Please ban them already! Part II

[V. Barbarino]

read here

Pretty interesting. I must say, after my office was heating up so hot that I could cook eggs on my desk due to 2 100 watt bulbs I switched to CFL's and it worked, my office doesn't heat up any more, it's a dramatic drop which means I don't have to pump my AC but I do like the light better however, they are not as bright and they take time to get to full brightness, but over all I'm happy and will put them in other lamps in my house.

[Guest pod]

Thing with fluorescents is the color coming from them is horrid. It totally destroys the ambiance of the room. Here at the HQ, we use halogens, which aren't as power hungry as old-style lamps. Also, one whole wall is basically windows, so the lights are dim or off during daylight hours.

Another option is LEDs. Right now, LEDs are huge in nightclub and bar design. Those units are very expensive since they mix and change color. However, single color LED lamps are very cheap, and all that you realistically need is a white light.

[V. Barbarino]

Pod, you'd be shocked how nice of a light they produce these days. In the old days they sucked but mine are bright white.

[Guest coach]

Yeah, the new mini-halogens that are designed to replace regular bulbs actually produce a decent light. We use them quite a bit. One thing to note, they don't work in reostats.

[V. Barbarino]

Here is what they say I can save:

Here are the estimated savings* if you replace 2 100 watt regular incandescent bulbs with 28 watt CFL bulbs:

Annual savings ($):47.60

Annual greenhouse gas reductions (lbs of CO2):601

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* Assumes bulbs are in use 8 hours per day on average and an electricity cost of $0.11/kWh.

$47.60 is about 2.38 lap dances!!!!!!

[Guest pod]

Pod, you'd be shocked how nice of a light they produce these days. In the old days they sucked but mine are bright white.

I'll have to investigate that. I'm an LED whore though so I'd be more inclined to go full 21st and use LEDs. LEDs last damn near forever too.

Oh, and LEDs consume less than 10 watts usually.

[Guest saintjohn]

A properly-designed white LED "bulb" will last 50,000+ hours, is practically vibration-proof, and puts out no UV light. Even after they've been on for hours, the lamps simply don't get hot. Forget hybrid cars - if you really care about the environment (or just your own eyesight), invest in LEDs.

[V. Barbarino]

They are impractical at this point and may never been practical.

[Guest pod]

Not really. Like I said, LEDs are the rage in nightclub illumination now. Also, automotive interior and exterior lamps, with the exceptions of headlights, are LEDs these days. The screens in Times Square are arrays of thousands of superbright LEDs.

Also, most compact flashlights are LED now. The 787 Dreamliner will have all interior illumination via LEDs. It's just a matter of time before LED fixtures become common in the home.

[Guest saintjohn]

The luminous efficacy (lumens/watt) of LEDs vary with color. Currently white LEDs are measuring between 20- 60 lm/W. This variance is subject to differences in chromaticity as well as wattage. The U.S. Department of Energy recently released a study that estimates efficacy to be 100 lms/W by 2010. By one estimate, replacing the incandescent traffic signals in the United States alone with LED signals would save nearly 2.5 billion kWh annually. Red traffic lights, for example, pay back their initial investment in 2.5 to 3 years through energy savings. Savings due to reduced maintenance are significant, and can be a leader in cost savings when replacement is difficult or expensive.

http://www.iolighting.com/efficacy.htm

Impractical? They're saving me money already.

[V. Barbarino]

Ok, so slap some in your living room and tell me how practical they are. I know about the other applications, but LEDs don't light rooms very well. LEDs are all the rage in boating as well but you still can't light you living room up with them.

[Guest saintjohn]

True. Most consumer-oriented LED bulbs are pretty dim compared to other options. If LEDs continue to get brighter and cheaper, though, they'll be much more attractive for typical uses.

Until then, I'll be happy with my color-changing LED desk lamp

[Guest pod]

That's a design issue. With the proper arrangement of the LED elements and a reflector, you can light up a living room. The brightness is insane on the latest ones. Look at new-generation lightbars on police cruisers. Hell, Robé makes a fixture which could replace the blinders at Space:

They also have a line of architectural LEDs.

It's not something I'd say "go and do it now", for your home, but like 5 years from now, it'll be very common.

[Guest saintjohn]

More on CFL bulbs:

Compact fluorescents emit the same light as classic incandescents but use 75% or 80% less electricity.

What that means is that if every one of 110 million American households bought just one ice-cream-cone bulb, took it home, and screwed it in the place of an ordinary 60-watt bulb, the energy saved would be enough to power a city of 1.5 million people. One bulb swapped out, enough electricity saved to power all the homes in Delaware and Rhode Island. In terms of oil not burned, or greenhouse gases not exhausted into the atmosphere, one bulb is equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the roads.

That's the law of large numbers--a small action, multiplied by 110 million.

The single greatest source of greenhouse gases in the United States is power plants--half our electricity comes from coal plants. One bulb swapped out: enough electricity saved to turn off two entire power plants--or skip building the next two.

Just one swirl per home. The typical U.S. house has between 50 and 100 "sockets" (astonish yourself: Go count the bulbs in your house). So what if we all bought and installed two ice-cream-cone bulbs? Five? Fifteen?

Says David Goldstein, a PhD physicist, MacArthur "genius" fellow, and senior energy scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council: "This could be just what the world's been waiting for, for the last 20 years."

[ryan2772]

i have 2 in my apt now, planning to change everything to CFL. this is the easiest way for every single person to make a change for the better.

[V. Barbarino]

Well, I replaced two, so I'm spotting someone on CJ one bulb, I got you covered!

What they should do, is tax the regular bulbs, maybe a quarter each bulb and people will switch.

[Guest pod]

Make it inconvenient to buy them, in other words. ;D

[Guest saintjohn]

What they should do, is tax the regular bulbs

In Chicago, Commonwealth Edison is subsidizing the CFL bulbs - you can get what's the equivalent of a 60- or 100-watt bulb for about a buck. Given the cost of building peak capacity, the subsidy makes a lot of sense for ConEd.