Commercial Lamp Supplies News

The humble fluorescent tube has lit many an office or kitchen for years

Most people dont even notice them unless they flicker or go out! We obviously notice them everywhere we go…. but then lighting is all we do so we do have an excuse….

There are three basic types of fluorescent tubes (ok, there are quite a few really but these are the three main ones) the original tube was called a T12 and is 40.5mm in diameter, they were replaced by the T8 tube which is more efficient and is only 28mm in diameter. Now the latest development with fluorescent tubes is the T5 tube which is a only 16mm in diameter!

There is a tiny little fluorescent tube called a T2 which is ridiculously thin at only 7mm in diameter - but these are very uncommon as the idea never really took off - probably because of practical reasons

The T5 fluo tube is the most efficient tube you can get at the moment and is the only simple way to improve efficency in a office that currently uses T8 tubes.

We have a lovely convertor kit that will allow you to change your existing T8 fittings to run T5 tubes here

or we now list T5 battens here

T5 tubes have several advantages:

They are all triphosphor so have great colour rendering - ie colours look as they should and are less distorted
Their rated life is massive at 20,000 hours (12hrs a day for 4.5 years!)
They maintain their lumen output over their life - ie they dont dim so much as they age - unlike older type tubes
They run on High frequency ballasts which basically means they dont flicker as much (wire wound ballasts make the tubes run at a frequency of around 60Hz while with high frequency ballasts it is around 11000Hz)

They are made a tad more complicated because they are also available in two types, one is called High Efficiency or HE and the other is called High Output or HO.

The High Efficiency Tube is (mysteriously) as energy efficient as possible and the High Output tube is designed to have maximum light output for the wattage/length. It depends on the application as to which tube would suit you best for example if you want to cut your energy bill you would go for the HE tube

Will they make fluorescent tubes any narrower? We hope not!

It can be tricky to find people who know about discharge lighting and street lighting. Although we no longer do contract work we do have a fair amount of experience with industrial lighting and would like to think we are quite knowledgable about various control gear and lighting ballasts.

So if you are having trouble with your Son (sodium) light or would like to change your orange Son light to white light give us a call as we may be able to help. If we dont have an answer right away we will always try and find out for you.

We can also supply control gear for metal halide and mercury bulbs as well as bits and pieces such as lampholders or spare for fittings (we keep parts of damaged fittings so we may have a glass cover for example that would fit your light fitting)

We can get hold of some SOX ballasts and control gear. It is becoming increasingly hard to source sox kit as it is slowly becoming obsolete. If we cant replace the gear you have we can still advise on the options to get lit up again!

Of course there are new low energy alternatives coming on the market now too and we will be adding these as we test them out

So give us a call on 01822 860 110 or click the contact tab at the top of the page if you are stuck and we will try our best to help

If you already know what you need you can find control gear here

We know how hard it is to find a lamp changing pole when you need one as it took us a long time to source a quality product. The pole that we supply is definately a good product and is very well designed and made

The pole itself is fibreglass and is collapsable so it can be easily stored and transported. The sections are individually lockable so you can alter the length (or height) of the pole to suit your needs. We supply it with a head that will change most common metal halide sodium (SON) or Mercury bulbs found in industrial fittings. There is also a wide range of other heads available if you have a reflector shape lamp or a very high wattage bulb - we can supply these if required

Although the Lamp Changer Pole is not a cheap item it is very good quality and will actually work - if you consider the cost and hassle of hiring a Cherry Picker the lamp change pole will very soon pay for itself

If you would like to know more about the lamp changing pole please get in touch with us or you can find it on the website here

Well if you do we have a great new product by Bell Lighting!

Basically it is a clever way to allow you to have your pearl light bulbs for the forseeable future. What the clever people at Bell have come up with is what they call a G9 Adapter Range. The G9 bit is the name of the bulb doing the lighting up (also known as a halopin) and the adapter bit is, well, the adapter that allows it to work as a conventional style bulb!

What you do is you buy the adapter base (which comes with a bulb) and then you choose which cover you would like. There are several different covers available including a candle shape, a golfball shape and a bohemian / candelux / coup de vent candle style (the one with the bent tip). All of these are available in clear and opal and the bent tip candle is also available with an amber tip.

So you have your base (which is available in all the common sizes of Bayonet, Screw, Small Bayonet and Small Screw), bulb and you have your cover. Now you just screw the cover onto the base with the bulb in it and voila you have an opal candle, golfball or bohemian candle! Of course if you dont want a cover you can just use the base and bulb on their own - its up to you

You fit the adapter like any normal lamp and then ignore it until it goes out (hopefully after a long time as the bulb that comes with it has a rated life of 4000 hours or approximately one year if you burn it 12 hours a day - which you probably dont) when it does go out you simply unscrew the cover, pull out the dead bulb, put another bulb in and refit the cover! It means much less waste to go in the bin as you are literally only replacing the bit that lights up.

The other great thing about these adapters is that you can get a bit of energy saving too. The 40 watt Halopin gives an equivalent light output to a 60 watt regular bulb and the 25 watt gives an equivalent output of a 40 watt regular bulb. Its not the hugest amount of saving but if you have a few of these bulbs in your house it will add up

And if you like your dimmer switches then you will be pleased to hear that they work with them too!

If you cant wait to try one they are here on the website:

G9 Adapter Base

G9 Adapter Covers

We stocked up on opal candle bulbs as the new EU regulations came into force banning their import or manufacture but we are now running low on some types (It also applies to 100 watt and pearl bulbs, although we still have good stocks of these)

The last of the 40 watt small bayonet opal candle bulbs went out the door today with a very pleasant local customer who came in to get some bulbs (and talked to our dogs of course!)

We still have a fair range of opal candle bulbs on the shelf and if we dont list the one you want do have a check in the triple life section as we also stocked up on them

There are some interesting alternatives to opal bulbs appearing on the scene. We have seen ones recently that involve a capsule bulb that sits in the appropriate base (such as a bayonet or small screw base) and can be covered with all sorts of style glass cover! We will evaluate them and put them on the website if we think they will work - in the meantime if you would like to try some then please get in touch!

Ordinary Candle Bulb

Triple Life Candle Bulb

We are almost ready to launch our new website which has been quite a while in the making!

It is much more clever than this one with added features such as the ability to enlarge pictures by clicking on them and customer reviews for products. You will also be able to create an account with a password so you can log back in and have all your details already to hand (although you dont have to do this)

We will also be getting on the social network train with facebook and of course twitter

There will also be more products and hopefully you will find the new format nice and easy to use

We often get asked for a simple lamp holder for linear quartz heat lamps and now we finally can say that we have one!

This will take a 216mm 500 watt Quartz Linear Infrared heatlamp with ceramic ends.

Its a very simple holder with a polished reflector that will point the heat in the right direction. It has two screw threads on the back so it can be mounted into your existing fitting

All in all a very useful thing!

Quartz Heat Lamp Holder