Specialist light bulb fittings stole my energy saving choice

3-pin (BC3) bulbs have been around for decades and can easily be obtained in Incandescent versions – in fact the irony is that they are easier to buy in Incandescent versions than ordinary BC incandescent bulbs.

BC3’s were usually used in things like shop display light fittings (often in a Reflector lamp (eg R80) or in a Crown Silvered lamp) or in very high wattage fittings (e.g. school classrooms, factories). They are still readily available for such purposes because the [crazy] move to so-called energy saving lamps doesn’t fully apply to places like shops and pubs where there are ‘commercial interests’ (i.e. profit) to be concerned about.

If you want to use incandescent lamps in your new house, chances are that you can easily buy them, albeit at an over-inflated price, from your local shop fitting company or from an electrical wholesaler in your area. That said, 3-pin CFL’s are usually priced at a premium compared to ‘ordinary’ CFL’s, so the purchase price may not be significantly different if you buy Incandescents.

Alternatively, change the fittings. A decent sparky (and I’m one, though no longer working as such) won’t charge you very much to swap the lamp holders over at all and in fact, the wiring regulations don’t prevent anyone **who is competent** and who feels confident in what they are doing, from changing light fittings at all. After all, if you went to your local department store and saw a nice new light fitting that you wanted in your lounge, it is expected that you’ll either get a sparky in and not have to pay as much as the fitting was worth to fit it, or that you will be able to follow the instructions to do it yourself. It’s only if you actually change the fixed wiring or are doing the work in a kitchen, bathroom or other “special location” (such as outside) that you would need to be wary of the wiring regs and make sure you got a certified person in.

Thanks for the warning – Though I’m unlikely to move into a new build. It is easy enough to re-wire a light socket – I also used to be a “sparky”.

Good to know this is an old standard. And judging from the comments only sparky’s like the variety of lamps.

I happen to feel competent to do sparky’s work in my house (even though I believe I am not expected to if in bathrooms or kitchens), but I agree with Jo, moving to low energy should not be an excuse to create a profusion of standards that make sourcing bulbs difficult and as a result expensive. It used to be the case that anyone would be able to change a light bulb but it is becoming a complicated task…

And don’t get me started on the 12V halogen’s and led’s that need special transformers…

I am old enough to remember going with my father to the electricity showroom, handing over a dud lightbulb, and getting a replacement free of charge! Lightbulbs were so cheap they could give them away and they were actually in the business of selling electricity. For most of my life, lighting has been such a straightforward matter with standardised, cheap, efficient, lamps that were readily interchangeable. In recent years it has become a real pain with non-interchangeable caps, bulb shapes that do not conform to fittings, an impenetrable choice [or chioce if you prefer – see the headline] of output per watt, and incredible [and unpredictable] variations in illumination performance. Keeping spare bulbs is now extremely expensive but still necessary because local retailers only stock a limited range.

I have not met BC3 3-pin CFLs but if I did I would change to good old-fashioned bayonet fittings. It’s good to read that Jo passed on her unwanted lamps, rather than put them in the bin.

Many people were given ‘free’ CFLs by their energy company without any thought about whether the caps would match the fittings. I suggest that these are given to friends or given away via Freecycle, etc.

Shop around and branded CFLs can sometimes be bought at bargain prices. I have at least six Philips lamps that cost 10p each, a couple of years ago. I have not needed them yet because it is several years since I had a CFL fail.

I moved into a new build, and yes was faced with the same problem. In my case just the hallway lights around the house had the 3 pin sockets. It cost me from memory about £30 for an electrician to change them all to Bayonet fittings.

One of the reasons was the price difference in the bulbs versus energy saving bayonets (at least £2 extra for a 3 pin at the time) Secondly the 3 pin bulbs would suddenly stop working, and the electrician explained due to wear and tear the sockets were more likely to create faults with the connections. From memory he said it was because the they depended on 3 pins making connections, and due to manufacturing mistakes they didn’t always touch the connections!

So price and potential headaches was the reason I got rid of all them.

Given the passing of the incandescent light bulb I’m surprised that the use of 3 pin sockets has to be legislated for. My first thoughts are that 3 pin lights are probably more expensive than 2 pin (do any supermarkets stock them) and pose the question as to how many LED based lights (i.e. 230v equivalents) are actually manufactured in a 3 pin form? LED’s seem to be the fastest progressing form of Low energy lighting and could completely surpass CFL fixtures (in terms of energy saving and compactness of form) in very little time. In truth it feels that this legislation is already out of date and pointless with its only residual effects being the unnecessary addition of extra costs to householders and builders. To solve the problem it’s probably simplest to change the fittings to something sensible, but would that come under part P legislation?

We had a similar situation. The BCO insisted we install one of these BC3 fittings DESPITE the house as it was using only low energy bulbs and the spec for the extension requiring LED bulbs.

Needless to say, once the house was signed off, I swapped the fitting for a conventional one.

The LED myth 🙁

LEDs are not more efficient than CFLs! They both produce light using the same phosphor technology, thus a breakthrough in phosphor technology would apply equally to both.

LEDs should last longer and are much more flexible but don’t expect to improve efficiency by exchanging CFLs with LEDs

GU10, MR16, SES, ES, BC, E17, E27, B15, GX53, PL? How about some T4s? T5s?

Okay, I know what your getting at, but there is no ‘standard’ fitting, it’s just that the BC has been the most used for quite a while for many rooms.

Or to use our house as an example:
BC – 13
ES – 15
GU10 – 6
MR16 – 4

What I also find as confusing as the others, though, is that this little bit of Part L is odd when taking the legislation ending the general sale of Tungsten Filament bulbs into account: there won’t be any of those bulbs left soon anyway!

Good luck with finding a replacement, but you may need an Electrician or friend to change them to something you like better, like any other fitting. And don’t worry about the LED ones on green grounds; they’re about as hungry as CFLs, just a lot quicker.

I live in ‘affordable housing’. Yet my neighbours who live in the ‘private’ section of the development have standard light fittings whereas I have BC3s. If I want to replace my dud bulbs I have to order them online, taking a huge risk that they will arrive damaged, and paying on average 6 times the price of a standard 2-pin bulb. The tendency for people, I imagine, is to buy them only when needed, given the price, and not to keep a spare. Not a huge problem for me (although big enough) but for the elderly single-occupants in ‘affordable housing’ this poses a risk to their safety. I have taken a bulb out of a cupboard to put in the bedroom, and now taken one out of the hallway to replace the one in the living room. In the hallway I have an old plug-in lamp with an incandescent bulb in! Ludicrous.

Councils are forcing these new fitting and only one spare bulb when they do compulsery rewiring in social and elderly tenants supported housing. Our Council is also removing long flourescent tube lights from bathrooms and kitchens while rewiring and replacing them with circular frosted glass fittings with these slow start energy savers.

I know of at least 10 of the supported tenants that have had to have these replaced with another long flourescent tube because they couldn’t see to work in their kitchens as they mostly have very poor sight. In the bathrooms they could not see water on the floor so there was a slip hazard – these had to be changed for circular sealed clear glass flourescents.

Too many decisions are being taken by men in offices without taking into account the elderly and sight inpaired that are stuck with these hazards waiting to happen.