’t have to worry. When the last of your stock of traditional bulbs finally expires you will be able to replace it with a new energy saving lamp such as an LED  GLS from Lyco that will not only use as much as 79% less electricity and save you money that way but will also last at least eight times longer than the old type and save you even more even though it costs more to buy in the first place.

What’s in a name

In case anyone is wondering, the term ‘GLS’ simply stands for ‘General Lighting Service’ and refers to the kind of bulb to be found in any household and ‘Energy Saving GLS’ is the same thing but in an energy saving form. The standard energy saving GLS light bulbs already mentioned work on the same principle as a fluorescent light tube which is why the earlier designs look rather like a small tube doubled over or a group of straight tubes.

You can have energy saving with brighter light by using Energy Saving Halogen GLS bulbs as a direct replacement for your old incandescent bulbs. These work by heating Halogen gas inside them just like your car headlamp bulbs. You get the energy saving of Halogen bulbs, about 30%, at a price much closer to that of the traditional bulbs and you still get twice the life of an incandescent lamp, at 2000 hours. You’re saving money again as well as helping the environment.

Switching problems overcome

Dusk to dawn sensors, time switches and dimmer switches have always been a problem for Energy Saving GLS Light Bulbs but Lyco have the answer in Philips Dimmable Master LED GLS. These bulbs are more expensive again but they come with a 3 year guarantee and give a colossal saving in energy consumption of 80%! LED Energy Saving GLS Light Bulbs work on an entirely different principle to any of the others. They contain a light emitting diode, an electronic device that produces a lot of light for a very small amount of electricity. It is the most efficient method yet discovered of converting electrical energy into light energy.

Do yourself a favour!

For long term savings it would be well worth while for any householder to replace all the old incandescent bulbs in the house with the appropriate Energy Saving GLS Light Bulbs rather than waiting for the old bulbs to go ‘pop’. If you want to do the planet a favour and save money at the same time it’s worth thinking about right now.

Take a look at our full range of LED GLS Bulbs.

Looking for more news, inspiration and advice? Try our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

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Do I go for sticks and spirals or covered shape bulbs

Posted on by Charles Barnett

Last updated on 29th July 2021

Back when there were only incandescents, choosing a bulb was fairly simple – get the right fitting, shape and wattage and you were pretty much sorted, even if you did occasionally end up with a reflector bulb looking a bit odd in a lampshade.

However, since the advent of energy-saving bulbs, there seem to be any number of permutations, as manufacturers find ever new ways of bending fluorescent tubing into strange shapes. A lot of this is just slight variance between manufacturers though, as there are basically three main types of energy-saving bulb – sticks, spirals and ‘covered’ bulbs.

A stick bulb has a number of small, straight fluorescent tubes rising vertically from the base, and tends to be longer and narrower than a traditional bulb. A spiral bulb, meanwhile, has one continuous spiral tube that forms a round balloon shape like a traditional bulb (or a stylised ice cream cone!).

So is there any difference between these two types of bulb? To put it simply, not a huge amount. Spiral bulbs have more density of tubing, so they can give off somewhat more light than stick bulbs. Also, due to their more traditional outline, spirals can be better suited to traditional fittings where space is limited, or where you want to achieve a traditional ‘bulb’ look. Sticks, on the other hand, can make a real statement when used in modernist or minimalist light fittings, and are often better suited to long, narrow fittings, as they’ll provide light further along the length of the reflector or diffuser. In case you think these bulbs are only available as replacements for standard bulbs, however, you can also get them to suit golfball and candle fittings.

All of which brings us to covered bulbs, such as the GLS CFL bulb (GLS stands for ‘general lighting services’, i.e. the traditional bulb shape, while CFL stands for compact fluorescent lamp). This type of bulb looks much more like a traditional incandescent pearl bulb, with a single bulb shape rather than any visible tubes. As with spirals and sticks, these bulbs are also available in candle and golfball styles

A GLS CFL bulb works in exactly the same way as a stick or spiral, however, as underneath the translucent covering is a stick or spiral tube, just like one of those bulbs. Although it may look very tempting to get this type of bulb for tradition’s sake, there are a couple of reasons to choose a stick or spiral instead. Firstly, stick and spiral bulbs don’t have to squeeze into a cover, so have more length of tube, and hence give off more light. Nor do they have a diffusion layer, which again saps some of the brightness. GLS CFL bulbs tend to be somewhat pricier as well.

Basically, if your light fittings make the bulb visible, and you or the person you’re fitting them for is adamant about having traditional-looking bulbs, go for a covered bulb. Otherwise, for maximum light output at minimum cost, it’s worth choosing a spiral or stick.

Looking for more inspiration, news and advice? Try our Lighting Advice section.

Charles Barnett Managing Director

Charles started Lyco in 1995 with just 4 enthusiastic employees and has grown it considerably over the past 25 years. Charles is also the Managing Director of Lighting Direct and newly acquired Online Lighting. He now has a team of 50 lighting experts working on growing Lyco Group to be the UK leader in lighting for both businesses and homes. Away from the office he is a keen cyclist and is proud to have cycled 1017 miles from Lands End to John O’Groats to raise money for a new residential centre for adults with multiple learning difficulties.

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