Light bulbs

Foolishly, when we refitted the kitchen, we installed a ceiling light fitting that takes the small Tungsten halogen diachronic spot lamps. We had 5, 50w lamps, which made the room sparkle. The tragedy is that once we started worrying about the energy waste, we stopped using them.
However, I have purchased a number of different lamps to try in the fittings.
They were ordered over the internet. They fall in to 3 classes:
Compact florescent:

• This is the technology of the ‘low energy’ light bulb.
• The package was 5 cm longer than the light fitting.
• They were rated at about 7 watts.
• They were not focused and did not seem very efficient.

Cold cathode

• This is the technology of the ‘neon’ sign.
• A little more efficient than the CF and slightly more focussed, but still in a package that sticks out of the fitting.

Light Emitting Diodes

• These come with 15 to 35 little bulbs, packages in the same fitting as the 50w halogen spot, but only rated at 2 to 4 watts.
• They provide a tight beam.
• They are 2 to 4 time more efficient than the CF and 3 times more efficient than the halogen, but the low power means that they only provide a 15% of the light.
• They do have a significantly longer life.

The latest ones have one to three much more powerful LEDs and are said to be more efficient.
Here are some of the suppliers I tried:

• www.initiallights.co.uk, (Brilux V Series 4 Watt and Brilux M Series 3 watt.)
• www.ultraleds.co.uk, (48 Day Light White leds)
• www.ricamstore.co.uk
• www.led-lightbulbs.co.uk
• www.lighting-direct.co.uk
• www.yourwelcome.co.uk