The EU starts to ban the old bulbs from tomorrow. Well, the new bulb is more expensive and although it uses as much as 80% less energy, its light sucks whaleass!!! We bought a new bulb and in the bathroom its light is not even close to the old incandescent bulb's. Maybe in Europe there will be a huge black market for the old bulb, prohibition style... "One bulb can cost €10, or $14 — or a lot more, depending on type — whereas traditional incandescent bulbs cost about 70 cents each. But E.U. officials argued that the energy savings would cut average household electricity bills by up to €50 a year, amounting to about €5 billion annually. That would help buoy the economy if consumers spent their savings, they said."
Are your new bulbs the fluorescent ones? If so I have these in my home and I'm very happy with em.They are every bit as bright as the old ones.Have you got the largest bulbs you can fit in the fixtures? After switching over to the flourescent bulbs and fitting the largest bulbs in the fixtures,I ended up with some rooms being much brighter.Finally the one other great thing about these new bulbs is they are MUCH less hot which I noticed I'm no longer getting the burn in spots on the inside the light fixtures.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Don't break one, or you will raise the mercury levels in the room over 200 times the EPA safe limit, and may need a Haz Mat Team to decontaminate your house. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Mercury concentration in the study room air often exceeds the Maine Ambient Air Guideline (MAAG) of 300 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3) for some period of time, with short excursions over 25,000 ng/m3, sometimes over 50,000 ng/m3, and possibly over 100,000 ng/m3 from the breakage of a single compact fluorescent lamp. A short period of venting can, in most cases, significantly reduce the mercury air concentrations after breakage. Concentrations can sometimes rebound when rooms are no longer vented, particularly with certain types of lamps and during/after vacuuming. Mercury readings at the one foot height tend to be greater than at the five foot height in non vacuumed situations. ------------------------- -------------- Cleaning up a broken CFL by vacuuming up the smaller debris particles in an un-vented room can elevate mercury concentrations over the MAAG in the room and it can linger at these levels for hours. Vacuuming tends to mix the air within the room such that the one foot and five foot heights are similar immediately after vacuuming. A vacuum can become contaminated by mercury such that it cannot be easily decontaminated. Vacuuming a carpet where a lamp has broken and been visibly cleaned up, even weeks after the cleanup, can elevate the mercury readings over the MAAG in an un-vented room. The EPA accepted safe level is MCLG for mercury is 0.002 mg/L or 2 ppb.
They've become much cheaper in the U.S. so that will probably happen over there too. And if they don't throw enough light then the obvious solution is to buy a bigger bulb. You can buy one with the equivalent output of a 200w incandescent bulb. That oughta do the job for ya. You can also buy solar-spectrum fluorescents, which make for a very nicely lit room. They also have the benefit of recalibrating your circadian rhythm so you fall asleep and wake up on time instead of an hour later every day. My problem with them is that sometimes they don't last as long as they're supposed to, so they end up not being cheaper than incandescent bulbs. If you have low voltage or unsteady current, that can really burn out a fluorescent bulb fast.
Personally, I can't stand those bluish, "daylight" energy-saving bulbs. The "warm" ones that look like standard tungsten bulbs are much much better.
That is one silly idea. The whole point of using it is to decrease energy consumption, so if I buy one with twice the wattage just to keep the same brightness, I INCREASE energy usage....
A problem with CFLs I got some interesting advice when I blogged about compact fluorescents earlier this spring: I'll bet that floodlight is recessed into the ceiling, right? Which means that the heat from your CFL bulb is getting trapped in the recessed fixture. Worse yet, the heat-sensitive electronics in the base of that CFL are at the top, where it is hottest. And THAT is the dirty not-so-secret that CFL manufacturers aren't making crystal clear to consumers. If you want to put a CFL bulb in there, be prepared to pay more for a higher-quality bulb from a Brand Name manufacturer of light bulbs, and be aware that in fixtures where the base is up and the heat is trapped inside, you will get a shorter lifetime from the bulb than you’ll get from an table lamp. It's kind of ridiculous, really, since a very large percentage of fixtures where people want to replace their bulbs with more efficient CFL bulbs either trap the heat or put the base up. (Carl)
First of all, they tend to get brighter after being on for a minute or two, don't expect them to light up and be as bright as incandescent immediately. I have nothing but flourescents and the nice thing is they last a lot longer. Much better for areas where you keep lights on for long hours. The reality is that we should bypass flourescents and go straight to LED's. The problem is that like flourescents, the main reason is disruption. Just like everything else that holds us back. Too many jobs to have to shift and too many people with a lot of money that fight the change. LED's have all of the advantages of energy saving and more, plus much better lighting control. I don't buy the cost difference, it's a matter of affecting those with deep pockets. That is where the rub is.
I've switched to CFLs largely already, apart from a few fittings, which really just can't takes them as they use SES candle bulbs or large low wattage decorative filaments. CFLs would just look awful in these fittings. Also, I have a few dimmers, and last time I went to IKEA, they didn't stock a single, dimmable CFL in their range. Couldn't find any at the local hardware store either. Sometimes I can hear CFLs too, we had one in the entrance hall that buzzed and it was so annoying I had to throw it out, so so much for extended lifespan.
Yeah, why not LEDs? As much as I hate to admit it, were it not for hours of home-remodeling shows I used to watch while getting high with my former girlfriend, I might not even know they exist. Oh, wait ... yes, I would. My dad installed them on his boat. The difference in amperage is ridiculous. It's something like all of the running lights combined now draw a fraction of what one of the old ones would have. What's interesting to me in the general economic scheme these days—at least, in the U.S.—is that when I was a kid we used to hear about supply and demand, and how it worked that the more you made of something, the less it cost per unit. It seems to me that if we go on a push to bring these LEDs to mass appeal, their cost will eventually go down. Or is there some component of their manufacture that is just so limited a resource as to keep the cost up? I mean, LEDs in general are everywhere. Is there something about this particular application of the technology that just won't work on such a massive scale?
Oh..days ago I made a thread about this subject just with a completely different title, and more than one purpose...in WE. Hmmm. Well, I'm against the ban. The CFLs just aren't a good alternative, and are a health hazard, imo.
A CFL with output equivalent to a 200w incandescent bulb only draws about 50w, so you still come out ahead. Besides, I'm not suggesting that you replace your 100w ceiling lamps with a 200w-equivalent replacement, that would probably drive you out of the room. But you could jack it up to 125 and get what you want. You might also try the solar spectrum lamps, perhaps the more natural spectrum would give you the feeling of more adequate lighting, in addition to helping you sleep better.
Your confused about Fraggles comment.He was saying you can get one of the new bulbs that may be say 30watts but it will put out the brightness of a 200 watt incandescent bulb.No biggie.
Damn. That explains the problem I had. In my old house, half my basement was unfinished and I replaced all the incandescent bulbs hanging from the ceiling with CFL's and it worked uot great. But at my new house, the basement is finished with recessed lighting. I replaced some of the bulbs with CFL's only to have them burn out in less than a month. Damn, I was pissed. I like the idea of CFL's and use them a lot (You don't need to change them very often and they use much less power). But they just aren't ready to replace incandescents. Plus, there is that issue of mercury exposure from broken bulbs.
Maybe the following is plaguing your CFLs, Fraggle Rocker. • Do not respond well when turned on and off for short periods of time, i.e. their lifespan can be significantly shorter than promised • Ideally, CFLs should only be in rooms who are around 20-30 °C, if the room temperature is higher than the aforementioned temp. criteria, then the lifespan will again become significantly shorter, - basically they're sensitive to temperatures that are below 20°C and higher than 30 °C And well, what Tiassa mentioned is also a factor, since they are, indeed temperature sensitive.
"My problem with them is that sometimes they don't last as long as they're supposed to, so they end up not being cheaper than incandescent bulbs. If you have low voltage or unsteady current, that can really burn out a fluorescent bulb fast.[/QUOTE] Any fluorescent bulb I ever bought was warrantied for years.For the cost of postage you could have got a replacement bulb mailed to you.Or maybe even some places where bulbs are bought,might just exchange em for you.
There is a whole town that is switching all of their lighting to LED's, it's all about the initial investment right now for the long term payoff. The same thing that slowed the CFL's to market. However, I think before we end up with a disruption of the CFL industry we should leap to LED's asap. It would be a huge mistake to stay with the CFL's as the preferred replacement. I don't think it is a manufactuing cost issue, it's supply and demand, like the CFLs we need some kind of subsidy to make it appealing to the consumer, but the energy savings on a national scale would be such that we would cut down our demand for energy production. Spend some to save some. Makes perfect sense to me. Plus, you have way more control of the desired product, colors etc with LED's. It is the future, it will be done, just a matter of time.
I suggest saving the packaging and receipts. That way, if the bulb fails prematurely, it may be returned to the store where it was purchased for a replacement - at least such was my experience, even when I "killed" one by putting it in a fixture activated by a dimmer switch in contradiction with a warning on the package to refrain from doing exactly that. LoL I'm using CFLs in every lamp in the place but 3, and one of those is a small lamp over the kitchen sink that uses a cylindrical fluorescent bulb. The others are lights I usually use for 5-10 minutes or so. I've even put them in the outdoor night-time lights now that they make 'em with a yellow coating to keep 'em from attracting bugs. They take a bit longer to come up to full brightness in the dead of winter, but who cares ? I gotta say, though... ...the couple that have just died of old age after a number of years I just tossed in the trash. I guess I should feel some remorse over the mercury that's probably ending up in some poor dumb bastard's drinking water, but frankly the thought causes me to laugh for some reason. I'd like to try LED bulbs, but for some damned reason I can't find 'em for sale anywhere here in the primitive West End of the Soviet Socialist Republik of New York - which is made doubly weird by the fact that I've purchased 3 flashlights with LED bulbs in them... :shrug:
