In article ,
"Jason" writes:
Hi

I've been looking to replace as many of the bulbs in my house as possible
with low energy ones, and wondered if anyone could help with some advice on
obtaining the following:

- Replacements for 60w ES bulbs, which are switched by PIRs. All of the
lamps I've seen state they're not suitable for dusk/dawn or PIR switches. I
assume this is due to a heavy surge surrent when they're first switched on.
Does anyone know where I can get some that ARE suitable for use with PIR
switches?

The reason is that many dusk/dawn and PIR switches reply on powering
themselves through the lamp filament, and this doesn't generally
work if you use a compact fluorescent. Dusk/dawn and PIR switches
which use a relay will work fine -- can you hear a relay click when
your lights go on and off?

Secondly, compact fluorescents are unsuitable for frequent and
short-term switching associated with PIRs. They can take a few
minutes to warm up to full light output, particularly in the cold.
Frequent switching will have a detrimental impact on their life.

- The highest power candle bulb replacements I've seen are 7w (Screwfix and
Toolstation). They're apparently equivalent to 40w. Does anyone know where
I can get 11w ones, or are the 7w ones alright?

My rule is to multiply the power by 4 times to get the equivalent
filament lamp, so I don't believe 7W will be equivalent to a 40W
lamp. YMMV...

For outdoor lamps, particularly in winter, I would suggest using
the type with an additional outer glass bulb (which probably is
the case with your candle lamps) rather than those with exposed
tubes, which can struggle to get up to temperature.

Finally, are there effective (and reasonably priced) R50 SES replacements
available, or am I looking at replacing the kitchen light fittings?

R50 compact fluorescents exist. I don't have personal experience
on how effective they are. The difficulty in folding the tube
into the available space and getting all of the tube exposed to
the front means, I suspect, that they would not do as well as
my 4-times rule, which means you are going to struggle to get
the same lighting level from them.

--
Andrew Gabriel