100 watt bulbs

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Brian Roth said:
Being the "cheap bastard' that I am....

(and for a moment, IGNORING the electric company costs...)
Don't ignore the hassle of the all to frequent incandescent failing at inconvenient times... (never burn out in the day time).  In many cases the labor is significant.
OTOH, here at "Camp Chaos", the fridge, freezer and (especially!) the central A/C in summertime are the Main Power Suckers!  Year  'round here, I'm also constantly switching OFF unused lighting fixtures....
Yes, those are indeed larger sources of potential improvement, but harder to do from a distance.
Looks like the Govt. is trying to "look good" to the tree huggers.....

<G>

Bri

I truly hate to say something good about the government, but in the margin there is a lot of electricity wasted when you count every light socket, everywhere. So it can add up to real savings.  I still question the need to put the government's heavy thumb on the scale to make it happen sooner than it would from free market forces. At least their math is more correct than so much of their other energy policy. 

The CFL seems a bridge technology until LEDs settle down in price... We could have probably lived without the CFL adventure in the middle by waiting. All the mercury introduced into our homes seems like a Faustian bargain that may haunt the government policy makers, or give them something else to micro-manage.

JR
 
Maybe its time to introduce a new kind of socket or even a low voltage system to house wiring,  How much voltage do you need?  I guess the current draw is something to consider for wiring size.
 
I bought a Philips Ambient LED, 800 lumens, watt,  12.5 bulb 2,700K.  It is an good LED 60watt replacement IMO.

Wayne who use to post at this forum has a nice thread about lighting at another forum.

 
> Maybe its time to introduce a new kind of socket or even a low voltage system to house wiring,  How much voltage do you need?  I guess the current draw is something to consider for wiring size.

Current-draw and SHORT current are THE consideration for wire size and copper cost.

With conventional 120/240V circuits and lamps, circuit loss is up to 2%.

Compare with 95% loss in incandescent lamps. The wire is not the problem.

CFLs need higher voltage. No point in low-volt circuits.

LEDs do need lower voltage. Say 12V. Same Power but at 12V instead of 120V is 10 times the current. For same size wire, 10 times the voltage drop. For 1/10th the nominal voltage the voltage-drop wants to be greater than the nominal voltage, horrible efficiency.

Larger copper is a cure. If you have bought house-wire, you know this is impractical.

However a small old-fashioned transformer will convert 120V to lower voltage with 80% efficiency. These switchers can do better, cheaper, smaller.

Also 4V LEDs can be stacked to high-voltage strings. There seems to be reason why individual LEDs will not be big, we need many of them. Series-string is problematic if elements will fail, but conservatively-run LEDs last a very long time.

The actual fix for wiring loss is to carry it at higher voltage. Now you need more rubber/plastic to keep the juice inside. However insulation is cheaper than copper. And insulation is usually sized for mechanical robustness, not for hundred volts. For the same Power, 230V circuits use much less copper and cost less. 1,000V circuits would use much thinner wire for the same power, but inside a house the insulation becomes a real problem.

New wires just is not going to happen. It took decades for identified conductor, #12 20A, and groundING conductor systems to become common in existing homes.

New circuits are quasi-compelling in huge systems like vast department stores. The overhead lighting may be run in series on higher voltage like 440V.

--------------------

For quickie comparisons in much of the USA, take electricity at $0.14 per KWH. The bill will show other numbers, typically one for generation and one for delivery, plus stray fees. The 14 cents is the grand total divided by KWH used. It will be higher for tiny use, lower for moderate use, lower on some special-rate steady-use, higher for huge summer use, lower in a few Hydro/REA areas.

_____________________

I have not seen many early failures of CFL. Maybe luck of the draw? I buy both "good" lamps and "way-cheap" lamps. I don't buy many of either. And it does get dark up here.
 
A little off topic but;
I have a few little "mood lighting" setups that I built.  They consist of clusters of small LED's I bought by the 500 on Ebay and I have simple PWM controllers to vary each colour group's luminance so I can get the colour temperature I want.  They run off a couple of old PC 12V power supplies I scavenged.
I rarely use incandescents at night now in the room I'm in as I now prefer the lighting from the LED's. 
I used to use halogen "work-lights" for working on stuff at home but I'm now throwing together lights using either "bright" white or "warm" white for that job.  I'm thinking the "warm" white might be less tiring for long periods at the bench.

 
Just checked on ambient LED phillips.  Says 24.95 at home depot near my house.  I'm going to try one and see how I like it.  I don't mind working in my shop with CFL tube lighting.  I just like the reveal GE bulbs for living room and office light.  Not a big fan of white LED. 
 
I have an LED bulb in my desk lamp and while not very bright but I do like the color better than CFL.

I plan to replace my CFLs with LED as they die off...

JR
 
First of all, my "tree hugger" comment was meant to be facetious....hence the    <G>    after that comment.  <G!>

I'm just stuck with what I have here in my house, which was built in 1970.  The "perfect answer" is to replace the remaining ceiling fixtures which were used in that era.  I'm now down to "merely" 10 or 12 of them....all designed as enclosed fixtures for 100W bulbs.

FWIW..they are rectangular boxes mounted into the ceiling.  The visible portion is approx. 12" square with a frosted glass cover.  Behind that is a rectangular box with an incandescent lamp running "parallel to the floor"... with an concave reflector behind the lamp.

Yeah..I should replace all of those fixtures....but I don't have Donald Trump's money.  <g>  Replacing each fixture will require hiring a sheetrock guy to rebuild that portion of the ceiling.  Or...sell the house....

In the meantime, any LED replacement needs to have an 'omni' light pattern in order for them to work in those fixtures.  Hence, my "collect 100W Edison bulbs" mindset.

Best,

Bri

 
I understand your pain..  We used to have the recessed fixtures in the house I grew up in.

I wonder if you could jury rig a way to drop the glass cover lower to provide an air gap and some air flow for cooling?  Say with longer screws and spacers?

JR
 
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