The lights go out at Woolworths, at least they lasted longer than my Energy Saving GU10 spotlights!

Watching Woollies disappear from our high streets was a sad reflection of the times, but I must admit to joining in the free-for-all crush in the run-up to Christmas, searching for bargains. I was checking out their discounted energy saving light bulbs, as a couple of our halogen spots had blown, unfortunately they didn’t stock these anyway.

Over the years, we’ve been changing all our energy hungry halogen spotlights in our office as they’ve blown, replacing them with super energy efficient ones, which use only 9w compared to 40w of the halogens. In comparison to normal bulbs these are very expensive but should last between 10000 to 15000hrs (that’s nearly 7 years, at 6hrs a day) great, no more changing bulbs! The only problem is we are experiencing is lots of failures, with the bulbs only lasting the same as the original halogens and in some cases less! We’ve even started trying some LED versions, which should last 25 years! However, one of these started going on the blink this week. Is anyone else out there experiencing the same problems? If so, please make contact so we can compare how long these bulbs are actually lasting.

Finally; One of my pals has just bought a 42″ plasma for 50 quid.

I asked why it was so cheap and he told me it’s because the volume button doesn’t work, but at that price he could’t turn it down!