Home
| Calendar
| Mail Lists
| List Archives
| Desktop SIG
| Hardware Hacking SIG
Wiki | Flickr | PicasaWeb | Video | Maps & Directions | Installfests | Keysignings Linux Cafe | Meeting Notes | Linux Links | Bling | About BLU |
Randy Cole wrote: > How much extra power does a CFL uses when starting up? Mythbusters looked at this a while ago and found the inrush current to be negligible relative to the power savings, with a break even point occurring at just a few seconds, after which the CFL consumes less than an incandescent. > If you turn a CFL on & off frequently, how much does this shorten > it's life? I think the same Mythbusters test covered this too. I don't recall the results. Though given that the CFL heats up less, it might suffer the effects of thermal cycling less. > How does one determine which bulbs have good color spectrum? (I'd > like to see a graph on the side of the box, like on old headphones). Sure, but even a single color temperature number is probably more information than most consumers care about, instead preferring qualitative terms like warm, cool, full spectrum. > Where can I buy US made CFLs? Don't know, but there is speculation that the Chinese made bulbs have poor longevity, with bulbs made 5 years ago outlasting the current products. > Do certain brands of CFLs cause more RF interference? Undoubtedly. Many modern CFLs use electronic ballasts (circuitry to produce the high voltage needed by the bulb), and I'd expect the amount of RF emitted to vary depending on the quality of the circuitry. There should be an upper limit that all bulbs stay under so that they don't interfere with other common products (radios, etc.), but less likely to be controlled is the amount of noise they couple to the power line, which is why some bulbs can cause problems for home automation protocols like X-10 and INSTEON that depend on power line signals. > How much UV do CFLs produce? UV damages the retina. That's a pretty well understood safety concern, so I have confidence that the bulb coatings are designed to keep UV at safe levels. > Where can I buy cost-effective LED lighting? Right now you can't, if you want an LED bulb that produces comparable light to commonly used incandescent bulbs. You can find LED bulbs for $10 to $20 that produce about the equivalent light of a 20 W incandescent. > Why can't LED christmas lights be used permanently? Probably because it is cheaper to design and get them UL rated for temporary use. -Tom -- Tom Metro Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA "Enterprise solutions through open source." Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/
BLU is a member of BostonUserGroups | |
We also thank MIT for the use of their facilities. |