From grscott@nc5.infi.netTue Mar 7 20:01:58 1995 Date: 4 Mar 1995 00:16:33 GMT From: grscott@nc5.infi.net To: london@sunsite.unc.edu Subject: Re: ECO Bulbs In <3j68hp$pqu@sundog.tiac.net>, conover@max.tiac.net (Harry H Conover) writes: > >Our local electric company had a special on these bulbs several years ago. >Unfortunately, from personal experience, they do have a down side, in fact >several down sides. > >First, unlike a conventional bulb, they require time to light, particularly >in a cool (under 65-degree) room. Unfortunately, this results in their being >left on continuously in many situations and, in fact, consuming more >energy than they save. > >Second, the quality of light output from these bulbs tends to be diffuse >and have a 'peculiar' color temperature. The combination makes them >unsuitable for either extended reading or the illumination of close, fine >work. Also, the color is too 'cold' for ambience lighting unless you're >into blue and stanless steel motifs. > They've improved tremendously. Some are still the "cold, steel" blue; others, like those made by Philips, are much warmer. I had waited 'till just this month to replace (almost) all incandescent bulbs in my house because of the problem with the "time to light" and the fact that the earlier models were so darn big. Now, they come on nearly instantly (about .2 sec for the ones I purchased) and come in more compact models, but they do not come to full brightness for some period of time: I haven't made formal measurements but I'm guessing about 30 seconds. Since the better ones consume <= 1/4 of the energy of their incandescent counterparts, it's difficult for me to imagine that anybody is likely to leave enough of them on continuously to "consume more energy than they save": that certainly is _not_ the case in my home, in any event. (Even my kids were so impressed that I spent that much on lights that I think they're even doing better about leaving lights, TVs, and the like on!) They are definitely not all created equal: those I have inspected varied by as much as 25 percent in energy consumed for the same luminosity. Cheers... Richard