Posted on 11/11/2007 7:20:25 PM PST by Westlander
If U.S. lawmakers have their way, the lights may soon go out on Thomas Edison's greatest invention -- the incandescent light bulb. The 19th-century inventor brought illumination to the world's fingertips, but according to Congress, his invention isn't efficient enough for an age anxious about energy supplies.
"Only 10% of the power used by today's incandescent bulbs is emitted as light, while the other 90% is released as heat," Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., said when she introduced her legislation to ban standard light bulbs.
To eliminate this waste, Harman has proposed legislation that would effectively eliminate incandescent light bulbs from store shelves nationwide as early as 2012.
(Excerpt) Read more at realestate.msn.com ...
Is it OK to use these bulbs in a three-way lamp?
The 25% figure comes from the Department of Energy. /shrug
What is a warm light CFL? Do they look odd, as in the curly-Q shape of most of them?
The lights are all on but nobody’s at home!
“Is it OK to use these bulbs in a three-way lamp?”
The CFLs for 3 way lamps are marked for that purpose, they should be at the store.
SO do it! (Free market solution). Just don't pass a law (gubmint imposition).
For those of us who use the heat, like the light better, and have easy to reach lights, the incandescents work just fine.
I did it. I dont want a law. It’s still just silly not to switch where possible. The new CFL lighting is not much different (if any) than a normal bulb at least for your 60 watt equiv bulbs (the standard)
I am holding out for LEDs, which mimic the wavelength of incandescent light.
When winter comes and we have a clear day, the sunlight is blindingly bright (even though it may be -30 outside), the incandescents give the house a warmer ambiance and put out heat as well. (8^D)
Some people pay extra for granite countertops...it is ultimately a matter of preference. Pay your money and take your choice.
i have built some pretty impressive brake/tailight circuit boards with the Luxeons, buck puck drivers and heat sinks.
The most impressive project I have seen yet is the 38 watt 10" LED panel with automotive headlight output that rivals HID (www.holderoffroad.com) problem with high flux leds is that to achieve the hi lumens output levels the watt draw begins to equal HID or incandescent
Exactly. Incandescent bulbs will die a quiet, unremarkable death in their own time. There are so MANY reasons to use a compact LED over traditional bulbs that consumer-driven momentum will far outstrip any legislative mandates.
And do we really want to see the death of the Easy-Bake Oven(tm), hmmmm? =)
Sorry, its not nonsense, its absolutely true.
I have CFL’s and I use them, and they don’t instant on at full light, sorry. If you believe they do, I think a trip to the optomitrist might be in order.
I have 2 “100 watt equivalents” in one room, and 2 in hallways, and 2 on my front porch, EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM, when turned on and hasn’t been on in a while start out MAYBE giving off the light equivalent of a 25 watt bulb at best, this lasts for about 15-30 seconds when they finally ramp up to full output.
No BS about it my friend, its fact. CFL’s are not “INSTANT ON AT FULL LUMINENCE”.
All CFL’s have a WARM UP CURVE, ALL OF THEM...
Slow warm-up behavior is caused by the mercury amalgam used to control mercury vapor pressure is most modern CFLs.
You can deny all you want, but physics are physics my friend, and facts are facts. NON compact florescent use a different method and start at 50% output and rapidly rise to 100%... CFL’s by and large do not.
“CFL’s are not “INSTANT ON AT FULL LUMINENCE”.”
I am well aware of that slight hesitation but you repeatedly hammered the 15-30 seconds for some odd reason in post after post.
If you are having to deal with an up to 30 second wait for your lights to look normal, then I don’t know what to tell you, if I was having that problem I would not have CFLs in all my fixtures.
No we have rheostat (sp) electric baseboard heat....and no airconditioning.
Well, just telling you, if a bulb hasn’t been on in a while its a good 15-30 seconds for it to reach full luminescence in my experience... sometimes faster, but not usually.
CFL’s are ok, I use them in some applications, but the idea they replace in performace an incandescent is nonsense.
If you have lights you turn on and leave on for long periods of time, they are a resonable consideration. If you have lights that you turn on and off infrequently and expect and desire full light the minute you hit the switch, they aren’t remotely going to cut it.
They work. They just don't dim. I have CFLs on dimmer switches in a couple of rooms, and I just leave them turned all the way up.
The anti incandescent fight is brought to you by DarkSky.org.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1678447/posts
Light Pollution (If you think it’s a joke, think again. The movement seeks to change laws)
International Dark-Sky Association (IDA)
Established in 1988 to preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting.
No I didn’t. I just wanted to see how it worked versus the old stadard. I don’t think I have even seen them with a cold weather ballast. I’ll have to look it up.
As with most things, YMMV -- It's only when the government mandates that everyone behave the same do we set ourselves up for large systems failure. With CFLs, I doubt anyone is considering the coming tidal wave of mercury pollution, fish contamination, shallowwater creatures, run-off, and what all that will do to the environment and it's creatures.
The most destructive force on Earth is government.
Don't believe me, try this --- They destroy the Everglades with channelization, now want to fix it, put it back like it was. Sigh. Probably better off to just leave it alone now. Then there is this -- In 2006 they wanted to protect us from Lake Okeechobee hurricane flooding, so they drained Lake Okeechobee and have now caused a local drought. The hurricanes never came, but nightly we get TV pictures of the horrors of the low lake water levels, alligators beached, birds with no water and no fish, fish mired in the mud etc. with no explanations as to why there is no water -- typical of liberals, it's never their fault ... sigh.
The “warm light†just means the light it gives off is very close to a normal incandescent bulb. It does not give the normal bluer “cool light†of a fluorescent bulb. Ours are double u-tube, but I have see some that look like regular bulbs and others that look like the curly type. Since ours are recessed, it doesn’t matter much what they look like.
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