UK DIY Wiki : "The Lightbulb Ban"

lightbulb manufacturers have

Owain

Yup I see what you mean, there was lots of complexity and duplication in there...

I have moved some of the preachy stuff about costs of various technologies to the talk page - for inclusion in a separate "lighting cost" article. That seems to make more sense than crufting up all the lighting articles with the same stuff. This one seems better focussed on the task at hand - i.e. variable illumination levels.

I think the issue about torch bulbs is that in order to use the reflectors the light needs to come out of the device at a verywide angle. Not something leds are known for. Brian

I will E-mail you a 25kB ZIP of a private page on saving power costs; for use or comment as you wish, but not for re-publication as is.

If LED light comes out at a narrow angle, then old reflectors are useless b ut harmless. Of my nearest three LED torches, one has no reflector, one has a seemingly-useless reflector, and one has a mildly-useful reflector.

If the new LED uses the same power as the original MES, it will be consider ably brighter and so ineffectiveness of a reflector is unimportant!

It looks like the ones in your first link do not use the torch reflector in any way, but the ones in your second link radiate sideways and the reflector would help as before.

Minimising energy use is a hot topic these days, with lots of people desiri ng to do so. That energy use is most easily measured in electricity cost. I t thus seems odd to remove an important consideration in lighting choice. Y es it all needs work, but I don't think removing the data is the solution.

NT

ok got it ta. I will have a look through shortly.

Its an important topic, and hence worthy of its own article.

I can't see the point of including masses of comparisons between CFLs and incandescent energy use in an article that is supposed to be about controlling lighting levels.

As the article itself states, there are lots of benefits for allowing more controllable illumination levels and few of these have anything to do with reducing energy use. So keep it focussed on ways of doing that.

Sure a comment warning that running some lamp types on a dimmer may not save energy (or even cost more if one chooses to run more powerful lamps) is worth including, there is no need to get carried away with it here. Same goes for stuff about light bulb bans etc. Not really relevant to the topic under discussion.

The information removed from that article can still be used elsewhere.

Cheaper to buy an LED torch.

That was the conclusion I came to, at least for small torches.

Depends on the torch. My 2D Maglite has a conversion bulb, but I bought a new 2 AA torch.

I bought conversion kits for all my Maglites years ago.

Saved me a fortune in replacement bulbs when I drop them.

In the spirit of DIY for 3v and red LEDs in bicycle rear lights and 4.5v and white in torches you can DIY make a superbright LED in series with a smallish current limiting resistor ~62R for 30mA (or alternatively use nearly spent batteries relying on cell internal resistance to current limit and keep an eye out for leaks).

Modern clear LED housings are designed to create a highly collimated forward beam anyway so the reflector has very little work to do.

One of their great advantages on cars light clusters and motorway "please don't hit me" signs is that they are visible from a long way away but gradually dim as you draw closer but off the optical axis.