Low Energy Lightbulbs

Further to the Devil’s Kitchen’s comments on the low energy lightbulb scam, I notice another concern being raised.

Energy-saving light bulbs could trigger migraines, say campaigners.

The Migraine Action Association says members have told them how fluorescent bulbs have led to attacks.

Oh, great. I’m not sure how much research the Migraine Association has done into this, but frankly, this rings true:

These bulbs do trigger migraines for some of our members – it’s either the flickering, or the low intensity of the light, causing eye strain.

As a migraine sufferer, eye strain is one of my triggers – and, having tried these bulbs, I can confirm that they are crap (technical term for less than ideal). Indeed, having tried them we switched back pretty sharpish to incandescent bulbs so that we could get some decent light to read by.

We would ask the government to avoid banning them completely, and still leave some opportunity for conventional bulbs to be purchased.

As DK points out:

The government has nothing to do with it: the EU is banning incandescent lightbulbs from the beginning of 2009 anyway.

Which is why Mrs Longrider is busy buying up incandescent lightbulbs like they are going out of fashion… Which they are.

5 Comments

  1. The flicker of the new Energy-saving light bulbs would make them dangerous near rotating machinery, depending on the speed of the rotating part and the number of ‘spokes’, the part can appear to be stationary.

  2. If the frequency was the same, then yes, indeed. I can’t say that I was particularly aware of the flicker, just the piss-poor light quality.

Comments are closed.