I saw these in a local electrical w/saler and thought - I'll give them a try. They were suggested to replace a 500w T/Halogen tube lamp in those black fitting which include a PIR. A CFL moulded such that it plugs in instead of the usual 500w T/H tube.
Their light output is at best pretty dismal, my guess less than 10% at switch on, rising to a little better if left on a few minutes to warm up fully - problem is they are out there in the cold.
TLC had something similar and originally claimed some ridiculous figure, but seem to have got things sorted now. Some quite interesting reading here :-
No mention of startup times on the PIR version, and the others base their costs on all night, every night. I doubt mine is on for half an hour a night - so 180 hours per year, not the 3000 they talk about...
For me, tungsten is right. I wonder when they'll ban it?
Andy
Found this interesting article on another group. Get the colour right!
i've got one of them to light up my back garden,
mine was the entire light from B&Q&Q&Q&Q some more, tenner it was ifrc.
box never said the cfl would be the equivelent to a 500 watt halogen, and i never expected it either, nore did i want it.
a 150 watt halogen overlit the back garden i found,
for me the cfl light does all i want, yes it does take a little while to warm up, especialy when it's below freezing, but it throws out enough light to enable me to see where i'm walking down the garden, i just need to be able to avoid the dogs land mines.
garden is 10 meters long, 12 wide, and i have the fitting practicaly pointing at the floor, it's mounted on the eves line of the bungalow, and it illuminates to the top of the bottom fence like that, any higher and it's shining into the next garden and their bungalow that's 20 meters away.
ok so i couldent do much gardening by the light, but as all i wanted was a low cost cheap to run light to illuminate the garden for 5 minutes a night whilst i let the dog out, and occasionaly go down the bottom so see what she's found when she wont come back, it's perfect.
gazz formulated on Tuesday :
Ours is 50 - 60 yards long by about 40 wide at the far end and the CFL is not even bright enough to touch the ground. It was only a test, I'll be swapping back to the halogen soon. Our dog has trained herself to carry a torch in her mouth to see her way around :-)
On Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:59:36 GMT someone who may be Harry Bloomfield wrote this:-
The wrong application for that sort of lamp.
If a lamp is to be left on for long periods then the sensible thing to do is use something designed for that, SON being the prime example.
If the lamp is to be switched on for short periods only then there are advantages to linear halogen lamps. They will presumably be replaced by LEDs sometime, but there is a while to go.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.