Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Light Less Power
Wink: Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.
Australia is in the process of banning ordinary incandescent light bulbs in favour of compact florescents. This in the interest of using less electricity thus helping the environment. Other countries are considering its merits.
I switched over to the compact florescents as much as I could some time ago. As much as I could - they don't work in all situations. For example if you use the X-10 remote control system they won't work. They won't work on any system that has a dimmer switch. Because there is a slight current flow through the switch in these instances, the compact florescent will tend to vibrate like a strobe light and won't last long.
You can buy special compact florescents suitable for use on dimmers, but the price will knock any saving for a loop.
There are also some dangers if the compacts are not used in a well ventilated socket. And in the case of some floodlight style compacts they may not fit the socket at all. I am finding they do not last the advertised 7 years, more like a year or two in places where they are turned off and on a lot.
They are also not suitable for outside wet locations. If used in outside buildings during cold weather they take an exceptionally long time to warm up to full brightness.
Despite all these quirks, I like them. They do use very little power, and I particularly like the daylight colour ones for some situations.
I am also wondering why there isn't more use of LED lighting in homes. Surely mass production could bring the price down. They use even less power than the compact florescents. I expect they have other characteristics as well, such as dimming over time.
No matter what, it seems the old heat producing, power gobbling incandescent bulb as overstayed its welcome.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Australia is in the process of banning ordinary incandescent light bulbs in favour of compact florescents. This in the interest of using less electricity thus helping the environment. Other countries are considering its merits.
I switched over to the compact florescents as much as I could some time ago. As much as I could - they don't work in all situations. For example if you use the X-10 remote control system they won't work. They won't work on any system that has a dimmer switch. Because there is a slight current flow through the switch in these instances, the compact florescent will tend to vibrate like a strobe light and won't last long.
You can buy special compact florescents suitable for use on dimmers, but the price will knock any saving for a loop.
There are also some dangers if the compacts are not used in a well ventilated socket. And in the case of some floodlight style compacts they may not fit the socket at all. I am finding they do not last the advertised 7 years, more like a year or two in places where they are turned off and on a lot.
They are also not suitable for outside wet locations. If used in outside buildings during cold weather they take an exceptionally long time to warm up to full brightness.
Despite all these quirks, I like them. They do use very little power, and I particularly like the daylight colour ones for some situations.
I am also wondering why there isn't more use of LED lighting in homes. Surely mass production could bring the price down. They use even less power than the compact florescents. I expect they have other characteristics as well, such as dimming over time.
No matter what, it seems the old heat producing, power gobbling incandescent bulb as overstayed its welcome.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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