Recommendations on Energy Saving light bulbs

[Possessed Freak]

My mother has an apocalypse stash... like a miniature grocery store in her basement. I am making my own stash real soon (as soon as I clean out the front room in my basement)... of incandescent light bulbs. I'll give you my lights when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

 

[dullard]

My mother has an apocalypse stash... like a miniature grocery store in her basement. I am making my own stash real soon (as soon as I clean out the front room in my basement)... of incandescent light bulbs. I'll give you my lights when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

What is wrong with buying incandescent bulbs when you need them?

 

[Possessed Freak]

What is wrong with buying incandescent bulbs when you need them?

It is my (probably paranoid) belief that at some point in the near future it will get harder and more expensive to buy regular bulbs (phase out).

 

[edro]

I am keeping a stash of gas guzzlers in my basement.
So far I have 3 F350 trucks, 2 Expeditions and an Escalade.

 

[Bryophyte]

It is my (probably paranoid) belief that at some point in the near future it will get harder and more expensive to buy regular bulbs (phase out).

It's not a paranoid belief. They ARE phasing them out starting next year.

 

[FoBoT]

get LEDs , they are awesome
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...0003-_-Product

 

[Strk]

I've always been under the impression that one of the biggest problems with CFLs is low quality ballasts.

 

[Jeff7]

Just this Sunday I learned of a nifty kind of fluorescent light - induction fluorescent, which have apparently been around for quite awhile. Instead of having filaments in the tube, it uses coils of wire on the outside of the tube to excite the mercury to produce the usual UV radiation.

It looks like these could be power-cycled like incandescents, and have lifespans that can even exceed high-brightness LEDs.
Not sure why they haven't gotten much attention in the consumer market though.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

I plan on replacing every light bulb in my house with ES bulbs. Any manufacturers or models that is better than the other? I prefer white light. 40 watts? 60 watts?

All "white" light is not necessarily the same. Pay attention to the color temperature written on the package. Lower temperature means a warmer (redder) white, whereas higher temperature means a cooler (bluer) white.

Also, not all bulbs are compatible with dimmers. Most fluorescents, for example, are designed to emit light at a particular intensity (brightness). There are dimmable fluorescent bulbs available, but they are expensive.

FWIW, I just replaced all the bulbs in my house with sylvania fluorescent lamps. Mostly 60W (running at 18W) and 100W (running at 26W). They take a little bit to warm up, but that is an issue with all fluorescent and HID lamps.

I would stay away from LED sources unless you have a speciality lighting application. They are extremely efficient, but they just do not provide enough light for most general lighting applications. They also tend to emit light that is highly specular, meaning the distribution of light is not uniform in all directions around the bulb (akin to the beam of a flashlight, rather than an incandescent lamp). That could be fixed with an appropriate fixture/reflector, but I have yet to see an LED source that I like.

If it matters, I draft patent applications for a major lighting manufacturer. So I have spent quite a bit of time studying and analyzing fluorescent, LED, and HID light sources.

 

[edro]

Just this Sunday I learned of a nifty kind of fluorescent light - induction fluorescent, which have apparently been around for quite awhile. Instead of having filaments in the tube, it uses coils of wire on the outside of the tube to excite the mercury to produce the usual UV radiation.

It looks like these could be power-cycled like incandescents, and have lifespans that can even exceed high-brightness LEDs.
Not sure why they haven't gotten much attention in the consumer market though.

Sylvania/Osram Icetron
and
Philips QL

High initial cost, super long life (100k hours), output comparable to HO fluorescents and HID.
The cost is so high (~$200 for ballast, lamp and socket) that it is really only viable for customers that take advantage of the long life.
Examples are tunnel lighting, where stopping traffic to change lamps is not possible.

 

[highland145]

My mother has an apocalypse stash... like a miniature grocery store in her basement. I am making my own stash real soon (as soon as I clean out the front room in my basement)... of incandescent light bulbs. I'll give you my lights when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.

At Lowe's this a.m. and this old guy had a cart full of incandescents. Easily 50. He was on the phone asking the wife what style bubs were in the bathroom.

Yeah, I bought a few. Lass than my wife wanted, more than I did.

 

[edro]

They also tend to emit light that is highly specular, meaning the distribution of light is not uniform in all directions around the bulb (akin to the beam of a flashlight, rather than an incandescent lamp). That could be fixed with an appropriate fixture/reflector, but I have yet to see an LED source that I like.

Any light manufacturer worth a damn uses reflectors, refractors and/or diffusion films to make all sources less specular. That includes fluorescent, HID, incandescent and LED.
Incandescents aren't so bad because they usually put a diffusion coating on the inside of the glass.

 

[Saint Nick]

Use natural light.

 

[bobdole369]

install higher wattage incandescents than you would normally, and dim them with an advanced dimmer system, such as Lutron. If you go homeworks you can even use your iPhone, PC, or home automation system to control lighting. You set up scenes and press "Entertain" or "quiet" or "Lunch" and the lights do their thing You set up the maximum brightness as about 1/2 to 2/3 the max and your incandescents will last 5x or longer than rated (typically 1000 hours, and you'll get 3k-5k doing things this way. They do occupancy and vacancy sensing and all that. If thats too rich for you Lutron has a line they sell in Home Depot. $20 or so per switch. Its a drop in the bucket in the long run as all those curlycue flourescents have all gone bad well before the rated life, and one even burst into flame in my bathroom. Well - shooting fire out the side and melting the fixture it was in was the extent of it, but thank god I was home. Don't go cheap on the CF stuff folks. Walmart bulbs are as cheap as it gets...

And replace Lutron up above with any decent brand of electronic dimmer (as long as it isn't that retarded knob dimmer) and you'll be OK. Most of my experience in this field has been with their product is all.

 

[bobdole369]

I'm rooting for the move to LED's to be quick, painless, and bright.

 

[TridenT]

I replaced every bulb in our house from ES to standard incandescent. I absolutely hate ES bulbs. They put out hardly and light and take ages to warm up. Despite manufacturer claims they DO wear out quite quickly, and begin to flicker and buzz (even expensive ones). Good luck finding an identical replacement when one does die - you'll wind up with what we had - different coloured bulbs in every fitting.

trololol...

I use the CFLs that my landlord provides. They work fine so far.

I am curious as to why CFLs fail so fast though for some. Oh, and LEDs are a joke. Very dim and very directional light, or at least that's what they've all been saying forever now.

 

[Jeff7]

trololol...

I use the CFLs that my landlord provides. They work fine so far.

I am curious as to why CFLs fail so fast though for some. Oh, and LEDs are a joke. Very dim and very directional light, or at least that's what they've all been saying forever now.

Presently. The big problem that I see is the socket.
Incandescent bulbs have a filament at a few thousand degrees - heat leaving the package can be quite problematic, in that you don't want your house to burn down.
LEDs don't like being too much above about 85°C at the junction, so they want to remove heat as efficiently as possible.
Most of our lighting fixtures right now don't accommodate that requirement. So what has to be done then is run fewer LEDs in one package, which of course means less light generated.
A properly-made lighting fixture, built with LEDs in mind, can be quite insanely bright. Some of the things made by Cree, Philips, and others can pack quite a lot of lumens into a very small area. Philips' Luxeon S can generate 1300 lumens, but the package itself is about 1/4 of a square inch.

 

[TwiceOver]

of the 8 sockets in my house that I could screw one of these into, none will actually fit the bulb. Seems like when everyone designed these CFLs they forgot that a traditional bulb is narrow at the bottom.

 

[dullard]

Philips' Luxeon S can generate 1300 lumens, but the package itself is about 1/4 of a square inch.

You are quite behind the times. 1300 lumens has been done a long time ago. Here is one with up to 5500 lumens in just 0.22 in^2 of space. Mouser claims to have them in stock by June 10th.

 

[edro]

It's good to see we have a few lighting guys on the forum!

 

[0roo0roo]

of the 8 sockets in my house that I could screw one of these into, none will actually fit the bulb. Seems like when everyone designed these CFLs they forgot that a traditional bulb is narrow at the bottom.

the base for modern cfl can be very small now.

 

[DCal430]

You are quite behind the times. 1300 lumens has been done a long time ago. Here is one with up to 5500 lumens in just 0.22 in^2 of space. Mouser claims to have them in stock by June 10th.

5500 Lumens at 90watts is significantly less efficient than todays fluorescents and HID lamps which today are doing that at less than half the wattage. That is the problem too with LED as efficient as they are they are still behind fluorescents and HID lamps. The point of using energy efficient bulbs is NOT to save money in the long run but to SAVE THE PLANET from our over use electricity.

 

[edro]

5500 Lumens at 90watts is significantly less efficient than todays fluorescents and HID lamps which today are doing that at less than half the wattage. That is the problem too with LED as efficient as they are they are still behind fluorescents and HID lamps. The point of using energy efficient bulbs is NOT to save money in the long run but to SAVE THE PLANET from our over use electricity.

The main advantages for LED fixtures now are amazingly long life and being instant on.
Also, HO fluorescents can't fit in most traditional HID source luminaires (street lighting, decorative, etc), but LEDs can.

 

[DCal430]

The main advantages for LED fixtures now are amazingly long life and being instant on.
Also, HO fluorescents can't fit in most traditional HID source luminaires (street lighting, decorative, etc), but LEDs can.

What advantage does LED have over Metal Halide HID lamps which have a higher efficiency, and are fraction of the cost, and size.

 

[TridenT]

What advantage does LED have over Metal Halide HID lamps which have a higher efficiency, and are fraction of the cost, and size.

Life span, but that's really not something I consider worth while. It does not take a long time to replace lights, IMHO. Oh and instant on, but if these things are on all the time then that is not much of a worry.