From today, traditional 100W incandescent light-bulbs are no longer being sold. Under new EU rules the manufacture and import of 100 watt bulbs and all frosted bulbs will be banned in favour of the energy-saving variety.

I’m still in two minds about this, although we don’t actually use 100W bulbs around the house at all and we’re not prone to the health-issues that are being laid at the door of CFL (Compact Fluourescent Light) bulbs. But in certain cases, I’m still to be convinced about CFL bulbs as a replacement for incandescent ‘traditional’ light bulbs.

One of the things we made a slight mistake with when we moved in here was that we had spotlight downlighters fitted in most of the rooms, which use GU10 halogen bulbs. The light fittings are fine, and help with making the rooms feel like they’re a decent height (Which hanging light-fittings didn’t) But they do result in a significant use of energy, which is what we didn’t think about at the time.

We’ve looked at replacing the bulbs with CFL-replacements, but they most certainly do have a “warm-up” time. The ones we’ve used in the kitchen take a noticeable time to come on properly. In addition, they’re longer than the standard GU10s, so if/when we put them in to replace the ceiling lights, we’re going to have little humps of protruding light bulbs in all the positions.

As time goes on, and the current GU10s burn out, I’m sure we will replace them with CFL equivalents – but we’ll also keep on looking for better developments in those bulbs, rather than buying them all at once – particularly when they’re still at £8 or £9 per bulb – that’s a noticeable amount of money to be spending on lighting…