Many years back morrisons were selling energy saving bulbs 5 for a quid so we bought up a whole load and stored and used the over the years, now we have run out. They never lasted the 6 years they were garaunteed for but that became irrelevant as we had so many anyway. Now I have to buy more and the same bulbs are around £2.50 each. Is there a good place somewhere to buy them in bulk at a decent price?
Cynic mode on - A few years ago, they were cheaper in order to tempt people away from cheap incandescent bulbs, now incandescent bulbs are no longer on sale, the price has gone up... Just wish LED bulbs would drop in price a bit...
Which is great if you have spotlights/that fitting... but if you want 'bog standard lightbulb' type fitting [bayonet fitting in the case of my gaf], you're looking at ~£6 [€8] per bulb Yes you can probably get them cheaper, and the price has dropped [just about halved] since I last checked, but they're still a fair hike over the fluorescent bulbs...
Yeah, that's what they said of the enregy saver bulbs as well, and look how often they go poof. That said, I've put them (LED's) around the new house, the only incandescant one left is in the wall closet
£5 for a twin pack from Ikea.. http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/90290972/ They are screw fitting though, but a new bulb holder is only 99p.
Damn I need bayonet. I counted the light bulbs in the house today and we have 21 in total (not including bedside lamps) so if I wanted to change the lot to LED (which I do) it would cost in excess of 100 quid.
I'm guessing they cost more because people don't change them as regularly, so the company bosses have to put their prices up to maintain their lavish lifestyles ;-) It's a supply and demand thing: Most people used to replace light bulbs every year or so; now people only replace them every few years because of their longevity. Demand goes down for new bulbs, which means that the price goes up.
Yeh I'd thought that's what it would be but the ones I have don't really last any longer than standard bulbs even though they come with a 6 year warranty, I don't keep receipts for things like that and would probably cost me more in postage to get them replaced anyway. Looks like I'm going to have to replace them bit by bit.
I get mine from an e-shop on the big river. LED Hut or something like that. Bulbs are high quality LED units with very good lumens ratings and they're brighter and produce a wider cone of light than the halogen equivalents. Over the last 6 months, the difference in our electricity bill is noticeable since I live with a woman who hasn't figured out that lights also have an off switch...
In the early days of energy saving bulbs (CFL) the cost were lower because the cost of the raw materials were lower (CFL contain small quantities of expensive rare earth elements), as demands rose so did the cost of the raw materials. That's not to say manufactures didn't raise costs above and beyond the increases in the raw materials, it's just that as China has a near monopoly on phosphors and decided to limit exports to protect their diminishing reserves most of the increased costs come from further down (or up) the supply chain.
I can tell you one thing the marketing guru's won't tell you, incandescant light bulbs didn't blow out once a year automatically. Most had an incredible lifespan. The CFL-lights, with built in electronics and a mercury problem were a step in the wrong direction from the beginning. LED's however are starting to deliver what the energy-savers promised, they're the big step up. Now the ones with proper colour temperatures have to come down in price a bit.
The reason the CCFL lamps used to be cheaper is because they were subsidised (by the EU I seem to remember) for a certain amount of time to speed their introduction and help replace filament types. This ran out a couple of years ago so now they are back to a normal market price. The jump was quite a lot, but now they are coming down again to a reasonable level (IMHO). LEDs are also coming down to a reasonable level now.
he IKEA ones linked above are a glorious colour temperature. really natural-looking light. Only 4.5W, too!
A friend of mine bought enough to re-light his house (and a few spares) from China (on the bay) for around £1/bulb.
Perhaps you're looking at this the wrong way? You can either think of the money you have saved buy bulk buying, all those years ago; or, accept that they were cheap because they were poor quality and ones you'll get now are likely to last much longer, and prove to be better value than you first thought. Every cloud and has clichéd lining an all that...
Once they get this "nuclear power" thing up and running we'll have an abundance of cheap, clean energy and we can go back to using filament bulbs.
