Electronic Components

If incandescent lamps are not required for any application, then the factories making it should stop making the same. Need of the hour is to save energy, however small may be its application. May be some old cars will continue to have them, but replacements in same sockets are also available now. I do use LED and CFL at home. Later I use for general lighting and former for some focused lighting.

Hooker, technically that Texas law would only apply to bulbs that do not cross state lines and stay within the state of texas.... Not that anyone will give a crap, but just sayin...

Well, I have already committed to myself that I will go to jail before I submit to mandatory federal healthcare so the chance of going to jail for receiving incandescent light bulbs doesn't bother me a lot. And I don't think my veteran friends in Texas give a crap, either. We're an ornery bunch, us veterans.

Besides, are the postal officials really going to inspect all packages leaving Texas for other states? This is just like all those other unenforceable "feel good" laws our ill-informed pols pass.

Hooker

Oh gee! What a hero!

A vet here too but that does not mean one should not think once in a while.

There's always FedEx, and they aren't likely to break em all in transit either....

Simply designate them as high temp special purpose bulbs and away you go!

I have no intention what-so-ever of ever putting CFL's in my home because they will inevitably be replaced by future versions of LED bulbs which are by far superior to CFL's.

I also have no intention of running out at this time to waste $4 each on LED bulbs hoping to save $0.15 per month on my electric bill because it would take about 26 years to see a return on investment.

When the price of LED's drops to less than $1.00 per bulb I will purchase a pack and use them to replace incandescents in my home as they fail.

<.....$4 each on LED bulbs hoping to save $0.15 per month.....>

.....represets a crude ROCE of.....<tap, tap>....er.....<tap, tap, press equals key>....er....45% or a payback of 2 years 2 months or thereabouts.

What was the bank interest rate again?

Not $4 per bulb, $40. Please multiply by ten,

I bought my first LED bulb as a trial this last weekend for $40 and in general I would say that it is equivalent to the incandescent it replaced in terms of light color (although it is noticeably brighter). The light is also more focused since it is beamed out of the bottom "dish" of the bulb rather than the entire bulb like an incandescent. I'm planning on slowly phasing these bulbs into my house with the high frequency lights being replaced first (kitchen, family room, stairway). The main thing for me is that they have to last long enough and consume little enough power that they are a wash compared to incandescents and sadly, that analysis has to wait 3 years according to the package. They offer a replacement or rebate if the bulb burns out before 3 years though so that is good.

I think CFLs are terrible, they take forever to get to steady state light output and then the light is cold. This wouldn't be bad if I lived in a lab but since I live in a house I would prefer the light to be warmer and when I hit the switch I want the light to be on. The LED bulb is at steady state within a couple seconds.

I think the main drawback to solid-state lighting, at least for US consumers, is that it is being painted as "socialist lighting" which is only partially true (at least in my opinion). The government set new efficiency standards and the current incandescent bulb can't meet them. If the incandescent can be designed to meet the efficiency standard then it can come back, there is no one forcing the incandescent off the shelf.

What ever happened to education?? Why do we have to have these alternative lights shoved down our throats by self-annointed stewards? Why can't I decide what works best for me? After all it is my money.

By the way, most of my fixtures have CFL's in them where it makes cents. A light in my attic or basement that I turn on once or twice a month?? It's an incandescent.

I wish these pious A-holes would stay the hell out of my knickers !!!

Rant over. Phew.

Energy efficiency? T5 florescent lamps

Mercury problem - that is total smoke - I expect there are a thousand everyday items you could find a similar chemical problem with.

Color problem with CFL lamps? Many different colors are available

Incandescent lamps for special use - will be available for a long time. Hot and cold applications

CFL lamps slow starting or flickering? Buy descent quality lamps and it will go away

Actually the government is forcing the manufacturers to make more efficient incandescent lamps and the companies are doing so.

Exploding CFL lamps - an old wives tale for the most part repeated by barbers, bartenders etc

Worried about CFL lamp technology becoming outdated? You bought a computer didn't you?

The entire story reminds me of when laws forced bikers to wear helmets - what a bunch of whining and crying but it all soon went away.

I was doing just fine ignoring your message including the "mercury problem" put down until I got to the end. (For the record the EPA has warnings and steps for the proper disposal of cfl's. Apparently, even the Feds recognize the dangers.)

"The entire story reminds me of when laws forced bikers to wear helmets - what a bunch of whining and crying but it all soon went away."

Apparently you aren't keeping up. It hasn't gone away.There are movements here in the US to continue repealing mandatory helmet laws and we have been successful at getting several states to repeal them. We introduce legislation annually here in Virginia to recover our freedom of choice. Eventually we will win. The "whining and crying" will continue until our leaders give up trying to limit our freedoms in the name of "public safety".

I suppose you're one of those who would have applauded had the Virginia state legislature passed the mandatory motorcycle seat belt laws that they tried in the '70's. 5000 bikers ringing the state house dissuaded that effort.

Hooker

I still think the helmet laws were correct. Doesn't surprise me that riders are still whining and crying really. 'Our freedom choice'? Your choice maybe but I doubt there is much sympathy in the general population.

Seat belts very silly.

Have you ever read the warning on a reagent bottle for say powdered iron ore? Very dangerous stuff according to the warning. The mercury in a florescent - not enough to worry about in the real world as anyone who has ever worked with the stuff is well aware.

Do you want to play with it like we did when we were kids? No - but the last CFL I broke is still in the same sack in the utility room - nothing was ever cleaned or will ever be cleaned due to one broken lamp.

Like I said - better stay from many fish as the flesh has far higher concentrations.

Exploding CFL is NOT an old wive's tale! I had one short out and blow up in my living room. Scared the $#!t out of me, and I am not an old wife! It was a GE light.

Had one catch fire on me as well... and yep it was a GE one too...

Not to mention that the coal power plant making the electricity puts out a decent amount of mercury to power whatever light bulb you are using.

The most important thing to me is visual comfort. I want to see clearly and read for hours without infuriating my eyeballs!

Early CFLs gave me piercing headaches. The new ones seem somewhat better, but I'm not buying any yet.

LED bulbs, I suspect, will eventually become the norm. At present they are irritating, especially to peripheral vision.

Count me in with the other "old fogeys" who will hoard incandescent bulbs & pay extra to use them until the new ones measure up.

I've been using cfls for over 10 years: not explosions; avg life span 7 years; read daily no problems with the light; and cost compared to savings well worth it. We shaved an avg $135 a year off our electric bill compaired to incandescents.

If I could spare the cash I would replace the ones in the bathroom, too.

Everything else is either CFL or LED. For the LED lamps I have a Phillips regular bulb, a re-purposed Ikea two-lamp thing, and a raw high-brightness LED in a DIY box.

All the lamps I have on the most (at my desk) are LED.

I want to know that higher-efficiency light sources are possible. Part of this will probably be better focusing of the light so that a room has darker areas that aren't used for reading, etc.

We need to save energy any way we can.

I think the most efficient is a microwave pumped sodium light that the DOE has been playing with, problem is that the light is very yellow... efficiency and color spectrum are competing problems.

Yes! And as more pedestrian, present day sodium, quicksilver high pressure lights used in street lights everywhere are the efficiency leader. High pressure halogen arc lights are coming up too, with much improved color rendering. Since all must run hot, lower wattage versions are not produced, yet. All these lights are a bulb within a bulb construction, hence safer, than single glass CFL's.

And yes, I very much respect heavy metals in milligrams and tens of milligrams amounts found in CFLs. The EPA's take on remedial action is expensive and extensive. Similar amounts used by your dentist are rated as hazardous materials. Have to be kept under water, disposed of specially. There is quite a whiff of hypocrisy: fish with ppm (parts per million) Hg is no good, but some 10 milligram spilled in your kid's bedroom is no problem??!?? But, do not throw it into garbage: it will contaminate the groundwater!! How utterly schizophrenic are all these contradictions!

Come again?!?

My take...

> CFLs have substandard lumen output

> LEDs are either short-lived (import) or Expensive (domestic)

> Nobody mentions what zero-crossing dimmers do for both efficiency and longevity of incandescents. My 1300 sqft house has burned out fewer than 5 bulbs in 20 years. I put ZC dimmers Everywhere when I bought it.

Incandescents get the bad press for using switches instead of dimmers. Dimming CFLs and LEDs has its' own issues.

I'm just old enough that I'll never replace my incandescents. I may have to stock up, but not too many given my failure rate.