Ceiling lights in 2009?

Aug 02, 2007 16 Replies

I'm planning a new kitchen and bathroom, and intended embedding mini spotlights in the ceilings. However, someone pointed out that we will all be forced to go green in a couple of years, and will only be able to buy energy- efficient bulbs from then on. I doubt you will find energy-efficient mini spots (even if they exist, they will be too big to fit in the fitting), so what happens then?


Everybody ignores the whole silly thing as they should do.

It's all you can do really. The number of things I do regularly that i'm not (only of late it would seem) really allowed to beggars belief.

If you redesignate them as combined light and heating devices, suddenly they're almost 100% efficient!

A

wrote

Sounds good until you realise that much of the heat will float? out the back of the fitting. If you have a single storey kitchen extension (as I do) this is waste heat :-(

Phil

By 2009 they will have gone out of fashion anyway, and will be heading for avocado bathroom suite status.

Nah - chocolate brown...

Avacado will probably be back in by then

Andy

No, by 2009 they will have realised that the mercury in energy efficient bulbs is a pollutant and will have banned them all, along with the incandescent ones, so we will be back to reeds dipped in lamb fat !

AWEM

Which will have to be imported due to the decimation of sheep farming caused by the CAP, etc.

MBQ

LV halogen is pretty darn efficient, totally different from your 60W GLS that really has reached end of useful life.

CFL and CCFL may be energy efficient in consumption but really do question embodied energy and end of life energy costs. You do get them in MR16 size but output is less than overwhelming.

LED is catching up fast but next years will be twice as bright and half the cost.

Adam

the embodied energy is small compared to the energy saved in use.

Re future proofing, the simple answer is to use fittings that will take a range of options. Whether the future is cfl, gls, halogen or LED, suitably sized BC socketed uplighters will take all of these. Ditto downlighters, but with higher run cost.

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In message , snipped-for-privacy@care2.com writes

Interesting. Thanks NT.

I might not be wasted - it will probably keep the snow off the roof.

If this is an extension subject to building regs, Part L will almost certainly require you use lighting of >= 40lm/W, which rules out halogens anyway. (Another option if your BCO allows is to fit high efficiency lighting in another commonly used room instead, as it's only required in a proportion of the commonly used rooms.)

They are better, but don't come close to CFLs.

Quite insignificant compared with filament lamp consumption.

It's a mismatch of technologies. Fluorescent lamps make poor compact light sources.

LED technology has always claimed to be "just around the corner", but has consistently failed to produce any usable technology for a decade (other than a few specialised applications). For those who want to stick with minature high intensity sources, metal halide has already taken over from halogens commercially, and this trend will continue into domestic market as the initial purchase price drops.

Halogen may well make a come-back too with a significant rise in efficiency. A number of lamp manufacturers are working on halogen (and other) filaments with micro pattening on the surface which prevents emission of longer wavelengths (Infra-red), enabling the filament to operate at the same temperature at significantly lower power input.

Sounds interesting. Would any such patterning not evaporate fairly soon? Do you have a link?

NT

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