Incandescent phase out? What next?

[RobWalker]

I guess I also wonder if heating a house (partially) on electricity is "greener" than 100% natural gas?

That's an interesting point ... our house is designed to allow us to heat a thick concrete slab over night and (in theory) not run the heating as much during the day. The local utility companies are on the brink of introducing time-of-day hydro rates, so we will pay less for a BTU of heat generated via electricity off-peak than we would for one coming from gas.

As to it being greener ... whilst electricity generation itself is way less efficient than modern gas furnaces, what happens to all the electricity that is generated overnight that isn't consumed? That is getting beyond my understanding of how the power generation and distribution systems work.

 

[Herdfan]

As to it being greener ... whilst electricity generation itself is way less efficient than modern gas furnaces, what happens to all the electricity that is generated overnight that isn't consumed? That is getting beyond my understanding of how the power generation and distribution systems work.

Not sure how it works in Canada, but in the US the power companies have what are know as "peaking facilities". The main power plants run for baseline loads based on the weather. When ever the baseline load is exceeded, peaking plants come online. These are usually powered by natural gas or hydro because they can come online very quickly.

There is a hydro plant in Virginia at Smith Mountain Lake that produces hydro power during the day, then at night, water is pumped back up into the lake using excess capacity.

 

[sloop]

liberals are attempting to make everyone green? What an incredibly ignorant statement.

How about "those unwilling to spend ANOTHER $1.5 trillion dollars on a war over our cocaine, eh, oil, addiction".

i find your statement equally ignorant

i guess the provision for fedreal regulation of light bulbs is in the same area of the constitution as the 1.6 gallon toilet

i have 130 volt incandescents - all on soft start dimmers - i have replaced 1 in over a decade - i don't buy the long life selling point of cfls

 

[Ranger Digital]

Liberals ARE the demise of the world. That is just a fact of life. There are ways to combat them, dont vote for them and their "more govt in your world" agenda (which is underlayed with more of a mightier-than-thou attitude, "i can save you", cloaked in "its good for you" fabric).

CFL's are more harmful than an indy, IMO. Lets not even open the debate of me getting over 6 bucks for a bushel of corn that was only 3.25 last year. Oh my, all in that fake sauce of "its good for us!" The WORST part is peopel are falling for it! That is exactly what could put liberals in control. And thats what its all about, control, is it not? Yes, of course it is. Sad, so sad that agendas are smothered with that false sense of security. "its good for me"? OH REALLY!

Back on topic, first, leave the name calling at the door, this is not the forum for it, second, cfl's suck for me.

 

[samgreco]

If it wasn't for regulation, we'd still be driving 10mpg cars. And the rivers and lakes would be black.

Sometimes "business" needs to be FORCED to do the right thing. And sometimes they need to be pushed to make things better. It's way more profitable to keep making things the way they are than to invest in R&D and make products more efficient.

Call me liberal, but I think our children and grandchildren deserve better.

 

[samgreco]

And one more thing...

If you look, really look, at government in the last 40 years, you'd be amazed to find that it's grown more under modern conservatism, than the liberals. And they've been spending WAY more of our money.

 

[smee]

Enough already, guys.

 

[Ranger Digital]

Regulation can be a good thing. For sure. When done properly.

Unfortunately many of the ways things are done have been dictated by lawyers, LOL. Not the govt.

Enough, smee is right. We need a thread for this topic that is WAY off topic.

ps. Sam, I think you need to do some more studying.

 

[samgreco]

Smee, you are right. Enough. This is not the place.

But the reality is that neither side is perfect or absolutely right (or left ). Somewhere in the middle is usually correct.

Let's see if we can all find a comfortable middle. I tired of arguing

 

[Ranger Digital]

Sam, well said my friend.

Now, lets let congress know we love our indy lights! I am confident manufacturers will step it up a notch to meet whatever regulations and demands set forth, especially if the consumer looks elsewhere.

 

[HighTest]

I'll continue to use Incandencents until the other technologies mature. Part of that maturation is to ensure that the health affects are mostly postive.

Several of the CFL's are detrimental to my families health due to epilepsy. The 60Hz cycle of florescants, and less costly CFL's lead to aura's and possible seisures. Granted, newer technologies are on their way, but still too ugly and costly. 2700Hz electronic flourencents are still in office or warehouse type housings and not sutable for home use in terms of esthetics (sp?). When these become attractive and also "dimmable" I'll be more likely to transition.

If anything, the closest, but still not sufficient savings difference over incandescant is to move to halogen. LED isn't practical yet.

 

[gatchel]

Am I on techmall.com?... Sorry I couldn't resist.


Anyway. I am doing a kitchen remodel and was considering using some of these:

Cree LR6 Downlight

Kind of pricey but maybe worth it if the color is right.

 

[garylm]

The Yodobashi Camera store in Osaka has an excellent display of various lighting sources for side-by-side comparison. The clustered LED bulb replacements were wimpy. All were cool blue/white, and some were only half-wave rectified and had a nasty flicker. No OLED lighting panels yet.

The warm white LED rope lights from American Lighting are full-wave rectified and are very nice but have a slightly greenish tint. They're adequate for lighting a path through your house at night, but I wouldn't want to read by them.

Edit: American Lighting now offers the LED Flexbrite in what they call "ultra warm white", which is 2700 K.

 

[hucker]

Trying to get back on topic what are the best quality dimmable CFL options. I can see writeups on the web but I don't really trust them. I have a bunch of places where cfl's would be OK, some hall ways, the play room, porch sconces. I could see buying a case or two (depending on what a case is). Any recommendations? Supplier?

 

[Waynedb]

Has anyone here tried CCFLs? The bulb linked here is not bright enough for me but they are supposed to be getting higher wattage bulbs.
http://www.betterbulb.com/a19_ccflbulb.html

I have some 18w Neptun CFL bulbs on order that claim to be dimmable to %10, I'll let people know how they work.
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Well it took only 2 months for the first Neptun dimmible bulb to burn out, the dimming sucks also.