Posted on 12/17/2007 5:23:48 AM PST by Libloather
Link only -
I don't think so. I thought "high intensity" was used to describe things like the new automotive headlamps, but I'm no expert.
When I got out of the reef tank hobby several years ago, CF lights were just starting to be introduced as a potential replacement for the MH bulbs. I was running VHO fluorescents but was disappointed with the results - has anything changed?
A few years ago we had a Chinese engineer working for us. During lunch hours, he used to repair light bulbs. He’d drill a a small hole near the base of the bulb, attach a new tungsten wire filament, draw a vacuum on the bulb and then seal it again. I thought he was nuts and cheap, it might be that we need to do this in the future.
CFLs suck! Give a crummy light.
Well that's the point - you can use them where you want to, for now. But with Kongress and King George II in the act you will no longer have a choice.
Incandescent bulb’s days are numbered anyway. If not by govt fiat then by competition. I’m personally waiting for LED lighting to hit the market.
“cleaner/whiter light with less wattage than incandescent blubs.”
Yep, I have slowley changed to halogen and florescent, and have reduced my electric bill by 25%. I am now looking at LED’s to get an additional 25%.
Nothing to do with global warming, I’m just a cheapskate.
....Bob
So, just out of curiosity (for anyone who knows) how are you supposed to use them in place of three way bulbs?
Now you'll get the same disappointing results but be required by law to use them. As far as improvements the bulbs are most likely the same as before.
I like the CFL curly lights for some applications.
I'm more than a little annoyed that they're all made in Red China.
Incandescents are made in USA.
I try to avoid supporting the Peoples' Liberation Army.
Who is addressing the mercury in the landfills. Oh, the humanity.
Me too. I am just cheap.
Your not. The government has decided that you don’t need that feature of a lamp anymore and you’d better like it. And thank them for it.
Just imagine a 3 way bulb with the two brightest filaments burnt out.
The difference is that they have an "ozone-depleting" gas (can you see where that's gonna be headed?), which, when the bulb is turned off, replates the tungsten ions back onto the filament. The result is that the filament lasts longer, since it's not constantly ablating metal (at least, not at the same rate), and, it doesn't darken with use, since the metal doesn't plate itself onto the envelope.
Apparently, though, these things need to run HOT in order to get that tungsten-halogen cycle going -- which means they have to use quartz envelopes, they have to have UV protection over them (unless you don't value your eyes), and, they present a very real fire hazard.
I'd start thinking about stocking up on the kind of thing that will NEVER have a nonconventional replacement, i.e., the utility bulbs in your refrigerator and oven.
Remember what happened to Freon after, when the patent expired and it was no longer profitable to manufacture it, they held the (spit) "Rio" Accord, and outlawed it -- quietly?
The can of freon that you could buy to recharge your car's AC -- for maybe 75 CENTS -- quickly flew up to maybe twenty DOLLARS -- when you could find it.
And, remember the halogen fire extinguisher? (AKA "Halon")
Remember how it was heralded as the first truly revolutionary means for fire-fighting? It killed the combustion process at a molecular level. Truly remarkable stuff.
Truly EEEEVUL stuff, though -- for the greenies. So, abracadabra, no more halogen fire extinguishers -- except for use in (the irony, the irony), jet engines.
Each jet engine has a halogen bottle. If the engine catches fire, the pilot dumps the bottle, because that's the ONLY way to put OUT the fire.
The irony is, the location that this is apt to happen, i.e., the stratosphere! Oh, the ozone, the ozone! LOL!
Anyway, a Halon bottle that sold for two or three bucks (a little one-shot dealie) was suddenly worth an arm and a leg. Bigger extinguishers got more and more expensive as the supply dried up.
Freon and Halogen became gaseous gold.
Expect the same thing to happen with the common 100W lightbulb (the first one targetted for destruction).
I sure am glad we didn't get Al Gore running the country. Otherwise, stuff like THIS would be happening!
Oh, wait...
PS: As to halogen lights? Call me cynical, but I expect they'll be "tolerated" for a while -- to make the bitter pill easier to swallow -- and then, once the deal is done, they'll be outlawed (after all, they DO have that Devil Halogen in them).
And then there's the poor woman who had to pay several thousand bucks "toxic cleanup" because she dropped a CF bulb onto her carpeted floor...
Land of the free. Keep repeating it. Who knows? Maybe you'll end up believing it!
PPS: Do you own a projector? (slide/movie/LCD) Might want to stock up on bulbs for that too, while you still can.
Of course, if I did that, by the time they were outlawed, some new politicians would rescind the law, and I'd be stuck with them--LOL!
I dunno about the intensity, but I know that under fluorescent lighting, I suddenly become vain. Usually, as a male, I’m happy with clean clothes and a shave. But under fluorescent lighting I suddenly realize that I have many flaws on my face. LOL.
I’ve always thought it would be nice to Freep by candle light anyway...
If your belief becomes the widely held belief among consumers, flourescents will win in the market-place without interference from government. That is the way it should be done.
If, for some reason there would be some negative unintended consequences, they would fail in the market-place. With the government involved, we are stuck with a flourescents, good or bad. Government is very unlikely to back off, even if they are wrong.
We have some new technology. Let the market decide if it is an improvement.
I hate to put on the tinfoil but I wonder if that’s part of the reson for this...
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