low energy light bulbs

CFLs are an interim technology. The future of domestic lighting is LED.

I have recently made an observation. I sometimes work as a sound engineer for a PA hire company. I was recently at a show which was lit completely with LED lighting. There was also a big TV screen next to the stage. It seemed that the LED lighting worked really well for the video - probably because it is all done with red, green and blue LEDs which are the correct wavlengths of light for the red, green and blue sensors in the video camera.

For domestic and office LED lighting, look here: http://www.activeled.com/products/product_details/?P=680


Steve.

I should point out that standard GLS 100W, 60W, ES and BC bulbs are still available from stock in the UK.

Tom

Tom Kershaw said:

I should point out that standard GLS 100W, 60W, ES and BC bulbs are still available from stock in the UK.

Tom

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60 Watt bulbs are still available, but it won't be allowed for retailers to sell them in two days time after the first of September 2011 http://www.eaem.co.uk/news/light-bulb-phase-out-prompts-fears-low-cfl-recycling-rate and all the higher Wattage ones will be phased out over the next two years.

benjiboy said:

They are still available, but it won't be allowed for retailers to sell them in two days time after the first of September http://www.eaem.co.uk/news/light-bulb-phase-out-prompts-fears-low-cfl-recycling-rate

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Well, the 100W bulbs were "banned" in 2009 but are still available to buy.

Tom

Things are apparently different on this side of the pond. Ikea is a junk store where students go to get flimsy stuff for apartments. Phillips imports 100% of their domestic lighting bulbs from China, sells them mainly through Home Depot, and the quality is horrible. GE is equally bad for non-commercial lighting. The Reveal brand of GE is one of the poorest in terms of bulb life. CFL's have been on the market here only a few years and the choices are very limited. No need to get frazzled. I too have a history of working as a color consultant and giving seminars on this topic, and of studio work too. T

I bought some halogen bulbs today. After a quick comparison they seem closer to daylight than my cfl or incandescent bulbs, in terms of colour rendering.

Ikea is the same everywhere. Besides ikea I bet there are other decent bulbs available in the us.

There is a complete review of Tungsten, CFL and LED lights in this months Popular Mechanics (September). It rates cost, longevity, spectrum and impact on color reproduction. This should answer a lot of your questions.

PE

Some of the problem is with semantics. I think a lot of queries are related to simple screw-in CFL's which
are intended as low-energy replacements for residential tungsten bulbs. This is an entirely different topic than expensive studio lighting or things using high-frequency ballasts like Broncolor, for example,
offers. There are some basic laws of physics why no fluorescent bulb can ever completely duplicate the
continuous spectrum of daylight or a filament bulb, though some can simulate it reasonably well. My own
color matching tubes came from Germany and have a CRI of 98, but still aren't quite as accurate for color matching, copy work, or display as a color-temp filtered old-style bulb. Plenty of studies have been
done on this. Let's just hope things keep improving as the market demands better color rendition for
certain applications. I've recently did a big commercial installation of 30X40 Crystal Archive prints under
CFL's, which did an acceptable job of rendering the color, but nonetheless gave me a bad headache anyway from the discontinuous spectrum, while I was hanging them. In this case, the city code required
low-energy CFL's well ahead of the national mandate.