I have _one_ room that isn't completely lit by CF bulbs. That's the lad's bedroom with multiple 20W halogen spots in the ceiling. As they fail they will be replaced with 1.5W LED units. I have dimmable CF bulbs in two of the bedrooms. The only gotcha with them is that if the dimmer is too old, it might struggle with the low load of the CF bulb. I have a box of 48 new incandescent bulbs that I will be taking to the tip sometime next year. I'll save money by throwing them away!
I can get CF bulbs in almost any power I want, at UK prices:-( :-
On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 18:36:55 +0000, with neither quill nor qualm, Mark Rand quickly quoth:
Ouch! Wouldn't you rather pay just £8.14 for a 25 watter? (120 watt equivalent) That's only 'bout 20 times what we pay over here across the Pond. Ayup, "OUCH!" just about covers it.
Holy Shit, Maynard! Well, at least you have that lovely socialized medicine and all your streets are safe/free from guns. ;)
-- Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit. --e e cummings
99cent Only stores occasionally sell (2) 25watt CFs for ...99cents
They actually hold up better than the Green CFs I got from Pacific Gas and Electric (aka Pacific Greed and Extortion)
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:36:06 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Ed Huntress" quickly quoth:
Most bulbs with 20+ watts. The 13W bulbs just weakly bleat out yellow colors and aren't good for much of anything. I much prefer anything with a 4000K or higher rating. Bluer is good, yellower is bad. Higher CRI ratings seem to go hand in hand with higher Kelvin output.
See the pic with the 4 styles of lamps? I much prefer the lefthand one.
-- Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit. --e e cummings
That's interesting, because I would have thought the ones that were close to incandescent temperature were more pleasant for reading and working. But photos like that are tricky. Having done a lot of industrial photography with weird lighting, my reaction to that photo was that it probably isn't much like what the scene looks like to the eye. Interrupted-spectrum lighting often looks different on film; I assume the same is true with digital photos.
Anyway, I'll have to get a couple of new ones and try them. I'll miss my dimmers (I made a bunch of them years ago, and I've replaced them all over the house with commercial ones, over the years) but it will be worth it.
On Thu, 27 Dec 2007 23:54:54 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Ed Huntress" quickly quoth:
For reading, I need the bulb to be a foot closer and/or a lot more lumens if it's yellow incan vs. its whiter CF brother.
I have a couple wall sconces (and some track lights) and use the CFs to bounce light off the pure white walls and books in my largest bookcase. The CFs outshine the incans by a mile and make the book titles more readable. Wimmmenfolk don't like the bluer, whiter light as well as men do, it seems. That's perfectly OK at my bachelor pad.
Look at the "light shadows" cast on the foreground in that pic for the true colors. Looking at bulbs is hard for eyes and cameras. ;)
Now that I've seen that the less expensive dimmable fluor bulbs are available, I'm going to try them, too. Ditto the LED lighting when it becomes affordable.
Jewelcome, Ed.
-- Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit. --e e cummings
Hi Ed, I have some info, right from the packaging of the CFs that I've been using
QualSTAR Mini Sunlight
100W replacement Light output: 1707 lumens Energy used: 23W
Model No: 2823 S (and) 2VP BGL (2-pack for Big Lots Stores) Color temp: 6,500 Kelvin Lamps contain mercury
Big Lots price - $6 for a 2-pack
This is a product of a company that has produced some real crap in the past, Lights of America, but these units that were purchased in the past year are performing very well. The light is white, and very bright. I generally have all my lights for room lighting, operating in bounce mode, pointed up at the white ceiling. Many may find that these lights are too bright for direct lighting (for a reading light, for example). A side-by-side comparison to a warm CF makes the warm lamp look very yellow, like light shining thru mud (if that makes any sense).
I used to think that regular cool white and warm CFs produced good light, until I tried these sunlight CFs.
I'm not a photog, but when I've used these lamps to fill in for pictures (no flash), the inexpensive HP 215 digital camera shots don't look any different than shots with the light from the built-in flash.
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