Since November 2009, incandescent lamps have been banned in Australia and you’d be forgiven for thinking the only alternative for general lighting service (GLS) fittings is the compact fluorscent lamp (CFL).
CFLs aren’t perfect for a number of reasons -
* they take too long to warm up to output their rated light level,
* you have to leave them on for hours to get their rated life,
* you can’t use them in dimmers (unless you get the $20 special dimmer versions),
* you can’t use them outdoors,
* they don’t produce a wide colour gamut (most CFLs produce only two or three colours of light) -
However, all that said, there’s actually an alternative you may not have heard of before called Halogen Incandescent or Halogen Energy Saver bulbs.
Basically, these are incandescent lamps that use a more efficient halogen-gas-filled envelope that does two things – it reduces the amount of power required to get the same light output as a standard incandescent lamp and second, it doubles the life of the lamp from 1000 to 2000 hours.
They produce a light very similar to incandescent lamps and cost around 1/3rd the price of a CFL.
Here’s how the power rating works:
28-watt Halogen = 40-watt incandescent
42-watt Halogen = 60-watt incandescent
53-watt Halogen = 75-watt incandescent
Now while they do use more power than CFLs, the bonus is that you can use these halogen lamps in dimmer circuits and because they are a standard bulb, they fit more fittings than many CFLs. (You’d be surprised just how many light fittings I’ve seen won’t take a CFL because the base becomes too wide too quickly!)
Halogen lamps are made by Osram and they’re imported into Australia by other brands such as Mirabella.
So if you’re not enjoying the way CFLs work (or don’t working) in your home, try halogen GLS lamps – you might just find they solve more than a few issues.