Kay Town

Andrew Kay is shown a bright idea and is now dealing with his blooming bulbs

Click! Pop! The chorus that peppers my life. Click! Pop! I flick on a light switch click and pop, the bulb blows. It’s no laughing matter when you live in a basement in a country where sunlight hours seem to be rapidly dwindling. It’s hard to imagine that our city by the sea was chosen as the UK’s Hollywood because of its sunlight record. Ha!
I have of course, where possible fitted long life low energy bulbs, you know the ones, switch ‘em on and ta-daa instant gloom. How can a lightbulb create such a sense of dimness and despair?

It’s made even harder by my need to light our collection of pictures, most of which I have pinpointed with halogen. But they’re much the same – click! pop! – and they are a whole lot more expensive when they go.

But now I have seen the light, I have been sent some new bulbs. They arrived in the post claiming this; ‘The MiniSun GU10 3w bulb is the next generation of LED lighting to help homeowners reduce their energy output while, at the same time, providing better quality lighting’.

Well I was as sceptical as ever so I decided to run a trial. I chose two similar paintings side by side, already lit with halogen bulbs. I turned them off, took one bulb out and replaced it with a MiniSun. Then click, a flood of brilliant pure white light. By pure I mean clean light with no yellow tinge, unlike the halogen beside it which now looked like a paraffin lamp in comparison.

“For once my twighlight world has at least the effect of daylight”

Needless to say I was impressed. The pictures are brighter, the effect is instant and the best news is, that they claim that ‘MiniSun light bulbs will pay for themselves in just over a year (assuming 1000 hours use per annum and 15p cost per KWH).

The bulbs are twice as bright as competitors and make use of Surface Mounted Diodes (SMD) technology – the latest thing in LED bulbs’ – that’s their science bit, not mine. Each bulb has a life span of 30,000 hours and they come with a one year guarantee against faulty manufacture too. All good I think. And I hope and pray that they do last because for once, my twighlight world has at least the effect of daylight, my pictures glow and it all happens with the flick of a switch. I plan to replace halogen one by one as they blow, and why not, current EU proposals will see halogen bulbs banned from sale in shops from next year. So its out with the old and on with the new for me.

The MiniSun GU10 3w bulb is available online from www.valuelights.co.uk