I've heard everything in between too. I haven't seen any definitive reference, though.
Generally light bulbs are used to make light.
If can get by with less light, use a lower wattage bulb. If the bulb is a PITA to get to, spend the money. It really is that simple.
I'll second Lew's recommendation for heat tapes.
I draw my water from the lake, 125' from the house. The line is under the ice in the lake and 6' under the ground to the crawlspace under the house.
I have more than a few places where the typically lowest -40° temps will freeze my lines, and all of those places are protected with tape. The beauty of tape is that it's not a single source of warmth like a light bulb. It's spread out over the length, which gives a lot of flexibility in directing the warmth from the tape. As well, it's never hot, just warm to the touch, which is enough to keep my lines clear but not enough to be a fire hazard.
Cheaper too. I can't recall the wattage on those lines but it's much much less than at 100 w. bulb, even with the 6-8 lines I run.
Tanus
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If the lamp is to be "On" for at least 10 minutes, CFL makes sense.
Less than 10 minutes it's a poor choice.
Lew
On Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:01:35 -0800, the infamous "Lew Hodgett" scrawled the following:
Erm, how many lights to you flick on and off, Lew? Who are you signalling?
The Enterprise. ;-)
Well, for a start there's the one in the bog/toilet/loo/little boys room or whatever term you use for the room where you take a piss :-)
Recent reports published in europe show that CFLs loose as much as 40% of their output during their claimed life
Back yard, neighbor's tree, neighbor's gas tank, hotel sink?
Indeed. More places CFLs aren't useful.
I have yet to see a cfl lamp outlive an ordinary rapid start T8 or T12 tube. It doesn't seem to make a difference if it is a Phillips (one would think is toward the top of the line) or a Fein (econo-cfl purchase price), or anything in between brand-wise. In my frustration I decided to analyze some of my failed units to discover that NONE failed due to the tube itself. The cfl driver electronics were the cause in each and every one I looked at. cfls also bring the irritants common to all fluorescents as well, like taking forever to develop full brightness and flickering when it is cold. (Yes, I did try the cfls rated for "outdoor" use, what a joke!)
Meanwhile the chinese have continued to improve their LED technology and are beginning to produce light bulb E27 socket replacements that work well. I am replacing two motion activated floods (75w) with two LED floods with 82 multichip white LEDs each. 25$ for the pair on ebay gauranteed for two years not to fail, no flickering no slow to reach full intensity, 1/4 or less power required. I am done with cfls, IMHO they have never lived up to the hype since the beginning. regards Joe. snipped-for-privacy@upwardaccess.com
On Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:31:55 -0800, the infamous snipped-for-privacy@upwardaccess.com scrawled the following:
Ditto your experience there, but most beat incandescent lamp lives.
or a Fein (econo-cfl purchase
analyze some of my failed units to
were the cause in each and every
Ayup, and the fried electronics stink. I won't buy Feit again as one actually blew the bulb when it fried.
cfls rated for "outdoor" use, what
I have one in my front porch fixture and it gets going well in about 2 minutes after providing minor light after about 4 seconds. No big deal, as use it about 3 times a year, usually for late UPS deliveries.
beginning to produce light bulb
floods (75w) with two LED floods
years not to fail, no
done with cfls, IMHO they have
Until LEDs come down to Earth in price, I'll continue to love CFLs. Let us know how those LED floods work out for you, please, Joe.
On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 16:55:33 -0600, the infamous Swingman scrawled the following:
OK, I'll take your word for it.
Interesting. I'll bet the electrical company was embarrased.
I have my own personal transformer on the pole nearest my house, a little guy not much larger in diameter than the pole it's attached to. I lost power one day and went outside to see if one of the on-transformer breakers had blown. I saw one of the 17kv lines on the street, so I called immediately and they got a crew out here within the hour. I was up and running again within 4 hours.
-- To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. -- Robert Louis Stevenson
"Larry Jaques" wrote
I used to live across from an elementary school. As neighbors of the school, we would keep an eye on the school and report any suspicious activity. We called in a couple of things and some bad guys got caught.
Early one morning there was a big explosion. It rattled the windows for the whole block. I had a friend who was staying over the night and was sleeping on the couch in front of the window that faced the school. It knocked him off the couch. We were surprised that the windows did not break.
After a number of frantic 911 calls, the cops raced to the scene and looked everything over. They quickly found a charred, black feather under a power pole. They looked up and saw a transformer with the side blown out of it. A crow had got into the transformer and shorted it out. Needless to say, a couple feathers was all that was left of the crow. Apparently this was a common enough of a problem tht the police first check the power poles after the report of an explosion.
They had to shut the power down for the whole neighborhood for about six hours. And the utility company decided to start installing "crow resistant" transformers". But only after this happened many times. Who was the bird brain that didn't make the transformers "crow resistant" in the first place?
It isn't just birds, I have personally seen a raccoon and a squirrel that got fried on transformers in two separate incidents.
The coon, was still alive, but rather disoriented.
"Lee Michaels" wrote in message news:00c796e2$0$12353$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com...
One day, during my college years, I was walking back to the married student housing building from class. It was along a fairly busy street in KC. As I walked under a power pole, with transformer on it, there was a very gentle "fwwuummppp," sound, followed by a cascade of boiling oil falling onto the sidewalk. I'd just passed the pole and was not even splattered, though there were oil spots on the concrete within a couple feet of where I was standing.
I guess it just wasn't my time, and somehow God wanted me back at work rodding out clogged toilets with my electrical fish tape.
I'm rather glad we go in for underground cabling with large transformers serving a local area, at ground level, in secure cabinets, usually fenced, in the UK.
On Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:33:00 -0500, the infamous FrozenNorth scrawled the following:
Good question. Ditto the poles to which no bird perch board had been added after eagles were getting blown up. The dumb birds tried to nest in the insulators.
A few other, larger, animals find their way up there sometimes, too. This one didn't blow the transformer, though. ;)
-- Every day above ground is a Good Day(tm). -----------
For the last 30+ years, residential developments have been built with pad mount transformers and underground distribution; however, for most of the 20th century, above ground distribution was the norm, thus there is a lot of above ground still in existence.
Lew
this is highly location dependent. maybe in your area it is, but not around my locale.
blanket statements usually aren't.
----------------------------------------------- Without question, the local often utility requires some nudging, usually in the form of legislation, to provide underground service in residential areas.
Utilities are not know for being on the cutting edge, at least the ones I've had contact with aren't.
YMMV.
Lew
The Gulf Coast desperately needs a change to underground electrical infrastructure due to the historical and ever present hurricane threat.
In every house I build I try mightily to install an underground feed from the pole/line to the new service even though it adds +/- $1k to the cost, location and municipal building requirements permitting.
At least that way, if they ever stop talking about it and actually do it, these folks should be able to hook up at minnimum additional cost.
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