Hello All

I can have ilight source controller installed at home.

it controls 2 100 watt bulbs at present.

one bulb has gone

am i correct in saying that in the UK we cannot buy normal 100 watt bayonett bulbs anymore?

is it only the Uk where you cannot buy them?

'Bayonett' is a different thing, so I presume you mean the regular Edison type E27 screw socket bulbs.

That is an EU wide ban. You may find some old stock somewhere, but new ones of that power aren't being imported or manufactured in Europe anymore.

Curiously, this ban doesn't include halogen bulbs. E27 socketed halogen bulbs have become available recently, they have the similar bulb shaped glass envelope. Those would be a drop in replacement, however they are still more expensive and probably have a shorter life as well. I'm not sure if you can get them in 100W size though.

Here in the UK Mika the terminology is bayonet cap (often abbrieviated to BC) with two opposing pins that fit into a socket. Most domestic lighting in the UK has these fittings as opposed to the screw caps, though they are becoming more common. I'm pretty sure to answer Seanie's question that you can still get NOS 100w incadescent bulbs on eBay and probably in local hardware stores too (our local one was selling single 100w bulbs for £2 a pop a few weeks back), but otherwise you're stuck with the energy savers. Watch out too because 60w and 40w bulbs are next in the firing line - I have already purchased several stocks of incandescents with unusual bulb shapes/sizes for some of my retro home lighting, because at the moment I don't think the energy savers produce very nice light, and some of the smaller shapes/sizes are very expensive and often still too big to fit some of my lighting :(

j0hnbarker:

Here in the UK Mika the terminology is bayonet cap (often abbrieviated to BC) with two opposing pins that fit into a socket. Most domestic lighting in the UK has these fittings as opposed to the screw caps, though they are becoming more common.

OK, I should shut up about British electrical appliances since everything there seems to be bass-ackwards

I agree that one should start building up a stash of conventional bulbs if you have dimmers that will only accept them. Most savers do really look awful as well.

However, I suppose those halogen bulbs I mentioned might be available for your kind of sockets as well. Over here, I've seen them on sale at Ikea (of all places), for 3,95€ per a pair of 70W bulbs. They look like this:

Incandecent clear light bulbs about 70W are banned from production and import in the EU, but stocks can still be sold.

Fluorescent light bulbs give a very bad light, and are not dimmable.

They have started to produce Halogen light bulbs that look like standard incandecent bulbs. They are dimmable.

i think i will pop to my local market and buy as many as possible so i can keep my own stock up as the control freeks in the EU have decided we cannot choose how to light our homes here.

Energy savers give off a horrid light and the ones you can dim tend to flicker and you need to "warm them up" at full power before picking a scene that has lower power.

ebay has them which is good.

 

Here in Germany you can buy very good energy saving lamps from "Osram" with warm light. I can recommend them!

What about those halogen bulbs, will they be fine to dimm with LC2?

Do they need warm-up time?

musicsound:

What about those halogen bulbs, will they be fine to dimm with LC2?

Dimming is fine for the bulb, but I'm not 100% sure whether the LC2 will like it - the manual says to only use it with normal incandescent bulbs. However, the 230V halogen bulbs are electrically a very similar, resistive load, just with a larger inrush current when you first light them up. So it will probably work if you don't go near the maximum rated power.

No warm up time needed for them. They can get quite hot, so I wouldn't use them in lighting fixtures that have very little space for the bulb.

If you do some more research you will find bulbs from Megaman for example that are CFL and dimmable. Even some LED bulbs are dimmable.

I just bought a 13W bulb from the US, that is LED and produces the same light as a 100W bulb, you can even choose if you want Cool white or Warm White light (higher Kelvin means 'cooler' whites.)