I have long muttered about the quality and limitations of the light produced by energy efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs lamps.
At last, I think that the CFL has come of age. I picked this up in B & Q on Saturday and I thought that if it is half as good as the claims, it is worth having.
It turns out that it is excellent. I may have only used it for twenty minutes so I can’t speak for the longevity of the product, but my quick road test puts Govena down as the ones to watch.
There are several key points here for the product.
- - it is a very long life lamp at 16,000 hours compared to 1,000 hours for a normal lamp and 2,000 hours for a Tungsten/Halogen lamp. Most CFLs are typically rated at 6,000 hours so this one is 2.5 times longer.
- -It has a colour temperature of 2,700 Kelvin, very favourable to a high end tungsten lamp. Visually, it is a warm, clean colour, very similar to T/H.
- -It is an efficacy of 66 lumens per Watt, comparing very favourably to typical tungsten lamps that can be as low as 12 lumens per Watt. This is why they compare the 20 Watt lamp to an imaginary 110 Watt regular lamp.
- -Uniquely, (so far) it can be dimmed with a conventional dimmer switch. It can supposedly go down to 2% but cheap dimmers don’t achieve this. In David’s bedroom, though, the light level can be controlled down to a satisfactory 5%. Whilst slightly slow to respond compared to a regular lamp, it is still very smooth, stable and flicker-free.
- -All CFL lamps take some time to reach maximum brightness, but this lamp comes on reasonably bright at switch-on and manages full bightness in less than thirty seconds.
Where is this product designed and manufactured? I would have guessed the Far East or perhaps Israel, but it is actually from Poland. There are three versions available it seems, namely the dimmer switch version, a switched only version that can be dimmed by timed switch clicks and a third version that can be operated by a small radio controlled doo-hickey.
How muh do the lamps cost? Well the dimmed version is £8 which sounds a lot but T/H 100W lamps are around £4 anyway and it will only use a fifth of the power as well as lasting eight times longer. I don’t know the cost of the switched version and the radio controlled version is a substantial penny less than a Pony.
Total cost of ownership (excluding disposal cost) at 10p/unit
Cheap 100W lamp 1.05p/hour but will degrade over time (envelope blackening)
Decent TH lamp 1.2p/hour but maintains quality (& lasts twice as long)
Govena Lamp 0.205p/hour, nearly five times cheaper to run.
I can certainly recommend the dimmable lamp. Govena, one to watch.
The irony is that it will save you money, which will then leave you with more money to spend on other co2 consuming devices! But still a good idea.
Nigel, not irony at all. I don’t give much credence to getting hung up on CO2 emissions but energy costs real tangible money that has to be earned (unless you are sponger off the state) and there will be energy shortages in the UK before long due to our creaking infrastructure.
If you want to wear a hair shirt and live in a Yurt that is your choice.