Best lighting deals — October 2026

Lighting is cheap to buy and expensive to get wrong. The price differences between retailers are modest; the differences between a good LED and a poor one — colour, flicker, lifespan — are large and invisible on a product listing.

How to read a lighting deal

Compare per-fitting, not per-pack. Retailers mix single bulbs, packs of four and packs of ten across similar listings. And check the fitting type before anything else: E27, B22, GU10 and E14 are not interchangeable, and a great price on the wrong cap is no price at all.

What the specs mean

Lumens, not watts, is brightness. 800 lumens is roughly the old 60 W bulb; 1,500 lumens the old 100 W.

Colour temperature is in kelvin. 2700 K is warm, like a traditional bulb; 4000 K is neutral white for kitchens and workspaces; 6000 K is daylight and feels clinical in a living room.

CRI (colour rendering) above 90 makes food, skin and fabric look right. Cheap LEDs sit at 80 and everything looks slightly grey.

Dimmable must be stated; a non-dimmable LED on a dimmer switch flickers and fails early.

When lighting prices drop

Autumn, when the clocks go back, is when retailers push lighting. Garden and outdoor lighting drops in September as the season ends. Smart bulbs follow tech cycles: Philips Hue discounts around Prime Day and Black Friday.

What to avoid

LEDs with no stated lifespan (good ones quote 15,000 hours or more); "equivalent wattage" claims without a lumen figure; and outdoor fittings without an IP rating of at least IP44.