Rant of the day

[Stytooner]

Gravity = what happed to my chest as I grew older it is now in my belly. If I said that about a women I would be dead, like the media you have to PC about somethings.

Tom

This thread is going downhill. As others things I prefer not to ever point out.

[jking]

It's not obvious from the packaging or bulb that they are any different than the "old" style. Since the new requirements went into effect in January, most of the bulbs available in the box stores do meet the new requirements.

HD has a page for incandescent light bulbs, and if you set your local store, it will show what is in stock at that store. The GE Reveal bulbs seem to be the best option in this area, but are still more expensive than CFLs (utilities are subsidizing CFLs, so they are free or nearly free - six for a dollar for the "better" bulbs).

The Halogen bulbs LCHIEN mentioned are a good alternative as well.

This is interesting info. I've seen more than one article which left the impression (directly or indirectly) that a 25% efficiency increase in incandescents was either next to impossible or cost prohibitive to achieve, thus they would no longer be manufactured. I can say that I have seen the availability of some incandescents decrease.

[LCHIEN]

Here's another one. From http://www.latinospost.com/articles/...ws-hunters.htm talking about the Russian Meteorite.

" The meteorite began to crumble into thousands of deadly pieces "

was anyone killed? No. Maybe "thousands of deadly pieces" is a bit of an exaggeration. Sounds impressive. But the Writer got carried away?

[Stytooner]

If it exploded, I don't doubt that there were thousands of deadly pieces. Like an air burst artillery round, every little piece of it was lethal shrapnel potentially.

[LCHIEN]

If it exploded, I don't doubt that there were thousands of deadly pieces. Like an air burst artillery round, every little piece of it was lethal shrapnel potentially.

"potentially deadly" I would buy. But they weren't deadly in this case.

Dictionary entry for "Deadly" says causing or tending to cause death.
SInce this meteorite killed no one and no meteorite in known human history has caused a death, they neither caused death nor tend to cause death. Ergo: not deadly.

[cabinetman]

If it exploded, I don't doubt that there were thousands of deadly pieces. Like an air burst artillery round, every little piece of it was lethal shrapnel potentially.

That's the possibility.

.

[All Thumbs]

This is interesting info. I've seen more than one article which left the impression (directly or indirectly) that a 25% efficiency increase in incandescents was either next to impossible or cost prohibitive to achieve, thus they would no longer be manufactured. I can say that I have seen the availability of some incandescents decrease.

I did a little reading on the GE Reveal bulbs and they don't have a CRI in the 98-99 range, as one would expect. Instead the CRI is rather low, below some CF bulbs. Some claim they do have a pleasing effect because of the parts of the spectrum missing (resulting in deeper reds and more pleasing greens, I guess that means less yellow from the bulbs?). In any regard, I'm going to try one when I get a chance just to see what I think of it.

[durango dude]

Media doesn't get much right ----

In my experience - the most accurate reporting comes from:

- Christian Science Monitor
- NPR
- Economist
- Wall Street Journal

I generally don't verge from these sources. NPR has the most "nuanced" tone - which borders on snobby. CSM and WSJ are both straight forward, fair, and understandable.

Economist has the most global perspective on any given topic.

[twistsol]

When you consider the press can't even get incontrovertible facts straight, what hope do they have with subjective news ... politics, social issues, etc.

[Rslaugh]

The major lamp manufacturers, Philips, Ge & Sylvania, stopped making the lamps that do not meet the new requirements early last year and worked down their inventories. Noting prohibits someone in say China, though they would never flout our laws, from making and importing lamps that do not meet the requirements. Also the law relates to manufacturing, not selling, so the big box stores could afford to stockpile lamps. Just because they are available at HD does not mean they meet the requirements. If you see a Philips T12 style lamp at HD they purchased those before the new requirements as Philips stopped making them last year.

It's expensive but I'm gradually replacing all my incandescents with quality LED. The money in an LED lamp is the driver and heatsink and this is also the probable failure point. LED's have life expectancy of 50-100k hours while the electronics can fail in months if you don't get the heat away from it. Cheap LEDs have a crappy CRI (color rendering index - 1-100 with 100 being equivalent to natural sunlight) and a high color temperature which gives them that bluish tint.

It's one of the few "energy savings" schemes out there that actually will pay off.

[LCHIEN]

The major lamp manufacturers, Philips, Ge & Sylvania, stopped making the lamps that do not meet the new requirements early last year and worked down their inventories. Noting prohibits someone in say China, though they would never flout our laws, from making and importing lamps that do not meet the requirements. Also the law relates to manufacturing, not selling, so the big box stores could afford to stockpile lamps. Just because they are available at HD does not mean they meet the requirements. If you see a Philips T12 style lamp at HD they purchased those before the new requirements as Philips stopped making them last year.

It's expensive but I'm gradually replacing all my incandescents with quality LED. The money in an LED lamp is the driver and heatsink and this is also the probable failure point. LED's have life expectancy of 50-100k hours while the electronics can fail in months if you don't get the heat away from it. Cheap LEDs have a crappy CRI (color rendering index - 1-100 with 100 being equivalent to natural sunlight) and a high color temperature which gives them that bluish tint.

It's one of the few "energy savings" schemes out there that actually will pay off.

they intiially and continue to quote CFLs as having life in the 10,000 to 20,000 hour range... I have yet to see that! I should have had to replace zero CFLs in my house but I know I've replaced a lot of them!

I hope the LEds get it better but they probably wont.

[cabinetman]

Does anyone keep track of the hours? I just can't see keeping a light bulb log book.

.

[LCHIEN]

I keep track because the darn bulbs cost $5.50 apiece (BR40 65W flood) and they last less than half of what they should.

if you estimate you can make a good approximation. For example we run the lights in our living room from about 6PM to midnight, say six hours a day when we're home, probably 5 days a week. Longer in the windter, shorter int he summer, so it evens out. If we're out they'll still be on a couple of hours when we get home. So in a week, that's say 34 hours. 50 weeks a year, allowing for a couple of weeks on vacation, then we're talking 1700 hours per year.

Kitchen lights are on probably 2/3 of that (1100 hr/year). Bedroom lights are on probably 2 hours or 1/3 of that so 550 hours/year.

I have 5 65-watt cans in my living room. So 325 watts. In a year at 1700 hours, 552 KW-hours. at 12 cents per KW hour, it costs me $66 to light the living room.

I keep records of the floods in the cans, since they cost around $5.50 apiece and I have 11 in the high usage area. I started marking bulbs upon replacement in 2009. Altho I've lived here since 1992.
Using the estimated usage above, I get an average of 832 hours per bulb, which is about 42% of the claimed 2000 hours on the package.
FWIW I get 52% of service life from GE, and 35% of service life from Sylvania. Guess which bulbs I'm not buying anymore.

I've tracked 21 bulbs from installation to burnout.
Actually its probably worse than I've stated... I use a dimmer on the living room lights so its often less than 100% which should greatly extend the life of the bulbs.


Continuing with my rant, i have four 13W/65W CFL replacements in my bedroom. They claim to last 11 years at 3 hours per day (=12,000 hours)... Like I said, my bedroom lights are probably on 2 hours a day. I've replaced 6 of them, they're not in a enclosed fixture to where they get too hot. I know they aren't in there for anywhere near 11 years... maybe 3 or four. Sylvania, again.

[cabinetman]

My wife would call me anal if I kept track.

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[LCHIEN]

My wife would call me anal if I kept track.

.

I'm going thru ~$100 worth of bulbs per year, They're only lasting 35% of what they promised. Would you be anal about this, too?