light bulbs

Energy efficiency is a conspiracy? LOL!

That book is based on a woefully faulty understanding of economics, BTW, as well as the strange notion that English speaking societies are inherently superior. It's more a work of speculative fiction than an actual prediction...

Just finished reading "America 3.0; Rebooting". They think we will go totally broke, no longer to borrow money to support government programs, then something completely different will rise from the ashes. They think the government will steal our retirement accounts, under the guise of "helping us", before they finally stop all the welfare programs.

This light bulb control freak behavior makes me think the book may be on to something.

1775 wrote:

vern kelly wrote:
Well,

I finally got around to checking the new halogen bulbs again that I could not get one to light in my ceiling fan (60 watt equivalent). I tested all of the new halogen bulbs and wouldn't you know it. The one I used was bad out of the box. I took two others and they worked fine. So no fear in the halogen style light bulbs (unless you get a bad one). They do not seem to run any hotter either that I can tell. No special warnings on the box.

Did you touch the glass on the halogen bulb? If you touch it with your skin, oil will transfer and the bulb will not work. When using halogen bulbs, hold them with gloves or anything between your fingers and the bulb. And they do get hot quicker than incandescent - very hot.

The halogen bulbs used in residential lighting (the ones made to look like regular A19 bulbs) are a bit different. The actual bulb (the part you can't touch) is hermetically sealed inside of a glass envelope which forms bulb's outer glass shell. You cannot touch it without smashing the outer bulb off first, therefore you should be able to touch the outer glass bulb with impunity.

vern kelly wrote:
Well,

I finally got around to checking the new halogen bulbs again that I could not get one to light in my ceiling fan (60 watt equivalent). I tested all of the new halogen bulbs and wouldn't you know it. The one I used was bad out of the box. I took two others and they worked fine. So no fear in the halogen style light bulbs (unless you get a bad one). They do not seem to run any hotter either that I can tell. No special warnings on the box.

Did you touch the glass on the halogen bulb? If you touch it with your skin, oil will transfer and the bulb will not work. When using halogen bulbs, hold them with gloves or anything between your fingers and the bulb. And they do get hot quicker than incandescent - very hot.

Well,

I finally got around to checking the new halogen bulbs again that I could not get one to light in my ceiling fan (60 watt equivalent). I tested all of the new halogen bulbs and wouldn't you know it. The one I used was bad out of the box. I took two others and they worked fine. So no fear in the halogen style light bulbs (unless you get a bad one). They do not seem to run any hotter either that I can tell. No special warnings on the box.

Tvov wrote:
So the "Cree" brand LEDs are good? I've seen that name around, and they seem to be the least expensive so far.

I have four Cree LED can lights in my family room. Excellent light and dims perfectly with a standard dimmer switch.

LEDs have become very popular in the saltwater aquarium hobby, where high light levels are necessary to grow live corals. Among those folks, the cheap Chinese LEDS have a less than stellar reputation, not so much for reliability (though that can be a problem), but because they lose output more quickly than more expensive US made LEDs. Granted, these guys run their lights 12 hours a day, every day, but it's something to keep in mind. As usual, you get what you pay for ;)

D.E.Bishop wrote:

drsteve wrote:
How about posting a link here?

If you are asking me for a link, I bought most of mine at COSTCO and two or three at Lowes and HD.

Feit, Cree and Sylivania are the three I have. As far as cost there are several factors I consider, life of the lamp, light produced, color, and what the the DW says. So far the DW says"I love the new lights". The one in the office is in a Three lamp fixture and is my favorite, the three in the ceiling fan fixture in guest bedroom are three for $14.00 at COSTCO, the one in my nightstand fixture is the most noticable in coolness, old style melted a clock the new LED doesn't even get warm. The track lights use 75 and 100 watt lamps and the DW didn't know I had changed to LEDs. Some of the lamps have that delay of a second or so but the temp, color and hopefully longevity are worth the delay and extra cost.

The LEDs are also easier on prints, photos and paintings. I think CFRLs and tubes cause the most fading and the LEDs create none(info I read in tech paper).

I'm still experimenting with 12VDC for RV and so far I like the good old USA brands even though they cost a lot more.

I looked everywhere for my link to the company that had an excemption to the performance law but can't find it anywhere. I believe that I trashed it when I started replacing with LEDs. If you google incandescent light bulbs\manufacturers, you will find a lot of them. DuraLast was our favorite at work and we had about 200,000 lightbulbs in operation 24/7. I worked in Traffic Signal Operations for the City of LA and when the State decreed that we had to change all lamps to LEDs(CFLs wont work at all in a traffic signal) the estimated cost for the lamps only was over 60 million dollars. At that time DuraLast had permission to continue making lamps. I've been retired for almost 20 years and haven't kept up with the trade.

For those interested in Cree, they are a Native American company and produce some great lamps. Like I said earlier the spectrum of their street light lamps is great.

I agree that color, lumens and price are deciding factors, and that most brands will perform the same.

Good luck to all of you in your quests, I just found that in the long run it is easier if not cheaper to use American made Lamps both in 120 volt and 12 volt. Sort of like TT tires.

paulcardoza wrote:
Cree is good, BUT you still have to be careful with color temp and output selection. If you select by those criteria, most any brand that offer what you want will be fine. Then it comes down to price.

Tvov wrote:
So the "Cree" brand LEDs are good? I've seen that name around, and they seem to be the least expensive so far.

for me it is totally price. I have used incandescent bulbs of varied assorted color temps, etc. over the years and other than for photography, they all pretty much worked the same for me. and I have had CFLs last many years, I don't remember ever changing out the tube over the sink over 36 years so would like to see a straight forward cost comparison between the three types of lighting. and I mean purchased over the counter at walmart/lowes/home depot, etc., not ordered from some gypsy in China/etc.
bumpy

Cree is good, BUT you still have to be careful with color temp and output selection. If you select by those criteria, most any brand that offer what you want will be fine. Then it comes down to price.

Tvov wrote:
So the "Cree" brand LEDs are good? I've seen that name around, and they seem to be the least expensive so far.