California is proposing to Ban Incandescent bulbs by 2012 http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/31/news/companies/bc.energy.california.lightbulbs.reut/index.htm?postve rsion=2007013108
Great .PDF file with information about CFL bulbs including Schematics and descriptions http://www.nxp.com/acrobat_download/applicationnotes/AN98091_1.pdf
If they word it right, it could ban flashlight and car head/tail light bulbs! G-
If one wanted a decorative bulb since the covering is epoxy not glass could have fancy swirls if required like glass.
Ive already banned those icanburnouts [ Parent ]
LEDs are directional and most bulbs like ovens, etc. mount the bulb 90 degrees to where they want the light. Most LED bulbs would be like a flashlight shining the wrong direction. The LEDs could be shining sideways, but the base would need to line up with the socket so when the bulb was tight the LEDs were facing the right way.
Cost. Replacing 40 or 60W with LEDs is NOT cheap.
Size. Replacing 40 or 60W with LEDs won't fit, physically, where an appliance bulb fits.
Efficiency. All that money for LEDs (in this type of use) won't save any power anyway. Gains are made everyday, but it will not be efficient or economically viable for a long time.
Smuggling. The Prohibition `Great Lakes Rum Runners' would be crossing Lake Tahoe every night, boats filled with incandescent bulbs. Border towns like Pahrump, NV would be the new Tijuana. Light bulb gangs struggling for control. Mass corruption greater than Chicago ever had. Husbands and fathers overflowing the jail systems, convicted of trying to `score an incandescent' in the seedier downtown areas. Could it be the end of civilization as we know it? ;-)[ Parent ]
Though I'm not in favour of the use of incandescents for lighting purposes in general, this is the other extreme... Forbidding them. So, in 10 years time, when found in possession of an incandescent lightbulb, will we have to justify ourselves in court?
Whatever happened to freedom... Anyway, trust your government to solve this problem.
"Each bulb lasts between 4 to 10 times longer". Yeah right. That's why I had to replace CFLs after respectively 3 days, 8 days and 3 months.
Better start banning cheesy CFLs too, I suppose.
Tiny detail: the lighting company is not Phillips. It's Philips.
This is really absurd because there are not CFL equivalents for a really large number of bulbs and there won't ever be. Try making a cfl with a 15 degree throw that's only two inches in diameter like a PAR track light. Jeez, does any politician think things through before opening their pie holes?
Alan Sheets
Reads more like some politicion trying to keep his name in the lime-light, again without thinking first. Hopefully by the time this nonsense makes it to the Midwest they'll have killed the bill.
Cheers Bruce S
Thanks for the PDF!! Bruce S
Spelin and tpying are my strong points, not electronics.[ Parent ]
There are many many uses for Incandescent that CFL or LED can not and never will fill! Often we need low heat and light at same time! Incandescent works perfect for this!
TOYS! Cooking stuff like Holly Hobby ovens, they use a simple 100watt or 60 watt bulb to bake cakes. You have light to watch it bake and heat to bake it! LED or CFL cannot do that!
Incubators for eggs. Heat and have light same as toy oven but for hatching eggs.
Chicken brooders, keep those day old chicks alive in cold weather till they are a few weeks or months old. Need light and heat.
Chicken coops, keep coop warmer in cold weather so chickens do not huddle to close and smoother themselfs, the light extends the shorter winter days for them and hens eat more and lay more eggs.
Tempory low heat for about anything, prevent a well pumphouse from freezing in winter.
Thaw a frozen feul line on a car, yes I have done that with about 5 100 watt bulbs, A fire would not have been safe. Took awhile and I had to cover car all the way to ground to block wind with tarps and carboard around the bottom of car, but it worked. I did not have a heater or heat gun handy, but I had light bulbs :)
Thaw a frozen house water line, I have done that. Place lights under pipe for a few hours. Fire not safe, 1500watt heater on a zip cord not safe either! 1 or 2 100watt bulbs near the frozen joint, perfectly safe. Best is a heat gun and good heavy duty cord, but how many average people have one? About every one has a couple lamps.
Ice fishing, you need heat and light, Yes I do know of a few people using light bulbs, I set one person up and he said it worked well a couple years ago. Also said he helped a friend build another one, so I may have started a trend. Foamboard insutation well sealed to hold heat in, light bulbs for heat as needed, couple 115amp deepcycles, about 400watt inverter. Good for a days fishing and he said really cut down his propane costs for those small tanks for heaters. He charges the batteries durring the week mostly with a small windgenny I gave him. Last time I talked to him he said on many days the bulbs are are he uses, mostly just to keep his hands and feet warm as needed. Incandescent,the RE solution! Less propane polution, fewer $2.50 2lb tanks in the dumps!
Recently it was even mentioned on this forum about building a small box with a light bulb to help cure resin castings in cold weather.
Banning Incandescent would just plian be stupid, so watch for the government to do it. Better solution is to inform people to make the choice, not force it!
I was just asked recently by daughters friends parents about the CFLs. They use 2,000 watts of light in the house or more! NO JOKE! The ceiling fan in one room has 5 or 7 60watt Incandescent bulds in it, same same fan in at least 3 other rooms down stairs and I have no idea whats up stairs, plus other lights in the house. They were talking about the $500-$600 electric bill, 15 year daughter said you would save tons of power if you changed to CFL lights, so they asked me about them.
People need information, not bans!
Ban a product and we will hord all we can get, nothing will change untill trillions of bulbs are bowing out. INFORM and things will change quickly because people want to cut costs and save money.
I know where there is a whole skid of BANNED FREON still right now, he will use it till he runs out. Who else horded several tanks or a skid load?. nothing to lose
Spelin and tpying are my strong points, not electronics.
I believe the incandescent bulbs are just trashed after this period.
It will cost at least double that for C.F.L's - if they can be safely stored? Las Vegas? similar challenge maybe - I don't know.
I like to use them in areas where the pipes tend to freeze as an alternative to heat tape.
Also , CFLs don't like to be turned on and off quickly over short periods of time, like a bathroom. The tube ends get black and it stops working
The low power 5 & 7 watt CFLs that I use don't seem to last any longer than a regular incandescent bulb. W o o f -={([ Parent ]
I'm glad to hear someone else noticed that the life of the cfl's suck. Addvertised 5 to 7 year life, fine print on back gives one year warrenty. The light's I use regularly, the bulb's last 4 to 12 months. I have been marking the bulb's and cardboard part of the packaging with the date and store where purchased, and keeping the sales receipt for returning them.
Is there something different in the gut's of the newer one's that let's them burn out so much faster than the old one's (cfl's)?
Is there one brand that's better than the other's? So far I've used the "Lights Of America" and "Feit Electric" brand's.
Gordy[ Parent ]
I do know I was using some at the rock house I had rented, and those would be at least a full 2 1/2 years old now. Those were ran on my Aims 5K inverter at the rock house and here on normal grid AC when I moved backed.
I think a few are LOA brand, most are GE brand. The porch light is a GE and well over a year old, under a roof pointing downwards, in all weather. Cold nights it lights a bit dim untill it warms up, but it works hot, cold, rain, snow, fog, etc.. of course it's not right out in the rain directly but it's an open fixture under an open roof and the CFL is in the humidity including heavy fog at times here and morning due and frost. It worked on our coldest nights here this year, maybe around 7F though it lit dimmer till it warmed up.
About the only CFL I use is 26/100. 26watts of power for equal to 100watts light, I think that's 1700 lumens?
Some of these older CFL's cost me $5 each and more, the new ones cost me about $2.50 each. Are the new ones as good? I can't say since I have not used them as long of course but they are about half the cost of the older ones. Perhaps only half as good?? Also I was blowing normal cheap bulbs (4/$1 100 watt) all the time, changing at least one or two a month, I never blew a CFL.
That's the drawback to CFL for me, mine last so long I have to take them out and clean them once in awhile. Very dusty around here. They get dirty and put out less light, I take them out and wipe tube with damp rag and they are good as new.
I just bought 3 3packs today for friends that were asking about them and have over a $500 power bill for a month, using well over 2,000watts in normal bulbs in the house, EEEK! $7.58 a 3 pack. I gave them a pack each of 60, 75, 100, watt bulb equivelents. I don't remember the actual power they are supposed to use, like 15, 20, 26 watts or close. The nice fans these people have use either 5 or 7 bulbs and they had 60watters in them. If they like the CFL and use them in all their fan lights they should cut thier bill by a $100 or more per month at least!!
I'll try to see how long those new bulbs last them if we can keep track of it.. nothing to lose
I always write the date on batteries, CFLs and other stuff, to keep a tab on how long they last. (but maybe I'm a freak; I think I'm the only one who can tell that from a certain gasoline-station, I get 1.5 km/liter more fuel useage than from another station).
The very first CFL I bought is still in use at my parents house. It is a Philips bulb and was bought in '92. A similar lamp I gave as a birthday present to my then-landlady. It's still in use too, last time I checked. Back in those days a CFL cost about 20$. Expensive. But if it's still working 15 years later...
A few months ago, CFLs started failing on me. One had been in use for 11 months. I replaced it with another, similar one. It lasted 8 days. Replaced it again: 3 days of use this time. Admittedly, they were the cheap 1$-variety. But they got returned to the store, as I still had the box and receit (anyone else saves receits and boxes of 1$ CFLs... ?)
BTW, I bought these cheap 1$ CFLs because they looked -exactly- the same as the Philips branded ones. I was thinking they probably were made in the same factory. Maybe. Maybe they were the quality rejects. Or it was the Chinese way of making it look as if it is just a re-branded product that came out of the same factory. Who knows.
Oh yeah. Last time a CFL blew, it did so with a loud bang and emission of smoke. To the point I'm now reluctant of leaving them on in a room where I'm not due to possible fire hazard.
You'll be hard-pressed to find an incandescent lightbulb in my house. But, if one starts banning incandescents, then one should also start banning bad quality CFLs.[ Parent ]
Also does it let in heat from the sun when it's letting in the light, perhaps raising summer cooling costs also.
If they use more electric and gas for cooling and heating, then perhaps they are not saving anything, it might even be costing them more?
I never saw the store or skylights myself so I am curious about this.
If they only measured the power the light circuits use normally and then the lower power used by the same light circuits when using large skylights, did they check the other stuff that could be effected?. nothing to lose
Color Rendering Index or, the ability of the light to show a range of colors http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/page/001/CTGY/CRI
Color Temperature Chart or, How orange is that light ? http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/page/001/CTGY/ColorTemp W o o f -={([ Parent ]
I've started putting them in at home where its convenient, but like others have said, the colour of them is awful, and I haven't found any here yet that are ok for low level lighting.
The ones I have in outside areas are useless when it is very cold, they take ages to get bright enough."Slowly changing the world, one watt at a time!"[ Parent ]
We're approaching the point where we have so many stupid laws that pretty soon we'll need a mandatory 1 year course in high schools just to make people aware of enough to survive without breaking any. Too many aren't thought out very well.
Alan
