I have a house that’s full of traditional filament light bulbs (GLSs), with more spares in the garage.
Am I supposed to still be using them? I remember hearing years ago they were being phased out for eco-friendly bulbs (CFLs), but this doesn’t seem to have happened.
I see many of the bulbs for sale are LEDs. Do I have to replace my old-fashioned ones?
No, you don’t have to, but you should when you can. The GLS bulbs are being phased out, but it appears to be a slow process. Already the Australians have got rid of theirs. The problem is the old bulbs use a wasteful amount of energy. About 90% of their power goes into producing heat and just 10% light, so you will do yourself a favour to switch to either CFLs or LEDs.
Eco-friendly bulbs give out the same amount of light, with just 20% of the power. LEDs appear to be where we’re headed, but many are still expensive at the moment.
I’d just replace your old bulbs with CFLs as they blow. Some in the trade think the changeover to CFLs wasn’t a quick process, because they were rushed onto the market and had too many teething problems, but most of these issues have been resolved, and they cost pretty much the same as filament-type bulbs.
There is concern among some that unless New Zealand phases out the old filament bulbs their price will begin to soar, because overseas production lines are closing down, but I don’t think the price is going up yet.
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