Has there been a decision taken to move over to screw-top bulbs
in the UK and Ireland, at some time in the future?
There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

Also, is there any "converter" that allows a screw-top bulb
to be put in a bayonet socket?

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

On Mar 22, 2:12*pm, Timothy Murphy wrote:
Has there been a decision taken to move over to screw-top bulbs
in the UK and Ireland, at some time in the future?
There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

Imports of europe-wide products tend to be that way

Also, is there any "converter" that allows a screw-top bulb
to be put in a bayonet socket?

Haven't seen those for sale in a very long time. Do historic ones turn
up on ebay?


NT

There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

possibly 'cos they are not UK-based groups? There are still plenty of
BC in supermarkets and other shops in London and Suffolk

Also, is there any "converter" that allows a screw-top bulb
to be put in a bayonet socket?

yes - use the search engine of your choice to search for (say) es27 bc
adapter

they are also on eBay sometimes
--
Robin
PM may be sent to rbw0{at}hotmail{dot}com

On Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:12:39 +0000, Timothy Murphy
wrote:

There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

Then they keep their stock because I am certainly not going to change
my house over to ES sockets.

Ericp wrote:

Then they keep their stock because I am certainly not going to change
my house over to ES sockets.

I expect that you'll adapt to stumbling around in the dark quite quickly.



--
Murphy's ultimate law is that if something that could go wrong doesn't,
it turns out that it would have been better if it had gone wrong.

Ericp wrote:
On Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:12:39 +0000, Timothy Murphy
wrote:

There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

Then they keep their stock because I am certainly not going to change
my house over to ES sockets.

BTW, do you have anything in particular against ES sockets? Apart from the
cost/inconvenience of changing over, that is.




--
Murphy's ultimate law is that if something that could go wrong doesn't,
it turns out that it would have been better if it had gone wrong.

On Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:21:10 -0000, "GB"
wrote:

Ericp wrote:
On Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:12:39 +0000, Timothy Murphy
wrote:

There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

Then they keep their stock because I am certainly not going to change
my house over to ES sockets.

BTW, do you have anything in particular against ES sockets? Apart from the
cost/inconvenience of changing over, that is.

We have had the bulbs unscrewing over time and a bit of overheating in
the socket, probably from the unscrewing. BC are bad but imo a tad
better than ES. SES do not seem bad at all but we have few of them.

In article ,
Ericp wrote:
We have had the bulbs unscrewing over time and a bit of overheating in
the socket, probably from the unscrewing. BC are bad but imo a tad
better than ES. SES do not seem bad at all but we have few of them.

Over the years I've had several BC plastic holders disintegrate -
presumably because of heat when using larger lamps. Not had this problem
with ES. Although it could be the fittings I have with ES are of a higher
quality - the holders seem all to be ceramic.

My gut feeling is ES is a better connector at the upper limits of current
handling.

--
* I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Mar 23, 10:51*am, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

My gut feeling is ES is a better connector at the upper limits of current
handling.

That would seem to square with the choice of connector for the larger
sizes of GLS bulbs, which all seem to be screw connection - E27 up to
500W, with GES (E40?) for larger sizes (and some 300 and 500W bulbs
too). I'm not sure what the largest sizes were - the largest one I've
handled is a 1500W, though the documentation on the box appeared to
imply they also made a 2kW bulb.

--
Mike

GB wrote:
BTW, do you have anything in particular against ES sockets? Apart from the
cost/inconvenience of changing over, that is.

Yes. Repeated heating unscrews them, without a lamp inserted if it
is switched on the centre contact is touchable and live, it's
a polarised fitting! - if wired incorrectly and switched on the
outer screw case is live! They're an abomination unto Nuggan.

JGH

On 22/03/2011 19:05, jgharston wrote:
GB wrote:
BTW, do you have anything in particular against ES sockets? Apart from the
cost/inconvenience of changing over, that is.

Yes. Repeated heating unscrews them, without a lamp inserted if it
is switched on the centre contact is touchable and live, it's
a polarised fitting! - if wired incorrectly and switched on the
outer screw case is live! They're an abomination unto Nuggan.


I'm not so concerned about them unscrewing as becoming jammed in!

But couldn't agree more about the safety aspect (or lack of it). How
these things passed a H & S review I don't understand. Wired
incorrectly (and that wouldn't be too difficult), anything made of thin
metal could be pushed down by a child and touch the live screw case - an
impossibility with a bayonet fixing.

I wonder if they were foisted on us because it is not easy to push a
spiral CFL into a bayonet fixing in a confined space without putting a
lot of pressure on the fragile glass spiral. It is possible to gently
screw an ES-based spiral CFL into a similar confined space without
risking the glass breaking.

--

Jeff

On Mar 22, 8:44*pm, Jeff Layman wrote:
On 22/03/2011 19:05, jgharston wrote:

GB wrote:
BTW, do you have anything in particular against ES sockets? Apart from the
cost/inconvenience of changing over, that is.

Yes. Repeated heating unscrews them, without a lamp inserted if it
is switched on the centre contact is touchable and live, it's
a polarised fitting! - if wired incorrectly and switched on the
outer screw case is live! They're an abomination unto Nuggan.

I'm not so concerned about them unscrewing as becoming jammed in!

But couldn't agree more about the safety aspect (or lack of it). *How
these things passed a H & S review I don't understand. *Wired
incorrectly (and that wouldn't be too difficult), anything made of thin
metal could be pushed down by a child and touch the live screw case - an
impossibility with a bayonet fixing.

I wonder if they were foisted on us because it is not easy to push a
spiral CFL into a bayonet fixing in a confined space without putting a
lot of pressure on the fragile glass spiral. *It is possible to gently
screw an ES-based spiral CFL into a similar confined space without
risking the glass breaking.

--

Jeff

The OP hasn't encountered BC3 yet then!

Jeff Layman wrote:
But couldn't agree more about the safety aspect (or lack of it). How
these things passed a H & S review I don't understand. Wired
incorrectly (and that wouldn't be too difficult), anything made of
thin metal could be pushed down by a child and touch the live screw
case - an impossibility with a bayonet fixing.

You can stick a finger into a BC socket and touch the terminals. With a
foot touching a good earth that could be quite nasty.

On 22/03/2011 19:05, jgharston wrote:
GB wrote:
BTW, do you have anything in particular against ES sockets? Apart from the
cost/inconvenience of changing over, that is.

Yes. Repeated heating unscrews them, without a lamp inserted if it
is switched on the centre contact is touchable and live, it's
a polarised fitting! - if wired incorrectly and switched on the
outer screw case is live! They're an abomination unto Nuggan.

JGH

The main threaded part is isolated from the mains on all the recent ES
sockets I have. The threaded part of the bulb makes contact with a
separate small metal contact on the side near the bottom of the socket.
So even if it's wired incorrectly the live part is no more accessible
than the centre contact.

--
Mike Clarke

Timothy Murphy wrote:
Has there been a decision taken to move over to screw-top bulbs
in the UK and Ireland, at some time in the future?
There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.


and the relevant fittings..

Also, is there any "converter" that allows a screw-top bulb
to be put in a bayonet socket?

Don't **** around: Replace the actual pendants or the inner parts.

On Mar 22, 2:12*pm, Timothy Murphy wrote:
Has there been a decision taken to move over to screw-top bulbs
in the UK and Ireland, at some time in the future?
There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

Also, is there any "converter" that allows a screw-top bulb
to be put in a bayonet socket?

--
Timothy Murphy *
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Don't get me started. Nearly every fitting in this house is different,
there's BC, ES, SES, several GU10's and a couple of T8's.

Feels like there isn't much point keeping a few spares in the cupboard
cos they are bound to have the wrong fitting (we are nearly 100%
energy saving bulbs anyway).

Philip

On Tue, 22 Mar 2011 14:12:39 +0000, Timothy Murphy wrote:

Has there been a decision taken to move over to screw-top bulbs
in the UK and Ireland, at some time in the future?
There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

Also, is there any "converter" that allows a screw-top bulb
to be put in a bayonet socket?

In Lidl on Saturday: lot of Philips Genie CFLs at 10p each and they were BC
according to the picture on the boxen. I didn't check the wattage or caps as
they were on the tills and the queue was moving too fast.
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On Mar 22, 2:12*pm, Timothy Murphy wrote:
Has there been a decision taken to move over to screw-top bulbs
in the UK and Ireland, at some time in the future?
There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

Also, is there any "converter" that allows a screw-top bulb
to be put in a bayonet socket?

--
Timothy Murphy *
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

It's an EU plot. *******s.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Timothy Murphy
saying something like:

There seem to be a growing number of outlets (eg Ikea and Lidl)
that only stock screw-top bulbs.

That's just them - they source their kit on the Continent.
No shortage of BC lamps anywhere else in Ireland, that I see.

Also, is there any "converter" that allows a screw-top bulb
to be put in a bayonet socket?

Easily available - google for bayonet to ES converter or vice versa and
you'll find both types, usually around £1.50 (in the UK). They're also
available in Ireland if you poke around a bit.