In article ,
Steve Jones writes:
Hi,

I've been buying low energy bulbs from Wilkinsons for some time now.

I've become so suspicious of there life expectancy that I started to mark
the purchase date on the base of the bulb.

I've just has one fail after five months. If it was on for 24/7 this only
amounts to 3600 hours. The bulb was in the bathroom so I'd only expect it
to be on for 4 hours/day or less. So it's failed after about 600 hours.

Take it back and get a replacement.
I've no idea what make Wilkinsons stock, but I wouldn't be surprised
if it's one I never heard of before;-)

Generally, if you buy really cheap ones, you shouldn't be surprised
to find you have the lowest quality. I have been pleasently surprised
by the cheap IKEA ones though -- I bought a lot of them nearly 5 years
ago and so far just had one early failure and the rest all still working.
(The bathroom one has outlasted two bathroom fan motors actually. ;-)
At the time, IKEA was about the cheapest source, but there are now many
other equally cheap sources. OTOH, the ones IKEA now stock are not the
same types, so I don't know that you can necessarily make assumptions
about their current range.

A standard filament bulb has a life expectancy of 1000 hours and it only
costs 20p, not two quid.

Well, most of the cost is the electricity, not the 20p.

Am I just unlucky, do they really last six times longer - as advertised?

Good ones do.

--
Andrew Gabriel