CFL’s
Okay, I’ve gone through my ‘extra’ lights, so the next time a bulb burns out, I’ll be switching them over to Compact Fluorescent lights. Except perhaps the bathroom – CFL lights lose an incredible amount of operating life if you leave them on for less than 5 minutes each time. The Energy Star group recommends at least 15 minutes at a time.
However, my big concerns:
Buzz. They say that modern CFL lights are nearly inaudible, but I wonder if anyone I know has dealt with CFLs and whether they’re actually acceptably quiet.
RFI. Fluorescent lights produce some amount of radio interference – does this interfere at all with cellphones, or are we talking completely different wavelengths? Still, I use a lot of electronics, and have various unshielded speakers, so interference could be a problem. Wiki: ” * Interference: Electronic devices operated by infrared remote control can interpret the infrared light emitted by CFLs as a signal limiting the use of CFLs near televisions, radios, remote controls, or mobile phones.[55] Broadband over power lines, shortwave radio, and AM radio receive radio interference from the CFLs.” How’s my Wii going to handle that?
Spectrum: I’ve gotten used to daylight lights (they’re all “white” lights), and fluorescents produce more narrow ranges, even with multiple phosphors. How close is the typical “daylight” CFL to incandescent whites?
We’ve got a few CFLs going now. I don’t notice a difference in terms of sound, and the light spectrum is pretty good, depending on what you’re doing. For most things, it seems fine. I haven’t found any cell phone interference, but don’t have a wii so I don’t know if that’s affected.
They take a moment (less than a full second) to turn on when you hit the switch. That’s the big difference I’ve noticed. Instead of them coming on immediately, there’s a moment of hesitation.
Those are cheap ones then. Good quality CFs come on right away, then take a few seconds (I see it as usually about 20) to get up to near full brightness.
I can’t hear CFLs at all, and I’ve got pretty sensitive hearing.
No idea about RFI, but it hasn’t been a problem thus far.
I bet your daylight incandescents are more like 3800K. You can get 5300K – 6500K CFs, but they will cost you. Particularly if you want a really high CRI. Think… $12 – $20/bulb.
I’ve got a 97CRI daylight CF next to me, and it cost $18/bulb. It’s a really great item and I love having it as a lamp, but it’s far too expensive to put everywhere.
Also, there’s no good reason to put CFs in things like closet lights. Those are used so infrequently that CFs aren’t a savings. Nor outside, where it may be too cold for the ballast to work properly. Nor in things like friges / microwaves / ovens, nor any place where you just flip them on and off.
*nod* Thanks for the info – My closets (other than my bedroom) don’t have lights, so I wouldn’t worry about that too much.
Clearly, I should just switch to Metal Halide. ;)
If you look through here you can see a lot of supposedly daylight bulbs metered (via color grey card and camera and photoshop) showing that they aren’t anywhere near daylight.
Most of the ‘daylight’ ones acquired from big box stores are actually rather narrow spectrum, they just happen to kick out enough blueish light to make a meter show up at the proper temp. Normal things look a bit sickly under them. :(
Hmmm… Sunwave was the brand you settled on?
Yep. About two years ago they were *the* bulbs to buy for random medical condition stuff, since they are supposedly really close to daylight. I bought them for photography, and they’ve worked out well. Every single photo taken on my workbench (which you’ve seen lots of them) were taken under them. I’ve got one in a generic boom lamp on my desk, with a similar gel diffuser to what is seen there on it. It works great as a lamp during the winter, and I’m fairly certain that it’s helped with SAD.
I’ve also got another clipped to my old tripod in the livingroom, which Danielle regularly uses as a work lamp. You can see it here. Note that it too is native color straight out of the camera. No white balance setting at all and no tweaking. I really like the color of these lamps.
I have been switching to CFL’s and they are great! No buzz that i notice and if you get some good ones, the color is better I think than the rather yellow lights of normal bulbs.
And since there are moves to ban all normal bulbs anyway, might as well get on board. Id like to try out an LED bulb for something too.
We’ve got CFLs all through the house, for the most part.
I’ve not noticed sound or interference in any spectrum. And the general CFL light range is pretty good (although the first 30 minutes of life of any bulb does seem to have a yellowish tinge, by my recollection), compared to standard frosted incandescents.