I had one in this room for a while, I don't know how it worked, but it was really bright to look at(after a while), but the room was really dim. At one point I was reading by CRT light. Wasn't impressed.
I've got one in my bed side angle poise and really like it. I think it's a Philips but not 100% on wattage (might be 14). Takes about 30 seconds to get to full brightness but other than that, it's just as good as the 60W that it replaced.
The technology is definitely moving in the right direction, hopefully they'll get there within the next 12-18 months.
The one thing I want to know more about is the total energy and materials cost over the lifespan of an energy efficient bulb in comparison to the required number of regular bulbs to cover this time period. I've heard rumours that it ends up higher, thanks to the work needed to manufacture them.
Roll on swish working LED bulbs!
With respect to dimmers, regular dimmer switches/dials will not work with most energy efficient bulbs, from what I can recall.
until you add the cost of the energy used by the bulbs during their lifetime. at which point the numbers are so massively skewed against incandescent bulbs its not funy
typically, yes. the linked ones are fine with conventional dimmersWith respect to dimmers, regular dimmer switches/dials will not work with most energy efficient bulbs, from what I can recall.
i dont have a problem with mine... but then again im not picky, light is light and i dont really notice anyway.. plus they dont seem to ring anywhere near as much so my ears are happy.
I could see that they would be fairly piss-poor as outdoor lights in this weather. We had some in the garage and there same.
- However in the house, with the newer ones (and not the £1 wilkos ones) i find them to be really very good all things considered.
There are also 'dimnable' cfl's available, which we have two of in our living room, which dim nearly perfectly with the exisiting dimmer (20yo mk dimmer) down to a very low leval for a florecent, nearly as low as the dimmer could dim filament bulbs.
We are also trialing some cold cathode GU10 replacment units in the kitchen (2*3brands) and they are all quite good too.
- Theres about 1.5second delay on them that you dont get with CFLs anymore, and they do take nearly 2minutes to get right upto warm.
- However for the kitchen where have a lot of lights and they tend to be on quite a long time, the light is nice, and the downsides minimal.
Also the actaully energy consumption of the house, bar the 22kW's of underfloor heating, is mesureably less than it was before. To the point where without the kettle/microwave/washingmachine on it will quite happy run of a honda Ex1000 suitcase generator. Which was the target.
Daniel
We've got them in most rooms but I won't put one in the socket for the stairs/landing simply because they aren't bright enough when you first switch them on. No doubt the technology will get better but as has been said here LED is the way to go.
I think it was Mythbusters that did the lights left on/turned off when leaving a room myth and they found LED consumed a fraction of the other lights.
"Reality is what it is, not what you want it to be." Frank Zappa. ----------- "The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." Huang Po.----------- "A drowsy line of wasted time bathes my open mind", - Ride.
Got some awesome ones at home, instead of being "warm glow" they are DAY GLO, very good indeed imo.
TiG
-- Hexus Meets Rock! --
Thats neat. I take it you arein the country and may need backup power?
Yeah I saw that one. Can't remember the exact conclusions, but even with flourescent bulbs where it takes a kick of power to light them up, switching them of for even a couple of seconds saves you power. This is because the power kick only lasts a fraction of a second.
Got a mate who is a lighting engineer ( he did the lighting spec for the new St. Pancreas ) and reckons that the energy saving bulbs are only any use for high traffic areas where they will be on permanently. LED bulbs are still relatively speaking in their infancy , but they'll be the way things go.
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Ikea bulbs are to be frank.... rubbish with dimmer switches
They flicker like a strobe slowly getting faster and faster until they stay on fully. We have the ikea ones in the light in the front and the dining room and its funny crawling in at 3am only to nudge the light dial and have an instant rave in the front room.
Last edited by Lee H; 03-01-2008 at 03:22 PM.
I'm not generally a fan of flourescents of any kind... but I went to my sister's and she had "daylight" bulb in her kitchen.
I liked the light colour ouput so much, I bought one for mine
Problem is, all normal bulbs light - even incandescant bulbs - look "yellow" in comparison,
so you then have to buy more of these... at £10 a bulb !
Can't remember exactly where I bought em from now, but these are the ones:
100W (15W)
Energy saving daylight BioBulbs
I know, expensive...but buy one and you'll be converted
They are just better light - I could care less aobout the energy consumption !
Just remembered this...
The voluntary agreement, announced by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn, would see a gradual phase out of the old fashioned bulbs from January next year, culminating in all incandescent bulbs being removed from the stores signing the agreement by the end of December 2011. Source.Hopefully the price of quick glow bulbs will have dropped to be in line with the old standard by then as uptake increases. The ones I'm using (free from my energy supplier) are of the Philips Genie range (14W for the living room) and are more than adequate for my needs; a suitable glow in seconds.Traditional light bulbs have only two years of life left after a Brussels summit declared yesterday that they will be phased out in the battle against climate change. Source.
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