FWIW the cheap halogens I buy last way longer than cheap CFL so I went back to them.
They last a lot *unless* you hit/shake the lamp, quite logic since it works near melting temperature.
And I love yellowish light, hate daylight fluos with a passion.
Like "warm" fluos but of course they illuminate way less, so .....
I am a Photographer and Art lover, and imho (shared by many relevant people by the way) best "Art gallery" light comes from a fixture housing: 1 40W daylight fluo + 1 40W "pink" fluo + 1 75W incandescent lamp.
Holes in one curve are covered by peaks in the other, result is very smooth and for the human eye, easy to adjust to.
They last a lot *unless* you hit/shake the lamp, quite logic since it works near melting temperature.
And I love yellowish light, hate daylight fluos with a passion.
Like "warm" fluos but of course they illuminate way less, so .....
I am a Photographer and Art lover, and imho (shared by many relevant people by the way) best "Art gallery" light comes from a fixture housing: 1 40W daylight fluo + 1 40W "pink" fluo + 1 75W incandescent lamp.
Holes in one curve are covered by peaks in the other, result is very smooth and for the human eye, easy to adjust to.
Incandescent lamps ARE a massive waste of energy. Our house is almost exclusively lit with LEDs. The "can" lamps in the ceiling are excellent and most of the screw in bulbs are "filament LED" units. The filaments are actually a stack of LEDs such that each stick is fairly high voltage. In a clear bulb it looks very much like an incandescent. The bulbs I use most claim 470 lumens for 4 Watts. I haven't measured the light output but 6 of them above the kitchen table is about the same as the 40 Watt incandescents they replaced. A 2 Watt bulb (200 lumens) at the front door is really cheap to run even if left on overnight. The only down side I've found is the solar powered calculators are a little fussy in that there is only visible light and very little IR.
The only CCFLs I have are in closets where it doesn't matter that they are UGLY.
A couple of the LEDs have failed early but they cost little enough that having spares is no big deal. Most of them I bought directly from China vendors via eBay.
G²
I've a lot of Philips and Osram LED lamps which have proved quite reliable, I prefer the Philips lamps as they are not prone to overheating. I prefer lamps in the same color temperature range as traditional incandescents, but use daylight lamps outdoors where I don't really care.
I also have a small number of quartz halogen lamps, both 12V types for spot lighting and some as bulb replacements, they seem to last several thousand hours typically.
I have a couple of 21W outdoor floods which produce about as much light as a 150W halogen each - ideal for the purpose. (security)
I don't care for CFLs and am slowly phasing them out as they wear out - just 5 left in the entire house. (Unfortunately these are all good ones and last a long time.)
I also have a small number of quartz halogen lamps, both 12V types for spot lighting and some as bulb replacements, they seem to last several thousand hours typically.
I have a couple of 21W outdoor floods which produce about as much light as a 150W halogen each - ideal for the purpose. (security)
I don't care for CFLs and am slowly phasing them out as they wear out - just 5 left in the entire house. (Unfortunately these are all good ones and last a long time.)
> I don't care for CFLs and am slowly phasing them out
I'm indifferent to the economy of LED vs CFL. (Either beats a hot wire.)
I'm pushing to get all the Mercury and glass-lamps out. I'm tired of breaking fluorescents, waiting for the room to air, and finding/sweeping the tiny specs of glass before the dogs cut their paws.
When good LEDs arrived I re-lamped much of the house. The CFLs went to a basement up-lamping project. Next good price drop, I may move all of them out to Hazardous Waste.
I'm indifferent to the economy of LED vs CFL. (Either beats a hot wire.)
I'm pushing to get all the Mercury and glass-lamps out. I'm tired of breaking fluorescents, waiting for the room to air, and finding/sweeping the tiny specs of glass before the dogs cut their paws.
When good LEDs arrived I re-lamped much of the house. The CFLs went to a basement up-lamping project. Next good price drop, I may move all of them out to Hazardous Waste.
An incandescent produces two types of output, heat and light.
If viewed as a lighting device only, they are quite inefficient.
However, in any instance where the heat is wanted output (eg in any climate that requires supplemental heating, you could switch to incandescents in winter and LEDs in summer) they are nearly 100% efficient.
A study by utility BC Hydro about 15 years ago concluded if everyone in the Province (4.7 million residents) switched from incandescents to CFL, that would require $600 million in additional natural gas heating to replace the lost heat output.
Unless otherwise indicated, prices in $C
I have been 100% LED in my home for quite a few years now ... I started buying them slowly over time when a 60w equivalent was more than $20 ... and run some of them quite hard, for example the bathroom light has been on 24/7 for more than four years. Dimming is evident but light output is still acceptable. I have switched from Natural Gas to Electric heating since the demand charge to have the gas attached in summer months was greater than the added cost, and that is my main annual cost impact.
If I had switched to gas appliances throughout the house it would make sense to have it operating, but for heating alone my actual use in winter was less than $35/mo but the demand charge added another $25 x 12 months of the year. My whole-home electric bill, equalized over 12 months, is about $70/month.
I did not notice any significant changes in my electric utility costs ... perhaps $10 at most ... but we have inexpensive electricity costs here ($C 0.1511 KwH, $US 0.1134, £ 0.090, ₡ 0.10) and I'm in an area serviced by a City-owned utility, which adds about 2c to the wholesale price paid outside it's service area. As the profits go to the City in the form of an annual dividend, the net result is my property taxes are a bit lower, which I'm OK with especially since I am not a heavy user of power, comparatively speaking.
I have had some fail, almost exactly at the same time (within a few months) in the (originally) Quartz Track Lighting in my kitchen. Replacements are now $C 2 ($US 1.64) each, I paid about $5 for the originals a few years ago.
I buy Phillips brand exclusively, and it seems my choice was a wise one, reliability-wise. I don't feel it's an area where seeking the lowest price pays enough benefits, but current prices for even the better units are quite acceptable.
If viewed as a lighting device only, they are quite inefficient.
However, in any instance where the heat is wanted output (eg in any climate that requires supplemental heating, you could switch to incandescents in winter and LEDs in summer) they are nearly 100% efficient.
A study by utility BC Hydro about 15 years ago concluded if everyone in the Province (4.7 million residents) switched from incandescents to CFL, that would require $600 million in additional natural gas heating to replace the lost heat output.
Unless otherwise indicated, prices in $C
I have been 100% LED in my home for quite a few years now ... I started buying them slowly over time when a 60w equivalent was more than $20 ... and run some of them quite hard, for example the bathroom light has been on 24/7 for more than four years. Dimming is evident but light output is still acceptable. I have switched from Natural Gas to Electric heating since the demand charge to have the gas attached in summer months was greater than the added cost, and that is my main annual cost impact.
If I had switched to gas appliances throughout the house it would make sense to have it operating, but for heating alone my actual use in winter was less than $35/mo but the demand charge added another $25 x 12 months of the year. My whole-home electric bill, equalized over 12 months, is about $70/month.
I did not notice any significant changes in my electric utility costs ... perhaps $10 at most ... but we have inexpensive electricity costs here ($C 0.1511 KwH, $US 0.1134, £ 0.090, ₡ 0.10) and I'm in an area serviced by a City-owned utility, which adds about 2c to the wholesale price paid outside it's service area. As the profits go to the City in the form of an annual dividend, the net result is my property taxes are a bit lower, which I'm OK with especially since I am not a heavy user of power, comparatively speaking.
I have had some fail, almost exactly at the same time (within a few months) in the (originally) Quartz Track Lighting in my kitchen. Replacements are now $C 2 ($US 1.64) each, I paid about $5 for the originals a few years ago.
I buy Phillips brand exclusively, and it seems my choice was a wise one, reliability-wise. I don't feel it's an area where seeking the lowest price pays enough benefits, but current prices for even the better units are quite acceptable.
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Oh, I forgot. I still have a couple of incandescents, one in my oven and two in the refrigerator. Apparently LEDs don't take well to high temperatures, especially the 1000F self-clean cycle of my oven. A hot tip for saving energy: self-cleaning stoves have much more robust insulation than ones without that feature, saving money every time you use the oven.
Unfortunately, politicians don't know jack about practically anything (the ones that do are easily drowned out; in audio terms "below the noise level") ... many have never actually held down a job outside politics ... and listen to the lobbyists who cater to them and/or scream louder, or follow the path of the most votes likely to be generated from the great unwashed. I am not a stubborn traditionalist by any means but am often troubled by certain "green" interests, who prefer to push agendas that fit a world view that can be very unrealistic.
In the modern world we are often sold technology solutions that are massively harmful to the environment as solutions to an environmental problem. The calculations for the environmental impact of inputs are so complex that they essentially cannot be done, but I remember one study (which took more than two years just to gather the data) that proved the manufacturing impact of a 1980's-era IBM 286 clone was greater than the same impact to manufacture six mid-60's Cadillacs, manufactured mostly from low-impact welded steel. Imaging what a smartphone would calculate out to.
I had a High School history teacher that warned us about those who believe they know better than you what's good for you, and the harm they can do, since reason is lost on them. History is unfortunately thick with illustrative examples, but the Spanish Inquisition is an easy lesson. There is often little difference in the zeal the modern equivalent approaches their "blessed work", saving us from ourselves.
On a more practical level, lawmakers who are quick and eager to promise to "do something" about some single, newsworthy harm, generally do so by making hurried, poorly crafted law, which somehow never is reviewed after a reasonable and sober period of time, adding harmful unintended consequences.
Unfortunately, politicians don't know jack about practically anything (the ones that do are easily drowned out; in audio terms "below the noise level") ... many have never actually held down a job outside politics ... and listen to the lobbyists who cater to them and/or scream louder, or follow the path of the most votes likely to be generated from the great unwashed. I am not a stubborn traditionalist by any means but am often troubled by certain "green" interests, who prefer to push agendas that fit a world view that can be very unrealistic.
In the modern world we are often sold technology solutions that are massively harmful to the environment as solutions to an environmental problem. The calculations for the environmental impact of inputs are so complex that they essentially cannot be done, but I remember one study (which took more than two years just to gather the data) that proved the manufacturing impact of a 1980's-era IBM 286 clone was greater than the same impact to manufacture six mid-60's Cadillacs, manufactured mostly from low-impact welded steel. Imaging what a smartphone would calculate out to.
I had a High School history teacher that warned us about those who believe they know better than you what's good for you, and the harm they can do, since reason is lost on them. History is unfortunately thick with illustrative examples, but the Spanish Inquisition is an easy lesson. There is often little difference in the zeal the modern equivalent approaches their "blessed work", saving us from ourselves.
On a more practical level, lawmakers who are quick and eager to promise to "do something" about some single, newsworthy harm, generally do so by making hurried, poorly crafted law, which somehow never is reviewed after a reasonable and sober period of time, adding harmful unintended consequences.
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In my experience, they usually blown when powering on.
I dislike any kind of yellowish light, or those that dazzle if accidentally are viewed directly. Led´s are of that kind. At home, I maintain 105W flourescent tubes with electromagnetic ballast. Electronics are much less reliable and radiates tons of RF signals, not appropriate to AM listening or ham radio receivers.
I dislike any kind of yellowish light, or those that dazzle if accidentally are viewed directly. Led´s are of that kind. At home, I maintain 105W flourescent tubes with electromagnetic ballast. Electronics are much less reliable and radiates tons of RF signals, not appropriate to AM listening or ham radio receivers.
I have always preferred incandescent lamps to both halogen and CFL lamps, but the warmer end of the LED range is quite acceptable to me. In fact I am currently sitting in one of the rooms that is all LED lit and never even think about it anymore except in a discussion like this.
We started converting to LED lamps about 5 years ago and so far we've not had any failures. Some of those lamps are in places where there are on a lot. I have noticed though that you get what you pay for, and the Philips lamps (which I can get at Xmas time for a song) seem to be rugged and reliable. I have had some overheating induced flicker in Osram lamps in hot weather, but no failures so far. I also have a couple of Cree lamps which of course are fine, but were insanely expensive at the time.
I use them to offset the power consumption of the class A power amps in the man cave, which in the winter months (seemingly about 9 months a year here) provide a significant amount of the heat required in this room when I'm present. (We're talking about roughly 400W of power consumption.)
We started converting to LED lamps about 5 years ago and so far we've not had any failures. Some of those lamps are in places where there are on a lot. I have noticed though that you get what you pay for, and the Philips lamps (which I can get at Xmas time for a song) seem to be rugged and reliable. I have had some overheating induced flicker in Osram lamps in hot weather, but no failures so far. I also have a couple of Cree lamps which of course are fine, but were insanely expensive at the time.
I use them to offset the power consumption of the class A power amps in the man cave, which in the winter months (seemingly about 9 months a year here) provide a significant amount of the heat required in this room when I'm present. (We're talking about roughly 400W of power consumption.)
If the fixtures are not properly ventilated (allowing for adequate convection cooling of the bulb's heat sink) some of them get hot enough to trip the thermal protection which limits the lamp's duty cycle. Flicker can be at a variety of frequencies as the controller IC is attempting to limit dissipation to below the threshold of self destruction.
And safely storing nuclear waste potentially for millennia is a trivial and low cost problem... Righttttt..
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