Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

For all you that pay their bills to British Gas they've been advertising that all their customers are going to get 4 free energy saving bulbs from them. Well today came home from work and my free bulbs were on the doorstep. 2 60watt and 2 40 watt ones. Now i dont use 60watt bulbs or 40 watt bulbs but i do still have 9 100 watt energy saving ones from when mum was alive on the warmfront scheme. I have replaced the ones i use most with the energy saving ones and still have the other 9 up on top of the kitchen cupboard waiting for use... which will probably last me for the rest of my life!!! What a waste of money though sending me 4 bulbs - if they had contacted me i would have said i dont need them especially as they are 60 and 40 watt ones - i dont have any lamps!!!! I think i would prefer to have the money they spent on my bulbs knocked off my bill.

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

my grandad's had the same problem...... i dont mind, he keeps me supplied with bulbs :D

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

Yes elderly relatives pass their spare bulbs to us, our house is like an energy saving bulb circus......they are everywhere

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

i would use these type of bulbs if they didnt take 20 mins to actualy reach the level of light they claim to be ;)

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

Then don't buy the cheapest ones you can find. Good quality ones strike almost instantly and are almost at full brightness.

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

The ones i have all strike up pretty quickly too.

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

I haven't had mine from British Gas yet.

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

Well Neil you've guest it the ones from BG take a bloody age to light up, so they must be cheapies:D

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

Theyre Philips ones that ive got.

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

I hope Philip doesn't mind you having them!!

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

Hee Hee, very good.:D:D

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

Dont think he minds slinks - as long as he got the money for them....

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

Don’t kid yourself, the bulbs are not free. BG customers paid for them in the recent price increases.

This is just a ruse to mitigate those recent price rises and those yet to come later this year.

I wonder how much energy is used to make an energy saving bulb, compared to a normal hot filament bulb? Then there are the costs and energy to dispose of them. You can’t just chuck them on a tip. Not when they contain mercury you can’t.

I wonder what the profit margin is on an energy saving bulb. If these bulbs sell at say £10 each the profit margin is likely to be at least £2.50. Traditional bulbs sell at no more than £1 each and their profit margin is going to be about 25p. Who’s conning whom?

Motability sent me two the other day. Megaman Compact 2000 rated at 11w with a claimed life of 10,000 hours. The blurp that came with them reads:
“The enclosed bulbs last up to 6 times longer than a traditional light bulb and could save you up to £28 per year in electricity costs – that’s nearly £190 over their lifetime.”

It is supposed to be the equivalent of a normal hot filament 60w bulb. But it ain’t. This energy saving bulb is rated at 650 lumens. A normal 60w bulb is rated at 700 lumens. Thus it is not quite as bright.

You might think that the difference is hardly noticeable but I can notice the difference.

When you consider that a TV gobbles up electricity as if it is going out of fashion and most houses will have a TV on for several hours per day, changing to low energy bulbs isn’t going to make that much of an energy saving.

Just think – how many hours in a day do you have a light on somewhere?

Re: Free light bulbs from British Gas
 

I dont have energy saving bulbs (but do have flourescent light in kitchen and bathroom) I dont even know if they do energy saving bulbs for my living room light fitting (it takes 5 of those little screw in golf ball ones) cant say ive ever looked when im shopping though, I just always buy the ordinary ones. But in saying that I rarely have my TV on (if i can help it) and most other things get switched off at the socket etc when not in use so am not too bad for wasting energy in other areas.