Trying to find a good lamp for this dungeon

Hello!
Since moving over I've noticed that the lighting inside houses are very poor. Well, what I consider poor anyway - I find that I usually have to strain my eyes to read or do anything detailed.

So I tried looking online for at least a 60w or preferably a 100watt bulb and lamp. It seems these are banned or no longer in production here.  I went to Tesco to check out what wattage is commonplace here and I am now really confused.  There were tons of bulbs in different shapes or sizes, but none that really seemed to be a standard bulb  like the round iconic one in the US.  Already it seems like if you buy a lamp you can't just buy a standard bulb to go in it - it needs to be a certain size and based on that size will determine what wattage you can have?  The range of wattage I saw was from 5w to 40 or 50 watts.  This is a bit low to me.

I also saw bulbs that looked like the new energy saving ones in the US but apparently the "wattage" on them is calculated differently? Like 20w's on that bulb maybe 40watts? Is that correct?

Sorry for the rambling. I'm just tired of sitting in a dungeon trying to read or paint. (I take the painted things outside when the sun shines and see the terrible mistakes I make because I simply cannot see well!!) Can anyone suggest a lamp - perhaps a torch lamp (prefer not a desk lamp - I'd like the whole room illuminated) that is near or equivalent to 100 US watts? Any info on how to figure out the wattage on these energy saving? (I'm guessing based on appearance) in comparison to regular bulbs?

Thanks!

Hi,

All bulbs sold in the UK are now the energy-saving type, which you call the 'new' type you have seen in the US.  The explanation for this can be found here:

http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/In-your-home/Lighting/Energy-saving-light-bulbs-take-over

They can seem quite dim as they take a while to warm up.  Most of the bulbs will show the old style wattage equivalent on the packet, even though they use less wattage, e.g. an energy saving bulb will use 5 watts of power to produce the equivalent light of a 25 watt incandescent bulb (old style bulb).  But even with this claimed equivalency they can seem a little dimmer, I agree.  How about this daylight bulb, it says is produces 150W equivalent:



There seem to be a few to choose from on Amazon, so shop around and read the reviews.  Hope you can find something bright enough!

Sorry, the links have gone funny, but just click the text!

You are awesome! Thank you so much! As well, perhaps brighter lighting will help some of these down days that I have

Also, especially if you do artwork/crafting, check for specialist lighting.  I know there's a range called OttLight that give bright 'daylight,' and have the advantage of being very adjustable/positionable.  Some even have built-in magnifiers, for folks doing detail work.

If possible, could try moving to LED lights.. More expensive, but use way, way, way, less energy and much much brighter than energy saving bulbs.