long lasting light bulb

[lankeela]

Is there any reason why I should not use one of those long lasting light bulbs in a standard lamp?

[CheekyChops]

I've got one in mine - the only downside as far as I am concerned is that the bulb is visible over the top of the shade, as it is 'longer' than a normal bulb.

[The Cowboy]

You can now get them to fight into both Standard lamps and table lamps. They are a lot shorter than the normal one.

Cowboy.

[buildersmate]

You could be talking about one of two things. There are long-life normal filament bulbs with an average life of 2000 hours. These are harder to find these days. They look the same as normal bulbs, BHS used to sell them and the last ones I bought came from John Lewis. These use the same amount of electricity for the given Wattage as a normal bulb. They cost a few pence more than a normal one. A normal life has an average life of 1000 hours.

Or you could be talking about the energy saving bulbs that are cheaper to run AND last a lot longer - average life of 10000 hours. These are effectively small fluoresecent units in a bulb shape. They are slow to warm up - about 90 seconds before the light is on fully, and the light output is more white than pale yellow. They cost �3 to �5 but use about one quarter the electricity for the same light output.

[Oneeyedvic]

We use them as well - but just a warning - my wife can't read from the light of these - they are not nearly as clear / bright as a normal light

[WendyS]

The energy saving bulbs can be used in standard and table lamps but for most of them you need a deep lampshade as they tend to protrude a little, being longer than a conventional one, (unless you can now buy shorter models which The Cowboy has suggested are available). They can also be used in conjunction with electric timers. We use a couple of them with timers on table lamps to switch on automatically and make the house look as it's always occupied. They are more expensive to buy initially but have had ours between 2 - 3 years, operating for several hours every night and haven't had one fail yet. The only downside is that the lights arn't quite so bright as a conventional bulb and if you have eyesight problems that may make reading or sewing type activities a little more difficult.

[qapmoc]

The complaints about compact flourescent lamps (CFL) being less bright is interesting, but is the problem that you are just not using the correct size, I have noticed that the manufacturers give a equivalent old-->new wattage list but that in reality you have to go at least ''one up'' on that to get the same light output.
One other point about these CFL is that you not might want to use them in fully enclosed light fittings where they can get hot as this seems to shorten their lifetime a lot.

[lankeela]

Many thanks for your answers. It is one of the longer ones but it is a tall lampshade. Its an equivalent to a 100 watt, and I only use it as an extra light in the corner of the room. I was just worried abut the safety aspect, but seems I was being over cautious.

[oakleydoaky]

and you can't use them with a dimmer unless it's not dimmed ('cos it won't light!)