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rfunk at 08:26pm on 21/03/2007 under light bulbs
rfunk at 08:26pm on 21/03/2007 under light bulbsYou've all probably heard by now that there's a worldwide movement for governments (starting with Australia, a proposal in California, and Canada, the EU, and India may jump in) to ban traditional incandescent light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescents, with the goal of reducing energy use and wasted energy, and from there mitigating global warming.
Generally excellent goals that I support.
But the compact fluorescent technology being sold today just isn't entirely ready yet.
This was made even more clear to me today when I needed to replace three bulbs in the house. I happened to already have one CF on hand, the only one sold at the local stores. It emits approximately the light of a 60W incandescent.
Trouble is that none of the bulbs I need to replace are 60W bulbs. One is a 75W, so the CF is too dim. Another is a 40W, so the CF is too bright. The third is a three-way (30-70-100 or 50-100-150, I don't remember which), so not only is my CF the wrong brightness but it won't adjust brightness like the old 3-way bulb, and I've never seen a 3-way CF in a store (nor have I seen one that works properly with a dimmer).
And all that ignores the weird fluorescent color temperature, which I could probably get used to, and tendency to exhibit a 60 Hz flicker, which I'm rather sensitive to. (I tend to like LED lights better, but they're not bright enough to light a room yet.)
So far the best use of CFs in my house seems to be some enclosed in-ceiling fixtures, except that those are explicitly disrecommended due to heat issues. (Strange, since CFs are cooler than the old bulbs.)
So on the one hand I encourage efforts to move toward less wasteful energy usage, but on the other hand I'm frustrated that people pretend that CFs are ready to be a direct replacement for incandescents in all cases.
(If you can ignore a few comments about "fanatic environmentalists" and the like, this article actually makes a decent comparison between the two types of lights.)
Generally excellent goals that I support.
But the compact fluorescent technology being sold today just isn't entirely ready yet.
This was made even more clear to me today when I needed to replace three bulbs in the house. I happened to already have one CF on hand, the only one sold at the local stores. It emits approximately the light of a 60W incandescent.
Trouble is that none of the bulbs I need to replace are 60W bulbs. One is a 75W, so the CF is too dim. Another is a 40W, so the CF is too bright. The third is a three-way (30-70-100 or 50-100-150, I don't remember which), so not only is my CF the wrong brightness but it won't adjust brightness like the old 3-way bulb, and I've never seen a 3-way CF in a store (nor have I seen one that works properly with a dimmer).
And all that ignores the weird fluorescent color temperature, which I could probably get used to, and tendency to exhibit a 60 Hz flicker, which I'm rather sensitive to. (I tend to like LED lights better, but they're not bright enough to light a room yet.)
So far the best use of CFs in my house seems to be some enclosed in-ceiling fixtures, except that those are explicitly disrecommended due to heat issues. (Strange, since CFs are cooler than the old bulbs.)
So on the one hand I encourage efforts to move toward less wasteful energy usage, but on the other hand I'm frustrated that people pretend that CFs are ready to be a direct replacement for incandescents in all cases.
(If you can ignore a few comments about "fanatic environmentalists" and the like, this article actually makes a decent comparison between the two types of lights.)
frustrated
(no subject)
Yes, they do make 3-way CF, I have one.
Who told you not to put them in ceiling fixtures? We've been using them in ceiling fixtures for years, and any other standard fixture, without any problem.
I've never seen a CF bulb flicker. And color temperature is not an issue, because you can get bulbs with yellow, red, or blue colors depending on your preference. Like I said, clearly you're shopping in the wrong places. The places where you can't use CF are limited, like Christmas lights, and in that case I'll probably go LED next year. (The new white LEDs are great, too.)
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The directions on the package say not to use them in recessed ceiling fixtures due to heat.
I think I may be more sensitive to 60Hz flicker than most people.
I may have misspoken about color temperature; as
Unfortunately, in my personal experience with what's available to me, the places where I *can* use CF are limited. I'm not happy about it, but it's true.
LEDs
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I haven't switched to total CFLs yet either, mainly because I still live in an apartment and long-term energy savings aren't relevant.
The other issue, is, as you mention, the quality of the light. I use "day-color" inc. bulbs mostly, I like the natural range. CFLS, like all Fluorescents, are very close to true light, but they emit a wide range of colors in very narrow spectrums, i.e. a block of seven colors (due to the chemical fluorescence of the various chemicals in the bulbs which is then passed through the phosphorus coating, instead of the output of a continual stream of light wavelengths that are emitted through the incandescence of the tungsten element in the regular bulb.
/knows *way* too much about how lights work, damn job...
//sorry for any spelling errors, I've been drinking... :)
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I tend to prefer the natural sunlight color temperature too, and since my CFs are 5000K I would've expected them to look just like my full-spectrum incandescents. You make a good point about fluorescents emitting a few narrow bands of color rather than a full spectrum centered at the given color temperature.
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It took me a couple days to get used to the light and the delay on the bulbs kicking in, especially in the cold, but now I don't notice it.
(no subject)
PS How've you been?
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I think that in the places where they talk about the legislature, there is more variety in the supply. I'm in California, and we have gone 100% fluorescent. The first change we made was from a halogen torchiere to a fluorescent one about 5 years ago. The first month's electric bill dropped by $25 so I got on the bandwagon. At first, we had a really hard time finding bulbs we liked- the daylight ones are too blue the "soft white" too yellow for my tastes and Home Depot did only carry one type and not even always in both those colors. We had to order online to get the ones we wanted. But the last batch we bought, after moving 2 years ago, we bought at Costco, and the color is perfect. We even replaced the bulbs in the chandelier finally, after finding them at Walmart. We'd put it off until then, since they were over $9 a piece and we needed 5 of them, but Walmart had them for something like $3. The only bulbs I'm not terribly happy with are the "flood" type ones we got for the overhead lights in the bathrooms. I was happy to have the option (Costco again) since those suckers were eating up power, but they are the only ones that still take awhile to warm up, so at first it's pretty dim in there.
We're in an apartment too, but that doesn't stop us. Not when we pay for electricity and there are 8 bulbs just above the mirror in the Master Bath! I don't do it for the environment- especially when there's legitimate arguments about them not really being better, when you consider the chemicals from them leaking into the groundwater while sitting in landfills- it's all about saving money.