Govt banning lightbulbs.... wot about halogens?

[Derek Geldard]

On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:22:20 GMT, "clot" wrote: I have

You carry it from room to room with you then ? ;-)

DG

[Lobster]

SAGA outing? ;-)

[clot]

Of course; doesn't everyone? :)

[Dave]

And to add to that, what about the deforestation of this world? Isn't it that trees remove carbon dioxide from the the atmosphere and turn it into oxygen. That was what I was taught in school.

Dave

[Dave]

I might be getting on a bit these days, but I have suffered this all my driving life.

I have very good night vision and I suffer the same problem. I sometimes wonder if the good night vision is some compensation for being slightly red/green colour blind.

At this time of year and at the equivalent sun cycle in spring, I find it very difficult to drive with the sun to my right when passing trees. My eyes are adjusting like mad to compensate.

Dave

[tim.....]

I'd agree if the people that make these bulbs didn't persist in the fiction that an 11W bulb gives the same light as an 60W.

As it is now, you go out and buy some bulbs, find that they aren't bright enough and have to re-arrange your lighting.

tim

[jim]

that incandescent lightbulbs are

////snip/////

you are too late. mate.

latest Screwfix catalog (no 88 page 271) contains statement that Screwfix has stopped selling GLS lamps for your own good

enjoy the dim mercury laden world of our future

[tim.....]

This doesn't work if you are renting a place for a year.

Why should I spend 100 pounds on light bulbs that the next tenant is going to get the benefit of?

tim

[Andrew Gabriel]

Take them with you and put the originals back.

Reminds me of a storey someone posted here many years ago. Moved into a new house, only to find the previous owners had packed up and taken all the light bulbs with them, so a quick trip to the shops was required. A couple of weeks later, peered up into the loft, and was surprised to see there was a lightbulb left behind -- they'd missed one. So he carefully removed it, packed it up, and posted it on the the previous owners...

[tim.....]

and if the new house has no need for 16*E14 candle bulbs? :-(

tim

[Flash]

But you can still get them at

[Jim Backus]

Another government nonsense - the same government that is banning tungsten lightbulbs is catering for airport expansion that will wipe out any saving from the use of CFLs many times over.

[John Rumm]

Its not as true as they would have you believe... the large forests are mostly balanced ecosystems, so they neither contribute or take away, the flora produces O2, the decaying vegetation and fauna however consume it.

What they are however is vast stores of carbon. The real problem comes when you cut em down and burn them, that releases it.

A good proportion of the O2 is produced by algae.

[Si]

In message , Dave writes

have you tried folding the sun visor over to the side window?

[clot]

Not quite the same problem, but to me those clowns who have not only headlights on but foglights as well, make me seriously concerned that I might hit a pedestrian due to their inconsideration. I could genuinely count on one hand the number of times that I use full beam in a year. I drive more than 20k per annum.

[Jason]

We had dimmable fluorescents in the lecture theatres at university, back in the early 80s. It's not like it is a new technology, but you are right about it being more difficult to handle over just two wires, when the control gear is in the lamp fitting. I think the ultimate solution would be sending signal and power separately to the bulbs, i.e. full power piggy-backed with a signal to tell the bulb what brightness to set itself to. It would work kind of like those X11 home automation systems, with the receivers built into the bulbs.

-- JJ

[Jason]

So who are 'they' that would have you believe they are not balanced eco-systems? I've never heard otherwise.

[Chris J Dixon]

How much of that is on unlit roads after dark?

Chris

[Stuart Noble]

Can't say I've experienced that, but the underpass thing is spooky, and I've only noticed it this year (mainly on the northern approach to the Blackwall Tunnel). I'm pretty sure they've changed the lighting

[Derek Geldard]

In the '80s (potentially installed in the '70s) it would have been done using a large saturable reactor, or maybe a large variac. I've never seen one but potentially the size and weight of a volkswagon beetle.

That can be done easily enough using semiconductor ballasts by varying the AC power input. Our equipment can be dimmed down to about 15% that way. Eventually there is not enough energy going into the tubes to keep the filaments up to temperature, and the tube may not start very well if it's switched on at a low power setting. Lower outputs can be achieved by feeding the ballasts with a seperate feed of full mains power and driving the filaments from this via a filament transformer.

Eg Osram/Sylvania quicktronic :

It's a simple 0-10v analogue control system which makes it possible to achieve automatic balancing of light output in display signs as tubes age.

I've not seen any addressable ones - yet.

DG