Ceiling Fan Light Has Terrible Light Output
General Technical Stuff July 5th, 2009Help!
I recently replaced my traditional ceiling light with a ceiling fan that has a light in it. I purchased the fan from Bunnings and had an electrician install it. The name of the fan is Brilliant Contempo Eco, and unfortunately I didnt read the packaging closely enough to realise that the light in the fan is a 16W T4 Circular Fluorescent light. This has got to be the ugliest light on the face of the planet. Instead of behaving like I would expect a ceiling light to behave - that is, lighting the room with nice bright warm light, this light bathes the room in a dim blue light, which doesnt give enough light to be able to see anything, and succeeds only in making us all look like corpses.
So my question is - is there a way of changing the light without replacing the whole fan? I am hoping that: 1. there is another type of globe that fits my fan which gives a brighter and warmer light, or 2: I can get some kind of adaptor that will allow me to use halogen or regular light globes in my fan, or 3: I can get an electrician to do some minor work to change the type of globe that my fan takes. What do you reckon?
Thanks so much
Elle Z
July 5th, 2009 at 10:59 am
Hi There
This is not what you want o hear but I think you have bought a lemon
We dont even offer a T4 circular tube in any colour or brightness. My bet is that these fans have come into Australia with a one-off globe that is going to be difficult to replace down the track
Your best bet would be to go back to Bunnings and see what they have on offer as far as replacement tubes. My bet is that it is going to be very hard to find and I would be telling Bunnings to do a refund
In any case you sound like you have a daylight tube. The colour would be really white (almost blue - 5000K-6500K)
If they do have others available it sounds like you are after warm colour (2700K-3000K)
It wont be any brighter but the colour will be better
There is no legal way of modify that fan. Your electrician may offer to bodge something for you maybe?
If you get your money back we have some ceiling fans that are pretty well priced with a halogen light
Good Luck
Kind regards
Daniel
July 14th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Hello,
I bought similar fans late last year and have been unable to find lamps anywhere. I didn’t buy the fans from Bunnings but tried to get lamps there as I saw they sold the fans - the response - we often have things we don’t stock parts for. Good luck with your search - I am going back to the shop I bought them from to try for a complete refund and electrician to replace the fans. If not consumer watchdogs here I come!
Cheers, Craig
July 17th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
I too have got one of these fans and found everything to be quite high quality for the price….. Until I turned on the light. Totally useless. We were better off with the 12volt downlight. Please let me know if anyone has any luck with brighter replacement tubes. I will certainly be taking it back to Bunnings. They can stick it where the sun doesn’t shine.Dave.
August 22nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
I went back to lighting Illusions where i got the fans from I have now got warm white circular T4 (2700k) lamps 16w=75w and they are great. We compared an old bulb v new bulb in different rooms and the difference is incredible - no longer do the rooms look like a morgue.
there are two websites on the box www.brilliantlighting.com.au and www.blinklighting.com. Bulbs were $12 each. If you liked the fans I woudl recommend trying a warm white bulb before talking them back.
Craig
August 29th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Has anyone had any luck getting a refund from Bunnings? We bought one too and still have the receipt but the fan has been installed. It is ridiculously ineffective as a room light!
October 12th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I think we need to start a club , i have also been stung with this little product from bunnings. I can handle the light as i have down lights as well but what is driving me crazy is a very faint ticking or pulsing sound that it outs out even when its off. Its the kind of sound that drives you crazy at 3am.
Has anyone else had this issue?
any help would be great
Dallas
November 8th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
OMG i cant believe I am reading this, at least you all actually saw a light!!!! $400 to install the damn thing and the blub didn’t work…..and yes like you all Bunnings is totally useless and I can’t get any joy anywere finding a blub. Bunnings response is that they have not had any stock for 3 months !!!! yet they continue to sell these fans. Nothing like standing behind your product is there.
Surely with their purchasing power they could get a decent response from this “Brillent - far from it” crowd.
Chris
November 16th, 2009 at 9:52 am
I just bought one on the weekend - worst mistake ever! Apart from the revolting blue light (made me feel like I was in a nightclub), the constant ticking kept me awake for hours. Not sure if it was to do with the gas cooling or something? I am now going to have to pay someone to take it down so I can return it to Bunnings.
November 21st, 2009 at 4:23 pm
We bought one of these in July and the ballast (sp?) went in it last month (ie it blew the light and then the light would not work at all). Our electrician said he put in 4 at another house and all 4 went within weeks of installing. The supplier (Brilliant) were as their name suggests BRILLIANT when I called them Firstly when we called them about the blue fluoro, they sent us out 2 x warm white ones at no charge and then when the light in the fan went completely they replaced the fan with a “contemp II” which has 2 x energy saving bulb lights (the ones that can be readily purchased through any store), the fan is now fantastic (but I touch wood at that) only prob though is I paid $230 originally in Bunnings and the replacement (which is only new to the market) retails for $179 - I am going to call Dept of Fair Trading to see where I stand with the price discrepancy of the replacement this week.
January 20th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
I bought a Mercator Grange fan from Universal Fans - supposedly fan specialists. The fan says it will take an 18W T4 bulb, but they don’t seem to exist and the light is cold and insufficient for reading, even when sitting directly under it! (it is above our dining table). I went to Bunnings this last weekend and did find a T4 16 watt bulb, which I bought as a backup, but now I have tried to fit it I have found that not all T4s are the same size! I have a new ‘Brilliant’ brand T4 natural colour partially fitted at the moment. It is a bit brighter, but it is colder than the eco-lite and I feel like I am in a hospital!
I’d love an 18 watt warm white T4, preferably of the smaller diameter. Does anyone know if they exist?
ruth
February 24th, 2010 at 8:01 am
I also bought a Brilliant Contempo Eco Light from bunnings and the light was week and blue and only after being installed it has a ticking sound on high, after one year the sound sometimes was that loud it was clunking. I rang the company and they came out and replaced it with the new model which has two standard sockets that take 40w or 1
February 26th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
I bought a Brilliant Contempo Eco fan and light about a year ago and the light was a terrible dull blue colour and after it was installed it was making a ticking sound too. I rang them and they said to get the electrician back as it was not fitted correctly and needed to be balanced. After a year the thing got worse after 2 calls they decided to replace it. When they did I got a new fan and light model but it was all silver when mine had brown and silver blades and I was not informed of this prior, it lasted 1 hour and the light blew and never worked again after that I called them and it is going to take 6 days to get another one installed so I have no bedroom light for now. No good.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:50 pm
We bought a Brilliant Contempo Eco Fan from Bunnings in January and have exactly the same problem as each one of you has already described a useless light! We also had problems that the fan control was printed upside down and had to have this replaced as well. Bunnings does carry spare circular fluorescent tubes now but they are still in natural colour and only 16W. It is a disgrace that Bunnings sells such rubbish at overinflated prices. It will cost us another $300 to have a new fan or resplacement fan installed if we return it! Not good enough Bunnings!
June 1st, 2010 at 11:45 am
Another case here: bought and installed late last year, with lighting more suited to a morgue. Ballast stopped working in March, still trying to figure out our next steps and awaiting contact from Brilliant. Very ordinary.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:16 am
Same problem here. We bought the conetmpo eco fan which had a terrible light output. The light stopped working a few months later. I contacted Brilliant by phone re. getting new light tubes. They gave me a local electrical wholesaler who could order new ones (problem was my minumum order would have to be 10 tubes). Told them that was ridiculus and asked so speak to the manager, eventually they sent out 2 new tubes which were supposed to be brighter. They still didn’t work because the light ballast thingy had bust. I put in a warranty claim and brilliant asked me if i wanted a different light. I said yes please and they came out to replace it with a light that looks the same and uses 2 x normal bayonet energy saver globes, works great but it was a pain to get.