Post by: Nick1911 on July 16, 2007, 12:07:56 PM
Recent threads have suggested that the technology is much better now. So, I'm willing to try this again. What do you recommend? I'm looking for good representation across the visible spectrum, low startup time and no buzz or wine sounds.
Phillips? GE? Sylvania? Other?
Post by: K Frame on July 16, 2007, 12:18:58 PM
I like either GE or Phillips. Look for the ones that are marketed was warm white.
Sylvania, ANY Sylvania bulb (incandescent, fluorescent, or halogen) have seriously poor quality control, in my opinion.
Post by: AJ Dual on July 16, 2007, 12:30:35 PM
I don't remember them all, but:
#5 We heard somewhere that Sylvania bulbs give off some kind of poison gas&
#4 Same for Westinghouse..
#3 The floursecent tubes make great "Star Wars" swords for the kids!
Post by: bedlamite on July 16, 2007, 12:56:56 PM
Does anyone else remember David Letterman's top ten list as to why the public should buy GE light bulbs, way back when GE bought NBC?
I don't remember them all, but:
#5 We heard somewhere that Sylvania bulbs give off some kind of poison gas&
#4 Same for Westinghouse..
#3 The floursecent tubes make great "Star Wars" swords for the kids!
I don't remember them all, but:
#5 We heard somewhere that Sylvania bulbs give off some kind of poison gas&
#4 Same for Westinghouse..
#3 The floursecent tubes make great "Star Wars" swords for the kids!
http://www.mudslide.net/TopTen/lnwdxtra.html#extra68
Post by: AJ Dual on July 16, 2007, 03:41:24 PM
Post by: crt360 on July 17, 2007, 02:41:45 PM
#3 The floursecent tubes make great "Star Wars" swords for the kids!
They were used for that very purpose at my elementary school. The kids would rescue them from the dumpster and have lightsaber fights out behind the cafeteria.
Hmmm . . . I wonder if my exposure qualifies me for a government benefit.
Post by: BrokenPaw on July 19, 2007, 07:00:08 AM
And in the winter, it's even worse.
Back to evil incandescents next time. Especially for exterior lights when you live in the woods, instant-on, instantly-bright is a Good Thing.
-BP
Post by: Manedwolf on July 19, 2007, 07:15:43 AM
Quote
#3 The floursecent tubes make great "Star Wars" swords for the kids!
There was a Darwin Award not long ago where two people tried to re-enact a lightsaber fight by cutting the ends off fluorescent tubes, pouring in some gasoline and lighting it, presumably to make it "light up". The results were predictable, and I think fatal for at least one of them.
Post by: Gewehr98 on July 19, 2007, 07:24:13 AM
Post by: K Frame on July 19, 2007, 07:37:12 AM
Yes, they take awhile to warm up.
Two ways of dealing with that.
Put them on timers or photo cells so that they come on when it gets dark and stay on until morning, or get a flashlight.
Post by: Nick1911 on July 19, 2007, 09:13:45 AM
Put them on timers or photo cells so that they come on when it gets dark and stay on until morning, or get a flashlight.
What, you don't have a CFL in your flashlight?
In all seriousness, I'm not a big fan of LED flashlights...
Post by: K Frame on July 19, 2007, 09:17:21 AM
Post by: Nick1911 on July 19, 2007, 09:18:37 AM
I have a very cheap LCD flashlight that I bought for when I walked my dogs. It's very bright for its size.
LED?
Post by: K Frame on July 19, 2007, 09:32:08 AM
Post by: Manedwolf on July 19, 2007, 07:11:21 PM
Yes, LED, not LCD... Sigh.
LCD flashlight...
That could be cool. Project your favorite show on the wall to watch?
Post by: Nick1911 on July 19, 2007, 08:04:40 PM
Yes, LED, not LCD... Sigh.
LCD flashlight...
That could be cool. Project your favorite show on the wall to watch?
I always thought a marketable product would be an LCD license plate cover. Make it blank out the plate when the gas pedal is pressed to the floor. I imagine it would sell pretty well to the "run red lights" crowd in areas where they have red light cameras. Then my ethical/moral side kicks in, and I consider why exactly the moral implications of encourage people to run red lights at speed and endanger others?
Post by: Paddy on September 17, 2007, 01:13:30 PM
Anybody use the off brands? Is there any diff in light quality vs. the name brands (Phillips, Westinghouse, GE, etc.)?
Post by: K Frame on September 17, 2007, 01:21:30 PM
Earthlights aren't terrible, but they're generally not great.
The Phillips I have in my post lamp out front has been in there for just over 3 years now. It's on a minimum of 8 hours a day, every day. In the winter, it's on a LOT longer.
The 13 watt GE on the back patio has been burning 24x7x365 for.... almost 5 years.
There are generally differences in light quality between all of the manufacturers; it has to do with the phosphor formulas they use to coat the insides of the tubes.
I recently had an overhead shop light go bad on me (transformer crapped), so I replaced and got new bulbs at the same time. The Sylvania bulbs I got (all they had that was reasonably priced for the laundry/work room at that point) have a distinctly different color to them than the similar "work room bulbs" by GE that are in the other three worklights in the room.
CFLs is one of those areas where I'll spend a bit more for the name brands.
Post by: wooderson on September 17, 2007, 03:07:43 PM
You only get 'sickly light' if you cheap out or buy the wrong color temp. For some reason I bought a round of 'daylight'-balanced bulbs for the first room I replaced them in - cuz hey, daylight is yellow, right? Wrong - very bright, but a very cool color cast, it was like working in a sci-fi movie. Get 'soft white' - the perfect color temp for reading, watching TV, etc..
Post by: Ben on September 17, 2007, 04:52:59 PM
Post by: Perd Hapley on September 18, 2007, 01:01:23 PM
http://www.gelighting.com/na/business_lighting/education_resources/learn_about_light/color_specifying.htm#CCT
In public areas of apartment buildings, I have replaced many 60 W incandescents with CFLs that gave a much brighter, whiter light. And this is coming from someone who usually doesn't notice such things. The first CFLs I installed in my house were in my dimly lit basement. The low-kelvin bulbs I put in first were dim and yellowish. I replaced them with bluish bulbs that work much better.
Post by: Paddy on September 18, 2007, 01:10:53 PM
Post by: Perd Hapley on September 18, 2007, 01:31:35 PM
That is really good information fistful.
Brought to you by Sentences Rarely Uttered, By Anyone, on APS.
This looks like a good chart, about half-way down the page.
http://nemesis.lonestar.org/reference/electricity/fluorescent/lamps.html
On past threads, folks have complained about blue light from fluorescents. According to what I've read on the pages that Google turned up, natural daylight actually has a bluish tinge.
Post by: Firethorn on September 18, 2007, 02:11:16 PM
You only get 'sickly light' if you cheap out or buy the wrong color temp. For some reason I bought a round of 'daylight'-balanced bulbs for the first room I replaced them in - cuz hey, daylight is yellow, right? Wrong - very bright, but a very cool color cast, it was like working in a sci-fi movie. Get 'soft white' - the perfect color temp for reading, watching TV, etc..
The reason I bought a bunch of daylight bulbs is that I don't get enough of it, tending to work funny shifts.
Post by: Perd Hapley on September 18, 2007, 04:49:06 PM
Quote
You only get 'sickly light' if you cheap out or buy the wrong color temp. For some reason I bought a round of 'daylight'-balanced bulbs for the first room I replaced them in - cuz hey, daylight is yellow, right? Wrong - very bright, but a very cool color cast, it was like working in a sci-fi movie. Get 'soft white' - the perfect color temp for reading, watching TV, etc..
I think soft white is very bad for some things, while daylight works very well for other things, depending on the brightness of the bulb, how many bulbs in the area, etc. As I mentioned earlier, soft/warm white was very dim in my basement, while the daylight bulbs are working pretty well. Of course, soft white might have been fine if they were higher wattage or better quality. But the daylight bulbs I bought were the same brand, same wattage, as the soft whites. IICR.
Post by: jeepmor on September 18, 2007, 06:06:33 PM
The ones installed outdoors and in the garage appear to fail at 3 years consistenly. I really like them and see the benefit as lower operating cost. PGE (Portland General Electric) gave out a bunch of incentive coupons about 5 years ago with our power bill statements. The replacements that are taking the place of this first batch are noticeably better in regards to startup time. I've never noticed any flicker issue except as an indicator that it's about to fail.
Post by: Perd Hapley on September 18, 2007, 06:28:12 PM
I've never seen any flickering in the screw-in type, but I've only been using those for a couple of years, and not that many of them. The push-in type (such as PLs) don't seem to last that long, but probably because I was installing those in old fixtures with old ballasts (transformers). They can flicker pretty badly, but again, the ballast is probably to blame. The CFLs (I presume) have their own ballast built into the bulb, and ballasts usually last much, much longer than an incandescent bulb. So no worries there, I should think.