Try also the Natural Collection website (http://www.naturalcollection.com/) which offer various different wattages with various different fittings, including the 'small screw' type.

These are the larger size of screw. Some of the small screw type ones would have gone inside the fitting easily -- what I couldn't find was the larger size of screw-cap on the end of a bulb that wasn't about seven inches long and four across. Until now.

Your unwholesome-minded friends are all hoping you find a suitable screw.

They do some of those too. But you're obviously sorted for now, and thus for a while!

I have problems with the colour spectrum of energy saving bulbs, I really don't like the light they give, the colour and tone of light is frightfuly important to me.

I only ever have one up lighter in the lounge on, if I go to the kitchen or loo or upstairs, I always switch the light off after myself, there's only me, why would I leave a light on in a room I wasn't using?

FF

Agreed. The 50 Hz flicker is also noticeable to me, and can cause irritation. Especially in the darker months of the year when there's a lack of natural light.

They need to invent a phosphor that counter-acts the flicker, and gives a natural spectrum. Should be possible, I'd have thought.

hmm http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/browse_category.asp?Mode=pg&CatID=13 looks pretty good. They even do coloured.

Is the 50Hz flicker due to the household power source? Would having lots of bulbs help reduce the flicker? I dont notice it myself.

Yes.

AC electricity alternates between positively charged and negatively charged 50 times (60 in North America and some other parts of the world) a second, meaning that the power supplied to the build alternates between full power to zero power then back again at the same rate. In an incandescent light bulb, the energy in the filament is retained for a short while after the current is removed - for longer than a fiftieth of a second - so the effect is almost completely unnoticeable. Whilst the phosphor - the white stuff on the inside coating of fluorescent lights that omits the visible light - also retains some of its energy after the bombardment of UV photons cease, it tends to do so to a lesser extent and for a shorter period of time than in a filament, making flicker more noticeable.

Older fluorescent lights, in particular fluorescent tubes, suffer from this more as the phosphor used isn't as well suited, but I still find it a problem with such light bulbs today, as I sometimes (though not always) can notice the flicker. The type of phosphor also dictates what range of colours are emitted, and I think there is still some way to go before fluorescent lighting becomes as good as filament bulbs, though progress has certainly been made.

Another big disadvantage of fluorescent lighting is that it still doesn't work with dimmer switches.

You can get daylight spectrum energy-saving bulbs now - just keep an eye out for them. _jamez_ just posted a link, but you'll need to look at the whole thread to see it.

I deliberately chose a daylight-spectrum one for my lounge as I do embroidery there.

I saw a bit of the film "Lust for Life" yesterday in which Vincent Van Gogh complains to (I think) Seurat that he shouldnt be painting inside because he couldnt get the colours right. Seurat explains that he keeps his palette of paint in spectrum order so he doesnt need to :-)

"I've found screw-in energy saving bulbs which are of a comparable physical size to the existing filament bulbs, and I've just this second fitted them."

Hurrah! Good boy!

I have the same problem. I think I have actually broken two energy saving light bulbs whilst trying to fit them in my bathroom. I dont bother now and stick with incandescent bulbs there.

Pretty much the rest of the house is energy saving though.