They actually have filament-style electrodes. They somewhat get away with lack of preheating those filaments during starting, but the "hot cathode" "filament style" electrodes are still what is there!
Availability to force starting without preheating the filament electrodes is "Instant Start". This is opposed to "Rapid Start", "Program Start", and a couple other schemes.
True instant start is something that I think goes at best at own risk when dimming is used!
Do you believe that 130V-rated (commercial?) incandescent lamps, operating at ~120VAC, are longer-lasting enough to be worth the hassle of getting them (wholesaler) and price, compared to an everyday bulb?
I recall that, some >30-years ago, I acquired one or more 130V-rated incandescent lamps from one of the local, "city sales" wholesaler. I don't remember following-up on the lamp's lifespan, but it was an attempt to increase the operating life of a hard-to-reach lamp.
My biggest road block to converting to compact fluorescent lamps is that all but one of my most-used light fixtures is controlled by a dimmer switch that gets USED.
I need FILAMENTS to illuminate my home. A governmental mandate - un-funded, I might add - to force me to convert to CFLs (beginning in a couple years) is unconstitutional.
The federal government may NOT legislate the forced conversion to a replacement technology unless it can be PROVEN that it is a superior technology in ALL ways but, most importantly, retrofit CO$T.
This is the twenty-first century! We can (and should) no longer avoid harvesting our own energy resources within our own lands.
Our air and water are cleaner than they have EVER been, yet, during that same time, we've been growing and prospering as a society. We've learned from our mistakes in the past. When we have an oil spill, it's often reported by the gallon instead of the barrel to prop-up the all important NUMBER.
A modern oil drilling operation has a surprisingly small footprint. When they are done at that location, they restore the site to before-drilling conditions.
We need to build more oil refineries domestically then go get more of OUR OWN oil. This would certainly slow the RISE in the price of gasoline.
We also need to start building more nuclear-powered, electricity generating stations. No thanks to prohibitive legislative and environmental enactments, it takes YEARS just to do the paperwork for a new nuke. That needs to be whittled-down to a couple of years at most.
It's only 2008 and we apparently can't WAIT to forget about 9/11. (2001 for those of you that forgot.)
Next March 28, it will be thirty YEARS since the TMI2 (Three Mile Island Unit 2) "accident" and we can apparently NEVER forget.
Which event killed more people?
Carbon footprint? When compared to a nuclear power station, an equivalent coal-fired operation has a *HUGE* footprint. It's fuel is delivered 2-3 times a week by the >100-car TRAINLOAD. It adds to the MOUNTAIN of coal that a station keeps on hand.
Omaha has such an operation along the Nebraska side of the Missouri river. The railroad tracks bisect the city.
We also benefit from Fort Calhoun (nuclear) Generating Station somewhat further north upriver from OPPD's North Omaha (coal-fired) Station.
My utility is currently building a second, coal-fired unit outside Nebraska City - about 60 miles south of Omaha along the Missouri river.
I would LOVE another nuke.
But, I digress. Back to Thomas Alva Edison's most earth-changing invention: The light bulb.
The federal mandate to phase-out the common incandescent lamp is an unconstitutional encroachment on the private sector.
Banning ourselves (huh?) from harvesting huge fuel resources within our own lands is absurd at least. Considering the price of gas, it's become stupid, too.
We really need to grow a BRAIN and a backbone about energy: The BRAIN to build it (refinery, drill site or nuke power station) and the BACKBONE to OVERCOME all the hand-wringing and shrieks of anguish from the crybaby left while it happens - clean, safe and quite overdue.
I agree with most of the rest of your post. But I'd like to see on what basis you think this is unconstitutional. There are vast numbers of laws on the federal books that ban all kinds of things. The ban not too long ago on freon is probably the closest example. Back in the 30's they even banned private possession of gold, which is extreme, and no one successfully challenged that on any constitutional grounds.
Hi, Definitely those long life commercial grade ones lasts longer. Also there is another one called rough duty ones. They are good for ceiling light or trouble light fixtures. Pretty soon incadescent bulbs will be out of production like diminishing R22 refrigerant.
They are available at Lowes. You can also get Philips "/99" series incandescents from bulbs.com - those are rated to last 2500 hours.
Target now has dimmable CFLs.
Home Depot is already selling incandescents with energy efficiency improved enough to not be affected by the ban that starts in 2012-2014. They are rated to last 3,000 hours and are dimmable. They are Philips Halogena "Energy Saver".
All fluorescents except cold cathode types have a filament at each end to use as an electrode. They have a coating that gets sputtered (effectively evaporated), and much more rapidly if they are not at the proper temperature. When that coating is gone, the fluorescent lamp does not work too well (often not at all) anymore.
For low lighting, if you use LED bulbs that have several lower power LEDs, I recommend green or blue ones for longer life if you can accept the color. The green ones are brighter. Many low power white LEDs fade, with a halflife often only around a year.
Same story with LED nightlights. Green and blue are brightest for night vision and red is dimmest.
Kind of a matter of semantics. CFLs usually don't have a filament as in the long tubes. They do have an electrode at each end. The filaments in the standard tubes are used as heaters to help in starting. CFLs use a higher voltage that don't require the pre-heater.
In instant-start hot cathode fluorescents including instant start CFLs, the electrodes are still in the form of filaments.
Also, many hot cathode CFLs are not true instant start but "program start" or "trigger start" ("rapid start" with filament heating current reduced once the lamp gets started). The filaments actually get preheated in those.
Cold cathode CFLs don't have filaments, but few CFLs are cold cathode. I have never seen Home Depot carrying more than one cold cathode model - the 3 watt N:Vision one. And I was there yesterday.
A 130V incandescent being operated at 120 volts consumes about 89%, maybe 88% of rated power. (Not 85% - the filament's resistance varies directly with temperature.)
And when a 130V incandescent is operated at 120 volts, it produces about 75-76% of its full light output. Efficiency decreases a lot when an incandescent is underpowered.
A 130V 100W incandescent only outshines a 75W 120V one due to incandescents having "economies of scale" that reduce the efficiency of lower wattage and lower current ones. A 75W 120V incandescent produces about 69% of the light of a 100W one.
One more note: If you have incandescents on a dimmer and usually operate them dimmed, consider using a lower wattage to use less dimming. Although a 75W incandescent produces 69% of the light of a 100 watt one, a 100 watt one dimmed to consume 75 watts has about 53% of its full output.
That leads to another consideration: Reduce the number of bulbs if you can - a smaller number of higher wattage bulbs will be slightly more efficient than a larger number of lower wattage ones. Just don't take this to an extreme that affects evenness of illumination.
I'm not a lawyer. I don't even play one on the internet.
My claim is based on wishful thinking, not on actual case law.
That's a good point, and darned frustrating: Today, there is evidence that CFCs are not the ozone-depleting threat once charged. R-12 was good stuff.
Did the Supreme Court ever hear it?
Too much of our Constitution is simply - and quietly - side stepped.
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