How are you able to offer such low prices?
Rylite use a "direct only", low overhead business model. We have no retail premises and by using direct marketing and telephone/email ordering we keep our overheads as low as possible so that we can pass these savings on to our customers.

Which brands do you sell?
We only sell top brand, top performance products. The vast majority of our lamps are household names such as Osram, General Electric and Philips, which we know provide top quality, reliable and high performance lamps. We do not sell "un-branded" lamps, which, although cheaper, turn out to be lower quality, short life, and hence, poor value for money.

What is the difference between a "lamp" and a "bulb"?
These terms are often interchangeable but "lamp" is really the generic term since this covers all sorts of lighting technology.

I have been told that you should not touch the outside of a halogen capsule. Is this true? If so, why is this?
Tungsten halogen bulbs, tubes and capsules are made of quartz rather than ordinary glass so that they can operate at a much higher temperature. If the quartz envelope is contaminated with oils from your skin it tends to develop a hot spot in this area that can reduce the lifetime of the bulb dramatically. To prevent this, tungsten halogen lamps should be wrapped in tissue when you install them, removing the tissue once the lamp is firmly seated. If the capsule does get contaminated you can remove fingerprints with a tissue moistened with a solvent such as alcohol or mentholated spirits.

Don't compact fluorescents flicker when you turn them on? And don't they give out a rather harsh light?
Compact fluorescents do flicker when turned on, but unlike early energy saver lamps a few years ago, the latest designs generally include electronic rapid start circuitry to make the lamp light in less than 1 second with virtually no flickering. Some older designs had quite a high "colour temperature" which may be perceived as "colder" but many energy saving lamps now use a "warm white" coating to make the light very similar to a normal incandescent bulb.

Do compact fluorescents get hot?
The latest compact fluorescent lamps "warm up" very much faster than older designs, typically reaching 95% of their full light output in under a minute. Compact fluorescents give out far less heat than normal incandescent bulbs, making them safer for use in unattended security or night light applications. This also makes them ideal for use with lampshades made of delicate materials that can be damaged by heat. All lamps do however give off some heat and should not be used in a totally enclosed light fitting unless there is some way for the heat to escape.

Are "Energy Saver" and "Long Life" bulbs the same thing?
Yes and no! Compact fluorescent lamps do generally have much longer life than ordinary incandescent bulbs but there are also many other types of "long life" bulb, most of which do not also save energy. Generally a normal incandescent bulb will have a rated life of around 1000 hours whereas compact fluorescent energy saving bulbs have a rated life of between 3,000 and 15,000 hours.