Fantastic, Incandescent bulbs are banned.

I hadn't realized it was due to happen so soon but on the 1st of this month it became illegal to sell incandescent bulbs (or globes as they're called here) in Australia. So I go to buy some bulbs today and there are only low energy (fluorescent) available. I hate those things and go look in another shop. Here I find what look like normal bulbs but with a halogen bulb in the center. They are also "energy efficient" bulbs and only use 40W to provide the same as a conventional 60W.

Well, I'm impressed, the 40W halogens are visibly brighter than 60W tungstens and the light is so much nicer. I love them.

Mike.

There's been talk of that here in the US as well. My friend went out and bought cases of residential incandescents for his home. LMAO since the stores are still well stocked with nary a sign nor news article of eliminating incandescents. There are too many objects that employ specialty incandescents unless the mfgrs plan to use LED array/cluster assemblies as replacements? I like the warm look of incandescent despite their super inefficiency. In a workshop setting nothing beats flourescents for evenly dispersed, low shadow illumination.

I have to have my heating on more now as the living room used to be heated by the incandescent bulbs we used here. The house was reasonably well insulated and by having the lights on, we didn't have to turn on the heating at night.

Now with the energy savers in there, the room is much colder so we end up turning on the heating for the whole house ...........

My incandescent bulbs were 100% energy efficient - any heat generated was used in the living room. My boiler is 90% efficient and heating all the rooms in the house is a lot less efficient .......

I wonder how the low energy (fluorescent) lamps will operate outside in very cold weather.
I have two 4-Foot fluorescent shop lights over my workbench in the garage.
Even though the garage is warmer than the outside those tubes are very dim when the temperature drops.
Would probably have to switch to halogen for that use.

In Germany light bulbs with 100W and higher were banned, effective 1st July this year. Next year 60 and 40W bulbs to follow and in 2011 no more incandescent bulbs will be allowed all.

The argument of the government is simple, but not thought consequently to the end. Using inefficient light sources increases electric power demand, hence increasing air pollution.

Using fluorescent lamps they cannot be disposed of like normal incandescent lamps, hence increasing air pollution as well.

Since the bulbs were banned for sale there was a tremendeous run on home markets and every shop having an assortment of lamps before the new law became effective. (OSRAM and PHILIPS had a good push on sales. )

I have got used to using the "cold" white fluorsescent lamps in Thailand. You won't find a warm white lamp all over the country.

My new house will be fitted with LEDs to mix colours for comfortable light.

BTW, illuminating your workbench you should consider using a lamp with some minor UV-light like plants lights used in shaded areas (places without any sunlight). With warm or cool white it's difficult to read a resistor's colour code correctly. Is it red or orange? With some UV you can determine that easier.

Boncuk

As most people never realize sometimes buying the cheapest version of whats available almost always has it down side.
There are some great high quality CFL's that have the same light characteristics as an incandescent. There are also CFL's and regular fluorescent fixtures that work well even at -30 F.
You get what you pay for. Cheap junk is cheap junk. Read the box if it doesn't give any working environment numbers its probably a cheaper unit not designed for harsher environments.

I have replaced a number of standard fluorescent light ballasts and bulbs around the farm with cold weather rated units and they now start just fine in the coldest of conditions with little flicker for more than the first few seconds.

As far as the CFL's not heating your house as effectively with electricity you can just plug in a small heater to gain back the heat the was lost during the change out.

Boncuk said:

)
BTW, illuminating your workbench you should consider using a lamp with some minor UV-light like plants lights used in shaded areas (places without any sunlight). With warm or cool white it's difficult to read a resistor's colour code correctly. Is it red or orange? With some UV you can determine that easier.

Boncuk

Click to expand...

The workbench in the garage is only for yard work & tools - no reading of resistors there.
I have another bench inside that is well lit for electronics/Ham Radio etc.
A lot more comfortable there also when the temps outside are below 0°

picbits said:

I have to have my heating on more now as the living room used to be heated by the incandescent bulbs we used here.

Click to expand...

It costs a fortune to heat a home with electricity. I use inexpensive natural gas.

My boiler is 90% efficient and heating all the rooms in the house is a lot less efficient .......

Click to expand...

Boiler? My furnace uses heated forced air. Tomorrow my new furnace will be 96% efficient. Its exhaust is warm air and drops of water. My new air conditioner will also be much more efficient than my old one.
The government is paying me a lot (rebates) for buying the efficient ones and the manufacturer is almost giving them away.

I use wood based heat derived from freely collected local scrap materials. I dont need to worry about efficiency.

Efficiency ratings are only relative to expensive fuel sources.

tcmtech said:

I use wood based heat derived from freely collected local scrap materials. I dont need to worry about efficiency.

Click to expand...

Are you the person in my neighbourhood who burns garbage (newspapers or something) in their fireplace and stinks up the neighbourhood??
I can hardly breathe.
Your smoke blows in my direction.

Natural gas burns cleanly with no smoke.

True, but natural gas still costs more than what I am paying!
And yes I toss the trash in with the wood at times!

But I am more courteous though. I dont burn the plastics and old tires until after everyone goes to bed!

My reverse cycle aircon is 250% efficient. I get 2.5kW of heat for each kW of electricity used.

On the halogen bulb subject, the new bulbs are $3 each compared to 1$ for the old ones, however, they save around $5 in electricity.

Mike.

audioguru said:

It costs a fortune to heat a home with electricity. I use inexpensive natural gas.

Click to expand...

What do you class as inexpensive over there ?

We pay around $0.1353 per KWh for Natural Gas for the first 2680Kw per year and $.0602 for the rest of it (using todays exchange rates)

Pommie said:

My reverse cycle aircon is 250% efficient. I get 2.5kW of heat for each kW of electricity used.

Click to expand...

As you obviously know, such a claim is nonsense - it's NOT 250% efficient, it's merely a heatpump, and pumps the heat from elsewhere.

Nigel Goodwin said:

As you obviously know, such a claim is nonsense - it's NOT 250% efficient, it's merely a heatpump, and pumps the heat from elsewhere.

Click to expand...

How it heats your home is irrelevant. If you can quote an electric fire as 100% efficient because it produces 1kW of heat for 1kW of electricity then I can claim 250%. End of the day it does what it says on the box, 1k in 2.5k out. For some reason the UK sees aircon as an item only owned by the "well to do". In reality, it is the most efficient way to heat your home. The sooner people start to install reverse aircon units the sooner they will drop in price. Here, I can buy a 2kW unit (5kW output) for around $1000 (UKP500). I'll bet the same thing in the UK is UKP5000.

I Love my aircon unit.

Mike.

I have CFL's in everything but the dimmable lights. I wish that had something to would allow the dimmers to work.

Pommie said:

...then I can claim 250%.

Click to expand...

At what temperature can you claim that, because you can't claim that with a heat pump in my Winter?

DirtyLude said:

I have CFL's in everything but the dimmable lights. I wish that had something to would allow the dimmers to work.

Click to expand...

They have CFL's that are dimmable, check HomeDepot

CFLs do not work well outside in the winter. I have lived where the temperature will stay below –40 for a week at a time. The CFLs will not start. Even at the freezing point the bulbs are very dim.

We use light bulbs to keep small animals worm in the barn. CFL will not work as a heater.

Mike2545 said:

They have CFL's that are dimmable, check HomeDepot

Click to expand...

I'm talking about the replacement screw in bulbs here, right? They have dimmable versions of these? If so, I'll definitely be getting them, thanks.

DirtyLude said:

I'm talking about the replacement screw in bulbs here, right? They have dimmable versions of these? If so, I'll definitely be getting them, thanks.

Click to expand...

Yep, the Edison base, curly CFL bulbs now come in dimmable...