We will be back online in the next week or so, due to ‘family reasons’ we have been out of the loop for a while. Without going in to detail on local issues we have this conundrum from a reader. ‘We are constantly told to use ‘energy saving light bulbs’ to reduce our carbon footprint. ‘They last up to 10 years and use a fraction of the energy’ we are told. I had standard bulbs on my landing and bathroom for 10 years. Those bulbs had lasted 10 years each up until about a year ago. Since I replaced them with the new type bulbs, each has been replaced twice!! So the cost of manufacture in carbon terms is around 4x the standard bulb has caused over 1 year, hence 80x’s as much over the 10 years of a standard bulb just in manufacture. On top of that the old ‘global disaster’ bulbs were switched on for the time it took me to go upstairs, do what I needed to do then switched off. NOW, these lights are switched on and left on all evening as they take so long to get a decent amount of light out to see what you are doing!! Hence, despite the claimed long life of these bulbs, they in fact last a fraction of a normal bulb at a higher carbon creation and also use MORE energy as they are left on much longer due to the poor performance and the fact they are left on much longer. So where a normal 60w bulb would be on 15 mins a night the equivalent ‘low energy bulb’ is on several hours and on average uses 6x more power by being on for no reason!!! Hoe stupid are the people that make these laws?!?’