Fluorescent light bulbs are not what they advertise

ErinP · #**121** 12/01/10, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lyra

No offense, but if my house burns down then all of my friends' and coworkers' homes are going to burn down too. I have discussed the issue many times with other people when they bring up their problems with CFLs.

The same is true here.
Personally, I think it IS an electrical issue, but not so much within the house as it is within the REA system itself.

But that's just my theory...

arabian knight · #**122** 12/01/10, 05:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ErinP

The same is true here.
Personally, I think it IS an electrical issue, but not so much within the house as it is within the REA system itself.

But that's just my theory...

Yes that is more like it then ANY other thinking.
Most "rural" have the older lines, from the REA days, and when milking time comes you get voltage Falls and then the call for more voltage and it then Spikes.
THAT is what is the most damaging to the home CFI's. They do not take kindly to voltage irregularities. Lots of you are way out in the "sticks" some maybe at the very "end" of the electric companies lines.
My old REA lines have been taken over by a Electric COOP. that serves 5 counties, and they have been replacing many older lines and polls. And we get all of our power from a "Coal Fired" electric plant.

Toads tool · #**123** 12/01/10, 08:39 PM

I too would have to agree with the REA system at fault.
Case-in point, we used to live at the end of the line at our old house, I couldn't get an IL or a CFL to last over 6 months. Now that we have built a new house and have a new service only 3 poles off the main feed we haven't had any of the light bulb failures that we experienced at the old homestead.
The only bulbs se have had to replace are the IL's that we used when we thought we would save a little money. These were all minimal use ones that were placed in closets, the pantry and unused rooms. All of which burnt out within 3 weeks of each other after 13 months of use. Those have since been replaced with CFL's. Leaving only one IL that has only been used about 6 times in all that time in the attic.
This I attribute to being cheap IL bulbs to begin with. Sometimes a bargain just isn't a bargain.
The CFL's are still burning, the first of which were installed 5 years ago Nov. the 12Th to be exact.
I do believe that the brightness output is overstated on CFL's, especially those that were purchased for cheap at the Home improvement stores five years ago. But I must admit that the new bulbs that I purchased 3 weeks ago for a new project, same brand and wattage, are much brighter now than those were when new.
I base this on the fact that I placed one never used old one next to a newly purchased one and could see the difference. Unless storing them in a drawer in their original package undisturbed for 5 years will cause them to not be as bright that is. I believe that the technology is getting better and the newer bulbs are made better and brighter.

Opinion? yes. But MY opinion, and that's good enough for me.

CaliannG · #**124** 12/02/10, 01:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by o&itw

Think of (most) street lights, gyms, commercial garages, and industrial factories.

Oh, those aren't Incandescents! ~smiles~ Yellowish looking street-lights or factory lights are High Pressure Sodium. The white/bluish looking ones are Metal Halide.

Incandescent lamps are not used in commercial lighting. This is not because of their light output, but because they cannot be made to both be LARGE enough to light a large area, as well as be SAFE.

Great, big, huge incandescent lamps tend to blow up rather nastily when they burn out or overload.

There are more kinds of lamps in Heaven and on Earth, Horatio, than you can even dream...

Phalynx · #**125** 12/02/10, 08:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliannG

Oh, those aren't Incandescents! ~smiles~ Yellowish looking street-lights or factory lights are High Pressure Sodium. The white/bluish looking ones are Metal Halide.

Incandescent lamps are not used in commercial lighting. This is not because of their light output, but because they cannot be made to both be LARGE enough to light a large area, as well as be SAFE.

Great, big, huge incandescent lamps tend to blow up rather nastily when they burn out or overload.

There are more kinds of lamps in Heaven and on Earth, Horatio, than you can even dream...

Calianng has clearly never been on a television studio set. Those 10kw tungsten light bulbs might just blow up the whole building! It's a good thing they would only have one of them. Ooooh wait, nope they have many of those, "unsafe" large enough bulbs. ~smugly smiling while waiting for you to spell and grammar check my typing. Even better yet, waiting for you to rush out to wikipedia and type what you read and pass it off as your own again.~

Harry Chickpea · #**126** 12/02/10, 10:59 AM

Commercial is too broad a term. Almost every theatre I ever worked used incandescent lamps for general lighting. Projectors used carbon arc or xenon short arc. In places that had the stage, all of the stage lighting was incandescent, even the troupers. Arcs were used in super-troupers only if the venue was large. Incandescent lamps can be safely dimmed.

Large space commercial lighting is all about energy cost and replacement cost. In one location, we had an enclosed strip mall in front of the theatre that had fluorescent lighting. The landlord was bad about maintenance, so I would wait until the K-Mart next door was doing a relamp, and snag all of the used 8 footers for use in the little strip mall. The cost of relamping K-mart was enough that every lamp in the place was changed at once by a crew that did that around the country, even if it had just been installed as a replacement the week before. I never could store all of the unbroken used lamps that were available, so I just grabbed the couple dozen that looked the best.

o&itw · #**127** 12/02/10, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CaliannG

Oh, those aren't Incandescents! ~smiles~ Yellowish looking street-lights or factory lights are High Pressure Sodium. The white/bluish looking ones are Metal Halide.

Incandescent lamps are not used in commercial lighting. This is not because of their light output, but because they cannot be made to both be LARGE enough to light a large area, as well as be SAFE.

Great, big, huge incandescent lamps tend to blow up rather nastily when they burn out or overload.

There are more kinds of lamps in Heaven and on Earth, Horatio, than you can even dream...

True, I misspoke, they are not true incandescents, but they have a filament that vaporizes sodium or mercury and the light is given off directly by the vapor, not created by its interaction with phosphors. In other words, they are not florescent lighting. Because of the way the filament heats the metal and they "strike off", cold is not a problem for them except for causing a slight delay.

Paul Wheaton · #**128** 12/09/10, 03:36 PM

I wish I had a some sort of contraption that could turn a bank of lights on for two minutes and then off for two minutes. Over and over and over. I could then load the bank with a variety of lights and then take a picture each day of the bank of lights to see which one lasted how long. And make that collection of pictures into a video!

arabian knight · #**129** 12/09/10, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Wheaton

I wish I had a some sort of contraption that could turn a bank of lights on for two minutes and then off for two minutes. Over and over and over. I could then load the bank with a variety of lights and then take a picture each day of the bank of lights to see which one lasted how long. And make that collection of pictures into a video!

Easy
You can get "programmable timers" they would the trick One of them I have has Multi sliding pins all around the dial. You can have it go off many many times during a 24 hr period.
Now all you have to do is get a few old light fixtures and bingo you have the "Bank Of Lights" you are talking about.
Here is what I am talking about many times during a 24 period.
Fluorescent light bulbs are not what they advertise - Homesteading Questions

Fluorescent light bulbs are not what they advertise - Homesteading Questions

Paul Wheaton · #**130** 12/11/10, 10:04 AM

How do you get that sort of contraption to go on and off every two minutes?

MJsLady · #**131** 12/11/10, 10:12 AM

Well my personal experience is they are a waste of money.

They just do not work in a turn off the light when you leave the room household.
For a place that leaves lights on for hours they might save money but none of the ones we have purchased have paid for themselves either by longevity or by lowering the power bill.

arabian knight · #**132** 12/11/10, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Wheaton

How do you get that sort of contraption to go on and off every two minutes?

Not sure if you asked me or not.
But Each one of those little pins is like just a few minutes. Slide one pin up leave the other pin down in the on position, the other one up and so on. Till all the way around not sure how many minutes each would be, but it sure would go on and off for each "Off" Pin is in that position.

Paul Wheaton · #**133** 12/11/10, 12:13 PM

I thought those things had a 24 hour timer on them. So you might be able to get 15 minute resolution, but not 2 minute resolution. Or, are there some with something like a 60 minute dial? Or maybe a bigger dial with more resolution? Or maybe there is a way to get the dial to spin faster?

arabian knight · #**134** 12/11/10, 01:19 PM

That one I have is a 24 hour one so yes each maybe around 15 minutes. But who in the right mind would be turning on and off a light bulb every 2 minutes?
Now as far as a scientific experiment it would just mean you would have to run it for a longer period of time.

Paul Wheaton · #**135** 12/11/10, 01:31 PM

Who said my mind was "right"?

Here is what I want to do: set up about a half dozen incandescent and fluorescent lights and turn them on and off every two minutes. The incandescent lights will be rated for 1000 hours and the fluorescent lights will be rated for 10,000 hours. I suspect that after 150 hours the fluorescent lights will be dead and the incandescent lights will last to 400 hours.

My point will be that while this is not the use the fluorescent lights are designed for, there are many things throughout a house that they are not designed for. When considering the value of fluorescent over incandescent, I think this is a valid factor.

But! To make this video, I first need something that will turn the lights on and off every two minutes.