John Marrek wrote:
>
> Ah--then YOU can tell me where to find an incandescent
> that won't burnout for a decade or so..? I know they
> exist, but they're understandably unpopular amongst
> lightbulb-makers.
I will look things up to see the best suppliers, but here are some
offhand comments:
a) if you are running 110-120 vac, use an incandescent bulb rated for
135 volts or higher. The light produced won't be as 'white', but it WILL
last a long time. Manufacturers won't tell you about this, because the
want to keep selling you bulbs, but this is the secret of the '30 year
bulb'. Long life incandescent bulbs are long lived because they have fat
tungsten filaments, which consequently consume lots of power for the
amount of light they produce.
b) you can buy good full spectrum tri-phosphor compact fluorescent lamps
with electronic ballasts built in (some are even dimmable) that use
about 40% of the energy of an incandescent lamp, and last for 3-7 years,
based on actual hours used per year. These come built into a globular
diffuser to simulate a normal bulb. Sylvania makes the best of these.
c) There are also bulbs that have clusters of LEDs built into them which
are even more efficient than fluorescent, typically using less than 20%
of the energy of a comparative incandescent bulb. I will look up makers
of these devices for you.
I'm not in the energy efficiency business anymore, so I have not kept up
much...
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