Aaron Cohen

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Lights Out For Old Bulbs?

Tuesday Feb 20, 2007

Could standard light bulbs be banned and people forced to buy eco bulbs?

I saw this article on Google News without even being logged in to give me personal news stories, so this is obviously a "glowing" topic getting lots of press. Here are a few snips from this New Zealand article.

Australia: Making eco bulbs a standard by 2010

California: also moved to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2012 under a proposed "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act".

The "Eco bulb" claims to use one-fifth of the energy, last up to nine years and save $100 in electricity costs.

New bulbs in homes were already saving 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year and "you could add a zero to that if the whole country switched over".

[10] Comments

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Posted at 10:50AM Feb 20, 2007 by cohen in General
Tags: bulbs eco sun

Comments:

we need an alternative before that is a really viable, i mean the light from those bulbs kind of sucks. i can't imagine museums and art galleries lit up with those. i've been tempted to build my next home using only hand made LEDs since they can have a better color temp, you can dim them (though not as nicely as incandescents), and there isn't a delay turning them on. interesting post tho, i didn't know there was a crusade against incandescents. it makes sense i just want a better alternative.

Posted by andrew payne on February 20, 2007 at 11:26 AM PST #

Thanks for your post, Andrew. I think of eco bulbs as an example of a technology that is trying to close the gap on an issue but that should inspire cleaner, greener, cheaper innovations to come. If you've built or are planning to build an innovative solution that tops the current 'eco bulbs', please do post the results here! BTW - To complicate matters further, there is another issue that I did not address in this post, and that is the toxicity of various bulbs. For instance, what's the difference between halogen lights and fluorescent lights? While they both use far less energy than incandescent, they still have downsides. Weighing those downsides against the upsides (and sharing the results on blogs, friends, family, etc) will help us all determine, at least for now, whether a new solution is eco responsible or not. For more on fluorescent v. halogen, here is an interesting starting point: http://www.physicscentral.com/lou/2001/bulbs.html

Posted by Aaron Cohen on February 20, 2007 at 11:38 AM PST #

As an "early adopter" of compact fluorescent bulbs, I can say they have gotten better over the last 10 years. Color temp is much better due to bulb coatings and bulb enclosures, and warm up time is much faster. I know this because the most of the old CFBs have yet to burn out.

I use them any place where I want a lot of light (hallways, laundry room, garage, etc.). My only complaint is the three-way CFBs suck right now.

LEDs used to have poor color temp, as there were no native white LEDs, but these have gotten better.

We need LEDs to replace those kitchen halogen lights, and for smaller bulb form factors like chandelier bulbs and ceiling fan bulbs.

Also, maybe someone can create a good three-way LED based light.

Posted by Mark on February 20, 2007 at 11:45 AM PST #

Thanks, Mark. I've seen the LED lights are now available for Christmas Lights and have posted on this previously, as I was looking for a good alternative. I'd be interested to know if the LEDs you are describe could be bright enough for practical use inside the home for certain functions, or even for overhead lights or lamps.

Posted by Aaron Cohen on February 20, 2007 at 04:46 PM PST #

I recently went through my house with the intention to replace all incandents with "energy saving" lamps (my dad was an electrition and told me off for using the word bulb - he said that was something one plans in the garden!) instead. However I couldn't find any solution in B&Q (the UK sister company to Home Depot) that would allow using a dimmer switch. For the master bedroom, living room and the dinning room that was a show stopper. I'm not yet convinced that the new engery saving lamp in the ceiling rose in the study has good colour temperature, but it is usable.

Posted by Darren Moffat on February 22, 2007 at 10:03 AM PST #

Thanks for your comment. I encourage others to do the same as Darren and do an audit of their house and see where the changes make the most sense and doesn't dramatically change your quality of life. I completely agree with you about the color of the new bulbs, though. The white light is just not warm. However, it's still worth it, a small step forward perhaps. We ultimately probably need a real breakthrough that provides a better 'value add' than just low power or eco - something that really makes a room nicer to want to be in. By the way, I'm amazed at how quickly our "eco bulb" on our porch burnt out even though it is supposed to have a very long lifespan. My fingers are crossed that there is serious R&D going into this now that clean tech is being funded.

Posted by Aaron Cohen on February 22, 2007 at 10:11 AM PST #

hey i found some LED lamps, not sure if they are dimable though... http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/7aa8/ http://www.besthomeledlighting.com/store/1674216/led_light_bulbs i think these types of lamps don't beat CFLs on efficiency, but they last longer.

Posted by andrew payne on February 22, 2007 at 10:22 AM PST #

Hmn and for those of us on "real" ;-) 220-240V power :-)

Posted by Darren Moffatn on February 22, 2007 at 10:47 AM PST #

I would like to get a quotation of different LED lights which can be replaced by 220Vac bulbs.

Thanks

Smh

Posted by Shahid Hasan on May 30, 2008 at 07:43 AM PDT #

This webist can offer more information about LED bulbs and PDF files can be downloaded, including datasheet of LED bulbs and other LED lighting products.
http://www.theledlight.com.cn/led-light/led-bulbs.html
http://www.theledlight.com.cn/led-light/led-spotlights.html