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Thread: &#% compact fluorescents again!

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    Default &#% compact fluorescents again!

    Hi all,
    Thanks to some greenie prat, we now all have to have those nasty compact fluroescent globes in our homes.

    I hate their reliability... as I've lamented before, it seems that around 10-20% of them fail within the first few hours of use, no matter weather they're the high quality 'name' brands or the low quality 'cheapies'. I figured out that due to the high failure rate this makes the CF globes actually more expensive to run over their overall lifetime, averaged through a house with 15 globes.

    And as someone else has also pointed out previously (onya TRASH), at the end of their useful life, they're more toxic to the environment than the good old incandescent globes.

    But now I have a new problem with them. I like to listen to shortwave radio of an evening... but one of the major contributors to radio noise within the house is - yep you guessed it - those &@#* compact fluorescent lamps. Again I've found that, against logic, some of the high end 'name' brand, expensive types are the worst offenders. One, a GE brand costing $12 is actually the worst offender, spreading hash and buzz through the shortwave bands that is audible a good 50 metres away from the house!

    Energy saving perhaps, but they're decidedly ungreen, unsafe, unreliable, radio-unfriendly and uneconomic. And thanks to a gullible vote-grabbing government that didn't thoroughly research the subject, we're now forced to use them.

    There must be an alternative!!! But if there is, I've not seen them commonly available in the supermarket shelves yet.

    My question here is: what alternative technologies are there that are energy saving, reliable, non-toxic and radio / EMC freindly?
    What about LEDs... are there LED lamps that fit the standard bayonet or ES fittings, how good is their illumination dispersion, and how are they for RF noise?
    I did find a variant of the incandescent globe that seems as if its a halogen hybrid (if the packaging is to be believed) type that seems quite RF friendly and reliable but it was the only one I've been able to find so far.

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    I've said it before and i'll say it again, led is the way to go



    checkem out
    When I explained to the guy what avatar I wanted, that wasn't what I meant!

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    Energy saver Halogen lamps are available in regular glass envelopes with standard bayonet or edison screw bases. They are also dimmable and do not generate RFI, and have a much closer colour temperature to regular incandescents. I have seen them for sale at Officeworks for $4.

    Cheers.
    "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." - Issac Asimov

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    It doesn't matter how many ways you're damaging the environment, as long as it cuts CO2 emissions, it's green.

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    This is one of my PET topics too.

    Unfortunately the industry is earning big bucks in the CFL trend so LEDs are still only a niche market. I expect it will take some time before really useful and affordable LED type lamps become readily available.
    ATM they burn your eyes when you look into them but light up only a small area or just look ghostly. Done quite a few experiments. For high power LEDs a switch mode PS (with the usual RFI) is necessary if they are supposed to operate efficient. Heat dissipation is a problem, they will die really fast in an enclosed lamp socket although that is also the main cause for premature CFL failure.

    For work areas the good ol' FL tubes (with inductive ballast) still has the best efficiency and lowest RFI.

    I belong to those strange beings who like a relaxed dimmed illumination in the evening with small bright spots where I need them AND THIS CAN NOT BE SATISFYINGLY DONE WITH CFLs or even CCFLs.
    I measured a 60W incandescent dimmed at the brightness I like and got 15-20W. So where is the saving if I am forced to use nasty CFL illumination ?

    There used to be a 3W CFL from Philips that I had running over night for two years in the stair case but I couldn't find it any more in my area, so out of frustration I built this LED concoction instead but turned out way better than I expected:



    It contains about 40 multi-coloured flood-type LEDs salvaged from a Xmas LED chain, powered by a small 24V transformer mounted into an old CFL socket. It has been giving a more magic than ghostly night light in the staircase and hallway for more than 2 years .

    Long-life or dimmed Halogens are hardly more efficient than incandescents but luckily they are not banned(yet) and fulfill my requirements.

    Most incandescents are still quite available and I am hoarding the special ones for my chandeliers and crystal wall lights. A new bargain shop opened up here called smart dollar and they have all the hard to get E14 types I need with GS and CE signage (printed in German) in 4packs for $2. I am in-candescent heaven
    I think the ban is mainly on the frosted ones and I don't like them anyhow.
    Update: A deletion of features that work well and ain't broke but are deemed outdated in order to add things that are up to date and broken.
    Compatibility: A word soon to be deleted from our dictionaries as it is outdated.
    Humans: Entities that are not only outdated but broken... AI-self-learning-update-error...terminate...terminate...

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    Yeah this farce has me looking into ditching my existing incandescent light fitting that just look damn ugly with those over sized supposedly 'compact' fluoro globes with some sort of fluoro tubes instead.

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    I recently fitted 4watt LED GU10 style downlights into my rumpus room. They work quite well, but they were bloody expensive ($35 / bulb). However I chose LED's because the ceiling cavity was confined and I was concerned about the heat from regular halagon bulbs.

    This shop has a lot of LED lighting
    “There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary – and those who don’t”

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    Im stocking up on the spot light 150 watt ones . Cant see them matching those in LED.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TVguy View Post
    Energy saver Halogen lamps are available in regular glass envelopes with standard bayonet or edison screw bases. They are also dimmable and do not generate RFI, and have a much closer colour temperature to regular incandescents. I have seen them for sale at Officeworks for $4.

    Cheers.
    Exactly, they are even cheaper in supermarkets.
    Its a joke, they found a small loop hole in the new ruling and went for it.

    Filament lamps are still alive and well !!!
    And in the same shape and sizes you were always used too.... Nothing has really changed.
    If you run those horrible compact fluorescents, thats your own choice and problem, because there are other far better options
    Last edited by ol' boy; 15-01-10 at 09:06 AM.

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    i find no issue with CFL's. I think a lot of the bad wrap they get is from the dimness of them at start up. This usually comes hand in hand with the cheapest ones, if you spend a few dollars more..... you get what you pay for.
    iam a bogan

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    I found i lot of complaints as a Sparky, from people buying these compact fluoros and then not being able to put their light fittings back together, because the size/shape of the new lamp didn't allow it.

    Plus the difference in light output/colour range never made too happy either.

    Note the lamp holder been taken out of the bracket.


    But with these now on the market, everything is back to normal again

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    Quote Originally Posted by TVguy View Post
    Energy saver Halogen lamps are available in regular glass envelopes with standard bayonet or edison screw bases. They are also dimmable and do not generate RFI, and have a much closer colour temperature to regular incandescents. I have seen them for sale at Officeworks for $4.

    Cheers.
    Ahhh... I see what you mean


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    I have compact fluros that I have moved from 3 houses (3 shifts/moves), I have only had one fail and they are all the 23W, cool white Philips jobs. They are getting harder to find now. For those who don't think LED stuff will be bright enough (I have tried some Halogen replacement LED down lights and wasn't real impressed), if you get a chance try a Cree LED torch. Surefire, Ultrafire, Jetbeam, Nitecore, Fenix...I have a number of Jetbeam items and their output is unbelievable for the size and current draw. Battery life is great with them too.

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    I'm going to put the greenie curse on Mitaux. The curse shall cause his White LEDs to fail within 100 hours of use.

    I polish my non-biodegradable faux crystal (perspex) ball and I see into the future.
    Because it is faux crystal it doesn't have the long range forecasting abilities of those expensive gypsie style quartz crystal balls.

    It's a short range ball, great for 7 day forecasts etc
    I'll just give it a bit of a rub and... oh wait.... I can see Mitaux buying 10 x White LED's from jaycar ..... MAhahahahahaha ... he is sooooo doomed !

    The CREE MR16 LED's are actually quite good, but they're a little dull at 3W.
    A couple of them together can provide some useful light. I like to combine them with a 25W or 50W halogen and a couple of 3W LEDs.

    I've had some failures with the CREEs running AC, but never running DC from my solar.

    As ramjet mentioned, the results can be disappointing. But I used them where they were shining on the subject like a table or bench and a large area I either used 1 halogen with a cluster of LEDs or I put all the LEDs are sharp and obscure angles to try to evenly (but dimly) light the room. They work best a spot lights, and a little bit of creativity can make them work and you get used to them.

    If on the other hand you really want to fvck the greenies off. Buy a Mercury vapour lamp. They'll pump out a nice 400 watts of light. They're efficient, though they suck down the juice. They will turn any room into a full sunlight equivalent of outdoor living area Best of all, they use mercury and emit lots of UV.
    They are great for vapourising vampires


    Playing with the 5mm LED's, the white ones I've had terrible failures with them.
    Of two batches of ten, all of them have failed within two months of use.

    I had a 240VAC garden light which I decided to replace with a home made LED light.
    Instead of using white LEDs, I used mostly greens with a touch of blue. At night shining on the plants, it has a kind of cool lighting effect and your eyes are not quite sure if it is white light because the brain expects to see green plants.
    It was a string of LED's in series with a 250V 0.1uF capacitor and a resistor. I've forgotten the value.

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    Are they going to ban tungsten bulbs .

    EG Work spot lights . I can just imagine working in a building with no light except for the work light . And trying to work with some sort of pissey LED lamp.


    .

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    3w MR16 in warm white (1 x 3w or 3 x 1W), have certainly done the trick for me.

    Once the 3 x 3w Cree jobs become commonplace, we'll have a true 50w halogen replacements.

    Then there's Aussie developed Controlled Plasa Lighting


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    Interesting point pieces, at present you can purchase 150W / 300W / 500W and 1500W QI lamps, such as used in outside spots lights etc.

    Plus the heat lamps which are similar and used in Fish n Chip shops and Food Warmers in kitchens etc.

    Man i'd laugh if some installed a CF there

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    I was given some LED ES clusters to play with a year or two ago. What a disappointment. Sure, they used bugger all power, but I may have well have just used a candle. I'll see if I can dig one out & post the specs
    Reality is an invention of my imagination.
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    A reliable HongKong source of 3w LED's at a reasonable price.


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    Im so happy since going compact fluro.

    All i use to do is change normal filament globes, from a previous thread my power levels are a little high at my home, the power substation box is about 60 meters away.

    I think ive only changed 2 compact fluros in the last 18 months and they are the ones we leave on the most. When they were filament globes we were changing those same ones weekly.

    No reliability problems here.

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