Article on CFL vs Incandescent

[N0WVA]

http://sound.westhost.com/articles/incandescent.htm

There are many variables to consider. After reading this, a ban on incandescents makes no sense.

[WA4BRL]

Their server won't load the page right now. But it really doesn't matter. OLED lamps will replace incandescent, CFL, and the current cheesy illumination LED (appear to be white, but are missing major bands of color) bulbs.

With OLED's bright, full-spectrum, super-efficient lighting, the relative merits of interim technologies are moot.

[KG4CGC]

What temperature in K do the OLEDs produce. I've always felt that incandescent bulbs produced a depressing light. 6500K is about right for my eyes.

[K8ERV]

I didn't read the whole article, but I think a common mistake in comparisons and touted advantages is the assumption that the incandescent lamp that is being replace is used a LOT.

If, as I do, you only use the tungsten lamp briefly and occasionally, many of the benefits of the later lamp types becomes unimportant.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[W4HAY]

Interesting article, especially regarding Power Factor problems.

The article does confirm repeatedly just how stupid and/or dishonest politicians and bureaucrats are. But we already knew that!

[WA4BRL]

I tried again and got the article to load. Very well researched and well written. It's the best single source of good information I've seen on the subject.

The author does not address how LED lighting scores on the Color Rendering Index. But then, his article is a comparison of CFL's to Incandescent bulbs. What he does write about LED's is factual, so I'll not fault him for that.

LED lighting CAN be manufactured to be full-spectrum white light which provides perfect color rendering. Trouble is, that is still more costly to manufacture. Most common "white" LEDs convert blue light to an (approximate) white light spectrum using photoluminescence. The resulting light looks similar to white but, as with common flourescent lamps, lacks certain bands of color, resulting in poor color rendition.

Organic LED panels promise high output full-spectrum, white light at reasonable manufacturing cost. The first commercially available OLED lights were offered in May of this year. Philips Lighting opened up a webshop upon which OLED lighting samples under the brand name 'Lumiblade' can be ordered online.

The future is bright!

[K8ERV]

The article does confirm repeatedly just how stupid and/or dishonest politicians and bureaucrats are. But we already knew that!

You are being too kind.

TOM K8ERV Montrose Colo

[W1GUH]

Just read the part about using CFL's in sealed enclosures, and how that's a bad thing because the electronics can go above 50 deg. C quickly, and the article says that's when CFL's fail prematurely.

I've got on in a "sealed" ceiling enclousure, and it's been there "pretty long"...maybe a year or so and it's still going strong. I use CFL's in the ceiling fixtures because I've got 11-12' ceilings, and the ladder is five flights down in the basement. Is there anyone else using CFL's like this, and does your experience match what's reported in the article? I'm only into the first year of intermittant use...when it's on it's on for an hour or less. According to the article I'm running that CFL above its specified temperature. What I don't know is how long it's going to last like that...but so far, anyway, it's just fine.

[WB3JLA]

So how many watts do my 12AX7 and 6L6GC put out
How much wasted heat

EL34 want's to know

[NA0AA]

Back what, 4-5 years back, I bought early models CFL's to replace the regular bulbs in our house - this is in CA mind you, and we pay $0.15 kW or so for power. I noticed a drop in our electrical consumption, but probably not enough to justify the cost of the bulbs.

I find them to work fine about 95% of the time - no, they don't work out in the cold - I have a floodlight that takes about 2 minutes to come to full brightness at 40 degrees F.

LED's are certainly going to be the future - in many ways because they will be very flexible allowing all sorts of new fixture designs, which means a million replacement bulbs, right?

I'm looking forward to practical LEDs though.

The downside is that residential lighting represents only about 2% of the energy we consume in the USA, so I'm not sure that even if we cut back by 90% that we make much impact eh?

Costco has some LED lights on the shelf now - must be older technology, but the prices are way, way down! I bought a 45 watt equal bulb for $13.