[Hijack alert!!]
What is it that causes sunlight (in particular summer) to look so radically different in the northern latitudes? I’ve noticed that in Scandinavia there is a ‘clarity’ to the light which is completely different to what you get in the UK or the tropics. I suspect it’s to do with air quality and the way the light shines through the atmosphere at an angle, but I’ve never been able to figure out why.
[/Hijack alert!!]
That’s a GQ if ever I’ve heard one. I do now know the scientific answer, but I know for a fact that the color and “quality” of the light differs greatly as you move around the globe.
Part of what makes globetrotting and shooting pictures so much fun !
I have 75% of my house on CF’s. I have one old U shape Florescent that is now 13 years old. It does take 4 minutes to come completely up but it is an older Tech also.
My CF’s that are less than 3 yrs old give light immediately and get up to max in under 1 minute.
I do have an early 60W CF in my hall that takes longer, it cost $8 at the time and maybe I should break down and change it out.
My Wife will be overjoyed with the idea of dimmible. Where can I find these. I know there are 3 ways at www.bulbman.com **but I didn’t find actual dim capables? **
I also hope to find low wattage bulbs, 40W & 25W equivs.
Had anyone seen these cheap yet?
My workshop is a combination of long tubes and CFs. It is a great way to light up a basement & Garage on the cheap.
*The Spiral CF’s work great in Fans. * The fan in my office has a CF and the fan runs 1/2 the year. I leave 1 bulb in and 2 loose to not make contact. When I need light I screw them in and get enormace light output but can unscrew them without buring my hand unlike incadescents.
Ooh, I love CF bulbs! I’ve migrated just about every light in my house to them, with a few exceptions (lights I don’t turn on much, or ones with weirdly sized bases for which I can’t find CF equivalents).
As far as the light quality goes, I bought a cheap spectrometer recently, and one of the first things I did was check out the spectral signature of my ordinary CF bulbs, and the few “full spectrum” ones I have. The ordinary ones have sharp, narrow peaks in the red, green and blue areas, but only fairly faint traces of any “intermediate” colors. The full-spectrum CF’s have similar RGB peaks, but much brighter (although considerably dimmer) “intermediate” colors all the way from red to violet.
As for the dimmables, I have three of them. My only complaint (aside from the price) is that they buzz rather noticably, even at full power. It’s not such a problem with the ones in my bedroom, as they’re in free-standing floor lamps far enough away from the bed (where I usually am when I’m in the bedroom, logically enough) that I don’t hear it much. But I have one in a table lamp in my living room, on an end-table between my couch and loveseat. This puts it maybe 18 inches, tops, from my ears when I’m sitting on the couch watching TV, and damn, it’s distracting. I’m tempted to take one apart, if I can figure out how to do so without destroying it, and seeing if a little glue in the right place might not be able to keep whatever’s buzzing in there from vibrating. Sometimes I can get it to be nearly silent by tweaking the dimming level just right - there seem to be some narrow settings at which the buzzing is much quieter - but it’s tricky.
Also, the range of dimming available from these bulbs is very different from incandescents. The top 20% or so is all the same brightness, then it rapidly dims, then levels off at the bottom end such that the light is either on or off. It’s impossible to get them dimmed way down so the lights are barely on. But that’s OK, I don’t usually demand quite so much control - I just often don’t want full brightness, especially in the morning, or when watching a movie.
As far as sensitivity to mechanical vibration goes, I have a CF in a ceiling fan and one in my garage door opener, and neither has failed yet.
I haven’t noticed any dramatic decrease in my electric bill, but I tend to burn most of my electricity on air conditioning (it’s summer in Florida) or heating (it does get cold here in the winter, and the heat’s electric), and the computers that get left on 24/7. But I’m sure it’d be even worse without the CF’s.
First, I’ll refer your wife to this thread, especially porcupine’s post, #30. If your wife has been diagnosed, she has my sympathy, but as porcupine says it’s a hot-button issue.
Anyway, I also get headaches from some fluorescents. There’s a conference room where I used to work with dimmable tubes, and I would also last for ten minutes or so, especially when they were turned down. Is there any info online about the intensity of the flickering, maybe a nice graph? A quick search just gave me this, which is from a TV screen, although the page describes experiments with both TV and fluorescent lights.
Also, I saw some mention of “high-frequency ballast” on some lamps. Is this better WRT flicker?