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 ...
Can you imagine how many "you have a wife" questions I got?
No they don't.
Yes you can, but understand, you’ll only be getting the equivalent of an old 25 watt light bulbs brightness out of that new 100 watt equivalent CFL for the first 15-30 seconds after you turn it on, if it has been off for a while.
CFLs have their place, but complete replacement of incandescent is rediculous.
Yes, LCD have a light, that is always ON, the LCD then sits in front of this light and filters it to let the right colors through, this is why LCD screens don’t do well with blacks.
The incandescent bulb will be killed by “free trade” and globalist corruption.
“unless you are on nuclear, wind or solar energy”
Or oil or natural gas. You only save Hg if you get your power from coal.
To be green, they should only allow as many ccfl’s as it takes to offset the Hg.
Then there is the issue of the ballast with the Gorebulbs- one Gorebulb weighs more than 5 incandescents and has an electronics board (I’m assuming ROHS compliance so there’s no lead).
You can buy dimmable CFL’s that will work on a conventional incadescent dimmer switch. Even eBay has them. Sylvania’s for 48 of them for $48 and that includes shipping.
But LEDs contain arsenic, gallium, and other toxics!
(In much smaller quantities than cfl’s but if you are truly green you must have something to complain about)
I switched about 75% to CFL, and my experience with them has been mixed. FIRST. They don't last any longer than incandescent bulbs - less than incandescent in enclosed fixtures. SECOND, they have a nasty tendency to fail by catching on fire (internal in the plastic base part) THIRD the orientation makes a big difference in how long they last base down lasts the longest, base up the shortest, and horizontal between the two, with the life being close to base up. FOURTH, They dim considerably over the life of the bulb. a new one is noticeably brighter than one reaching the midpoint of its life (nothing new here, all fluorescents have this property). Fifth, they are not feasible for anything more than a 100W incandescent equivalent. They are available in 150W equivalents ($11 each that DO NOT FIT into lamps that would take a 150 or 250 2way) I've replaced three ways with 150W halogens they last about four times as long and provide bright light for most of the life of the bulb.
Once more Kongress sticks its unwanted nose into consumer choice issues.
The new CFL’s are instant on brightness. And dimmable ones are available to boot. Search engines can be your friend.
What kind of racist claptrap are you ... oh, wait. Never mind.
In the early days of LCD monitors, the big problem was the backlight fading. So the manufacturers amped up the backlight. I'm watching these letters march across a screen that's at about 22% brightness. When, as years go by the backlight loses its oomph, I'll bump ir up a little at a time. If I ran this damn thing at 100% brightness, I could use it to signal passing aircraft.
Once you tweak the brightness and contrast a bit, LCD TVs and monitors display black just fine. The blacks aren't as black as on a CRT, but the other colors are so much better and the picture so much sharper that it's more than a good trade.
No they aren’t, unless the new ones hit the shelves in the last 30 days.
Just bought some new ones last month, still have the 15-30 second warm up time before they give off their full luminescence.
along with poor people.
You know, if we rolled your modest proposal out, we could eliminate knives (in the general population, not my knife) and we could all be safe. Nobody would need one.
A brilliant idea, one that will prove to be a true millstone of history!
ps Hmm, perhaps we could make them out of a combination of soy and lentils?
Great quetion. When I research CFL sites many say NOT to use in certain "max 60 watt" recepticles ESPECIALLY IF THEY ARE "CONTAINED" meaning when surrounded by glass like many cieling light fixtures and not table lamps with lampshades which allow air to circulate.
I just installed some in my office last week. When I came in this morning after they were not used for two days, they took at least 15 sec. to become fully bright.
Curiosity asking - where did you buy them from?
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