100W incandescent bulbs are now legal again

[jackinnj]

Originally Posted by dhaen

A couple of years ago I had to deal with a problem created by the audible artefacts of one of these. It had a switched mode power supply that emitted audio which was picked up by studio mics.

A couple years ago EDN had an article on the SMPS in CFL's -- the levels of radiation are quite high and there wasn't enough room to properly attenuate the interference they generate -- things may have changed since that time.

Radiation is all over the lot with some folks reporting that the interference can afflict a variety of other devices.

[dhaen]

Once set, I don't believe the sound compression alters with statistical multiplexing. The audio bit rate is piddling compared with the video.

The audio is MP2. Bit rate varies from 32Kb/s mono to 256Kb/s stereo.
Proper channels use between 128Kb/s and 256Kb/s for the main audio stereo pair. That makes the audio quality significantly better than UK DAB for both TV and radio stations.

Before anyone comments that the sound was better in the "analogue days", sound distribution over links has been digital for over 35 years in the UK. PWM sound was inserted into the picture horizontal sync period to save money. The difference now is the lossy compression. Whether that is worse or better than the previous methods of torturing the audio is a matter for debate.

The irony is that there are now lossless compression systems barely "fatter" than 256KB/s but the standards are set.

[5th element]

LED lighting still has a way to go, the quality is there if you're prepared to pay for it and that's where the problem lies. CREE have continued to drive down the price of their LEDs helping to increase their economic viability, but they are still far too expensive to be realistically considered by the general public.

It doesn't help that there's the cheap Chinese knock-off stuff all over ebay giving LED lighting a bad name. I purchased a couple of MR16 replacements and as Wavebourn said they were indeed 'dead white' the light looked like puke. I ripped out the insides and replaced them with some OSRAM golden dragon LEDS I'd picked up cheap from ebay, now those look great.

[Pano]

I have a long flexible strip of LEDs as under counter light in the kitchen. I love it. It's basically a 20 foot long, 1/4" wide PCB. It has a SMD LED and resistor about every inch. It gives a very even light, is tiny and was super easy to install. Draws about 25 watts. Runs of a 12V SMPS.

Bought it last year. This year I bought another 3 feet to extend it a bit. The new strip looks the same, but the light is warmer and brighter. Certainly a change for the better, if not a direct match. Progress is being made.

[dhaen]

I've tried LED lighting and agree with Pano that the under-counter kind is good. I bought mine from Ikea - far from the cheapest, but at least there's a returns policy.

Regarding Cree: They are making some of the best high power LED's but I have had failures, I think, due to inadequate heat-sinking in the fitting. They really did get hot and lasted just over a year (the warranty period) before failing.

All the high power LED lights I've come across use white LED's. As previously stated these come in "cold white" or "dead white", and have a close spectral similarity to those awful CFL's. I suppose this is because the white LED's also use a phosphor. I can't wait for some proper high power RGB LED's that are affordable.

[5th element]

And that helps to highlight where I feel LED lighting is falling down, that is LED replacement bulbs. This isn't where an LED is typically best suited, the best thing to do is design a complete light, such as the under-counter kind where there are no constraints with regards to design in getting them to work properly. CREE has it's own complete lighting fixtures and these show the direction things should be going in, do away with the reaplacement bulb and introduce new lighting designs.

The LEDs however are quite fragile, both in terms of physical damage and thermal damage. Physical damage is usually only encountered during the construction phase, but you can apply pressure to the wrong part of the LED with your tweezers and damage the tiny lead-out wires embedded in the silicone.

Thermally LEDs are easy to damage and this is usually caused during the initial soldering process. You cannot really solder these things by hand unless you are using a low temperature iron and even then its risky business. I am sure this is the reason why I've encountered some premature failures (even with the low temp iron), but using a hot air gun/oven + solder paste has pretty much solved that (so far). Over temperature during the soldering process doesn't always cause an instant failure either it takes some time before this becomes apparent.

Most of CREEs LEDs will easily function at junction temperatures of 85 degrees, if not higher when you're considering the 25-35,000 hour LM70 specs. If you've semi-damaged an LED during the soldering process they will die quickly when run at high temperatures or at their rated current.

I have a light I built last October that uses four XPGs run at 1amp and those still work great. One of the LEDs failed but that was due to my own ignorance and now I know better

What LED series was is that you used dhaen?

[ThorstenL]

Hi,

Originally Posted by rjb

Watch out- LED's are coming. Some are now priced within reach.

LED's are here. In the new place I just moved to I did all lights with Led's. I liked "warm white" better than sodium yellow of those cold cathode lamps

Lots of 1W spots and downlighters with lense in E27 and some 3W 'lightbulb imitations' in the ceiling lamps.

Works fine. Will see the difference in the bill in a bit...

Ciao T

[Wavebourn]

Originally Posted by CBS240

That's the way they want it, fine. There is an old oil lamp in my mother's garage, belonged to my great-grandfather, that happens to be 100+ years old, with a glass globe intact, doubtful it's the original globe, but it works great and outputs luminosity close to an incandescent, simply cover with a lampshade. Easy to control brightness by adjusting the wick knob. It looks like I may have to put it back to work. I'll be damned if I will be banned from seeing color. (CFL's have limited visual bandwidth...and they hurt my eyes, headache after a while )

Here in California they invented "Clean Air", to fine those who want to burn something during cold nights.

[Pano]

The LED strip I bought runs very cool because there is so much space between each element. They came on a spool and that got warm very fast, as they were all laid on top of each other. Unrolled, not problem.
This is what I bought and highly recommend:
LED Strip Lights Wholesale - LED Strip Light Spools - ElementalLED.com
I did not feel the need for the more expensive high density strips, the regular is just fine.


The hoop-la about the death of the incandescent is funny to me. Like everything will be CFL. Not! You can buy the same size and shape bulb as your old 75W, 100W but the have a halogen lamp inside. Same light for fewer watts. Lasts long too. or should. The light is whiter, but I don't mind that. They are perfectly legal under the new regs.
But people love to get upset about things and rant and rave. Not having the facts makes it even more fun. Silly.

[dhaen]

Originally Posted by 5th element

.....What LED series was is that you used dhaen?

I actually used MR16 fittings similar (but not identical) to those shown on this page:
Cree LED Spotlights - Lighting
Now I'm not sure whether Cree make just the LED's or the whole thing. At worst you could have good LED's in a bad assembly, in a bad fitting.
You are right that the only way to get good results is to design the whole luminary from the ground up.