I hate them, for many reasons I utterly detest them and so it is time for a rant about ‘energy saving lightbulbs’. Now don’t get me wrong this is not a rant about me resenting change or not wishing to keep up with modern technology as anyone who has been to Bellaugello Gay Guest House will know for they will have seen my wonderful ‘aliens’ the LED pavement lights around our infinity swimming pool, no it is a rant about those detestable ‘low energy’ thingies.
Today I had to change four of them because they had died, did not light, were useless, not fit for purpose. The packet clearly states “lasts ten years” – I now ask myself is that the packaging or the lightbulb only if not lit or used, for they certainly do not last ten years nor anything like when lit, I have not been in Italy ten years, they were not invented ten years ago and yet they die.
Please can somebody tell me how they have the gall to call themselves energy saving?
Firstly, I look at an incandescent lightbulb, to me a thing of simple beauty, a design classic, a thin clear glass globe fixed into a metal cap and inside an inert gas and fine wire filament that glows. Now an “energy saving lightbulb” is a complicated thing, coming in twists, coils or wonky pasta like shapes, coated in …is it phosphorescence or some such chemical, filled with a miasma of other horrid poisonous chemicals one of which I am reliably informed is mercury (great!) and the base, well it is no longer a slick piece of metal and glass, it is humungous, plastic, filled with electric circuitry and gizmos. As if that is not enough now please do not tell me that all the components are sourced from one source and all locally available, they must have travelled the world to such an extent to be inveterate travelers and so make me jealous. When soon dead they do not go into the recycling waste bins, they have to go into the unrecyclable bin, yet they are ‘energy efficient/friendly’ huh!
Secondly, we are told that these ‘eco-friendly’ lightbulbs are more efficient as they do not give of any heat. Well is it me or am I stupid but do we not require to use lightbulbs rather more in the winter when days are shorter, temperatures cooler and the heating is ON? would it not be an idea if lightbulbs continued to help make homes warm and cozy?
Thirdly, Lightbulbs used to be readily available in any self respecting store for about 30cents/pence, ok if you wanted a fancy candle it cost more, but you could buy a lightbulb that was fit for purpose for well under €1 or £1. Nowadays I have to pay in the region of €8.00 for a standard ‘energy saving lightbulb’ – now just how is that energy saving, I have to work at least 16 times as hard to earn the cost of the lightbulb, to me that means expending significantly more energy to be able to purchase a lightbulb.
Fourthly, as already stated they do not last, so require more frequent energy un-saving trips to the shops. I have been in Italy about five years, or just under 44,000 hours. Considering the house was a ruin when I bought it and devoid of electricity for a year, the maximum any lightbulb could be lit for is 35,000 hours, now I try to be economic with lights, a habit drummed into me as a child by my late father ” why is the boy leaving the light on does he think I have money to burn?”, so by my calculation the bulbs have been lit for less than 1/3rd of the stated life of 33,000 hours and then die. and of course not all the bulbs went in four years ago, and not every light has been lit. I am a sad person, I still have lightbulbs from many many years ago, like me they moved from house to house, we have become attached to each other, and like me they still work, they are incandescent – as I have become. now please don’t even get me started on halogen lightbulbs…….