House Light Bulbs

**1950landy** · 27th June 2018, 03:07 PM

Almost 8 years agi we renivated out house in doung this we replaced all the light fittings & Fans . All up the account for the fittings & low energy bulbes was around $8000 , we had 3 cahndaleers . Over the last 8 years we have been replacing the bulbs regally & in some cases have had difficulty buying bulbs to fit some if the lights. I went today to buy some new bulbs only to be told I have to fit LED 's now because the government say so. I managed to buy 5 bulbs out of the 8 I wanted . We also have about 20 low voltage down lights that I can not buy bulbs for as the ones they supply are not compatible with the transformers in the light fittings so the lights flicker all the time, , so as well as buying expensive bulbs I also have to buy new transformers as well & get an electrician in to fit them .
It may be cheaper to buy new light fittings . My beet is when we bought the lights 8 years ago we were told we had to use low energy lights now 8 years on we are being told we have to use LED's so I could spend X numbers of dollars replacing all our lights then find in another few years we won't be able to buy bulbs for them also. THE GOVERNMENT DONT CARE THEY ARE GETTING THERE GST ON THE MORE EXPENSICE BULBES AS WELL AS THE ALL THE NEW LIGHT FITTINGS BEING SOLD. I have also found the LED that I have bought don't last as long as a low energy bulb & I am not buying cheap bulbs from Coles or Woolworths. All the lighting places say to keep my dockets as they have 2 years warranty but I do not have a second house to store all the receipts in for what I have bought.

Also my brother just built a new house 2 years ago , there is not one light in the house that he can replace the bulbs in they are all sealed LED's . He has had to replace 4 lights so far . He gets the lights under warranty but has to pay for the electrician to install the new light each time.

SO MUCH FOR PROGRESS. I AM OVER BUYING LIGHT BULBS.

**PhilipA** · 27th June 2018, 03:30 PM

Nice Rant.

I am a bit luckier as I have just replaced all my Dichroics with LEDs as my transformers are the old iron core ones. They all work well except for the occasional dud module in an LED.

If you went to CFLs then that is a problem.

So bite the bullet and replace the CFLs with LEDs, but who knows in a few years they may be replaced with a new technology.

I often ponder on the idea of replacing all my lights with a 12volt setup run from a battery or one big transformer and 12volt distribution. I have about 100 metres of copper wire in the ceiling and all my transformers are bolted in so it is technically illegal to replace them if they die, hence the idea of a 12v system.
By far the biggest saving I made was to buy a 4star fridge.

Regards Philip A

**austastar** · 27th June 2018, 03:53 PM

Hi,
The chap who installed my solar panels said that he rewired his power box to put all his lights on 12V run from a battery charged from the inverter.
Saves having multiple 240 to 12 Volt stuff all over the house.
Cheers

Tombie · 27th June 2018, 04:39 PM

Only a thread on here about technological obsolescence could end up with a government conspiracy thrown for good measure!

**Vern** · 27th June 2018, 04:53 PM

You don't have to change the transformers, it all depends on what brand led globes you get, i have changed heaps of these for customers in the past.
As for the brothers 4 led lights he has replaced in the last 2 years, that to also depends on the brand originally used. I have installed about 5000 SAL brand ones only to have 1 failure, which it just did not come on when first installed. Have used other brands, where I have replace quite a lot, one house I replaced every light within 3 months of installing them, no issues 3 years later!

**Slunnie** · 27th June 2018, 05:09 PM

Originally Posted by PhilipA

If you went to CFLs then that is a problem.

So bite the bullet and replace the CFLs with LEDs, but who knows in a few years they may be replaced with a new technology.

Why replace CFL's? My whole house is CFL, they are everywhere if you want to buy them and apart from my bathroom they seem to last forever.

The house is 8 years old and the vast majority of the CFL's are original (CLA Brand)

DAMINK · 27th June 2018, 05:18 PM

I had some muppet come change mine for free with led ones.
There useless actually but there free so thats good yea.........

**scarry** · 27th June 2018, 05:18 PM

FWIW,i replaced all the 18yr old fluro lights in our office with LED strip lights same physical size and equivalent lumens.
Power consumption dropped to 1/5 of what it was.

**Slunnie** · 27th June 2018, 05:19 PM

Originally Posted by DAMINK

I had some muppet come change mine for free with led ones.
There useless actually but there free so thats good yea.........

I tried LEDs a while ago but never bought them again because they were so cold... and they were the warm ones.

Tombie · 27th June 2018, 05:31 PM

Originally Posted by Slunnie

I tried LEDs a while ago but never bought them again because they were so cold... and they were the warm ones.

They’ve come a long way.. I have warm white in our lounge and bedrooms and they’re really good.
Cool white in bathroom.

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