The  options for downlighter with Energy Saving Light Bulbs

The halogen downlighter has taken hold in the kitchens and work areas of today’s households and it is here to stay!! The halogen gu10 and the halogen mr16 spot lamps have made their in roads into the home and with their path they have left many holes dotted across the ceilings!!  Now they are very functional and practical but the over powering argument for their continued existence is the fact that it would be prohibitively expensive to fill all these holes and skim the ceiling with plaster! So what we will so here is look at some of the options moving forward.

Energy Saving Halogen GU10 lamps

Now probably the simplest and least investment alternative is to replace your 50w halogen GU10 bulbs with a energy saving halogen GU10 which will actually give the same light output but deliver at least a 20% saving in electricity. This is simply due to the use of energy saving halogen technology which is not expensive but works incredibly effectively making this a very viable quick fix for the very high electricity bills.

Energy Saving CFL Downlighters

The halogen energy saving light bulbs will have a positive impact on electricity consumption but if you want so save serious money then you need to step up a level to the compact fluorescent lamp – energy saving MR16 or energy saving GU10 . These use the CFL technology which will save around 80% when compared to a conventional filament bulb. As a consequence then a 7 w energy saving CFL will produce the equivalent light output to a 35w halogen and the 11w version will produce the equivalent output to an 11w version. This is a considerable saving and the MR16 spot lamps are nice and compact so they will fit into conventional fittings as a retrofit light bulb. One thing you need to look out for is the transformer specification for the MR16 units as these can be quite particular and in general it is best to use a matched transformer supplied by the lamp manufacturer.

The energy saving GU1o is efficient also but the length of the lamps is longer so you can either have it protruding which is fine as the protruding portion is silver coloured or alternatively you can change the fittings for some longer reach units.

Clearly the other alternative if the LED MR16 or LED GU10 which are far more efficient in energy consumption saving around 88% when compare to conventional filament light bulbs. However, the disadvantage with the LED is twofold. Firstly they are more expensive, and secondly, they are not as bright. If you can accept long reach bulbs then you can purchase units which have the same brightness as the 11w MR16 CFL energy saving light bulbs but if you want to simply replace your 50w halogen MR16 bulbs then the 11w CFL MR16 has got to be a very cost effective solution. The day will certainly come when the LED will undoubtedly take over and the CFL just be a technology used at a point in time in history but we are certainly not there as yet.