I have some LV 50w halogen downlighters in my kitchen, fitted a couple of years ago, each one with its own transformer. It's only recently dawned on me what these were costing to run, and even after changing to 20w, I wondered if there was anything I could substitute for these without a complete re-installation.
Any ideas?
Regards and thanks in advance
Pat Macguire
Candles, oil lamps,flaming balls of pitch on sticks?
Sorry it isn`t Filament Bad , Fluro good, halogen lamps are up the order of efficiency , by several orders from a typical 60W bulb,LV halogen goes up a few points more.
Changing for 20W lamps will lower your energy use by 40% and your available light by 40%. Kitchen is a place where potential for accident is high, brighter is better.
Yup there is CCFL MR16 lamps around, they aren`t very efficient, lot of the light is lost inside the fitting and they tend to be short lived, with the embodied energy and toxic materials used in manufacture, they aint `green`.
Lighting is rarely the most significant energy consumer in domestic settings, looking at heating and insulation will bring faster payback and be genuinely greener.
Adam
"Several orders"? They may be getting on for twice as efficient but no more than that (that's comparing a low voltage halogen with a mains non-halogen).
Twice as efficient is still not to be sniffed at, depends on the size of your order ;-) Should of course have said 40% of existing light level and 60% lower than previous level The IR reflective envelope halogens as linked to from Osram are approaching 3 times that of a selected poor performing non halogen.
Adam
IR reflective coatings give about 30% improvement in ideal conditions over a non-IR reflective halogen. The nearest to ideal conditions are the linear/tubular halogens where the IR can be focused back onto the filament (when it's new, before it sags). These work well in the 375W (replacing 500W) and 225W (replacing 300W) lamps, when you can find them. However, the effect wears off somewhat as the filament droops and goes out of focus of the reflected IR. There's still a benefit when the IR can't be focused back on the filament, but it's not as much.
Another technique which more than one of the lamp manufacturers is developing is the use of a patterned filament surface at IR wavelengths which impedes the filament's ability to radiate IR. If they can get that to work reliably, and for the lifetime of the filament, it should give even better results.
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