halogen light bulbes

[BJS]

I put a question in yesterday reference power consumption. One of the welcomed replies mentioned halogen security lights being costly ( we have 5). I also have in the kitchen a light with 4x40w miniture halogen bulbs. Are these more costly to run than say ordinary/candle types. Thanks once again for any help.

[ianmunt]

simply put,40 watts is 40 watts whichever lamp you use,however some lamps convert power to light more efficiently than others.So you get a lot more light from a 4foot 40 watt fluorescent than a 40 watt filament lamp.The halogen lamps you have ,whilst not as energy efficient as a fluorescent type,are more efficient than a candle(filament) type.
The lamp unit itself,ie the bulb,is deare than a filament unit,and generally has a shorter life.Depending on the lamp fitting,you may be able to get LED equivalents to your halogen units.If you can,although deare initially,they are very efficient and are rated at 50,000 hours average life.

[Buenchico]

Hello again!

I've just taken a look in the Argos catalogue (which I find is an invaluable source of information for answering questions on AB). Many security lights are rated at 500W. That means that they'll use 0.50 kWh of electricity for every hour that they're turned on. (So work out how many hours the light is on for and add your results to my previous figures).

4 x 40W bulbs will use 0.16 kWh for every hour that they're switched on. So, if that lighting unit is on for 3 hours, you'll use 0.48 kWh.

As Ian says, a 40W bulb of one type will use the same amount of electricity as any other 40W bulb. The only difference is in their efficiency in converting electricity to light. A 40W tungsten bulb, for example, will only produce enough light for a desk lamp or a fairly dim bedside lamp. A 40W 'low energy' bulb will light quite a large room, fairly brightly. They both use the same amount of electricity but a tungsten bulb converts much of the electricity to heat, whereas the low-energy bulb converts far more of it to light.

I certainly think that you need to consider switching to low energy bulbs. (They're now far cheaper than they were a year or two. Try Morrisons or Tesco). However, I still suspect that your chest freezer might be responsible for using a lot of electricity. Ensure that it's properly defrosted, keep it well-stocked (because it will use less electricity) and invest in a thermometer:
http://www.choiceful.com/choiceful-id-20107-Fr idgeFreezer-Thermometer.html
Use it in both your chest freezer and your fridge-freezer to check that the temperatures aren't lower than necessary. (Aim for 4C in the fridge and -18C in the freezers). If the temperatures are lower, turn the thermostat back to save some electricity.

Chris

[Disco Fever]

A tungsten halogen security light normally comes with a 500 watt lamp but if you go to an electrical wholesaler, not B&Q, Homebase or Focus as they are a lot dearer, you can change the 500 watt to either a 300 or a 200 watt thus saving you a lot in electric costs....