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GE M9 12V/5W G-4
by Coffeetiere
This is a really tiny little halogen bulb which goes into the spotlights under my kitchen cupboards. Altogether I have three of these spotlights which give out a bright, clean whitish light onto my worktops which is very useful when cooking.
I do like the colour and the amount of light these bulbs give and they are a very low ... wattage, 5 watt and 12 volts so it is surprising they give so much light. The actual bulb is easy to pull out of its socket and push a new one in. The bulb has a two pin plug kind of socket (known as M9) and the two plugs need to be aligned horizontally to the sockets when fitting which is easy to do.
These bulbs seem very strong despite being only about 2cm in length and less than 1cm wide. Actually they remind me of the micro bug toys with their two little pin plug antenna and a small clear plastic body!
The one major fault with these bulbs is they don't seem to last that long. We have lived in this flat for just over three years and each of my three spotlights have had between 2 and 3 lightbulb changes in that time. Therefore each bulb barely lasts a year, despite me not having these lights on much, only when I am preparing food. They say they are very long life on the packet and last 2000 hours. If each bulb lasts me a year then to use 2000 hours I would have to have them on for 5.5 hours a day, which I really don't, it's probably nearer to 30 mins a day.
The bulbs aren't cheap for such a small thing, working out at about £2 each. I usually send my up husband to the local DIY store to buy them, but when I have been to get them they are difficult to find as there are so many bulbs which look very similar but are slightly different. I always take the old bulb with me to compare with the ones in the shop.
I am going to give these bulbs 3 stars, loosing two stars. They aren't long life, as they say they are on the packaging. Otherwise, the light which they give is very nice and bright without being glaring.
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Philips Master ES 93036 30W 36G
by Coffeetiere
I thought these post modern, halogen, low energy light bulbs were supposed to be very long lasting. According to the packet the Philips bulb should last 5000 hours, which at 5 hours a day for 365 days a year it should last at least 2 and a 1/2 years. I am sure my bathroom lights are not on for 5 hours a day and I doubt even that my ... lounge lights are on this long either as an average across the year. Therefore I don't think they last as long as they say on the packet.
I usually buy these bulbs from a local DIY type store, where they cost around £5 each. So, they are not cheap. I thought these new halogen bulbs were supposed to be super efficient compared to the old incandescent bulbs, I can't really comment on the use of energy, but from a point of view of buying them I am sure it works out more expensive. Life was so simple with those old fashioned bulbs, when one only had to worry about whether it was a bayonet fitting and the wattage.
We live in a new flat so all our lights were fitted as the new "super-efficient" type. I have struggled to get bulbs for some of the light fittings, these halogen lights were some of the easier ones to find. When one goes to the shop there are masses of these bulbs, all which lo pretty much the same, but aren't. I need the type which has a two-pin plug (fitting GU) as a fitting and they also need to be 12volt. I always take one of the old bulbs with me to the shop for comparison. The bulbs when we moved in were 35 watt, so I never go over a 35 wattage and end up having to get what ever wattage I can, usually it's 30. To make things even more complicated you can even but these bulbs according to beam angle! The beam angle of these is 26 degrees, not that I take any notice of this when buying them, that's just way to complicated for a mear lightbulb!
When you take the bulb from the package you can see why it was £5 to buy. These things bulbs are ultra-modern looking, a bit like a huge diamond! They are about 5cm in diameter, so not big compared to an old fashioned bulb. They are made out of a hard plastic, which I suppose one good thing about them so if you drop it they don't smash. They are sparkly looking with a sort of silver sheen to them.
The light bulbs are of a medium difficultly to get into their wall fitting. These bulbs are all for spot lights in my flat, so on the ceiling. I usually get my husband to deal with dud bulbs, but on the old occasion I have tried I have been balancing on a chair, resign up to the ceiling trying to slime the two small pins to the two holes in the fitting.
On first use the new bulb usually glows whiter than the old bulb for the first few hours of use, and then transforms to more of a creamy colour, so it matches in with the other bulbs. 30 watt is plenty bright enough for one spotlight and the ray it gives is clean and bright.
How would I rate them?
Well, I am clearly not a fan of the modern bulb...so, looking at each function I give ratings as follows:
Cost: £5 is expensive and I have 10 of this sort of spot light in my flat, I give it 3/5
Light it gives: the colour and brightness is very good and a major plus to this type of bulb, 5/5
Life: disappointing, at £5 I expect them to last a bit longer 3/5
Altogether, I guess that works out at 11/25, around 73 percent. I will therefore mark them down to 3/5 stars.
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Osram Halopar 16 35W 230V GU10
by trayrope
A couple of years ago I decided to modernise a lot of the light fittings in our house. I really wanted some of the halogen light type fittings. The ones where there are three or four separate bulbs on a bar that you can direct to different areas of the room for a more focused lighting effect. Mr H promptly followed my wishes and as we ... decorated each bedroom the old fashioned pendant fitting came down and up went a stainless steel swirl with four bulbs attached.
Little did I know the strain that was soon to come on my home maintenance budget. I already have a box with small bayonet, large bayonet, small screw in, large screw in, candle bulbs, golf ball bulbs and energy bulbs so I added a couple of spare 30w GU10 Osram bulbs to my collection in the happy belief that I would get the promised average of 2000 hours out of my bulbs and would need to replace bulbs less than I already do.
The light cast from the bulbs is very good and strong, maybe to strong for bedroom lighting as no one wants all those crinkles and wrinkles lighting up in all there glory everytime the light is turned on, but for the kitchen they were great for shining a bright spot of light on to each of my work surfaces. Within a few weeks I spotted that a bulb had gone, so I climbed up and removed the old bulb and easily slotted a new one into place by lining up the notches in the socket with the pegs on the bulb and then twisting it in the right direction to lock it. Sorted.
Unfortunately this was to become such a regular occurrence in all three light fittings that I had an electrician out to check the wiring for possible fluctuations that would cause my bulbs to keep popping, most of them quietly but occasionally with a spectacular bang that would flip the circuit breaker on my fuse box. The electrician declared my wiring safe and off he went.
Eventually I got fed up of spending £2-3 on each light bulb (available from amazon and pretty much every DIY store and supermarket); I was buying a couple each week at one point and still had bulbs missing from my light fittings. I am now looking to replace my light fittings with the boring old pendant fittings again with nice energy bulbs and pretty shades. My venture into modern lighting did not go well and proved to be quite an expensive venture.
I would not recommend the Osram GU10 bulbs as they have an alarming tendency to just stop working, I am now using some super cheap pound shop bulbs and my problem seems to be over.
Thank you for reading.
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