BLINDED BY THE LIGHT [531]

Ten years and counting...

I remember writing “16/02/2016” on the box of a spare lightbulb, having just screwed the other two into the light fixture in my bedroom. 

These were the first “energy-saving” bulbs I had bought, having decided that even their cost, at £15 for three, will be cheaper in the long run, over incandescent bulbs that wouldn’t survive the year. I was also making the switch from “warm white” to “cool white” light bulbs, reasoning that simulated daylight has its benefits – I don’t have any form of seasonal affective disorder, as far as I know, but I am not comfortable in gloominess or darkness either.

I figured these will last for a few years – they were rated to last for sixteen thousand hours, or 1.8 continuous years, so figured that, when I need to replace them, bulbs like them will be easier to find than ordering them online. Having now entered March 2026, I am still waiting for both moments come to pass.

What I bought were “corn cob” bulbs, cylinders lined with white LEDs in their most common form, squares of yellow phosphor covering a blue diode. They remain surprisingly effective, a level of light that makes people wonder if I ever sleep – they are not dimmable, but each bulb uses only twelve watts of power per hour – but I always thought warm white was too akin to candlelight, and what I wanted was brightness. 

Admittedly, the bulbs are bright enough that I only need to use two of the fittings in my light fixture, but that level of cool white light, and the fixture’s ability to swivel around, act as an effective fill light when I have made videos for YouTube. Later, a petrol station nearby would replace their sign displaying their prices with one using the same LEDs, legible from a great distance, but I remain undeterred.

I have again started to think about getting replacement light bulbs, but only because I have entered uncharted territory – after ten years, they really could stop working at any time, and I know having only one working bulb does not produce enough light for the room, and produces too many shadows, so I need to be ready. I have considered buying smart bulbs, using an app on my phone to select warm white light if I wish, or other colours entirely, but they do not produce enough overall light – I would need at least three of them, each one costing as much as the original pack of three bulbs did. Supermarkets, the place most people would buy their bulbs, also sell only the most popular bulbs, i.e. warm white only, but even DIY stores don’t routinely sell cool white bulbs that produce enough light for me – it makes me wonder if my long-lasting bulbs are illegal in some way.

So, what I need is a plan: do I find a like-for-like replacement for my long-lasting bulbs, or do I find other ways of solving the same problems they solved? Shall I get separate key and fill lights for when I return to making videos, and get less powerful bulbs for the room? Any which way, I won’t be living in darkness.