Posts by Andrew Stevenson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Note that the dimmer needs to be one of the modern ones that chops the wave, not the old variable resistor ones for power savings.
The energymad bulbs are made in China too (most CFLs are), the issues are the design specification, equipment and quality control at the factory and testing afterwards. Sorry to harp about the EC programme, but we had high specifications (life, brightness, startup time etc and then had samples randomly selected and then tested in independant accredited laboratories.
I think Philiips have a dimmable CFL, at least I have seen them on the web a few years back.
-
Legal would be 'legal to view in the country of the filtering software company'.
Illegal would be... well not legal.
Sorry, I was unclear, how do you know that what a filtering company has put on their illegal list is in fact illegal?
I thought Emma's plan was to have the legal list up for inspection but hide the illegal list so it wasnt used as a shopping list.
The first thing that lept to my mind was to put things on the illegal list so no one could check them. -
Would you settle for Czarina, or Czarette?
All filtering software companies, however, must produce annual public lists of all the legal sites they block.
how do you define a legal versus an illeagal site? Eg filering company defines a site as illeagal, so not on the list up for inspection.
Same goes for producers of any material - sexual or not - which has involved the commission of a crime in its production, but not material which looks like it might have, but actually didn't.
How do you manage this, investigate everyone?
Not arguing, just kicking the idea around a bit...
-
Can anyone explain this concept I read on the energywise website where they recommend exchanging a 100W incandescent with a 20W CFL?
Does this change in wattage give essentially the same lux? (And therefore are they claiming that for any given light-level the CFLs are 5 times as efficient?)Yes, a 20W CFL produces the same lumens as an incandescant (actually produces more at the beginning of its life). The reason is that an incandescant used 95% of the electricity to make heat, while the remaining 5% is light. CFLs are much cooler and can produce the same light output with less input energy. Note that if you get one of the CFLs that look like a normal light bulb (the spiral is inside a shell) the light output will be less and a 20W is probably equivalent to a 75W incandescant.
Do they make the CFLs in teh smaller size for those 'candle-stylee' bulbs that we have used in our low-profile sconces?
Yes, the range is starting to expand - go the markets!
-
Emma for teh Interweb Czar!
-
Not suggesting that people shouldn't properly dispose of their dead CFLs (the LFLs in schools, offices, garages etc etc etc) but was interesting to work out that a CFL effectively reduces the amount of mercury released into the environment because of the savings in coal fired generation...
-
Out of curiosity, did you see the Chandelier Defence coming?
Nope, missed that one - we were focused on a market based approach, trying to deal with the failures in information and up front price. If someone didn't want to change then we were not going to worry, just try and get another million CFLs out into the market.
We did do surveys into what people did with the bulbs ie replaced an incandescant, replaced a CFL, number of hours the bulb would be on, concerns over appearace etc etc. Basically happy with way everything went given that you are dealing with that most inconsistent of things, people
was this public information at the time? I don't recall this being reported, since presumably, Brownlee would've been all over it, right?
Basically David Parker wandered around our office one day (the only day he ever visited) and asked 'what about banning the incandescants?', we said no - a market based approach is better. A few months later EECA wanted some meetings on banning the bulb, we attended those and just kept on with our market based programs. No fuss, no muss, just doing the job.
-
but the consensus seems to be that I should replace them even before plink-point. Is that right? It would go against the grain of my Scottish heritage but I am prepared to make concessions for the fate of the planet.
It is right, let your inner Scotsman know that it is costing him more to run the GLS bulbs then it is to buy and run a CFL. Its becasue a GLS (standard lightbulb) is basically a small heater that happens to give off a bit of light. You can justify the replacement from a purely selfish point of view, the fact it is a good thing to do is a bonus.
Energymad do do a halogen replacement unit too
Ordinary dimmers are not good for ordinary CFLs, gets a bit specialised/technical but if you really really want to you can get dimmable CFLs, but really who cares.
-
Ecobulbs, Phillips and Osram are all good
-
Re the life of CFLs.
They are a mass produced item, so some of them will fail (economics of quality assurance getting 100% pass rate is not worth it).
That said, quality bulbs are tested to at least 8000 hours life - the energymad ones were tested for 10,000 hours.
If you have purchased quality bulbs and have more then one blow out in under a year I'd say that suggests your wiring is wonky, not the bulbs are crap.