Sale of Incandescent Bulbs to End on Tuesday?

[Andrew Gabriel]

The manufacturers are currently pushing the EU to allow them to remove the power rating from CFL lamps, arguing that it's only confusing consumers. Not as much as their incorrect claims of filament lamp equivalency are.

As regulars on uk.d-i-y will know, I've been pointing out the misleading claims of equivalency with filament lamp ratings for many years. My recommendation is to ignore the equivalency given on the packaging (which is usually 5 or more times the CFL rating). Feit (sold by Costco) is the only make I've seen in the UK with realistic filament equivalancy ratings on the packet.

The most efficient CFLs are those with exposed tubes, and amongst those, it's the ones with the tubes separated as much as possible -- well spaced out. For these, use a general rule of a 4:1 ratio for filament lamp to CFL equivalency. So to replace a 100W filament lamp, you'll be looking for a 23-25W CFL. (18W is the highest stocked by most supermarkets, which is why you may be struggling to find something to replace a 100W filament lamp.)

As the lamp is made more compact (tubes squashed closer together) which is required to fit in some light fittings, the folded tube limbs start significantly shadowing each other and efficiency falls. For the most compact ones, you're probably looking at a 3:1 ratio.

CFLs which have an outer bulb covering the tubes will lose effiency in this outer bulb, and they usually have a more compact folded tube arrangement in order to fit into the outer bulb. (The one place where they can win is when used outdoors in an exposed windy location, where the outer bulb will help the tube to warm up to the correct temperature without suffering from wind-chill.)

CFLs with integral reflectors have the lowest efficiency of all, because the large light source inherent with a CFL is really bad for designing efficient reflector lamps. The smaller the reflector with respect to the tube physical size, the worse the efficiency. The really small ones have a ratio sometimes worse than 2:1, so a

7W reflector CFL is equivalent to approx 14W filament lamp, although it will probably claim to be equivalent to a 30W lamp on the package.

[Cynic]

There is not a lot of hype - CFLs are being pushed rather than LED, but they are living on borrowed time. Just wait a year or two. Most of the stuff in the shops at present are designed for decorative lighting, though there are a few items that are good for general lighting. Most of the good stuff is at present sold b2b rather than consumer sales, but that will change very soon. I predict that in 10 years it will be the main form of lighting just about anywhere.

[AA]

It is possible but it is still a very steep price performance curve.

Please have a read at one of the many good books on interior lighting design to understand the differnce between general and task lighting and the actual expected illuminance levels.

Certainly beginning to drop down the price performance curve but, in my experince, this is making it of more interest to more commercial users, who look at lifetime not just purchase cost, but domestic consumers just balk at the cost.

Would absolutely agree there, as to Andrew`s comments about Patents dropping off the perch, dont think Philips spent so much money on Color Kinetics just to get its then existing product line, the Big Three lighting outfits, Osram,Philips, GE, are as keen to stay the big three as they ever were.

Metal halide in real world applications is a good deal more efficient than even lab rat LED, high pressure sodium has come on in leaps and bounds in last 20 years, LED is one tool in the lighting designers toolbox, but one of a quite a few.As a supplier dinnae end up looking like a hammer salesman, where everything looks like a nail.

Adam

[Owain]

And we wouldn't want that to happen. The guide dog might need counselling after witnessing a traumatic event.

Owain

[John Rumm]

Well there is plenty of comment along the lines of "LED will be really good when its ready". The problem is that has been said for many years now. Hence why I was hoping there was some evidence of progress.

So there should be details of that on a web site somewhere. What should we be searching for? Brand names, fitting and lamp types etc?

[ARWadsworth]

I am still waiting to buy the fold-up car that was featured on Tomorrows World. Apparently it would fit in a suitcase.

Adam

[ARWadsworth]

I take your point about *potentially*

A spacecraft can travel for millions of miles in orbit around a planet or it can drift in space at millions of mile per hour without any power.

A quote from Buzz Aldrin "Apollo 11 managed 7 gallons per inch on lift off"

Imagine nipping down to the shops for a pint of milk with that sort of fuel use.

Adam

[Cynic]

The big difference being that no fold-up car has been commercially produced (the idea was ridiculous to start with), whereas there is a huge range of LED lighting already available, and increasing all the time.

[Cynic]

the first 6 sites out of 75000 in a quick search.

You have probably seen many places illuminated by LED lighting without realising it.

[Cherry Chapstick]

Oh, right. Gotcha.

[Cherry Chapstick]

Five years ago there were no LED torches available within an ordinary budget; now they're the main form of torch available from stores such as Millets, and very useful they are, too.

The progress that I am demonstrating here is that LED bulbs have made headway in one market where low power ratings and long life are a consumer premium. I believe that LED lights are now very popular on bikes, as well, as headlamps.

LED will become the main type of home lighting; there's no doubt about that.

[ARWadsworth]

LED lighting is as ridiculous as a fold up car. Neither will work properly IMHO

Adam

[Richard Tobin]

But who has one of those? I'm not going to "design" the lighting in my house, it's already been done 130 years ago. I have a lamp with a dimmer on it, and don't feel any urgent need for more.

Dimming is handy in a few cases, but hardly "essential".

-- Richard

[Graham Murray]

How can a wattage figure on CFLs confuse consumers any more than that on filament lamps? It would only confuse the consumer if the consumer is not charged for 1 kwH 'unit' of electricity for every 1000/N hours it is switched on where N is the advertised wattage. In which case, not only would it be confusing the consumer but would be mis-description and therefore contravene the Sale of Goods Act.

[ARWadsworth]

So what do you do when you want to seduce a woman?

Adam

[AA]

Just simply adding a dimmable table/floor lamp ring in a room in addition to dimmable ceiling lights can make a huge difference. Psychologically think we are programmed to time of day by birghtness and angle of light, light from a low angle feels more natural and relaxing in the evening. Lights that fade are far more satisfying, when was the last time you were in a theatre that switched the houselights out?

Presumably to accommodate , the by then advanced, gas lighting, which was a devastating increase in brightness over the oil lamp, but obviously limited in positioning by practical reasons. Electric light has often been pulled through the old gas pipes, its convenient to install but takes none of the advantages now available.

At least you have a lamp with a dimmer on it, the conversions working ;-)

In a modern lighting design , with the luxury of open voids to run cable where ever it is required , cable is cheap, but people always think about the lighting just after they put the wallpaper up....

Adam

[tony sayer]

In article , ARWadsworth scribeth thus

Gaslight silly;!...

[Derek Geldard]

This report more or less tells it like it is.

It does however make it clear that the measurements were taken after a

10 minute warm up period. Rather a long time to be waiting around on the landing before venturing down the stairs.

So eat your heart out Mary Fisher and Dynamo Hansen.

Understandably not tested was the deterioration in light output over time. My experience is that you can reckon on up to a 50% reduction in light output over the first 12 months as the very heavily used small area of phosphor blackens and gets scoured off the tight bends .

Similarly not yet tested have been the totally bogus claims of longevity, and these seem to be getting more and more wildly exaggerated. Claims of 8 years appearing on CFL packaging wheras a more realistic estimate would be 8 to 18 months.

Derek

[ARWadsworth]

Not a 12 inch candle then?

Adam

[Owain]

American housewives don't have to imagine - they just hop in the humvee and run down to Walmart for poptarts and ammo.

Owain