When I was a spotlight salesman I regularly used to use my Helios architectural spotlight sample to light up my life at home. That was because it was a 150 Watt fresnel spotlight that had the light output and colour temperature better than a 500 Watt tungsten lamp. It made a great uplighter and was excellent for anything other than watching telly, something I didn’t do too much of anyway. The technique livs on with our 500 Watt lounge uplighter (on a dimmer) that we are able to set to the desired intensity.
The first house I bought in Maidenhead was off a foreign family and I inherited an interesting colour scheme- bright wallpapers and naked 200W lamps in every room, apart from the kitchen which had twin 6? florry tubes. I rapidly tamed it, fitting various track fittings, reflector lamps and downlighters, along with a brass finish traditional triple shaded fitting from the lounge. Most rooms had touch dimmers fitted, I was a regular customer at Habitat, BHS and B & Q.
Now most of the fittings in my house have energy efficient lamps, with two notable exceptions- the lounge uplighter and the bedroom ceiling fittings. The bedrooms have 100W Tungsten Halogen lamps in which are long lasting. The ability to put the light on very low to go into a room without disturbing someone or to put it on full to clean or put out washing is very useful.
However, the EU does not agree with my personal choice, even though it is me who pays the bill. The bulbs must be banned in order to save the planet and ASDA is already on the glide path to this.
(I really must stock up…)
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