What is the best type of light bulb to use?

Question

What is the best type of light bulb to use?

Answer 1

GE are the best to use.

Answer 2

It would REALLY help if you said a bit more - like - what for? Are you lighting a large room, over your bed for reading, or lighting an olympic stadium?

Assuming a smallish area, the latest LEDS are quite stunning. Huge progress has been made and even a 1W LED casts a goodish light for a small area. I suspect soon that whole houses will use them. They come in all types of colors, viewing angles, etc. Plus, they can run on battery in event of power failure.

Many are used as automotive bulbs as they have plenty of light to cut through mist, dust and drizzle. Plus their life expectancy is almost always longer than the item they are used in (typically about 50,000 hours and I have seen some rated at over 100,000 hours).

They are also highly efficient (a conventional tungsten bulb is about 4% efficient, meaning a 100W bulb only gives 4W light and 96W of heat- roughly).The larger LEDs do give off some heat and in fact need heatsinking, but are very efficient nonetheless.

I have just got a 5W LED and it is blinding to look at. It was for a reading lamp, but casts too much light. I am going to try 2 x 10mm 1W LEDs which draw 350m/A each.

So, with the angstroms worth of info you give, I'll say LEDs, based on the assumptions I have outlined.