Posted on 01/02/2007 8:57:15 AM PST by mathprof
As a way to cut energy use, it could not be simpler. Unscrew a light bulb that uses a lot of electricity and replace it with one that uses much less.
While it sounds like a promising idea, it turns out that the long-lasting, swirl-shaped light bulbs known as compact fluorescent lamps are to the nation’s energy problem what vegetables are to its obesity epidemic: a near perfect answer, if only Americans could be persuaded to swallow them.
But now Wal-Mart Stores, the giant discount retailer, is determined to push them into at least 100 million homes. And its ambitions extend even further, spurred by a sweeping commitment from its chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr., to reduce energy use across the country, a move that could also improve Wal-Mart’s appeal to the more affluent consumers the chain must win over to keep growing in the United States.
“The environment,” Mr. Scott said, “is begging for the Wal-Mart business model.”
It is the environmental movement’s dream: America’s biggest company, legendary for its salesmanship and influence with suppliers, encouraging 200 million shoppers to save energy.
For all its power in retailing, though, Wal-Mart is meeting plenty of resistance — from light-bulb makers, competitors and consumers....
A compact fluorescent has clear advantages over the widely used incandescent light — it uses 75 percent less electricity, lasts 10 times longer, produces 450 pounds fewer greenhouse gases from power plants and saves consumers $30 over the life of each bulb. But it is eight times as expensive as a traditional bulb, gives off a harsher light and has a peculiar appearance.
As a result, the bulbs have languished on store shelves for a quarter century; only 6 percent of households use the bulbs today.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
For some reason, the ones where the curlicue is hidden behind another piece of glass still seem to have the long warmup time (heat issues?).
There are versions that work on dimmers, but they're more expensive and hard to find (except online).
They don't cost $8 any more (unless you need the special kind that will work on a dimmer-switch light).
I saw the smoothbore kentucky rifle thread yesterday. I liked the reference to the automatic shotgun.
You got me on this mispoken word. You area an honorary threadcop.
I'll amend my statement. Almost all 120v. screw in lamps (professional term for light bulbs) that use a medium screw base and are in permanently mounted fixtures us CF lamps.
Better?
TV usually gives me a headache, but I don't think it has anything to do with flickering....
Yeah, for multiple reasons. When I was in college, I figured I had already seen just about all of the possible plots on TV. I would watch a movie and realize it was a different set of people doing the same story. My TV watching watching dropped rapidly at that point. I figured I was wasting a lot of time watching other people live their lives rather than living my own.
Sure, I like a bit of escape now and then or a good football game.
I think that the eyes which effected me were more halogen in their brillance. They make everything in \a store brighter, whiter, and cause alot of glare.
Does it look funny now? :)
Floursecent lights make one's color look, I dunno, gray or green or something...
At $0.10/kwH, a 60W bulb will cost 0.6 cents per hour to operate. If the bulb is used ten hours a day, that's $1.80/month. Most bulbs are used a lot less.
A photograph cannot really show the differences in spectral quality among different types of light. Incandescent bulbs output light at nearly all wavelengths within the visible spectrum, while LEDs and fluorescents output light at a fairly small number of discrete wavelengths. Light which looks white may cause the colors of objects to appear quite distorted. I have an orange toy pistol, for example, which looks magenta when illuminated by an LED flashlight. True, the flashlight's output looks somewhat bluish, but nowhere near bluish enough to cause the perceived color shift.
Addendum to my other post: are there any CFL-comparison sites that show spectrographs of the different units? I would think spectral uniformity would be far more important than hue or saturation.
it turns out that the long-lasting, swirl-shaped light bulbs known as compact fluorescent lamps are to the nation’s energy problem what vegetables are to its obesity epidemic: a near perfect answer, if only Americans could be persuaded to swallow them. But now Wal-Mart Stores, the giant discount retailer, is determined to push them into at least 100 million homes.I use quite a few of these at home. I would encourage everyone to get a bit more wattage than you think you'll need, as the lowest wattage flo-bulbs are a bit dim. They are great in ceiling fixtures, and gooseneck desk and bedlamps.
I use a ring-type warm white tube in two bedroom lamps with shades. The tubes create a more diffuse light, actually look nicer than an incandescent.
It depends on what brand you get. Many are still slow, especially those that have the spring bulb enclosed in some other housing for appearance's sake or because you need a flood or spot rather than a point source. Bare spring bulbs are ugly and glarey in many existing fixtures. Oh, and don't even think about dimmers.
I used to see excessive voltages most of the year until the local power co. put in a higher capacity subfeed to my neighborhood. The older wimpier connection suffered enough voltage drop that in order to keep the system from brownouts in the summer it would go up to 130 volts at less heavily loaded times.
Efficiency Jump for White OLEDs
MIT Technology Review | Neil Savage
Posted on 11/22/2006 8:33:15 PM EST by annie laurie
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1742935/posts
They're actually available in lots of color temps now; you just have to look around a bit because most suppliers, including Wal-Mart, tend to have lots of different wattage ratings but no selection at all in color temp.
I'm fond of the 6500ishK variety myself, which is much closer to real daylight than the typical incandescent, but different applications definitely call for different temps. Office work, shops, laundry rooms, and such do nicely with the very white 6500 variety. Living areas often benefit from the warmer (lower temp) bulbs. All depends on what mood your'e looking for.
I've had good luck finding different temps at Home Depot.
MM
Compare that to incandescents, when I was recently living on travel, I was replacing the nice, good quality GE bulbs on average every 2-3 months...can you say PITA??
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